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Time management at work can get messy. In fact, 82% have no semblance of a time management system.
Without good time management skills in place, schedules fill up fast, priorities shift, and half the day disappears in meetings from just figuring out what to do next.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of practical time management tips to help you in the workplace.
This isn’t a list of basic hacks or one-size-fits-all apps. It’s a practical guide for team leads, HR, and managers who need better systems they can start using now. We’ll break down what effective time management really looks like in today’s workplace, with examples, habits, and tools that help teams get the right things done.
Time management refers to how we prioritize and utilize our time. The hallmark of good time management is finding or developing a consistent, reliable system that improves efficiency, increases productivity, and helps one find balance between work and personal life.
Let’s get one thing clear: a lot of the time management advice you’ll see out there works. The problem is that a lot of it is catered to individuals.
In real workplaces (especially remote or hybrid ones), time loss is usually part of a broader, systemic issue. Even the most disciplined employees can’t outrun broken workflows or unclear expectations.
Here’s what gets in the way:
Too many recurring meetings with no clear outcome
Constant app switching and scattered communication
Lack of clarity on what matters every day
Over-reliance on real-time updates instead of async work
No shared understanding of what “focused time” looks like
In remote environments, these problems quickly compound. Visibility drops, people duplicate work, and focus time gets eaten up by Slack pings or urgent (but not high-value) requests.
Effective time management in the workplace has to go beyond personal habits because it’s a team issue.
Effective time management in the workplace doesn't entail having everyone's calendar color-coded or optimizing every minute. Instead, it means the right people are spending time on the right things and know what those things are.
Here are a few examples of what that can look like in practice:
A support team starts the day with a 10-minute async check-in, then works in two-hour focused blocks without interruptions.
A product team avoids meetings before noon so engineers can code without context switching.
HR reviews urgent requests in two daily windows instead of reacting all day long.
A marketing lead uses weekly time audits to see how much time is lost to admin versus strategic work.
A sales team aligns weekly on top priorities, so reps aren’t pulled in different directions mid-week.
These small, intentional adjustments help teams reduce noise, set better boundaries, and focus on the work that moves the needle.
These tips are not perfect, but they're practical. And because they're built around how specific teams work, they stick more effectively. Let's take a look at some tips for better time management.
Before bringing in any tools or new systems, ensure your team knows what they're supposed to do and why.
Teams waste a lot of time adding new tools to their tech stack, thinking it will solve their productivity problems. This can actually complicate things as you work to learn a new tool and build workflows on the fly.
A lot of time gets wasted not because people are distracted, but because they’re unclear on priorities and urgent tasks. When every task feels equally urgent, focus disappears.
Instead, clear task definitions, shared goals, and a short list of what not to work on can be more powerful than any time-tracking app. This is especially critical in remote teams, where ambiguity tends to spread. Tools should support clarity, not replace it, so start with task clarity before getting too technology-driven.
Time blocking is a great way to structure the day for better focus, but it only works if you leave room to breathe.
Back-to-back blocks with no buffer are just a color-coded way to invite the same overload you already feel. Instead of packing every hour, start with your core priorities, then block time around them.
Leave 15 to 30 minutes between deep work sessions or meetings to reset, handle quick tasks, or deal with the unexpected.
For teams, it's helpful to align on shared blocks like quiet hours and meeting-free mornings. This way, individuals aren’t fighting against the group’s rhythm.
The point isn't to schedule every minute but to give structure without turning the day into a treadmill. For remote teams, it's a great way to use time effectively to find a better work-life balance as you can use the time between blocks for workouts, family time, social media, and other things that help you recharge.
Most status meetings waste time.
People go around giving surface-level updates, half the team tunes out, and nothing moves forward. Oftentimes, these meetings exist out of habit, not necessity.
If you're noticing meeting burnout or starting to hear employee complaints, async check-ins could be a better option.
A shared document, quick daily update in Slack, or project management tool lets everyone see progress without burning 30 minutes of collective focus. Responses come when people have time, not when the calendar says they must.
This shift frees up schedules and respects different work rhythms, especially in remote teams. Save live meetings for real discussion or problem-solving, not reading off bullet points.
If you really like the asynchronous approach to meetings, try our daily Stand-up tool and customize it to your liking.
