Time Management for senior managers | Strategies & team goals

Time is the scarcest resource that senior managers have, so where they allocate this limited resource really matters, not only for the success of their organisation but also for their own personal and professional success. It is crucial that senior managers allocate their time effectively as they are accountable for all the work of their organisations; however, often there is never enough time available to do everything that a senior manager has responsibility for. Research shows that top managers spend about 50% of their time in meetings, and 71% of senior managers say meetings are unproductive and inefficient. With senior managers spending up to 23 hours a week in meetings, double the time spent in the 1960s, this can be a drain on the very limited resource of time.

Being a senior manager comes with various challenges, and navigating these complexities, as well as allocating sufficient time and attention to them, is crucial for success. Senior managers are expected to have the skills required to perform across four broad domains:

Organisational development and technical know-how
Conceptual and cognitive focus
Personal effectiveness
People management

The way that senior managers allocate their time and their presence to these domains often determines what gets done in an organisation, and signals priorities for others. When you manage time effectively, you can plan and prioritise better, organise time to effectively balance the many internal and external demands of the role, and help to reduce unnecessary stress and tensions from your life.

Some people appear to have a natural talent for effectively managing their time; however, it is doubtful that it is a skill that they have been born with. Like the majority of us, it is a skill that needs to be learnt and developed, but once mastered it can become so natural. In this article we will look at some practical strategies and techniques for mastering time management in a senior management role.

Key Strategies

Prioritise Tasks and Responsibilities

A senior manager’s role is both mentally and physically demanding. Mastering time management requires self-discipline, an understanding of your own optimum productivity peaks, conducting an analysis of your work, and identifying your ‘time stealers’, so that you can clearly see how you spend your time currently in order to prioritise and plan your days to get the most important activities completed during that optimum time.

Different people have times of the day when they appear to be more productive, and people’s energy levels fluctuate during the day. As some aspects of your role will require more energy and focus than others, it is important to know your optimum performance times. Draw out a chart similar to the one below to chart your energy levels and monitor them over a period of about a week. You can then begin to analyse whether you are scheduling the most important things for when your energy is at its optimum.

For senior managers, juggling different responsibilities can mean long hours, and a non-stop daily rush to get things done. While being busy may seem the inevitable cost for senior management, effective time and workload management means being selective about what you focus on and prioritising the activities that are essential for the success of the organisation.

Priority high-energy activities can’t be done productively when your energy is already eaten up, and over time, a lack of energy can cause a dip in productivity, even when there’s more than enough time to get things done. Prioritising workloads can help reduce stress and allow you time to recharge and to take a physical and mental break from the demands of senior management.

The next stage in analysing your time to enable you to plan and prioritise effectively is to keep a time log over a number of days, ideally for a week or so. Note down the things you do as you do them, such as attending meetings, waiting/chasing for information/decisions etc. or whatever else you do throughout the working day. Note the times, and how you feel, whether alert, flat, tired, energetic, etc.

At the end of the week, review your completed time log and ask yourself:

Are you making the best use of time available?
Who or what is stealing your time?
Are you prioritising the most important things?
Are you doing things that are a priority at your best time of day?
How can you reschedule your day for optimum performance?

We have mentioned the term time stealer, so who or what is a time stealer? A time stealer can be both internal, emanating from yourself, or external, stemming from other people or occurrences. Identifying them will help you work on a plan to lessen their impact on your time.

Examples of time stealers will vary from person to person; however, there are some things that are generic time stealers for people in senior management such as:

Perfectionism
Under-estimating time required
Poor planning
Procrastinating
Failure to delegate, or inability to delegate effectively
Focusing on day-to-day operations rather than overall strategy
Unfocused meetings
Waiting for or chasing something/someone
Interruptions such as email, telephone, people

Once you have identified and listed your own time stealers, ask yourself:

What happens?
Who, if anyone, is involved (can be in general terms)?
What impact does this have on your work?
How does this make you feel?
How much time do you estimate your time stealers ‘steal’?

This information together with the information gained from your time log and energy log can help you to begin to plan your time more effectively, and to prioritise your time for things that contribute to your organisation’s success.

When prioritising, the first place to start is by compiling a to-do list. Compiling a to-do list helps to clarify your thoughts and unclutter your mind. You can then prioritise to concentrate your time on the important and urgent aspects of your role.

Developing effective prioritisation techniques helps you increase your efficiency, manage your time better, and improve your focus on your most important work.

