Just 1 in 5 people (18%) have a useful time management method. Time management strategies and project time management tools help you handle work you’ve been assigned within the time you have. Working as a project manager, you may be assigned a different number of tasks each iteration.
You need to plan, manage and track your team’s work, too. Meetings, estimations, planning, communication with customers and your team, and reporting to the management. Ideally, you want to accomplish all that during your 9-5 workday. Seems like something impossible, but a time tracker can be helpful with it.
This article contains:
Effective project time management strategies
Effect of the US President on the project time management processes
The role and the influence of the right time management tools to complete tasks
The influence of resource management software on time tracking
82% of individuals don’t have a time usage framework. They simply utilize a rundown, their email inbox or nothing by any stretch of the imagination. (Development Academy research, 2021)
The hardest specialists are not generally the best directors of the time, but rather this likewise doesn’t mean you ought to buckle down. Following viable time usage methodologies includes consolidating strategies into your every day, week-by-week, and month-to-month schedule that advances the accessible hours of the day.
So how really does using time effectively further develop execution? The principal aim is to deliberately control how you invest energy in significant undertakings and exercises, whether at work or in your own, day-to-day existence. Some time management tools offer features like unlimited users, making them ideal for large teams.
With poor planning and time management tools, it may be difficult to fit everything within tight deadlines. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of smart time management strategies, so you can better plan your work and finally have the time for everything that needs your attention.
Before we get to know what project time management refers to and what can we say about time management strategies (or time management planning – if you will), let’s take a look at obstacles and some causes why sometimes an overall project management plan and its closure take much more effort than assumed. A few pieces of information about time tracking and time management tools that will open your eyes and help with understanding the importance of time management planning.
Just 1 in 5 people (18%) have a useful time management method.
(According to Development Academy research)
Employees spend 44 minutes on social media every day.
(According to Techjury, 2022)
Only 17% of people track their time.
Companies, on average, spend as much as 16 days a year looking for paper documents.
(Source: DocuSign)
At least 23 hours per week senior managers spent in meetings.
(Source: DocuSign)
46% of stress reported amongst employees in the US is caused by an overwhelming workload.
Those results and a summary of the research are the inspiration for managers for whom managing time and managing projects are treated equally. For those managers who’re absolutely convinced about the role of the time aspect in any project activities and want to avoid any schedule barriers.
In the end, let’s take a look at the most common time management and tracking time obstacles that weren’t mentioned above: perfectionism, procrastination, bad prioritizing, too little time, multitasking, overbooking, not enough rest, forgetting to delegate, lack of organization, low motivation, distractors, rigid planning.
The connection between time and project development or time management and project management using time management tools is so obvious that many don’t need any explanation. But for those, who need to be convinced about it, this chapter should solve doubts. So, let’s begin with a few facts. What’s the project?
By project can be understood almost everything that’s made by a human being. A place to hide or to sleep, a mice trap, a house, a mission of workplace change. But, because we’re in the business environment, the thing becomes more complex when taking into account a few absolutely crucial things you’ll read in the coming paragraphs.
Let’s take a look closer at the project management definition introduced by the Association for Project Management and make a few comments.
Project management, know also as task management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific project objectives according to the project acceptance criteria within agreed parameters. Project management has final deliverables that are constrained to a finite timescale and budget.
The above-mentioned proposition could be quartered and each term might be a particular chapter or paragraph, we need to focus on something that’s fundamental for the main hero of this article – time, time management, time management, time tacking and time management strategies.
From the APM perspective – which can be treated as debatable – what makes the difference between “management” and “project management” is precisely time and budget. While management is an ongoing process, project management has limitations. This is why time management tools can be helpful.
From the business perspective, a project is a result of a business necessity. It’s commissioned because of internal or external needs. Many time management tools offer the ability to manage unlimited projects, which is crucial for handling multiple tasks and clients. And because a project is also a solution for some challenges, the project is made within a limited time and budget. And from this point justification and importance of time management strategies and time tracking become more clear for those who have some doubts about the main topic of this article. Time spent on a project isn’t like chewing gum and cannot be stretched whenever the need appears, thus strategic thinking according to time becomes obvious.
Project management cannot exist without efficient time management planning. Or, form the other hand, a sine qua non for successful project implementation and business development is effective time management.(Teamdeck)
So, using time tracking software we got an overview of what employees sometimes do and what’s the connection between project management and time management. Now, it’s time for...project time management.
Generally speaking, time management using time tracking software is how we use the time we have to reach our goals or finish the tasks we’ve been assigned efficiently.
Here’s a concise and straight-to-the-point explanation of time management given by Wikipedia:
Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity.