It isn’t enough to just block off time. You need to create a culture where others respect it, too.
Protecting focus has to be a shared habit. Here are a few ways teams can prioritize it more effectively:
Set core “no-meeting” hours across the team or department
Use Slack statuses or calendar blocks to signal deep work sessions
Avoid real-time pings for non-urgent updates — default to async
Encourage leadership to model it by visibly protecting their own focus time
Focus is fragile. It breaks easily under constant context switching, unclear expectations, or the pressure to always be available. However, when a team treats focus as a shared value, everyone strives to protect it.
Even with the best planning or a helpful to-do list tool, most teams don’t spend their time the way they think they do. Weekly time audits help close that gap.
Start by having team members jot down how they planned their week, then compare it to how things went.
Where did time slip?
What work took longer than expected?
What tasks never got touched?
This quick habit surfaces hidden time drains and patterns like recurring meetings that never lead anywhere. It also helps you draw attention to important tasks that were deprioritized. Over time, it helps teams adjust their planning to match reality.
If your team is repeating the same task, it's time to automate it. These small, manual jobs quietly consume hours each week without adding much value.
Here are a few common time-wasters worth automating:
Recurring meeting reminders
Timesheet or invoice follow-ups
Moving specific tasks between project stages
Copy-pasting data between tools (e.g., spreadsheets to CRM)
Status update emails or reports
Calendar scheduling for 1:1s or team check-ins
Onboarding steps for new hires or clients
Shaving off even 15 to 30 minutes a day adds up. The goal is to give employees more room for high-level work and challenging tasks that provide value to your organization.
Most teams need better visibility, not tighter control.
Without a shared view of where time goes, it’s easy to assume people aren’t working efficiently. However, the real issue is misalignment or overload.
Team-level visibility means understanding time spent across projects, roles, or work types. It's not about micromanaging and tracking every second. This helps you spot bottlenecks and or areas where teams are losing focus. The key is framing it as a tool for planning and improvement. When teams can see patterns in their own performance, they're more equipped to prioritize and rebalance workloads better. Providing this autonomy makes for more efficient teams that don't need to be micromanaged and managers who no longer need to rely on guesswork.
When self-discipline is on the rise, improving time management skills becomes easier and your team will be more likely to accomplish tasks.
One-size-fits-all advice rarely works when it comes to managing time in a real workplace. The shape of a workday (and what gets in the way of focus) can vary wildly depending on the industry you work in, the work you’re doing, and the individual job roles involved.
Here are a few effective time management examples based on real-world challenges:
An HR lead juggling onboarding, last-minute requests, and calendar coordination, often with no warning
An engineer trying to get through deep development work while being pulled into Slack threads and surprise bug triage
A team lead stuck in a wall of back-to-back meetings with no time left for strategic planning
A marketing coordinator losing hours to approvals and status updates across multiple tools
A customer support rep handling constant tickets while also managing internal questions from other teams
Good time management means something different to each of these people.
That's why teams must tailor these time management strategies based on function, not just best practices. What helps a dev focus might not work for someone in a people-facing role, which is completely okay.
Too many teams turn to time management tools, hoping they'll fix deeper issues. But no app or dashboard will solve the problem if priorities aren't clear or the team's calendar is already a mess.
Before adding anything new, ensure your team has the fundamentals in place: task clarity, focus time, and basic alignment.
Once solid, the right tools can help reinforce those habits by improving visibility and reducing manual work.
Look for tools that:
Support asynchronous updates (not just more notifications)
Help you spot patterns across projects, not just track time
Integrate with the systems you already use
Encourage process improvement, not micromanagement
Time tracking software like Hubstaff can help teams audit time spent across work types, whether client work, internal meetings, or admin overhead. However, without healthy planning and communication habits, even the best tool becomes additional noise to an already chaotic work environment.
Teams that manage time well usually have one thing in common: they practice healthy time management techniques and treat everyone's schedule respectfully.
That shift starts with leadership. When managers set the pace, the rest of the team follows. Those small choices signal what's valued and what isn't.
Culture shifts through action. If you model it, track it, and talk about it, you can minimize distractions, manage your time more effectively, and leave poor time management behind you.