Everyone knows that time management is essential. There are thousands of books, workshops, and TED talks on this topic. And yet, it’s a skill that can be difficult to grasp — particularly for business leaders. When it comes to the day-to-day running of a successful company, it’s easy to get into the weeds of operations and logistics. You can quickly be pulled in various directions, forgetting your north star and what you need to do for optimal business growth.
If time management is a priority for you in the upcoming year, read on. Here are four key time management tips handy for leaders like you.
1. Schedule a Buffer Time Between Meetings
Is your calendar full of meetings? Are you constantly late for a call because the previous one went over? Do you skip lunch or find it impossible to get up and go to the bathroom during the workday? This tip is for you if you answered yes to any of these questions.
Back-to-back meetings may seem like a good use of your time, but not if it’s impending into your well-being. Scheduling buffer time between meetings will allow for more flexibility within your day. If a vital call goes over, you aren’t staring at the clock or sending an email or Slack message to the next meeting lead telling them you’re running late. You can focus on the meeting and enter the next one on time.
Buffers also give you the chance to prepare yourself for the next call. As a leader, you’re likely brought into several meetings a day. These can range from meetings with your board to conversations with HR about a specific employee to chats with your direct reports about revenue goals. The diverse topics can make transitioning from one to the next challenging. You may spend the first few minutes of every call reading through the meeting agenda instead of listening to what is being said.
Adding buffer time is easy in most digital calendars, including Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Microsoft Outlook Calendar, and Calendar.com. You can adjust the settings to add these buffers automatically to meetings. This may mean having 25-minute meetings instead of 30-minute meetings, or 50-minute meetings instead of 60-minute meetings. This extra cushion of time will help you manage your time more efficiently and feel less stressed.
2. Pause Slack Notifications
Slack is a widely used productivity tool designed to help employees communicate and collaborate internally. A modern-day version of instant messaging, Slack allows employees to send and receive real-time messages. It can lead to quicker response times, streamlined file and document sharing, and overall improved communication. While there are certainly benefits to using Slack, it can also be distracting.
A message that pops up may not need your immediate attention, but you may feel tempted to answer it anyway immediately. A simple message can distract you as you read through other Slack threads or fire off a few more messages awaiting your reply. Before you know it, the single message sidetracked you.
Fortunately, there is a way to pause Slack notifications when you need to really focus on your work or when you are out of the office. To turn on “Do Not Disturb” mode, go to your profile picture in the desktop application’s sidebar. Hover over “Pause Notifications” and choose a duration, or select “Custom” to set your duration. To resume notifications, return to your profile picture and click “Resume Notifications.”
Slack also allows you to set up a paused notifications schedule. This can be useful if you want to block off a specific daily time for heads-down work. When your notifications are paused, team members will see a “Do Not Disturb” icon next to your name. They can override the message if it’s urgent but only do so once daily.
3. Set Up a Shared Calendar with Your Team
You may signal your team that you’re busy by keeping your office door closed or pausing your Slack notifications. However, for employees to see what your calendar really looks like, it can be helpful to share it with them. A shared calendar system can facilitate better collaboration because everyone has a purview of each other’s schedules. Instead of booking a time with you after a two-hour client meeting, they may find an alternate day or time.
As a leader, seeing your team’s calendars also gives you a sense of how things are progressing. You may notice that one employee is taking on the brunt of the work and is bogged down with numerous meetings. By adjusting some tasks, you can give some of their workload to another teammate with the time to complete them.
If you fear sharing your calendar will open up your private life, think again. You can adjust calendar share settings so employees only see your busy times. They won’t be able to see what important client you’re meeting with or why you’re leaving work early.
Of course, be mindful about who you share your calendar with. Your executive leadership team will need access to it, but perhaps the new hire doesn’t need to see what you’re up to. Check your share settings often and delete individuals without access. For most digital calendars, privacy settings can be found under the “Settings” or “Preferences” tabs.
4. Schedule “No Meeting Days”
Focused work is important for leaders. It’s a time to think strategically about the business, consider potential collaborations or acquisitions, and re-evaluate workstreams. However, as a leader, you may feel like others’ schedules are dictating your day. Your calendar can quickly get jammed with back-to-back meetings, leaving you little time to focus on what you need to accomplish. One way to work around this is to set “no meeting days” for yourself or the entire company.
“No meeting days” are beneficial because you can save projects that pile up throughout the week for that specific day. Think of it as a dedicated catchup day, a chance to tackle deep and complicated work. You’ll likely find that you’re more productive and able to accomplish more when you aren’t interrupted by calendar notifications for your next Zoom call.
As a leader, you can implement a “no meeting day” policy company-wide. Places like Facebook, Asana, Airbnb, and Atlassian have incorporated these in-person and call-free days into their regular schedules. Don’t be quick to think that everything will fall out of place without meetings! Teams will work around this dedicated day, finding alternative times to meet and collaborate. Studies show that one no-meeting day per week led to a 35% boost in productivity!
If you implement “no meeting days,” discuss the benefits with your employees. Many will likely be excited about the new policy, but it always helps to share why you’re deciding to implement it. Encourage everyone to follow the policy to the best of their ability, knowing that sometimes a meeting may need to occur to meet a deadline. Reevaluate how one “no meeting day” per week is going and ask for direct feedback from different team leads.
Conclusion
Time is money. To be a successful business leader, evaluating where your time is going is essential. Take these tips into 2025 and see how the year shapes up as you take control of your day and improve your workflow.
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Meshack Emmanuel Kazanshyi; Pexels
Angela Ruth
My name is Angela Ruth. I aim to help you learn how Calendar can help you manage your time, boost your productivity, and spend your days working on things that matter, both personally and professionally. Here's to improving all your calendars and becoming the person you are destined to become!