Identifying the difference between what is IMPORTANT and what is URGENT is the starting point for prioritising. A popular time management tool for prioritising is the Eisenhower matrix. It is a method that aims to improve how you prioritise, and this is how it works. When using the Eisenhower matrix, you sort the tasks from your to-do list into four groups. These groups are called quadrants because they are arranged in a grid.

Quadrant 1 represents things which are both urgent and important. This could be termed ‘firefighting’. The activities need to be dealt with immediately, and they are important.

Quadrant 2 represents things which are important, but not urgent. Although the activities here are important, and contribute to achieving the goals and priorities, they don’t have to be done right now. As a result, they can be scheduled in when you can give quality thought to them. A good example would be the preparation of an important talk or planning a strategy.

Quadrant 3 are distractions. They must be dealt with right now but, in reality, are not important. For example, when you answer an unwanted phone call, you have had to interrupt whatever you were doing to answer it.

Quadrant 4 are things which are neither urgent nor important. Some meetings could fall into this category – they have been scheduled in advance, but if they achieve nothing, or you don’t contribute to them, then they have simply wasted time.

Consciously strive to maximise Quadrant 2 time. Allocate time in your diary to carry out these tasks when you are at your best. Doing so can reduce the amount of time taken up by firefighting Quadrant 1 activities, since many Quadrant 1 activities could have been Quadrant 2 if they had been done earlier.

You can also seek to reduce time spent in Quadrant 3 by improving your systems and processes for dealing with distractions, and you can seek to eliminate as much as possible of Quadrant 4 activities, by either not spending time on these things, or changing the nature of them to make them more productive.

Delegate Effectively

As we have seen, failure to delegate or the inability to delegate effectively are time stealers that can greatly affect a senior manager’s ability to successfully manage time. Delegation is not about off-loading unwanted tasks, that’s dumping. Delegation is a cornerstone of good management, it is a strategic decision, and is an instrumental part of how senior managers empower their line reports to develop their knowledge, skills and abilities. Senior managers can’t be experts in everything. Delegating tasks and responsibilities to individuals with the right skills and knowledge ensures that the job is done well. It can also help senior managers to strike a balance between their professional and personal lives, reducing burnout and stress.

Managers from first-time managers up to senior managers are often reluctant to delegate. However, the reluctance to delegate carries a steep cost. As senior managers take on more work and responsibilities, they can get overwhelmed, stressed and, in some cases, they may even burn out completely.

Delegating, when done well, not only reduces your own workload, but it also develops your employees, gives you and your team a greater range of skills and impact, provides emergency backup and succession planning, since you are not the only one who knows how to do something, creates inclusive opportunities, empowers people, retains talent and builds engagement among team members.

Many studies have demonstrated the power of delegation in running effective teams. A Gallup study of 143 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) on the Inc. 500 list found that the most effective CEOs delegate to help their companies grow faster and build more revenue.

Senior managers should consider these overarching questions when thinking about delegation arrangements:

What responsibilities are you delegating? – choose what tasks you are willing to delegate. You should be using your time on the most critical tasks for the business, and the tasks that only you can do. Delegate what you can’t do, what doesn’t require your specific input or what doesn’t interest you.
Are you delegating to an appropriate person? – pick the best person to delegate to. Listen and observe. Learn the traits, values and characteristics of those who will perform well when you delegate to them. Consider each team member’s strengths, weaknesses and skill sets when assigning responsibilities. That means giving the work to people who deliver, not the people who are the least busy. Some tasks may be obvious candidates for outsourcing which is a form of delegation.
Are you trusting and empowering that person and providing the resources they need? – trust those you delegate to. It always starts with trust. Along with trust, you also have to empower the people you delegate to and give them the chance to do a job their way, giving them the autonomy to make decisions within the scope of their tasks. Give clear assignments and instructions. The key is striking the right balance between explaining so much detail that the listener is insulted, and not explaining enough for someone to grasp what is expected. Communicate the task’s objectives, expectations and any relevant deadlines or constraints. Ensure that those who you delegate to have the necessary resources, whether that is sufficient information, tools or support, to accomplish their assignments successfully.
Are you effectively managing and overseeing that delegation? – set a definite task completion date and a follow-up system. Establish a specific deadline at the beginning, with milestones. Maintain open lines of communication throughout the delegated task. Provide regular feedback and support as needed. In this way you can check up on progress before the final deadline without micro-managing. Hold team members accountable for the tasks they’ve been delegated. This means acknowledging both successes and shortcomings and addressing any issues promptly.

