Allocating time resources effectively will help you meet project deadlines

In the last of our two blogs, we discussed how planning and risk management are core skills that your teams need when managing project, programmes, and portfolios for your departments.

In this blog, we’re going to look at the impact that poor time management will have on your department or organisation.

Why is it important for your teams to develop time management skills?

Time management includes the planning, scheduling, prioritising, and monitoring of all project activities. It’s one of the most important aspects of doing more with less, as it helps you ensure you’re hitting essential milestones, completing projects on schedule, and not wasting time unnecessarily.

But when a public sector initiative does not run on time, it can have a huge impact on the general public, contractors, and the economy.

Delays can also cause legal issues and litigation, reputational damage, environmental and social impacts and negative media attention. All of which can erode public confidence in a departments and organisation’s ability to manage public sector projects, programmes, and portfolios.

The benefits of effective time management

Good time management skills will help teams to prioritise high-value tasks, effectively allocate time resources and meet project deadlines. And by doing so, financial costs associated with delays and overruns can be reduced.

However, it’s also essential for employee retention and morale. Anyone that consistently finds themselves working late to complete tasks or projects could end up stressed, demotivated, burned out and looking to change jobs.

Doing more with less is therefore also about having the right people on your team and helping them to build the skills they need – so they are energised and motivated to be productive.

Some signs that your teams need to improve their time management skills

Here are some potential signs to look out for:

• Missed deadlines: Your teams consistently miss deadlines and struggle to complete tasks on time or adhere to timelines
• Overlapping tasks: You find your teams are juggling multiple tasks at once and sacrificing quality as a result
• Difficulty prioritising: You struggle to identify and prioritise high-quality tasks and often find your teams focusing on low priority activities
• Lack of planning and reflection: You get caught up in the execution of tasks and forget to factor in time for planning, reflection and strategic thinking

How can ILX help?

Our Learning Hub is a complete digital learning solution for all your project, programme, and portfolio management training needs. Watch our webinar ‘Maximising Efficiency Key project management skills to help you do more with less’ to learn more about the importance of time management, and how the ILX Learning Hub can support you and your team.