If we use the definition used by project managers society, we will find out that project time management is:
(...)the project management process of analyzing work and developing a timeline template to ensure you complete a project within a particular schedule. (Projectmanager.com)
Both above-mentioned definitions don’t say a word about how to achieve good results in terms of project time management. But for anyone who has an opportunity to implement a project management plan, it’s obvious, that it’s about the analysis with the use of software, tools, and techniques. Everything that ensures the timely completion of a project. And then the development of a resource scheduling with task adjustments and allocation of resources for the completion of a project.
Being a project manager and using time tracking software, your job is to effectively plan and manage your work time, but also the time of the teams you oversee. You need to respect time spent in job.
Depending on how well you do juggling different projects and priorities using time tracking software, the better you’re able to schedule the work for your team. And the latter leads to better-run projects, with a higher chance of finishing them on time and within a budget.
In the end, time management strategies increase your productivity and effectiveness, too.
Studies show that it’s not always that obvious. For instance, only 37% of teams in the UK (The State of the Project Management, 2017), always or mostly manage to finish their projects on time, poor management being one of the reasons for that.
There are several time management strategies you can use to schedule your own work.
Schedule meetings and employees thanks to popular time management techniques and time management tips
With poor planning and team time management, it may be difficult to fit everything within tight deadlines. This is why you need accurate time tracking reports. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of smart time management strategies, so you can better plan your work and finally have the time for everything that needs your attention.
Knowing what you want to accomplish in a specified timeframe already sets you up for success, study reveals and time spent on job is profitable. In his paper “The Impact of Planning on Project Success”, Pedro Serrador from the University of Toronto points to a correlation between planning and project success. Based on the literature review, Serrador found that project success is closely linked to both project and cost-efficiency. It means that quality planning can not only increase the chance that the project will be completed successfully, but it will also be cost-effective.
So how much planning is “quality planning”? According to Serrador, after PMBOK® Guide, planning may take up to 48% of all processes performed by a project manager during a project.
Planning your daily tasks may be as simple as creating a to-do list consisting of must-haves and want-to-haves – time tracking tools with a user-friendly interface can be helpful. When planning for several projects, though, having a high-level project plan will improve the visibility of requirements across different assignments, but also help to establish goals and requirements for each project.
Sometimes a list of things you need to do may seem overwhelming, so time tracking tools can help. To make it manageable, it’s better to divide your to-do list into smaller chunks. Setting clear priorities will help you order your tasks according to their importance, urgency, and effort needed to accomplish them.
The Eisenhower matrix is the most successful time management technique.
(According to Development Academy research)
To distinguish important and urgent tasks from your to-do list, you may use the Eisenhower Matrix. This popular time management technique (also known as “Urgent-Important Matrix” or “Eisenhower Principle”). This idea (or some say framework) refers to the words of this US president:
“I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”
The whole stands for an approach how to organizing workload and priorities. It’s very useful if you want to implement an effective time management strategy, using time tracking tools. It helps to stay focused on organizing all your tasks, especially the most challenging tasks. It’s divided into four categories:
Important and urgent – these are the tasks you should do first
Important but not urgent – tasks you can schedule to do later
Not important but urgent – if possible, you may delegate these tasks
Not important and not urgent – you can skip tasks falling into this category
What’s great about the Eisenhower Matrix, time tracking tool is that you may create it on the go with just a pen and paper to quickly prioritize tasks and assignments. With a matrix like this, you will easily spot tasks that really need your attention, so you can focus on them first. The matrix looks like this:
To-do list preparation, prioritizing tasks, and solving challenges with time blocking tasks with Eisenhower Matrix
While some praise multitasking, it appears to make more harm than good. According to the article on the perils of multitasking published on Entrepreneur (“Why Multitasking Is a Myth That’s Breaking Your Brain and Wasting Your Time”, 2017), doing several tasks at once is ineffective and inefficient. As the human brain needs time to switch from one task to another, trying to do too many things creates a lag time when we’re actually not being as productive as we might want to be. This is why time tracking project management features can be helpful.
Instead, try to focus on one task at a time and complete it, and after that switch to another one. This way, especially if you give yourself at least a few minutes of rest between assignments, the transition is smooth and your brain is ready to take on a new task.
One of the techniques you may use while time spent on job is the Pomodoro Technique and time tracking. It splits the work into shorter, 25 minute long sessions, with rest breaks between them. It’s a proven way to increase productivity, as it’s easier to force yourself to focus on a single task. Plus, you won’t end up worn out and remain productive for a longer time.
The name, coming from an Italian word for tomato, was inspired by the kitchen timer. Today, there are devices you can use designed specifically for this technique, counting the exact 25 minutes you should devote to work.
This one can be tricky, as according to PMI 90% of PM’s work is communication (“Art of communication in project management”, 2010), but sometimes you do tasks that require deep focus and minimizing interruptions. It may be working on project documentation, using a free word to pdf converter or creating a report or use task management tools.
Say you’re using a Pomodoro Technique. In order to use it effectively, you need to cut out any possible distractions, so you can remain deeply focused on a task for 25 minutes.