When senior managers take time to share responsibilities in a more team-based approach, they free up more time for the tasks most important to running an effective team. They also create more time for self-care, which helps to prevent burnout and keeps them and their teams motivated and excited about their roles.

Set Clear Goals and Objectives

Senior managers are usually responsible for the strategic planning process and it is their responsibility to take that strategy and roll it out throughout the organisation, setting and communicating direction, in order to enable managers to set clear goals and objectives for their teams that align with the strategy.

Senior-level goals and objectives have a profound impact on shaping the organisation’s direction, and encompass organisation-wide initiatives and long-term strategic planning. They should be pivotal in driving the organisation’s progress, such as significantly improving particular operational functions, which directly affect business outcomes and should offer lasting benefits to the organisation. Effective senior management goals and objectives should promote growth and development, not just for the individual but for the team and organisation as a whole.

In 1968 Edwin A. Locke introduced a Goal Setting Theory when he highlighted how setting specific and measurable goals combined with appropriate feedback is much more effective for businesses than trying to achieve vague aspirations. The theory also pinpointed how aspiring for something that is a stretch can keep someone motivated. Locke suggested that there are five essential principles of setting SMART goals or objectives:

Clarity – clear goals or objectives enable people to focus on their objectives and make them understand what they are trying to achieve.
Challenge – setting goals or objectives that are challenging boosts people’s motivation.
Commitment – people are more likely to engage with a goal or objective if they are involved in setting it up.
Feedback – feedback and reflection on goals or objectives is essential for the assessment of progress and identifying further areas of improvement.
Task complexity – people tend to push themselves too hard if working demanding roles and forget about the complexity of their tasks. It is therefore important to account for it when setting the goals or objectives.

SMART is a well-respected approach to goal or objective setting and many people would recommend it for personal as well as professional goals. It is an approach that brings the focus, clarity and motivation that people can often neglect when goal or objective setting. The process of thinking about your goals or objectives to make sure they are SMART also helps you to genuinely consider the importance of each goal or objective and makes it more significant. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, and Timed.

Specific – the wording should leave no doubt about what is required.
Measurable – the goal or objective should be readily measurable, and the results should be available quickly and regularly.
Agreed – the goal or objective should be negotiated with all parties involved to reach a consensus.
Realistic – the balance here is very fine. If the goal or objective can be reached too easily, then it presents little challenge. However, if the goal offers poor chances of success, then it will rapidly turn into a de-motivating force.
Timed – how much, how soon? A goal or an objective without a time constraint is little more than a wish list.

Senior managers should also ensure that their senior-level goals act as building blocks towards their broader career aspirations, contributing to their overall professional development. They should engage with mentors or colleagues to gain insights and to help refine their objectives if needed.

Working towards SMART goals and objectives contributes to good time management as they provide a clear sense of direction and purpose. With specific and well-defined objectives, you keep focus and are less likely to get sidetracked by distractions. You can concentrate your energy on activities that directly contribute to your goals, minimising the time spent on less important activities.

SMART goals are designed to be measurable, realistic and timed. This structure encourages you to break larger tasks into manageable steps, making them more attainable, and the realistic timelines help overcome procrastination tendencies and will help to prevent the rush to meet unrealistic deadlines. Tracking your progress and milestones keeps you motivated and empowers you to manage your time more effectively.

The SMART framework also encourages you to evaluate the relevance and importance of your goals using the Eisenhower matrix. This helps you to prioritise and allocate your time and resources more wisely, and you can make informed decisions about where to invest your efforts for maximum impact because you can see the bigger picture of your SMART goals.

Implement Time Management Tools and Techniques

We have already discussed some of the fundamental time management tools and techniques that you can utilise to improve your productivity and efficiency. To reiterate, these are:

Charting your energy levels
Identifying and eliminating your time stealers
To-do lists
The Eisenhower matrix
Delegating
SMART goals and objectives

Other useful time management tools and techniques include:

A variation of the Eisenhower matrix, the Action Priority Matrix is also based on four quadrants:

Quadrant 1 – you place Quick Wins here. These are activities that will have a high impact with low effort required. They are improvements that are easy to achieve, are beneficial to the business, without being too costly or causing disruptions, are low risk and show success quickly.
Quadrant 2 – you place Major Projects here. These are activities that will have a high impact but there is high effort required meaning that they are time-consuming. These require careful time management to ensure that they don’t squeeze out the quick wins, which are important.
Quadrant 3 – you place Fill Ins here. These are activities that will have a low impact with low effort required. These are the activities that when you have the time you get them out of the way.
Quadrant 4 – you place Thankless Tasks here. These activities are those that take a lot of effort but do not add value or generate big rewards. For example, these might be meetings that you go to that take up a lot of your time but don’t influence decision-making or do not produce any real actions. Try to avoid these activities if possible, or look for less time-consuming alternatives.

