As more employees prioritize work/life balance, one way to help with this is implementing time management strategies that allow them to complete the work they need without having to work longer than necessary.
While there will be times when team members will have to go above and beyond to get things done, this shouldn’t be the norm. Poor time management can result in overtime costs, missed deadlines, and an increased risk of burnout among your employees.
Landscape companies that practice effective time management can increase their overall productivity, reduce stress levels and provide better work-life balance for team members.
Below are some time management strategies that can be applied for those out in the field as well as those working on the backend.
Strategies for Field Crews
To a degree, it’s always going to take your team a certain amount of time to mow a lawn or install a retaining wall. However, the order in which they complete their tasks and execute services on a property can be streamlined.
For instance, an easy way to increase time efficiency is to create dense service routes that reduce the amount of windshield time. Rather than having a crew drive all over your service area, they can stay in a tight range as they move from property to property.
You can also create routes that batch similar tasks together so the crew does not have to switch between different processes throughout the day. For example, Mondays could be when the crew tends to mulch beds on each property. This gives them one focus instead of trying to remember they need to fix this irrigation system on one property, pull weeds at another, and remove a dead tree from the next site.
Once your team is on a property, job sequencing is another key to preventing time from being wasted. Watch your team maintain a given property and take note of inefficiencies such as running the string trimmer ahead of the property being completely mowed or blowing a site off before going through with a stick edger.
Utilize technology to track and audit how long it takes your crews to finish properties or projects. They can let you know when the team is being productive or falling behind.
Time blocking is another time management strategy field crews can use by designating specific tasks for specific times of the day. More physically intensive or high-impact tasks should be done in the mornings while cleanups and easier jobs can be saved for the afternoon. Also, setting predetermined break times can prevent burnout while managing non-billable time. Â Â
Spending the afternoon preparing for the next day, including outfitting trucks with the necessary equipment, fueling up and confirming the schedule for tomorrow, can also improve how your team spends their time in the morning before rollout.
Tactics for Office Employees
Because field crews are tied to your billable hours, a lot of your focus can be on how they use their time efficiently, but your backend employees can also benefit from having better time management skills.
Numerous different tools and apps are available that can help them accomplish more in a day. One key is prioritizing what needs to be done today versus what can be accomplished later.
The Eisenhower Matrix can help organize tasks by their urgency and importance. With a square, employees can group their tasks in one of the four boxes:
- Do – tasks that are both urgent and important.
- Schedule – tasks that are not urgent but are still important.
- Delegate – tasks that are urgent but not important.
- Delete – tasks that are not urgent or important.
Office employees can also use time blocking. By setting time limits for tasks and breaks, team members can dedicate their focus to one task without being interrupted. This is critical because multitasking or context switching leads to lowered productivity and moments of procrastination.
Minimizing distractions can help employees stay in the deep focus needed to complete their work. Automating repetitive tasks can also redeem some of your employees’ time so they can concentrate on more meaningful assignments.
Keep in mind that time management strategies aren’t about extracting every second of productivity out of employees. It’s more about determining the most important work of the day so your team is less stressed and confident they’re working on what matters.
