6 time management tips for an ultra-organised day

Most of us live life at a hundred miles per hour, and work is no different. We’re keen to move quickly and drive results – but sometimes the pressure to perform can have a detrimental impact on our productivity.

Only 20% of people feel like their workload is under control every day. Which means 4 in 5 people are more frustrated, overwhelmed, and less productive than they should be. And it’s impacting their professional performance.

If you’re keen to make better use of your time and achieve greater results for your company, here are WhosOffice’s 6 simple time management tips to help you run an ultra-organised day:

1. Set daily priorities

When you’re working flat-out for a busy company, your overall workload can seem overwhelming – and this can lead to procrastination. But breaking your to-do list down into daily priorities makes tasks feel easier to tackle.

Before you start work, write down three key things you need to accomplish before the end of your day or shift. Even if the other items you were hoping to finish get pushed back to tomorrow, if you focus on completing your top three items, you’ll still make good progress.

2. Do the hardest tasks when you’re feeling most productive

We all have our ‘sweet spots’ when work seems to flow, but productivity peaks at different times for everyone – as we discussed recently in our blog post on early birds and night owls.

If you’re best in the morning, tackle your hardest tasks when your brain is fresh. Leave smaller jobs and admin for the post-lunch lull.

If you’re a shift worker, you may want to do the most complex activities in the first couple of hours, particularly if you’re working through the night and are likely to feel more tired as your shift progresses. Something that takes you 45 minutes at the start of the shift could take you an hour and a half at the end.

3. Focus on one task at a time

Even with daily priorities clearly laid out, we’re all guilty of starting several jobs at once – which often leads to us completing none.

The best way to achieve more during your working day is to focus on one task at a time, so you can dedicate your full energy and attention to getting that item ticked off your list.

To help employees tackle tasks effectively, many companies invest in online task management tools, building a list of business functions that need to be completed each day or week, which can be matched to employees with the relevant skillset. This way, every staff member has a set of core tasks around which to structure their day.

4. Block out time for intensive tasks

Sometimes it’s not a case of lacking motivation or focus; you might be ready to tackle a complex task, but you keep getting interrupted by questions from colleagues, or calls and meetings.

One of the simplest ways to avoid these distractions is to block out time in your diary, so people know you’re busy and shouldn’t be disturbed. This stops well-meaning team members from putting last-minute catch-ups into your diary when you’d mentally set aside the afternoon to work on something else.

It works the other way, too. If your colleagues get into the habit of blocking time out in their own diaries, you can double check the staff calendar to see who’s busy before commencing with calls and meeting requests.

5. Get input and support from your colleagues

On the subject of colleagues, often a problem shared is a problem halved – so make sure you get input from available workmates if you’re struggling to get your head round a particular task. Struggling in silence does not help your productivity!

Also, don’t be afraid to delegate jobs to your team members, particularly if you’re in a management role. Leaning on the skills and capabilities of other employees makes for a strong, accomplished workforce. It also means that workload is distributed evenly, so you’re not drowning in tasks while others are looking for something to do.

One way to support effective teamwork is to make sure everybody knows exactly who’s working at any point in time. Even if you’re not a traditional shift-based business, shift planning software will help you to map out each person’s daily hours, especially if you offer flexible working arrangements. That way, the whole team has complete visibility over everyone’s active hours.

Scheduling software is also very useful if you’re working remotely, as it’s not always immediately obvious which colleagues are online. And it helps you to establish clearer work/life boundaries, which is important to helping you rest and recharge your batteries when you’re working at full speed.

6. Commit to one workload management system

We’ve already mentioned the benefits of managing employee hours and tasks online, and there are many software programmes on the market that can help you achieve this. However, in an effort to become more efficient, many companies find themselves using multiple systems to help team members manage their day – which ultimately slows them down.

68% of staff struggle with work software, so the fewer systems you have in place, the fewer frustrations and less lost time you’re likely to experience. The best way to gain all the benefits of online time management without the admin pain is to find one platform that coordinates everything in one place. From scheduling staff rotas to allocating tasks, and checking who’s available before booking in meetings.

WhosOffice is a shift planning platform for modern businesses, helping you to optimise every working day, so you can get the most from yourselves and your team members.

Book your free WhosOffice trial to see how our scheduling and task planning software works, so you can run an ultra-organised day, every day.