As a manager, you have a lot to do and never enough time. This guide will help you make the most of your time and get more done with less stress.

Understanding How to Sort Your Work

Before we dive into tips and tricks, let's understand the basic ways to think about your time.

The Four-Box Method (The Eisenhower Box)

Think of your work as fitting into four boxes:

Box 1: Important and Urgent This is the stuff you need to do right now. Think of Sarah, who runs a small team. Her morning starts with an alert that their website is down. While handling this, she learns that one of her best team members wants to quit. Then her boss reminds her about a big presentation due tomorrow. These things can't wait - they need fixing now.

Box 2: Important but Not Urgent This is where good managers spend most of their time. Meet David, who sets aside every Tuesday morning for planning ahead. He uses this time to help his team grow, spot problems before they get big, and build good work relationships. He says this quiet time helps him avoid many of the rush jobs that used to fill his days.

Box 3: Urgent but Not Important Think about Maria's normal day: She gets lots of meeting requests that could be quick emails instead, and messages marked "urgent" that really aren't that important. While these things feel like they need to be done right away, they often don't help the team succeed.

Box 4: Not Important or Urgent Then there's Alex, who noticed he was checking his email every few minutes and sitting in meetings he didn't need to attend. These tasks feel like work but don't help get important things done.

How to Split Your Time:

• Box 1: About 20-25% of your time
• Box 2: About 40-50% of your time
• Box 3: About 20-25% of your time
• Box 4: Only 5-15% of your time

Tips to Make This Work:

1. Plan two hours each week just for Box 2 work
2. Create simple guides to help your team handle common questions
3. Cut down Box 4 activities by setting aside specific times for email
4. For Box 1 tasks, have backup plans ready for common problems

The 40-30-20-10 Way

This is a simple way to split up your week:

40% Planning Ahead (about 16 hours a week) Meet Rachel, who runs marketing at a growing company. She spends her mornings looking at what's working, what isn't, and what to do next. Sometimes she's alone with a whiteboard, other times she's talking with her team about new ideas.

30% Running Current Work (about 12 hours a week) Rachel checks on ongoing projects in the afternoons. She helps remove problems, makes decisions, and keeps work moving forward. She guides her team rather than doing all the work herself.

20% Handling New Things (about 8 hours a week) Sometimes new opportunities or problems come up that need quick attention. Rachel keeps some time free each day to handle these things.

10% Office Work (about 4 hours a week) Every Friday afternoon, Rachel does her expense reports, catches up on emails, and updates her project tracking. She does all these small tasks at once instead of spreading them throughout the week.

Making This Work:

1. Do your most important work when you feel most alert (often mornings)
2. Group similar tasks together
3. Let your team handle routine decisions
4. Keep track of your time for two weeks to see where it really goes

Practical Ways to Save Time

Block Your Time

Think of your day like building blocks. Maya, a project manager, sets up her Tuesday like this:

• 8:30-10:00: Quiet work time (planning)
• 10:00-10:30: Quick break (catch up on messages)
• 10:30-12:00: Team meetings
• 12:00-12:15: Short break
• 12:15-1:15: Lunch (no work)
• 1:15-2:45: Work with team
• 2:45-3:00: Break
• 3:00-4:00: Office work
• 4:00-4:30: Wrap up and plan tomorrow

The secret is leaving small gaps between tasks. When something unexpected happens, these gaps help keep your whole day from falling apart.

Better Meetings

We often have too many meetings that take too long. Here's how to fix that:

Pick one day each week with no meetings. Mark's team doesn't have meetings on Wednesdays, and they get much more done that day.

Make meetings shorter than usual - 25 minutes instead of 30, or 50 minutes instead of an hour. This gives people time to rest between meetings.

For any meeting longer than 30 minutes, write down:

• What you want to achieve
• What people need to know beforehand
• Who needs to be there

End every meeting by writing down:

• Who's doing what
• When it needs to be done
• Who's making sure it happens

Managing Your Computer and Phone

Our phones and computers can eat up our time if we're not careful. Here's how to stay in control:

Check your email at set times - maybe morning, lunch, and evening. Tom, who leads a sales team, found that most emails don't need an answer right away.

When you read an email, deal with it right then - answer it, forward it, file it, or delete it. Rachel used this method to clear hundreds of old emails and keep them from piling up again.

Let your computer do repeated tasks for you. Michael set up his computer to make team reports automatically, saving him two hours each week.

Change your notification settings:

• Keep alerts for messages from your boss and team
• Batch together updates about projects
• Turn off social media notifications

Set clear work hours. Let your team know when you're available and when you're not. This helps everyone know when to expect answers from you.

Using Your Energy Wisely

Think about when you work best during the day. Most people have more energy in the morning, so that's when they should do their hardest work.

Lisa, a team leader, knows she thinks best before lunch. She uses this time for solving big problems and making important plans. After lunch, when she's less sharp, she does easier work like checking in with her team and answering emails.

Match your tasks to your energy:

• Morning (High Energy): Solve problems, make plans, have important talks
• Mid-Day (Medium Energy): Meet with team, review work, make decisions
• Afternoon (Lower Energy): Answer emails, do paperwork, plan next day

Making Good Choices Quickly

Good managers make lots of decisions every day. Here's how to make them better and faster:

Small Decisions (Things that can be easily changed):

• Trust your gut feeling
• Make the choice quickly
• Move on

Medium Decisions (Things that affect your team):

• Ask for quick input from 2-3 people
• Set a timer for 30 minutes to decide
• Pick the best option you have right now

Big Decisions (Things that are hard to undo):

• Get input from all important people
• Look at what could go wrong
• Take more time, but set a deadline

Building Systems That Work

Create simple ways to handle common tasks. John, an IT manager, made a checklist for new team members. Now everyone knows what to do, and he doesn't need to explain it each time.

Good systems should:

• Be easy to follow
• Save time
• Work without you there
• Be written down

Getting Your Team to Help

Your job as a manager isn't to do everything - it's to help your team work well together.

Sarah taught her team to:

• Handle small problems without asking her
• Make basic decisions on their own
• Know when to ask for help
• Share what they learn with each other

This means Sarah can focus on bigger things while her team handles the day-to-day work.

Measuring Success

How do you know if you're managing time better? Look for these signs:

• You have time to plan ahead
• Fewer last-minute emergencies
• Your team can work without asking you about everything
• You feel less stressed
• You get important work done most days

Remember: Start small. Pick one thing to improve first. When that feels easy, add something else. Over time, these small changes add up to big improvements.

Final Thoughts

Good time management isn't about doing more things - it's about doing the right things. Focus on what matters most, build good habits, and help your team grow. Don't try to be perfect. Just try to be a little better each week.