Let’s be honest, with constant access to information of all types, staying productive can sometimes be difficult. We’ve previously written about “the value of an hour” outlining the importance of time tracking and planning. A well-organized and structured work day can help maintain focus. In this article we’ll share some of our favorite resources for planning and effective time management.
Task Managers
Setting reminders, and scheduling recurring tasks can be one way to eliminate the unexpected. Using planners can help you determine the upcoming workloads and distribute work accordingly. There are many different platforms, but our choice is Asana. It allows us to create task lists, and manage ongoing projects in a collaborative environment.
Time Tracking
Working in project management and marketing, we find time tracking tools to be crucial to our organization. They not only help to plan work days/weeks, but the ticking clock serves as motivation to stay on task! We use Timely for its ability to make notes on projects and tasks and then easily convert them to detailed reports for clients.
Task Focus – TRY THIS
During one of our recent staff meetings, we completed an exercise for time management.
- Track time with a stopwatch
- As fast as you can, alternate between listing A-Z, and numbers 1-26.
- Record your time
- Similarly, as fast as you can, list A-Z and then move on to numbers 1-26
- Record your time and compare the two
Notice how the second method is faster? The exercise was done to show the impact of “switch tasking” and how moving between different tasks slows down productivity. Even if we don’t realize it, the time adds up!
We’re always implementing new ways to organizing projects and streamlining the creation of deliverables for clients. If you’re interested in learning more about project management or just picking up a few time management skills, make sure to check out the Project Management Training section of our website.