6 time management team building activities to boost productivity

Are you sick of missed deadlines, lagging productivity levels, and an air of frustration amongst your team? It could be a sign you need to strengthen employee time management. These 6 time management team building activities should do the trick.

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The best virtual time management activities examples

1. Address your communication biases with Communication Master 

If you’re a busy manager, chances are you don’t have as much one-on-one time with your team members as you’d like. You might be missing critical information, like how they best communicate. Aid your team communication and learn communication biases that can impact productivity and time management with Gomada’s Communication Master game. 

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2. Host a virtual workshop on productivity tools

Are your teams making the most of the latest time management software? If not, get a workshop in the diary where you can discuss the tools best suited to their job roles. Often employees are introduced to software but have yet to be given the full lowdown on all its features. They may be missing important time-saving functions.

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3. Play $86,400, one day

One of the simplest time management games for team building. Tell your employees to imagine they had $86,400 and one day to spend it. They can’t bank the money, and it doesn’t roll over to the next day. Now get them to grab a piece of paper and write out their day's schedule and how they would spend the money, hour by hour. This game is a visual reminder of the 86,400 seconds each day and how we should be conscious of how we spend them. 

Read this one for more virtual event ideas to strengthen team skills.  

Time management activities for the office workplace

4. Make your ‘many little things’ list

A workday is made up of doing many little things. We don’t even consider many of these as taking up our time. Gather your team and ask them to compile a list of everything they do as part of their job. Include everything from the nitty-gritty professional tasks to social chit-chat. You can then play a bingo game, taking turns to read out a task and tick it off your list if it also applies.  

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Alternatively, get started with our pre-built Bingo card straight-away:

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5. Share team time hacks with a ‘Tools & Tricks’ meeting

Have you ever noticed how some team members get things done faster than others? They could have hacked their productivity with lesser-known software or processes. Book a team building session where you all bring your favorite tools and time-saving work hacks. Why look further than those in your team who already hold the answers?

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6. See the importance of the ‘big picture’ with puzzles

When it comes to hands-on group activities for time management, completing a puzzle against the clock can act as a reminder of the importance of keeping a bigger picture in mind.

Split your office into smaller teams and give them a puzzle to solve without the box showing the completed image. Next, set a timer and see how they get on. When the timer buzzes, discuss how much easier it would have been with the end picture to refer to.

Good time management requires keeping the result in mind, so your teams know how and where to prioritize their attention.

‍Read this article for more fun workplace team building activities, or try this one for time management workshop ideas to strengthen team collaboration.

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3 downloadable time management worksheets

1. Time Budget Excel Worksheet - Give your team this worksheet to keep track of the hours dedicated to each task within their role.
2. Color Block Timesheet - Create a visual reminder of how time is spent so you can understand better with a glance.
3. Printable Weekly Planners - Keep an overview of important projects to hand with one of these printable weekly planners. Assign key tasks to do each day. 

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Improving time management for leaders

Is your time management lacking as a busy manager? Here’s how to do a time management overhaul:

1. Invest in the right tools - Think about where you spend most of your time. Are there tools or platforms that could make your job easier and free up hours in your day?
2. Automate where you can - What manual tasks are currently proving a time-suck? And what tasks do you frequently forget about or put off? Look into automating as many as possible, whether it’s automating employee pulse surveys or scheduling your team building sessions. That’s where Gomada can come in!
3. Focus on the big picture - What tasks are taking up your time that should be delegated elsewhere? Get rid of any micro tasks where you can.
4. Schedule team building activities for senior management. Organizational hierarchy is not a protection from productivity and communication challenges. 
5. Keep communicating - If you need support, don’t hesitate to ask for it. 

How to use time management as a team

With these time management activities in your schedule, here’s how you can expect to see more effective time management show up practically in your organization:

• More effective delegation of tasks
• Better team communication
• Increased use of time management tools
• Removal of unnecessary meetings & processes

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When time management proves an ongoing challenge 

When productivity levels are low, it’s also worth examining employee engagement. The latest employee engagement stats prove how many aspects of work performance are impacted by disengaged employees, with no amount of team building in the workplace able to make up for the cost of dissatisfied workers.

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If you’re new to employee engagement, look at our articles on the top virtual employee engagement platforms, effective employee engagement apps, and employee engagement tools.

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Finally, do you have specific team members who consistently struggle to meet deadlines or use their time as efficiently as you’d like? Neurodivergence (diagnosed or undiagnosed) is an often overlooked root cause of these time management struggles. Some brains are wired a little differently. Try to reframe your frustration with compassion for those who struggle in this area, and think about how you can best support neurodivergent needs in your workplace.

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