Interruptions while time spent on job you need to get rid of may come from emails, calls, colleagues, or chat conversations. It may be tempting to check your inbox every once in a while, get involved in office small talk, or hang out with your team on a chat. But truth is, it kills your productivity. Time tracking can help.
Here’s what you can do instead:
If you worry about missing an important email, set yourself a dedicated time when you’ll check your inbox. Every other time is dedicated to the assigned tasks.
Tell your teammates not to disturb you when you use headphones. At the same time, you may listen to music that helps you concentrate (or to some white noise, if you prefer).
Snooze notifications and put your phone out of sight to avoid checking it compulsively.
Distractions are what drives us away from work. Minimize them and you’ll see how easier it is for you to focus on completing a task and billable hours will be more effective..
Ever felt like the more time you have for a given task, the bigger the chance that you’ll procrastinate instead of using that time to get things done earlier? This tendency to put work aside is called in the economist’s social environment, Parkinson’s Law has been first explained in the Economist article back in 1955.
Parkinson stated that “the work expands as to fill the time available for its completion”. Thus, if you have more time to finish a task than you actually need, the chances are you won’t do it any quicker.
What you can do about that, is actually set yourself shorter deadlines. If you will still struggle to force yourself to finish a task faster, ask someone from your team to review your work at a certain date, so you now have to do the work in order to show the results.
No man is an island. Chances are that there are people at your organization with the skills and time to help you deliver some of the tasks you struggle with, or simply don’t have time for.
As you’ve seen already while completing the Eisenhower Matrix, it’s actually advised to find the tasks you can delegate, so you can focus on more important and urgent ones and care about billable hours to more effective.
To spot available team members with skills needed for a specific task, use a resource management tool or time tracking tool. In Teamdeck, for example, you may quickly filter all employees by their role and view their bookings and availability in a simple calendar view.
In delegating work you may actually show your employees that you value their input. Empower them to make decisions and, if needed, limit yourself to supervising them. This way you not only have less on your plate but let your subordinates grow professionally, too.-
Apart from delegating tasks among team members, it’s also recommended to outsource certain parts of the tasks, for example, research, using something like a research paper service, in order to free up more time for other important activities.
Knowing your limits when it comes to the amount of work you’re able to finish in a given timeframe is very important to not only deliver what you’ve committed to. It also helps to avoid work-related stress and, eventually, feeling burnt out. Track time is also important.
Saying no to your supervisor, manager or even boss may be intimidating, but there are ways to do it politely and assertively:
Give a reason – explain what other important tasks you’re doing at the moment and how taking on new ones will affect them.
Let them prioritize – if you already have lots on your plate and your supervisor asks you to take on another one, present them with your list of priorities. Let them decide whether the task they’re asking you to do has a higher priority, or not.
Don’t lie – fake excuses are not a good way to deal with requests. Be open about why you’re not able to do something at the moment.
Ask if the task may be postponed – lots of times the initial date someone asks you to deliver a task is not its definite due date. Show them that if it’s possible to schedule a new task for later, it would be possible for you to take it on.
As you don’t want to be viewed as the one who refuses to work, showing why you can’t take on more tasks or negotiating over deadlines may help you to reduce the number of new assignments.
Keeping daily summaries of your work helps you to discover where you did well, and what remains to be done. Track time is also important.
At the end of each day, take a look at your list and check the tasks you’ve completed. Seeing what you’ve managed to accomplish is a great way to get motivated for the next day.
If there are still unresolved tasks on your list, ask yourself why you haven’t finished them and find solutions to them. Maybe the task was too broad and dividing it into smaller assignments will help you better organize work?
Planning your work and using time tracking software is easier with tools giving you quick access to tasks you or your team members need to complete. Having a project schedule and employee time tracking software also helps, as it’s easier to track your performance.
For task management across multiple projects we use Jira. It enables us to create subtasks for every task, assign them to people and track them in the workflow consisting of tasks that need to be done, the ones in progress, in review, and completed.
Teamdeck, on the other hand, is a resource management software or project planning tool – if you like (developed by us, the software house, and – in the beginning – for our own purposes). We use ourselves to keep track of employees’ daily schedules, timesheets, and overall performance, which we can then sum up using customizable reports (e.g. to compare bookings with timesheets).
Timesheets in Teamdeck.io – the resource planning and project time management tool
Nonetheless, you’re representing the marketing project management or project resource management, using these time management and strategies like time tracking will help you to organize your workday better and get more done. After just a few days you will notice that:
Your productivity improved
It’s easier for you to do tasks you’ve been assigned with
It feels like you have more time all of a sudden
The work-related stress has dropped significantly
And as these tactics may work for you, you can also try to incorporate them across the entire project team you run, increasing their productivity. If you want to dig deeper and get to know aboutemployee time management apps – just read our articles.
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