15 Best Time management activities for employees
If you are an employee at an organization or a team leader looking for time management activities for employees? then this post is for you.
In this post, I have listed down some interesting and quality exercises for improving time in the workplace.
Key Takeaway: Top time management activities for employees are: Solve in a minute, collect colored marbles, tower stack, I am first, speed reading, taking notes, organizing desk, using email templates, saying ‘no’, outlining daily tasks, applying Parkinson’s law, making quick decisions, do what you fear, ask for help, and distraction log.
I have divided the activities into two parts: workplace group time activities and time activities for individual employee.
Group time management Exercises for the workplace
Below I have listed four group time management activities for teams. These time activities for job are creative and fun to do.
1. Solve in a minute
In this activity, team members will be required to solve a puzzle in a set timeframe.
You can give divide the employees into small groups of four and give them a puzzle to solve. The catch is they have to solve the given puzzle within a minute.
The team which will solve in the least time will be declared winner.
2. Collect colored marbles
In this time management learning exercise, a bucket filled with marbles of different colors will be used.
Each team will be assigned a particular color. The objective of the exercise is to collect marbles of the assigned color and fill a glass jar.
A time limit will be set, say 5 minutes. Whichever team will fill the maximum glass marbles in their jar will be declared winner.
3. Tower stack
This is a very interesting activity to do. In this exercise, the objective of the activity is to create a tower of objects without falling. If the tower breaks down the team will have to start again.
Same number of identical items will be given to each team. The team which will make the tower first will be the winner.
4. I am first
This is again a great exercise for learning time management. In this activity, 5-10 members will play together. The members will be given a book. Then each member will be given a word to find from the book.
In the game, the book and word will be same for all the members to maintain parity.
Time management exercises for individual employees
Now lets look at time management activities an individual employee can use to perform well in the office.
For a quick summary of all the activities I have summarized the activities in the form of a table. Here it is:
| Time Management Activity For Workplace | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Speed reading | Helps to read through documents fast. |
| Taking notes | Helps in accessing information fast. |
| Organizing desk | In decluttering and arranging the desk. |
| Using email templates | Saving time in sending emails. |
| Saying ‘No’ | Protection from unwanted workload and assignments. |
| Outlining tasks | Creating a timeline for the day. |
| Using Parkinson’s law | Creating a sense of urgency for the work. |
| Taking quick decisions | Saving time on overthinking. |
| Do what you fear | Sense of accomplishment. |
| Ask for help | Saves to manage workload. |
| Distraction log | Helps in prioritizing and improving focus. |
1. Speed reading
In office an employee has to go through so many files and paper. This is a cumbersome task. It can take so much of your time. So to protect the time from reading those heavy files, you can learn speed reading.
Speed reading is a technique which enables a person to read paragraphs and sentences quickly.
Mastering the art of speed reading will make you fast in reading the office papers and you can make your time saved.
2. Taking notes
Note taking in office is important. If their are so many tasks and assignments in front of you and you misfortunately miss a task, you can be in trouble.
Note taking also helps in looking for quick information when required without wasting time on searching. It is a great way of organizing the information.
3. Organizing desk
This is a great time management exercise for the workplace. Job office desks are filled with papers, notes, electronic items, etc. This creates a messy situation on the desk.
When things are properly organized on the desk, it saves a lot of time in searching and looking for items. Saved time is increased productivity.
4. Using email templates
You may agree with this point that if you are assigned to a desk job, then it is 100% sure that you will be getting hundreds of emails everyday.
Some will be from your boss, some from your colleagues and others on important updates. But don’t you think managing and replying to all emails is a tedious task? How to manage it then? Answer: By using email templates.
Email templates can help you save a lot of your time. They are a great way to improve your workflow by allowing you to send pre-set templates with just minimum edits.
By using email templates in your work, you can significantly improve your productivity.
5. Learn the art of Saying no
If you want to make the most of your time in office, then this exercise for time management is very crucial. Saying ‘Yes’ to someone in the office means additional assignment or workload on you.
Learning to say no can save you from doing many unwanted tasks and activities. It doesn’t mean you start saying no to everything that comes to you. Differentiate what is worth doing and what is not.
I have given some examples below which you can use to say no.
- You can apologize and explain why you can’t do, but don’t overexplain.
- You can offer them alternative offer of reaching to someone who has knowledge about the subject.
- Tell them about your commitments you have to complete.
6. Outline – write down day tasks
This is a very important activity for managing time in the office. Make this habit of writing down all the tasks that you have to complete in the given day, in the first hour of reaching the office.
Writing down to do tasks can help you in better management of your time and increasing your performance.
When you will have a whole day to do list with you, you will feel more relaxed, confident, and motivated. Your productivity will increase.
7. Use Parkinson Law for better productivity
Parkinson law is an idea that says that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” That is, the more time you give to a task for completion that task become more harder to complete.
So using Parkinson law principle, you can improve your productivity by creating an urgency in everything you do. This will ensure that tasks are completed on time and your efficiency increases.
8. Quick decisions – to be or not to be
Do you know that spending too much time on makings decisions have a negative impact on your productivity.
For saving time and increasing your workflow in the office, develop the habit of making quick decisions. If more than required time will be spend on deciding then it can have effect on your normal day to day working.
9. Do what you fear
You might have observed this that we tend to run away from tasks which we don’t like or doesn’t want to do. But this running away attitude is not good for the workflow in the office.
Leaving tasks which are unpleasing, can make your whole day go in vain. Because you have not completed the assignment, your mind will keep thinking about it and your productivity will get a toll.
So to prevent such situations it is important to do those task first which you feel boring and hard. This simple time management technique can be a game changer for your productivity.
10. Ask for help
Many times you may feel stuck on a task. You spend your days and nights solving the problem. But the problem remains the same. What to do in such situations? Answer: go and seek help
Taking help from others who can help you on the task will not only solve the problem but also save your precious time.
I know you will say that others will also be busy. But don’t go straight and ask. Ask them when they have some spare time and can I come to you for a problem? In this way you will save your and yours colleague time.
11. Distraction log
The office is full of distractions. People coming to meet, social media, emails, etc. everywhere is distraction.
In a study done by Gloria Mark[1] on 32 employees it is found that the more time employees send on face-to-face interactions, total screen switch times, emails, they fill less productive at the end of the day.
So to keep your productivity up, you can create a distraction log where you can write what things distracted you today and what you can do to improve it.
Conclusion
For an employee, the quality of time spend in office is equal to gain in productivity. Using effective time management, more work can be done in the workplace without losing the quality.
Effective time management activities can help in learning to manage time properly.
For more activities on time management you can go to this page: time management activities.
