The 10 Most Important Time Management Tips for Managers

What are the best time management strategies for managers?

As a manager, your days are packed with back-to-back meetings, constant task-switching, and long to-do lists. You’re constantly working late just to keep up.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

We successfully cut our hours from 80-hour weeks to just 2 (while getting promoted).

Want to learn how? Here’s the ultimate guide on time management for managers.

💡Key takeaways:

Managers are incredibly busy, but learning to manage your time can improve your job performance, work-life balance, and productivity.
Some of the best ways to improve your time management as a manager include setting goals, prioritizing, and learning to delegate.
Managers are 27% more likely than their direct reports to experience stress, but time management for managers can do wonders for your stress levels.

What time management techniques are best for managers?

Managers everywhere struggle with prioritization, communication, and team management.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. Take my students, Sean and Tim, for example.

As a manager for one of the largest animal shelters in Canada, Sean was always trying to balance employees, volunteers, and the well-being of the animals he took in.

And Tim, a well-known attorney, had hit a ceiling in his work and was constantly chasing busy work while sacrificing his sleep and well-being.

Needless to say, they were both burnt out, disorganized, and exhausted when they signed up for our 60-Day Lifehack Bootcamp. But by the end, they’d learned to plan ahead, create routines, and get organized – all while working less!

Learning effective methods of time management for managers saved them both hours each day and changed their lives for the better.

And it can do the same for you.

1. Set goals

You help your direct reports set goals. But don’t forget to set your own!

After all, goals drive your motivation, improve your focus, and boost your job performance.

There are two types of goals to set.

✅Results-oriented goals are what you want to achieve.
🧑‍💻Personal development goals will improve your leadership abilities.

Regardless of the type of goal, remember to make each one SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Once you’ve set your goals, leverage your goals and complete the ones that will make the biggest difference first.

2. Prioritize

Chances are, you’ve got dozens of tasks on your to-do list – and every task feels equally important. But part of mastering time management for managers is learning to prioritize and leverage your tasks.

So, look at your to-do list. Which tasks will make everything else easier once you finish them?

Do those early to leave the rest of your week open for less important tasks.

Learn to prioritize your tasks when you have too many in this video:

3. Delegate

Yes, you have a lot of responsibilities. But how many of those have to be done by you? Unless you’re the only one who can do something… Get it off your plate!

Remember Sean, the student I mentioned earlier?

When he got comfortable with delegating and outsourcing, he found that he had more time than ever to do the work that actually matters.

Now, I’ve seen a lot of managers push back on this and say that delegation just creates more work for them.

But that’s because they weren’t doing it well.

A big part of delegation is learning to choose the right person for the task and train them with crystal clear, step-by-step instructions.

I’ll teach you how to delegate in this video:

4. Track time

If you want to master your time, you have to understand how you spend it. So, for two weeks, I want you to write down exactly how you spend your time in half-hour increments.

By the end, you’ll have data on:

How you spend your time
What times up the most time
Processes that can be improved

…and more.

Think of it as an easy way to optimize and maximize your time.

And while you’re at it, keep track of your energy to determine your most productive hours.

Then, build your schedule around them – block out time for deep work during your high-energy hours and shallow work for when you start to slow down.

🕜Read more: How to Do a Time Audit

5. Use tools

When it comes to time management for managers, technology is your friend. And I know you probably already have a thorough tech stack – but here are some tools that will help you even more:

Task managers will help you see each project through to the end with built-in communication, visual boards, prioritization, and more. We love Asana here at LHM – but here are some other options.
Digital calendars and smart schedulers such as Motion can help you organize your schedule and automatically plan your day based on tasks and priorities.
AI platforms like ChatGPT can save you dozens of hours by taking over tedious, recurring, or just plain boring tasks. Trust me – our entire team uses AI.

Technology is rapidly evolving, and that’s a good thing!

It won’t take your job – when used correctly, it will actually make you a better, more productive manager.

6. Communicate

Knowing how to communicate clearly and effectively is crucial for managers’ time management.

Why?

Because it lowers the chance of misunderstandings and reduces the need for follow-ups.

In other words, it helps your team stay on track.

Well, let’s say you’re assigning a new project.

Ineffective communication could look like this:

“We have a new project. Let’s aim to wrap it up in the next few weeks, okay? Let me know if you have any questions.”

Nothing about this statement is clear. Your employees don’t know what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, or what the priorities are.

Instead, you could try an approach like this:

“We’ve been assigned to Project ABC. I’d like us to complete it by the 27th of this month. I’ll add your tasks to Asana, but let’s talk about them, too. Charlie will handle the initial research and pass the data to Sandra by the 10th. Sandra, please start analyzing it by the 12th. Let’s go ahead and schedule a progress review for the 15th.”

