Darker Nights Approaching – Time to approach staff about Time Management

With the clocks changing and nights already becoming darker earlier this often impacts on how we arrange our day. Usually because we feel our day is shorter, due to the fewer light hours there is for us to enjoy. So, as the darkness creeps in it is usually best to correspond with staff about time management, and how to make the most of their winter days at work.
Good time management is believed to make employees effective, efficient and generally less stressed, thus a great skill to have either as a person or organisation (or both!). Reminding employees of the benefits to effective time management, in addition to any tips and ideas, can usually go a long way. This is because simple triggers (reminders, notices, training, etc.) which promote employees to use their time wisely can often allow individuals to develop their own personal time management tool, and use this well. However if you feel that some employees may not be aware of valuable time management methods, which could assist them, it would be beneficial to explore these processes with them. For example, refreshing employees on how to prioritize, enforcing regular reviews, dedicating concentration time, etc. However please remember that it’s always best for whichever time management method(s) you support employees to use, it is adapted to the way individuals work.
There are many ways in which you can take a strategy and adopt this to your organisation. For example, if employees holding regular reviews would suit your business it may be practical for you to communicate to employees that they should diarize ‘x’ amount of time at ‘x’ point in the week to have a general review of their workload, to understand how this will then be best managed for the week. Whilst many time management methods appear to usually suit businesses which allows employees to work how they wish (as long as they get the work done) as opposed to businesses which run on a day-to-day basis with scheduled work, there are many systems which can be implemented to assist with this style of management too. For instance, list working. List working entails individuals generating a daily master list to detail all tasks needed to be done, to allow productivity to grow efficiently and bring order to what may be chaos. For some employees their daily work may not vary often, however it’s important for people to understand how to manage their work in the best way in any event.
So, even though days may appear to be shorter employee’s working days are not, and dependant on your operations winter months may be extremely busy. Therefore, freshening employees on time management can be valuable as it promotes employees to use their working hours well, in addition to supplying them with the support they may require. If you would like to discuss this article further please do not hesitate to get in touch.