Stakeholder analysis is another four-quadrant matrix. This is taken from the project management toolbox. The first step in Stakeholder Analysis is to identify who your stakeholders are.

Quadrant 1 – list stakeholders that you need to keep satisfied.
Quadrant 2 – list stakeholders that you need to manage closely.
Quadrant 3 – list stakeholders that you need to monitor.
Quadrant 4 – list stakeholders that you need to keep informed.

The next step is to work out their power, influence and interest, so you know who you should focus on. The final step is to develop a good understanding of the most important stakeholders so that you can work out how to win their support.

PERT (Programme Evaluation and Review Technique) – this technique helps you to make reasonably accurate estimates for time that you need to allocate for specific activities. PERT takes a slightly sceptical view of time estimates made for each activity or project stage. To use it, estimate the shortest possible time each activity will take, the most likely length of time, and the longest time that might be taken if the activity takes longer than expected, and be realistic.

Use the formula below to calculate the time to use for each project stage:

Shortest time + 4 x Likely time + Longest time

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(Divided by) 6

This helps to bias time estimates away from the unrealistically short time scales normally assumed.

Example: Compiling a report:

Shortest time (1 day) + 4 x Likely time (2 days) + Longest time (3 days) = 12 days

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(Divided by) 6

= Estimated time 2 days

Once you have completed this, you can transfer your estimates into your diary/calendar and block the time.

Time blocking is a time management strategy where you schedule out every part of your day in your diary, even breaks and lunch. Time blocking divides your day into smaller blocks. During each block, you focus on a single activity or a group of similar activities. Unlike a to-do list, time blocking tells you what to do and when to do it.

Time blocking works because it requires a weekly review of your schedule. You start by making a large to-do list for the entire week. Next, you rank tasks based on their priority and devise a daily schedule. By dedicating a specific amount of time to one activity, it locks your focus and minimises disruptions. Creating a time-blocked schedule is all about being intentional about what you are spending your time on at work. It also allows others to know when you are available and, just as importantly, when you are not.

You can time block using a paper diary or a digital diary such as Outlook.

Open your Outlook calendar and navigate to the current week
Click the ‘New event’ button, or drag your cursor over the time you want to block
Fill in the details for your block of time
Use the ‘Categorise’ drop-down menu to choose a colour for your time block
Mark your block as ‘Private’ if you don’t want to share your visibility with others

Repeat this process to add as many blocks of time as you need to organise your to-do list and responsibilities. Time blocking requires being as accurate as possible about how much time something may take, or how much time you want to allocate to it. Senior managers should not omit blocking out time for thinking, reflecting, researching, networking, strategising and planning, all important aspects of the role.

According to British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson, “Work expands so as to fill the time available”. This is known as Parkinson’s Law. In other words, the amount of time you give yourself to complete a specific task is the amount of time it will take you to complete that task. To combat Parkinson’s Law, try the Pomodoro® Technique. This is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s and is named after the tomato-shaped timer that Cirillo also created. The technique utilises fixed time intervals for focused work, usually 25 minutes set on the timer, followed by short breaks. This structured approach keeps the mind alert and engaged, significantly reducing the inclination to procrastinate, and enabling a deeper focus on activities. For senior managers, this technique is best suited to dealing with some of those activities that are urgent and important, such as dealing with emails, as time constraints for such a short period of time can disturb your workflow on more significant activities, and achieve exactly the opposite from what it is supposed to.

The Rapid Planning Method (RPM) is a time management strategy that aims to train your brain to focus on a vision of what you want. Divide a sheet of paper into three columns:

The task
The result you want from completing that task
The purpose for completing it

Then, list the actions you need to take to accomplish the tasks, grouping your tasks together based on commonalities, and including the resources that you will need. If you are delegating actions, list these together with who you are delegating them to. Ensure that this action plan is SMART.

Pareto analysis – this is also known as the 80:20 rule. Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created this time management technique on the premise that 20% of actions are responsible for 80% of outcomes. The aim is to help you prioritise your activities based on what will have the biggest impact and get you closer to achieving your significant goals. List some of the issues or problems that you have to address and determine the root cause of each. Then assign a score to each issue based on their importance; the more important issues would have a higher score. Group similar activities and problems together based on the root cause and add up the score for each group. The group with the highest score is the issue that you should tackle first.

