Top Time Management Tips for Productive Work From Home Environments
Publié le 7 July 2020
Stay home.
This has been the widespread advice that we have all received from government officials, health experts, and not surprisingly, from the companies we work for since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Previously a rare and sought-after flexible work arrangement, working from home has become the new normal. According to the messaging platform company Slack, approximately 16 million knowledge workers in the U.S. have started working remotely, with varying degrees of transition difficulty depending on the industry.
Depending on the industry, transitioning to a work from home set-up has varying levels of difficulty (Image Source).
Those who are working from home for many hours per week for the first time may encounter new challenges. Effective time management, which is already a hurdle to optimal productivity in a normal office-based setting, is an even bigger challenge under this new normal.
The Time Management Pendulum Can Swing Both Ways
When time management is discussed, we often hear about how employees fail to plan their projects effectively. However, poor time management can also lead to too much work getting accomplished, leading to employee burnout and stress.
The danger for the latter increases when working from home. With the travel time to and from work eliminated, and given the convenience of working from the comforts of a home office, many employees may find themselves working longer hours. In fact, Buffer’s State of Remote Work 2020 revealed that 18% of remote workers find it difficult to unplug. While this may sound like a lesser evil compared to less work getting done, employee burnout due to poor time management can have serious productivity consequences.
Not knowing when to stop working is one of the challenges employees who work from home face (Image Source).
Telecommuting requires adjustments for both employers and employees to make sure that good time management is practiced.
Here are 5 tips to help employees manage their time well when they transition to working from home. The first two tips are geared towards businesses while the last three are for employees.
1. Utilize Time Tracking Tools
Already a staple for most workplaces, the importance of time tracking tools is amplified when most of a company’s employees are working from home. Without direct, physical supervision over the work team, using time tracking software gives businesses a clear picture of how your employees are spending their time. It also helps identify potential time management issues including:
- Spending too much time on non-essential tasks such as emails and non-productive meetings
- Going over the average number of hours that it should take to complete projects or tasks
- Identifying bottlenecks in processes that drag out project timelines
- Pinpointing employees who are working excessive hours
- Determining how many hours employees spend on lower priority tasks that can be re-allocated to higher priority tasks
The use of time tracking tools will also allow employees to be more accountable with their time and set realistic task scheduling goals. For example, if an employee plans an hour to create a presentation for new project pitches, but in reality, this task will take 2 hours to complete, they’re not setting themselves up for success. Using a time tracking system will give your employees baseline data and enable them to create realistic timelines.
There’s an age-old mantra which says you cannot manage what you cannot measure. Using time tracking software helps with time management by allowing business managers and leaders to coach their employees on how to prioritize tasks better or cut down on unnecessary steps to complete their assigned tasks.
2. Help Employees Manage Their Stress and Anxiety
A lot has been said about how poor time management can lead to stress and anxiety in the workplace, but in these extraordinary times, businesses should also consider how stress and anxiety can lead to poor time management. According to an April 2020 survey conducted by Qualtrics, 66.9% of workers report higher stress levels while 57.2% report higher anxiety levels since the COVID-19 outbreak began.
Not surprisingly, the same survey revealed that 32.5% of employees reported lower productivity.
Employees have reported lower levels of productivity since the COVID-19 outbreak (Image Source).
According to the survey, the reasons behind lower productivity include:
- Difficulty concentrating
- Taking longer to do tasks
- Difficulty deciding
- Avoiding challenging work
- Challenges in juggling multiples tasks
All of the above can lead to poor time management.
For years, HR experts have been pushing for businesses to prioritize mental health in the workplace. With stress and anxiety on the rise among employees who are working from home due to COVID-19, it’s importance is once again in the spotlight.
As explained by ServiceNow general manager Marc LeCuyer, “Employers have a responsibility to protect the mental and physical wellbeing of employees, even more so now during a time that is unlike anything we’ve experienced before.”
3. Proactively Plan Out a Day-to-Day Calendar
For some employees, a to-do list can suffice in an office setting. In a work from home environment, however, this may no longer work as personal things creep into an employee’s day and home distractions come into play.
For example, employees who have kids may find themselves spending more time with their children, not realizing that it’s taking hours away from their work.
Planning out a day-to-day calendar in time blocks that take into account both work-related tasks and personal to-do list items will allow newly transitioned work from home employees to manage their time more efficiently. Here’s a great example from SmackHappy.com:
Plotting out personal and work-related tasks together in one calendar allows work from home employees to plan out their days better and manage their time more efficiently (Image Source).
As you can see, the owner of the above calendar has an hour blocked off every day for their lunch and to attend to their dogs. Proactively planning out calendars like this will make employees accountable to themselves and stick to the schedule they set. It also enables them to identify opportunities to do things more efficiently.
The use of time tracking tools as discussed in Tip #1 can validate whether employees are able to stick with the schedule they set for themselves or not. Based on the data, they can either adjust their day-to-day calendar or identify steps that can be taken in order to meet the original schedule they created.
4. Be Mindful of Communication
The success or failure of a remote team relies heavily on its members’ abilities to communicate well. For businesses that have just recently switched to a work from home arrangement, two issues can crop up:
- Out of sight, out of mind: the lack of physical presence may lead to huge gaps in communication
- Overcompensation: working in isolation may trigger employees and managers to communicate excessively to make up for the lack of physical interaction
In a team that communicates and collaborates sparsely, employees may find themselves spending too much time figuring out how to solve an issue or finish a complicated task. On the other hand, remote teams that communicate too much may spend unnecessary time checking in with each other, which eats into their time to do their actual work.
Either way, it’s apparent that good communication is a crucial ingredient of good time management for remote teams.
5. Allow Employees to Work Flexible Schedules
The isolation of working from home due to COVID-19 may reveal certain nuances in an employee’s working habits. For instance, in an office-based setting, employees are forced to be productive during their shift hours. In a work from home arrangement, some employees may find themselves in peculiar situations wherein they experience peaks and valleys in their energy and productivity levels.
Businesses should take these nuances into consideration and give employees some “elbow room” to create schedules that allow them to produce their best work output. Employers just need to make sure that business needs and requirements are still met.
Hitting a Home Run with Time Management
A perennial challenge already in business, time management presents new challenges and new opportunities for employees who are forced to work from home due to the ongoing pandemic.
By utilizing time tracking tools, helping teams manage their stress and anxiety, and allowing room for a more flexible work arrangement, businesses can create a remote work environment where employees can manage their time better. A well-managed day-to-day calendar and better communication with managers also leads to resolving concerns and staying productive.
