Time Management

The importance of time management for any job or project can never be underestimated.

We’ve compiled two tips on how to improve your time management skills, regardless of your experience or position. This is so you can start improving your management approach.

No matter if you are a CNC manufacturer, cabinet maker, builder or trade professional you will always need to juggle people, processes, workflows and regulations to routinely deliver projects on time and on budget. 

Let’s take a look at the two tips below:

1. Agenda-Driven Meetings

Meetings are a necessary part of projects at any scale. Workflow updates, solution brainstorms, and outlines provide a clear list of tasks to ensure everyone is on the same page and the project is completed in a timely manner.

In reality, meetings can easily veer off-track, drain resources and importantly, waste time. If you’re a tradie, manager or somewhere within the joinery industry you’ll know how critical teamwork is to the job.

Effective leadership and a clear agenda is the secret to productive meetings. This allows for priorities to be addressed and concerns raised within small timeframes.

Outline a clear goal to be achieved by its end, ensuring the discussion ends with a clearly identified action to be taken with accountability delegated to one person.

If an issue seems to be snowballing, delegate it to a smaller team and have them report back to the group. Not only will this save you time, but the additional accountability will also help your team learn new skills and feel valued.

2. Management Software Tools

Time planning, processing tools and techniques can make daily life on-site or in the factory easier and long-term projects a success.

Identify workflow inefficiencies and lead to decreased reliance on overstretched resources and reduce human-related errors.

Management tools can vary, and it is best not to use too many—only those that make substantial differences. Those that give you visibility into how your project is tracking are great to start with and you’ll notice the effects immediately.

You’ll likely want to assign tasks to certain people, view a timeline of progress, and filter data according to employees or teams, priorities, and works dependent on the completion of others.

This will allow you to quickly see which teams or employees need more support, where resources can be directed and how the pipeline will be impacted—all in one place.

Although these two methods are great for working onsite, you can use them elsewhere too.