Establishing Effective Time Management Goals in a Hybrid Workplace [Examples & Tips] (2024)

Proper time management is a skill — and just like any other learned skill, it takes patience and practice to become a master of it.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create realistic and impactful time management goals that will help you boost your productivity and improve your focus.

Quick Summary:

Time management goals are specific objectives that managers and employees can put in place to improve their use of time and enhance their productivity. They can include strategies for:

Prioritizing tasks
Minimizing distractions
Setting realistic deadlines

Time management is a soft skill that requires practice and deliberate action to execute. It comes naturally to some people but requires dedication for most others.

Setting realistic time management goals is the key to accomplishing them. It’s also essential to understand your personal work ethic, along with that of your team members to ensure these goals are achievable.

What Are Time Management Goals?

Time management goals are targets for improving your task management both at work and in your everyday life.

Both employees and employers can use time management goals to help reduce procrastination, set achievable deadlines, and establish routines to boost their productivity.

An employee, for instance, could set a personal time management goal to complete all their major tasks by 3 p.m. daily.

A manager’s goal could be to delegate responsibilities for upcoming assignments within the first two days of getting briefed on those assignments.

According to recent research, the core essentials of time management include the following:

Effective planning
Setting goals and objectives
Establishing deadlines
Delegating responsibilities
Embracing new learning opportunities
Eliminating distractions
Forecasting

When your team has a clear understanding of their time management goals, their task distribution, efficiency rates, and morale will often improve.

Time management goals don’t just apply to in-office workers, either — they’re also relevant to hybrid workplaces. For teams with flexible working arrangements, keeping all employees on time with their task completion can help improve the organization’s efficiency and workload management as a whole.

An example of a time management goal in a hybrid workplace could be for all team members to respond to each work email they receive within 24 hours. This will help them maintain effective communication channels and task coordination throughout the work week.

Why Are Time Management Goals Beneficial?

Time management goals aid in tracking progress and provide a framework through which to effectively identify areas that need improvement in workflows and routines.

Without them, asking employees to manage their time is a bit like putting them in the middle of a complex maze with no map and expecting them to easily find their own way out.

Time management goals also provide managers with valuable insights into workplace management and how their team operates within time constraints.

Other time management goal benefits include the following:

Improved and measurable productivity rates
Reduced stress levels
Enhanced focus and longer-lasting periods of deep work
Better work-life balance
More effective task achievement

It’s important to recognize that time management doesn’t just come naturally to all employees and that every single member of your team has a different level of proficiency in this area. This will help you get the most out of your team as a manager.

Therefore, tailored and realistic time management goals that help guide and support employees lead to improved productivity and job satisfaction. These goals should be customized to meet employees at their current skill level and help them both achieve their larger career goals and meet their daily work deadlines.

Time Management Goal Examples for the Workplace

Time management is commonly considered a soft skill in the workplace — a routine that employees often figure out on their own as they advance through their careers or pick up by observing others.

However, the misconception that time management will naturally develop over time with no assistance can be detrimental to a team’s effectiveness, particularly in the context of hybrid work.

Time management is a habit that requires deliberate attention, refinement, and effort to master. As such, it leans closer to a skill than a character trait.

Time management goals shouldn’t be “set-it-and-forget-it” tasks nor approached with a “one-size-fits-all” mentality. It’s crucial to regularly review and adjust each of your team members’ time management systems to ensure they remain effective and relevant.

Below are some detailed examples of constructive time management goals for the workplace. Notice how they’re presented in a manner that’s supportive and respectful instead of overwhelming, belittling, or patronizing.

Time Management Goals for Employees vs Managers

Time management goals for employees and managers should look different to account for the different responsibilities these individuals have in their work lives.

While managers oversee entire teams, employees focus on individual tasks and, therefore, concentrate on their own performance rather than that of their colleagues.

Example 1: Employee

“Spend 30 minutes each Friday afternoon organizing my weekly schedule for the following week using a productivity planner.”

Example 2: Manager

“Delegate responsibilities to my team members based on their strengths and respective workload capacities. Organize regular check-ins to provide guidance and support, and allocate enough time for strategic planning and team development to help my employees through their assignments.”

Time Management Goal Examples for Employees Who Struggle With Procrastination

Employees’ struggles with procrastination stem from both external factors, like distractions and mobile phone use, and internal factors, such as perfectionism, a lack of self-regulation, and low self-efficiency.

Setting time management goals for employees who struggle with this issue can help keep them level-headed. When crafting these goals, focus on well-researched strategies that involve short bursts of deep work, such as the Pomodoro Technique. Managers should understand, though, that micromanaging their employees is a bad managerial technique.

Example 1

“Utilize the Pomodoro Technique to work in focused 25-minute intervals, followed by 5-minute breaks, to maintain concentration and combat my tendency to procrastinate during the day.”

Example 2

“Complete at least one high-priority task before checking my emails or engaging in non-essential activities within the first 2 hours of my work day.”

Time Management Goal Examples for Employees Who Struggle With Meeting Deadlines

Meeting deadlines is particularly challenging for offices that deal with client-facing work and tight schedules.

Time management goals can help employees effectively prioritize their tasks, allocate adequate time for each element of an assignment, and minimize the need to rush or request an extension.

These kinds of time management goals should be specific and highly achievable to help employees stay organized and focused.

Example 1

“When I’m assigned a large project, I will use a notepad to break the task into smaller, manageable sections with individual deadlines. This will help me meet the final project deadline.”

Example 2

“I will utilize a task management tool and my Google Calendar to time block specific time slots for each task that I receive throughout my work week.”

Time Management Goal Examples for Employees Who Struggle With Prioritization

Some employees find it difficult to identify which task is the most important in their work stack, leading to emphasis being placed on assignments that may not be as important to the company as others.

The fact is that productivity and efficiency suffer when teams are scattered and disorganized with their time. Because we have limited capacity in our work weeks, goal-driven prioritization is essential to remembering and executing important tasks.

Set time management goals that establish clear priorities for employees. For example, categorizing tasks into quadrants using the Eisenhower Matrix can help your employees prioritize their work time.

Example 1

“I will use the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize tasks that I receive over the next month based on their urgency and importance, as well as ensure that only two to three tasks are put in the ‘Urgent and Important’ column.”

Example 2

“I will allocate 30 minutes at the beginning of each day to identify and rank tasks that I have scheduled based on their impact and deadlines so that I know which tasks I should work on first.”

Time Management Goal Examples for Employees Who Struggle With Setting Achievable Goals

Some employees struggle with saying “yes” to every task or request to please their managers. While this may seem harmless, time is an employee’s most valuable resource. Therefore, if they continue giving it away without considering their schedule, overcommitment and low productivity can result.

To help address this, managers can help employees set achievable time management goals.

Example 1

“I will break down long-term projects into smaller steps and, if needed, ask for help to complete tasks on time.”

Example 2

“I will set a maximum number of tasks to complete each day based on my available time and resources.”

5 Tips for Setting Time Management Goals

Setting time management goals might appear easy at first; however, it can be challenging to implement a strategy that both works and ensures team morale stays high.

When setting time management goals, managers need to be both assertive in setting clear expectations and considerate of their employees’ feelings.

While you might have the best intentions for improvement, coming across as overly critical can make your employees feel like the work they’re doing isn’t good enough or undervalued.

Here are some tips that’ll help strike the right balance.

#1 Implement the “2-Minute Rule”

The “2-minute rule” is a time management technique that involves completing any task that can be done in 2 minutes immediately rather than postponing it.