There are a myriad of digital time tracking software tools and apps that can help to improve time management. Here is a small selection:

Trello boards are the ultimate in to-do lists. They allow you to organise your work better and track tasks on a step-by-step basis. You can share your ‘boards’ and task ‘cards’ across teams and assign tasks to different users.
Basecamp is a straightforward platform to use and allows you to seamlessly share and review documents. You can chat with your team through Basecamp rather than clog up everyone’s inboxes. It means everything your team needs is in one place, allowing your entire business to use their time more efficiently.
Zapier platform allows you to connect different platforms and performs actions you ordinarily have to do manually. For example, if you’re a marketing agency promoting an upcoming webinar and one of your team is manually sending links to whoever registers, Zapier will give that team member or yourself a lot of time back. You can set up a trigger for when someone fills out that registration form, and Zapier can automatically send an email from your Outlook account.
Office 365 offers many tools to help manage time more effectively; these include Sharepoint, Microsoft Teams and OneNote.

Utilising time management tools and techniques helps to improve time management and allows senior managers to allocate sufficient time for critical thinking and decision-making. Rushed and impulsive decisions can lead to negative consequences. With effective time management, senior managers have the space to evaluate options, weigh pros and cons, gather information, and make informed decisions. This can apply to both professional and personal choices and decisions.

Foster a Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is about effectively managing the demands of work life and home life, to ensure that one side doesn’t become so overbearing that it creates imbalance. This is important for several reasons. The main one is that we all need sufficient time away from work to rest, recharge and practise self-care, as well as to spend personal time with family and friends.

Work-life imbalances can occur for a variety of reasons and, unfortunately, when work takes precedence over other aspects of life, such as personal relationships, relaxation and leisure activities, it can inflict severe damage on the person’s physical, emotional and mental well-being. Research unequivocally indicates that chronic work-life imbalance can serve as a breeding ground for numerous illnesses, including, but not limited to, diabetes, heart disease, anxiety, depression and substance abuse.

Looking specifically at the UK, the latest Amex Trendex survey report found that almost three-quarters (71%) of UK workers say having a good work-life balance is the main reason for job satisfaction. This is the highest of all markets surveyed, trumping salary (60%) and getting along with colleagues (51%). Work-life balance was also the top priority when looking for a new job (77%), more so than respondents from any other country. When it comes to the factors contributing to a healthy work-life balance, UK workers rank flexible hours (72%), the ability to work from anywhere (56%) and more paid time off (49%) as the most important.

It is essential for senior managers not only to promote a healthy work-life balance in their organisations, but also to lead their workforces by example by exemplifying the behaviour themselves. This demonstrates what it looks like to be high-performing and to have balance in your life, instilling this into the organisational culture. This is important not only for everyone to continue to meet the organisation’s strategic goals, but also to create healthy boundaries to maintain the well-being of everyone in the organisation. Boundaries can include such things as:

Mastering the art of saying no, especially when feeling overwhelmed.
Dedicating specific time slots for work-related activities and ensuring that work does not encroach upon your personal time.
No emails or messages after a certain time or whilst on holiday (except in emergency circumstances).
Scheduling breaks including lunch breaks, away from the workplace, perhaps to take a walk or engage in a healthy and/or stress-relieving activity.
Booking and taking holidays.

Whilst resilience and the ability to rise above challenges is a key aspect of a senior management role, self-care and well-being are aspects that are just as important for sustainable high performance to prevent burnout, and for being able to enjoy life outside of work.

Conclusion

Time management plays a vital role in various aspects of life, from personal to professional, and effectively managing time is crucial for achieving goals, maximising productivity, reducing stress levels, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and promoting personal growth.

Work-life balance is a critical aspect of our overall well-being. It is the equilibrium that allows us to effectively manage our time and energy between our work responsibilities and personal life. This balance positively impacts our mental and physical health, strengthens relationships, and enhances our job satisfaction, achievements and productivity.

In this article we have examined some of the many tools and techniques that can be utilised to master time management. Some may suit your personal and management style better than others; however, it is worth taking the time to try them in order to find what works best for you. The benefit being that you will find key strategies that will inevitably help you to manage time better, and improve your working and personal life overall by creating balance.

As you work, you should regularly review your progress and reflect on your time management practices. Analyse what worked well and what needs improvement. Adjust your time management strategies accordingly to maximise efficiency and effectiveness. Continuous evaluation and adaptation lead to ongoing improvement and mastery in managing your time.

Time Management Mastery for Senior Managers

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