8 Time Management Tips for Office Managers

The complexity of your role can be overwhelming. The time you spend on any one of the tasks entrusted to you is a balancing act. In some cases, working with one team member may keep you from being effective on social media. However, with the right combination of time management tips for office managers, you can boost the productivity of a working day!

1. Prioritizing Tasks While Establishing Team Goals

Your team’s needs come first. In some cases, this means reworking a daily schedule so that you can remove anything blocking the team’s productivity. Are they working on a new marketing campaign to boost the average spend per customer? This project will likely take priority over anything else they are working on right now. As an office manager, you can create team goals that keep the project on schedule.

2. Outsource and Delegate Using the Eisenhower Matrix

One of the most important but challenging time management skills is the effective delegation of work. You cannot do everything that the project requires. How do you determine what to keep control of and what to turn over to someone else? Using the Eisenhower matrix is an excellent approach.

1. Create a time management framework for the top four tasks.
2. Separate the urgent from the non-urgent and the important from the non-important tasks.
3. The task that is urgent as well as important is something for you to focus on. As the office manager, you can delegate everything else to another team member.

3. Treat Management Software as an Ally

Why do many office managers insist on mixing analog and digital time management tools? Effective time management relies on software knowledge and full implementation because you will forget something despite your best efforts. A team member will drop the ball. And you spend your time trying to figure out what is happening when you should be delegating work and keeping track electronically. The latter method gives you a real-time view of project management, which is critical.

4. Time Important Tasks with the Pomodoro Technique

What does a tomato have to do with time management tips for office managers? For starters, it was the timer used by the inventer of the technique. More importantly, it is an excellent tool to manage your time, particularly with tasks that may be boring or repetitive.

There are five simple steps:

1. Choose one task.
2. Set a timer for 25 minutes.
3. Work on the task until the timer goes off. Do not stop or allow interruptions to keep you from finishing what you have begun.
4. Take a five-minute break. Walk away from the desk, stretch, and have a glass of water.
5. Start the next 25-minute block of time devoted to a task.

When you complete five 25-minute intervals of essential tasks, take a 20-minute break. You are now ready to start the process all over again.

5. A Good Office Manager Says “No”

Project and office management tips tend to forget one of the most critical skills: the ability to say “no.” You do not have to take on every project that comes your way. Earlier, we talked about delegating work for effective project management. However, you will miss the advantage of the freed-up time if you attempt to multitask. No matter what people say, multitasking does not work. If you cannot say “no,” delegate the item immediately.

6. Turn off Intrusions

While doing your Pomodoros, turn off social media and the announcements that make your phone go “ding.” These intrusions add up. Moreover, they lead you to check your phone, interrupting your train of thought or flow of activity. If you are honest, most of these notifications can wait. As an effective office manager with an eye on productivity, encourage your team to do the same. Doing so forces you to lead by example.

7. Set Yourself up for a Win

Effective time management makes it possible to tackle your workload in the amount of time you have. While it may seem a little labor-intensive at the onset, putting together a weekly to-do list is critical. It reminds you of the day-to-day tasks you need to accomplish, but it also gives you a sense of accomplishment when you cross another thing off the list.

8. Cleanliness is Next to Godliness, and an Organized Workspace is Paramount

Another frequently overlooked but quite important task is an organized work setting. Plenty of social media posts have equated a messy workspace with genius. The presence of unnecessary project folders, task files, and other clutter will cost you time as you have to shuffle them from one side to another as you make room for the current project. Besides that, remember that delegating is a good thing. However, the person to whom you delegate a task should be able to find any files they are looking for without asking you.

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