Time Management in the Digital Workspace - UPDATED 2022 – A Complete Guide

​ Time is money, and you can't waste it. We've heard it so many times before that it doesn't even register in our minds. And yet, in today's digital workplace, effective time management is a vital but frequently neglected success aspect.  Each organization utilizes technology to carry on with work. In any case, basically utilizing technology doesn't make your work environment a digital one. All in all, it makes one wonder: "What is a workplace work environment?"

Every company uses technology to do business. Whether you're Mac or PC, laptop or desktop, wired or wireless, digital technology is central to your interaction with the workplace. But simply using these technologies doesn't make your workplace a digital one. So, it begs the question: "What is a digital workplace?"

A true digital workplace is one that not only utilizes technology but it's also governed by it. Examples of digital workplace technologies include automated lights, networked wayfinding systems (read more on what is wayfinding), and connected workstations.

Having a digital printer in your workplace doesn't make it a digital workplace. Being able to print a cloud-hosted document from three floors away and sending a heads-up on Slack to someone on that floor is what makes your workplace digital.

A Digital Workplace goes beyond the limits of a physical office. It provides for knowledge sharing and collaboration in many new and effective ways. It is a connected environment providing access to everything employees need with the help of digital technology.

Time management's unexpected benefits ​ 

Higher productivity, completing more tasks, and meeting deadlines faster come to mind when we think of time management. Basically, everything is OK. However, this is a short-sighted view of time management. The digital workplace benefits greatly from effective time management. For instance:

#1.Control of the flow of work ​ 

It's easy to spot inefficiencies in the production process when you keep track of the time it takes to complete a project, task, or assembly. On the shop floor, manufacturers do it all the time. Many other industries and a few service businesses don't. Establish a baseline for your team's performance on the project by observing them in action. You'll be able to identify inefficiencies and holes in your workflow by time-tracking it each time it is used.

#2.Management of the workforce ​ 

​ Understand your team's capabilities, as well as which members are most suited for specific positions or duties. Determine if you need to transfer a person from one position to another. If someone seems to be falling behind, it's possible that they're not in the right role. If you provide the same person with a variety of jobs or responsibilities, they will be able to get through their work quickly.

#3.Leadership in a digital workplace ​ 

Time management can assist managers to adapt their leadership styles as the digital workplace continues to move from the fully remote workplace of last year's lockdowns to the hybrid and flex models we are working with today. Employee productivity and job capability can be shown through time tracking, but it can also alert managers to potential professional and personal difficulties. Isolation can lead to burnout, for example, if a formerly engaged employee begins to spend more time on the internet during work hours. Then you can step in and help them.

#4.Budgeting and profitability ​ 

​Professions that charge an hourly rate and recruit new clients through proposals are particularly vulnerable to this. It reshaped my consultancy business. Initially, I based my pricing on what other service providers were charging or on my own instincts.

Despite my best efforts, I had no idea how long each project would take. As soon as I started keeping track of my time, I realized how long each deliverable took. In this case, my hourly rate and guaranteed profit margin would be included in the proposal. Predicting expenses and the cost of items sold might help you prevent costly overruns while budgeting.

The majority of firms providing professional services do keep track of billable time. Consider keeping a log of all your time. Billable hours may be skipped or clients may be creating more work than they are worth to the firm, as you may have noticed.

Incorporate time management and consider it as part of employee experience

The very mention of time management or time monitoring can send shivers down the spines of many workers, especially those in the creative industries. With these four stages, time management can be a positive experience for everyone.

#1.Presentation  

Every aspect of your new time management program is affected by how you present it. People will feel watched and possibly resentful if you make it about surveillance and oversight. So, focus on the advantages for them and their work. Motivate yourself to manage your time by showing gratitude for a job well done. It's important to show them how time management can help them advance their career in the organization.  

#2.Incentives

Make good time management a prerequisite for receiving bonuses, incentives, or even a promotion. Use contests as an option. A caveat, however, is that incentives must be balanced against the risk of "winning" by cutting corners.

#3.Initiative 

There are more chances for creativity if you manage your time better By reducing the amount of time spent on menial chores and projects, for example, an employee can free themselves up to focus on the things they enjoy the most.

#4.Mentorship and teamwork ​ 

The structure of time tracking inherently attracts some people, particularly those with analytical minds. Intuitively, they make use of the data reporting provides to better their work performance. It's an excellent idea to pair up proponents and opponents of time management so that they can learn from each other's experiences. When I've employed this strategy on my teams, I've discovered that enthusiasm can be contagious. Even those who aren't fans of time management will learn to recognize the advantages.

What are the options for time management software? ​ 

 You can choose from a wide variety of time trackers, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Tracking and reporting are two different skills that some people excel at more than others.

Some are better suited for individuals and small groups, while others are better suited for huge cross-functional enterprises. Software and apps for certain sectors and roles are also available. I've discovered that making a list of the features your team needs is the greatest strategy for navigating the congested market.

It's extremely simple to forget to set a timer with systems like AgilityPortal, therefore we prefer ones that track automatically.

As a digital workspace, AgilityPortal is an integrated technology framework that centralizes the management of an enterprise's apps and endpoints, allowing employees to interact and work from anywhere. It enables users to operate in a digital workplace by providing self-service, out-of-the-box experiences that scale across platforms, locales, and ownership models of devices. All of a user's resources, such as operating systems, data, and apps, are brought together in one place with AgilityPortal's cloud-based console, which IT professionals can manage from a single location.