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No matter what your the environment time management in the workplace is critical to productivity and accomplishment. Managing yourself and others around you is something that needs to be second nature.

I work in two different environments: a hectic production environment at a printing company and at my desk writing in the evenings. Each requires time management techniques, some the same, some different.

One technique I constantly employ is to set deadlines for myself. During my production day I have daily tasks that need to be accomplished by certain times of the day. For example, the first shift pressroom materials must be ready by 6:30 AM. Second shift by 10:30 AM. Keeping an eye on the clock and mind on those deadlines keeps me on track.

I employ a similar technique in my writing. I give myself a deadline to have a certain amount of work done. This habit prevents distraction and the wasted time that goes with it.

Set time limits on meetings. A meeting can be formally scheduled or can be an informal conversation. I find the informal conversations to be the most dangerous when it comes to time management in the workplace.

I have brief meetings all day with our sales staff as they present projects and ask questions. I control the time of the meetings by asking the questions I need to and quickly providing the answers they need. At that point I end the meeting simply by summarizing their request and saying something along the lines of “so customer XYZ need their envelopes by Wednesday. A little simplistic but you get the idea.

Handling email is another area that needs to be addressed with some time management. The simplest technique I employ here is to limit the time I will spend on it and to make sure I “resolve” all my emails each session. By resolving the email I simply mean to reply to it, delete it or archive it. Saving an email for later is simply not productive. Make an immediate decision and take action on that decision.

Managing others is also an aspect of time management in the workplace. This may mean others that you supervise or simply co-workers. When managing folks you supervise it is always imperative to take a few minutes and make sure they understand exactly what the task at hand is. This prevents questions, confusion and delays later.

It is also frequently necessary to manage your time with co-workers. Being social and friendly makes for a better workplace but can be detrimental to your own working efficiency. A simple “I need to get back to my report now” is all it takes.

Time management in the workplace is certainly a big topic. These ideas are just a few of my own that I hope you will find helpful in your workplace environment.

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