Why Managers Must Prioritize Time Management Skills

Managers become leaders in an organization because of certain attributes or skills, whether that is a skill integral to their company, leadership skills, or even pure charisma.

Having said this, one skill that is critical in most, if not all, effective management roles is time management. If you’re a manager and don’t have this skill, you will need to develop it as soon as possible.

Why It’s So Important

So why is time management such an essential skill for managers? There are many reasons, but we are going to focus on three.

First, great time management skills help you accomplish more in less time. This is arguably the most important benefit of becoming a time management guru. Poor time management skills lead to lower productivity, wasted time, and overall frustration. Without taking ownership over your calendar and blocking off times for certain tasks, you may spend more time than necessary working on certain tasks.

By contrast, thinking about where best to allocate your time will empower you to work on the most important tasks for your team and your organization. That said, be careful when managing your calendar. Yes, the actual process of blocking off a distinct set of time for tasks will make you more efficient. But according to Parkinson’s Law, we tend to stretch the amount of time it takes to complete a task to the time we initially allocated for it. Therefore, when scheduling tasks, be sure not to allocate more time than necessary. By doing this, you will naturally work on the project for the entirety of the allocated time, meaning you will have actually lost time that you could have spent on other projects.

Great time management skills also ensure that your team is happier working with you. In all likelihood, you have worked for a boss or manager that springs upon you a project with a last second or sudden deadline. Yes, unexpected work can come up and employees must account for surprises in the workplace. Yet a sudden deadline due to a manager’s poor time management skills can lead to disillusionment and disengagement. By failing to properly manage your time, you start setting a poor precedent and lose the trust of your employees. They become more skeptical about your time management skills. They develop a more negative impression of you. And from there, they become less motivated to go the extra mile for you and the organization.

On the flip side, managers with good time management skills avoid unnecessary stress. Your employees are more motivated and happier to work with you, as you are seen as a responsible manager who does everything to respect employees’ time—both inside and outside of work.

Finally, great time management skills will make you happier. Managers without great time management skills are constantly running around and trying to put out the most intense fire.

The problem with this strategy? There will always be a fire.

Without clearly delineating certain tasks during your work day, you will quickly become frustrated, as important, yet not-so-pressing tasks will not get accomplished. You will have to scramble to complete those tasks and, consequently, additional important tasks will get pushed back. The process goes on and on.

There’s an even worse reality, however. Poor time management skills will cause your work life to bleed into your personal life. You will never truly have time off. This, eventually, will lead to burnout.

You can avoid this reality—and become happier in your professional and personal life—by stresses time management skills. While it is an investment, prioritizing time management skills will, in the long term, greatly benefit your emotional health.

Take Control Of Your Time

Time management is one of those topics that is nice to think about, but easy to put to the side. This is an unfortunate reality. However, we all have the power to fix our time management woes.

By outlining why time management skills are so important, we hope to have increased the urgency. Working on your time management skills will not only make your direct reports happier and more productive, but it will also make you happier.

What's there not to like?

Simply put, all this takes is the dedication to take ownership of your schedule. Considering the stakes involved, you arguably can’t afford to ignore this task.