See the difference?

With this approach, your team knows which project they’re working on, the deadline, and their individual roles and responsibilities.

7. Hold effective meetings

Did you know that the average employee spends 10 hours on meetings each week even though they’re largely unproductive?

I know – meetings are just a necessary evil for managers, right?

WRONG! ⛔

With the right tools and processes in place, meetings can be a thing of the past.

Take it from me – since limiting all Lifehack Method communication to Asana, we’ve pretty much eliminated meetings.

If you have to have a meeting, make it as effective as possible.

That means:

Scheduling meetings for the end of the week when energy is low 📅
Creating an agenda to keep the meeting on task 📋
Limiting meetings to 15 minutes to keep attention high ⏲️

8. Avoid distractions

Did you know it takes over 20 minutes to recover from even a tiny distraction?

Anyone well-versed in time management for managers knows how important it is to reduce or eliminate distractions.

Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight.

But here are some methods that have worked for me over the years.

Close your office door. If you don’t work in an office, try to angle your back or turn your desk away from distractions. 🚪
Silence as many notifications as possible by putting your phone on Do Not Disturb mode and hiding distracting apps. In fact, go one step further and put any unnecessary technology (like your phone) in another room. Out of sight, out of mind! 📲
Make it clear you shouldn’t be bothered with noise-canceling headphones or even a big stop sign. It feels silly at first, but it works! 🛑

One foolproof way to keep your coworkers from distracting you is to create a communication policy and only check work-related channels at certain times.

I’ve put even more ways to avoid distractions in this guide.

9. Block time

I know how tempting it is to multitask, but it doesn’t work. 🙅

That’s why I always recommend blocking your time instead.

When you block your time, you set aside dedicated time for specific activities.

In other words, you’re calendarizing your tasks.

And making it way easier to get through them without procrastinating or getting distracted.

To get started, try our Sticky Focus Game.

But your time blocks don’t have to be dedicated to specific activities – unscheduled time is a great way to handle any unplanned, unwanted work or just get clarity without pressure.

10. Take care of yourself

Self-care is a part of time management for managers that I wish got talked about more often.

Because even with a jam-packed schedule, taking care of yourself is the key to productivity.

That means:

Taking regular breaks to give yourself the chance to reset and recharge. I get up at the end of every hour just to stretch my legs, which makes all the difference in my energy and stress levels.
Setting boundaries for your schedule and communication policy. Not only is protecting your time great for your work-life balance, but they’re also great for your team – remember, you’re leading by example!
Making time for yourself by regularly participating in activities that refill your cup, whether it’s something like exercise, crafts, or reading.

So, those are tips to improve time management for managers.

But why is time management important for managers? Let’s find out.

Why is time management important for managers?

Being a manager is one of the most complex roles there is. On top of your deliverables, you’re not only responsible for organizing and managing your team’s work but also things like:

Decision-making
Hiring and training
Conflict resolution
Performance management
Delegating tasks and assignments
Goal-setting
Contracts and budgets
One-on-one meetings
Strategic planning
Administrative tasks

Figuring out how to balance your team, your boss, and your deliverables without getting overwhelmed can be tough.

In fact, studies show they only spend 28% of their time managing their employees.

Instead, they’re pulled away by:

Individual-contributor work (31%)
Strategy-focused work (23%)
Administrative tasks (18%)

No wonder managers are 27% more likely to have higher stress levels than their employees.

But time management could change everything for you and your team.

Think of time management as a superpower – you could finish everything on your to-do list in a few hours and have extra time to focus on what really matters (like, you know, actually managing).

Time management also improves:

Most importantly, it boosts your work-life balance – which, in turn, improves your leadership skills.

FAQ: Time management for managers

How should a manager spend their time?

Managers should focus on activities that support team success and contribute to the business’s overall goals. That includes setting goals, determining priorities, coaching and developing employees, delegation, problem-solving, monitoring progress, and building a collaborative environment.

What are examples of time management for managers?

Some easy ways to integrate time management for managers into your daily routine are:

Prioritizing tasks
Delegating
Conducting regular check-ins
Planning ahead
Using project management tools
Task batching
Creating a communication policy
Blocking off “no-meeting” times
Setting realistic deadlines
Automating whenever possible
Reviewing and adjusting plans

What’s next?

There you have it!

A full guide to mastering time management for managers.

However, knowing what to do is one thing…Getting it done is another!

Our Winning the Week worksheet helps you implement what you just learned so that you can get better clarity and reclaim control of your busy schedule.

The best part? It only takes 30 minutes a week.

Get it now!

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