What are time management skills and why are they important to employers? Time management means working efficiently, and employers in every industry look for staff who can make optimal use of the time available to them on the job. Saving time saves the organization money and increases revenue.
What Employers Look For
Employees who manage their time well are more productive, more efficient and more likely to meet deadlines.
They focus on the most important and time sensitive tasks and limit the amount of time wasted on non-essential duties.
Effective time management requires staff to analyze their workload, assign priorities and maintain focus on productive endeavors. Employees who are excellent time managers can eliminate distractions and enlist support from colleagues to help accomplish their goals.
During a Job Interview
Time management skills, like other soft skills, are in demand. Interviewers will be asking questions to assess your ability to manage your time, and the time of your team if you’re in a supervisory role.
Review these time management interview questions prior to your job interviews so you’re prepared to respond with specific examples of how you effectively manage your workload.
Also, review these time management skills for ideas of what to share with prospective employers.
Examples of Time Management Skills in the Workplace
A - E
- Adapting plans to changing circumstances
- Allocating time for specific tasks
- Analyzing processes and selecting the simplest way to accomplish a task
- Asking for help when overwhelmed with demands
- Assertiveness to say no to inappropriate demands that distract from central duties
- Attacking more complex tasks when you have the highest energy and sharpest concentrations
- Auditing how time is spent
- Avoiding excessive small talk with co-workers
- Avoiding procrastination; acting instead of worrying
- Breaking broader goals into smaller parts and focusing on one step at a time
- Breaking up projects into manageable parts
- Creating daily, weekly and monthly “to do” lists
- Creating schedules
- Delegating more routine tasks to lower level staff
- Eating well to maintain energy
- Eliminating time wasters
- Exercising and participating in other stress reducing activities during leisure time to maximize energy when at work
F - Z
- Facilitating efficient meetings; sticking with time frames for meetings
- Grouping similar tasks together to limit transition time
- Maintaining an organized work area
- Multitasking; shifting smoothly from one task to another
- Openness to more efficient ways of doing things
- Organizing digital files for easy retrieval
- Planning your day the night before or first thing in the morning
- Prioritizing requests and demands
- Prioritizing a list of projects and focusing on higher value tasks with more immediate deadlines
- Punctuality
- Putting cell phones aside to eliminate the distraction of personal messages unless required for work
- Reviewing performance and eliminating deviations from priorities
- Setting daily, weekly and monthly goals
- Setting realistic standards for quality and avoiding perfectionism
- Setting specific times for responding to email
- Taking short breaks to restore energy
- Touching each piece of paper or reading each email just once, whenever feasible
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