One of the essential parts of keeping a team organized is tracking the time each task requires correctly. While some teams might struggle with this, others seem to have it under control. Keeping your team motivated when going through longer projects might seem like a struggle.
The right time management might seem impossible in these situations, but there is always a way to keep it under control. The good news is that there are tips and tricks meant to help everyone adjust their schedules so they can be more productive. Here are some of the best time-tracking tips to keep your creative team engaged and active.
1. Get your team involved
The first thing you should do when trying to decide on a new time schedule for your team is to involve them in the process. As the team leader, you might think you need to have it ready to present to everyone. On the contrary, building your time tracking schedule together will benefit the entire team a lot more. There are many ways to achieve this, and it will depend a lot on the type of team you are running.
If your team is made up of both physical and remote members, doing this in the form of an online meeting is the best idea. During your meeting, you should let everyone know about the purpose of this change. A more creative team will be less likely to be very time-oriented and organized, so clarifying the purpose of the change is important.
This will allow you to ask everyone for feedback and ideas on how to put this together. As a team, everyone will most likely know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Sharing them as you put your schedule together will help you overcome difficulties and find easy solutions. This way, everyone will be able to see what prohibits them from tracking their time effectively.
2. Clarify each member’s tasks
A good idea that can benefit everyone in your creative team is to assign each member with an appropriate task. Apart from their daily tasks as parts of the team, you can ask each member to do something additional in regards to time tracking. Splitting responsibilities will help everyone stay on top of their tasks and work well with the rest of the team.
These responsibilities can cover all sorts of things you might have set for your team to follow. For example, one member can be responsible for creating a template for the monthly calendar your team will be using. Another member can track the dates and times for future team meetings. Someone else can track milestones and dates for the team’s goals.
Each person can have a smaller or bigger task depending on how many things you wish to achieve and how many members there are. This will help things run smoothly and allow everyone to never forget something important. Working together to keep the schedule under control will be far more effective than each person working on managing their tasks individually.
3. Use the right time tracking tools
Even if you believe the strategy you have put together is great, there are always ways to improve it. Time tracking tools have been used by teams of all fields for years and are able to provide a very smooth planning experience. Depending on your needs, there will be different tools you can use to assess each time tracking goal you have set.
Along with time tracking tools, there are other tools your company can use in order to save time and effort. A good place to start is with proofreading and editing tools and services. Tools such as Grammarly and Hemmingway Editor can help your written content look professional while saving your team a lot of precious time.
If you would rather work with a professional writer instead, a simple Google search will help you read more about which one to pick. While there are plenty of time saving tools out there, not everything is going to offer you the options you need. This is exactly why it is important to try different ones and see which one best fits the needs of your team.
4. Keep the distractions away
One of the problems with creative teams is the amount of distractions that can surround them at any given time. Whether your team is made up of remote workers or not, this is something you should discuss early on while planning your schedule. The more everyone is on board with this, the easier it will be for them to concentrate on their work.
Distractions can come in all types of ways. Whether they are snacks at the office or your favorite book at home, they can cause you to lose your focus. This is especially difficult for remote workers, as they tend to be surrounded by such items and temptations. The easiest thing they can do is keep the distractions away while they work. Keeping the tablet or their favorite cookies in another room and waiting until they take a break is not only simple but also effective.
Being distracted by not important things will cause your team to be less productive and therefore less successful. On the other hand, the easiest way to save time and keep track of their work is to remove the distractions. This will allow them to focus on their work and spend their time productively.
5. Set reminders for milestones and goals
Last but not least, another important thing you can do in order to improve the time management of your creative team is to set reminders. For most teams, this is not hard to do, but it might be something that can help your team stay focused.
The reminders can be set in different ways. The first option is to use a tool that can send out reminders automatically via email or through an app. This is easy to set up, and there are many options available. Another option is to ask one of your team members to take up the task of sending out reminders based on your goals.
As the team leader, it is up to you to organize your team so that everyone knows when each milestone is expected to take place. After some time, everyone will become more familiar with working with this system. This will mean that they will be more likely to complete their tasks on time, so they make the deadlines. This will increase your members’ productivity and cooperation and help everyone work towards the team’s success.
Finding the right time balance for your team
Setting a schedule with the right time tracking tips can take some time for everyone to get used to. This is not something that should worry you, as it is normal for your team to need some to get used to it. In the long run, the benefits of time tracking your projects will help your team focus on the important things. As a result, their creativity and productivity levels will increase.
Which of these tips do you believe will be the most helpful for your team?
