It’s all very well working on your own time management skills but if the rest of your team aren’t good at managing their time, what can you do?

Firstly – if you’re lucky, some of your good time habits may just rub off on them.  Especially when they see how much more productive you are.  While they’re running around reacting to every event, you’re remaining calm.  You leave work on time and you don’t spend every evening playing catch-up.

Educate them and pass on your skills, so that you can stay in control of your time and don’t let them start controlling you.

Each team member needs to respect each other’s time and realise the impact their poor time habits has on everyone else around them.  Those urgent, last minute requests …

… constant interruptions, distracting people from what they’re working on (this can easily be wasting 1-2 hours or your precious time every day).

Boundaries are important – knowing when to say no to your colleagues and even your boss.  If you’re being bombarded by constantly changing priorities, decide which really are important and which are your responsibility.  The more you understand this, the more they’ll respect your time.

Lack of clarity and not setting expectations.  Remember – what, when, where and how.  If you’re clear about what you want and what’s needed it saves wasted time and misunderstanding.

Email etiquette is another good habit to get across to your team.  How many times have you played email ping pong with time-wasting and ineffective messages being passed round the department.