How You Can Improve Time Management for Your Team

How to Avoid Mistakes in Managing Time and Your Team?

Managing a team of any size is challenging. Even though it can bring satisfaction, there’s a lot more to that than the feeling of fulfillment. It’s also about hard work, sacrifices, and overcoming difficulties.

When obstacles appear, you should know how to turn them to your advantage. The key to successful team management is proper time management. And that’s the basic you should begin with.

Some of the most common mistakes in time management include setting vague goals, failing to declare and prepare them, not planning the workday or lack of prioritization. All these issues influence the quality of work, employees morale, and customer or stakeholder satisfaction with the final effects.

Many people think that having the right tool for time and project management will solve every problem that comes up. While the tool itself is a valuable support, what you need is the set of skills and responsible allocation of resources. Time management plays a crucial role here as it helps in achieving positive results at work. Avoiding mistakes in managing time as well as your team can be prevented by mainly combining two things:

1.  the right tools
2. with proper techniques/methodologies.

What Is The Best Way to Manage Time in a Team?

If you’re struggling with poor time management in your team, either from your fault or of your employees, you may want to consider what you are doing wrong. Yet there are simple strategies which you can use to improve team’s efficiency. But it is important to remember that they will work out only if you apply them to the entire team not only to yourself or a single person.

Take a look at the 4 powerful tips for collective time management which we gathered for you and your team!

1. Allocate Hours

Every member of your team should have, if possible, a specific number of hours designated for every project. This concerns also such aspects of work as budget and tasks. Giving your team a clear overview of the work structure will help them (and you) prioritize and stay focused.

Of course, it does not have to be strictly followed. It’s a good idea to set up a meeting with your team during which you will adopt a flexible but regular schedule.

Here’s where a good time tracking app – TimeCamp – comes in handy. TimeCamp is a time tracking and project management software which enables you to track the progress of tasks and projects. With detailed data and reports, you can quickly identify who’s working too much, too little or when the budget is being exceeded. Such information is extremely useful when allocating tasks and hours to your team.

You can introduce it to your teams using popular time management techniques like time-blocking or timeboxing.

Do you want to improve time management in your team? Register at TimeCamp and take your projects to another level!

2. Delegate

When projects pile up on your desk, don’t try to deal with all of them on your own. Delegation is one of the key skills in time management. If you come to an agreement with your team who is responsible for what, you will all become super productive and effective.

Delegate tasks which you know someone else will do better than you. It will save your time and sanity. Delegation is a powerful “tool.”

3. Communicate

To avoid vague goals, you have to clearly communicate your intentions. Vague goals lead to waste of time and misunderstandings. Here’s a short list to help you create clear and achievable goals:

• Explain plainly what the project is about.
• Tell what are your expectations from each person on the team.
• Set clear boundaries, deadlines, and rules.
• Allow people to critique and suggestions.
• Be open for questions from your team.

Good communication is fundamental for creating a friendly and supportive atmosphere in the office. Above all, it is tremendously helpful in carrying out any type of a project as is helps to save time. When people precisely know what they have to do, they work more efficiently.

4. Motivate

People like to know that what they’re doing is valued and appreciated. The best way to motivate your staff is to reward them.

There are many ways to do it. You can motivate people with bonuses, a free meal at the best restaurant in town, a ticket to the cinema. The possibilities are endless and worth making your employees happy.

And when people are happy, they are more willing to work. Only, remember to include every member of your team in the motivation process, even those whose results may be lower than the rest of the team. If they work hard and give their best, they will appreciate your encouragement.

Conclusion

Improving time management in your team is easy and may actually be relatively pleasant. Don’t forget about the power of laughter and positive humor! There are plenty of fun office activities which are effectively used by many project managers in boosting team’s productivity. You can engage your employees in interesting exercises. They will not only feel motivated but also entertained. Whichever option you choose, remember that you can successfully improve time management by collective action.