15 SMART Time Management Goals For Employees (With Examples)

Employees are constantly told how important it is to manage their time. The promise of more space in the day, better productivity, work-life balance, and less stress is so enticing. But sadly managers rarely offer much guidance on how to actually get there.

While there are several ways to help employees learn how to better manage their time, teaching them how to set SMART time management goals often them specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound ways to ensure they maximize the value of their hours.

These goals help employees stay on top of their schedule by clarifying what they need to do and when they need to do it. If you’re unsure where to start, we’ve compiled 15 great practical examples of SMART time management goals to help your team achieve more with less hassle.

TL;DR—Key Takeaways

• Managing time effectively is a skill that can be turned into a habit. For example, being bad at meeting deadlines isn’t a moral failing; it just means you haven’t practiced the skill enough.
• Time management is vital for productive, fulfilling work. It leads to more efficient use of work time, reduces chances of procrastination and burnout, and improves prioritization.
• Setting SMART goals when managing time helps you take actionable steps to actually get high-impact work done in the allocated work day. When your SMART time management goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, there’s no more spilling over into personal time or catching up on weekends.
• Time blocking, setting weekly priorities, taking time to reflect, and tracking time with an app are all great time management techniques to help you make the most of your 24 hours.

Understanding the core essentials of time management

There’s a common misconception the world is split into two kinds of people — those who are good at time management and those who aren’t.

Those in the second group can often experience stigma via the horn effect — a cognitive bias in which a negative perspective of one element of someone’s personality influences how people perceive their other traits.

In addition to being untimely, they’re often perceived as disorganized, scatterbrained, and even unprofessional, by extension. This might lead to internal shame, making it hard to discuss and improve.

In reality, time management is a skill, not a character trait. It is morally neutral. The more you work at it, the better you’ll get at it…like any habit. Understanding this yourself and then instilling it in your team is a great first step to quashing missed deadlines once and for all.

Placing the burden on your team to improve their time management is unfair and ineffective. You wouldn’t expect your team to become better designers without investing in training, frameworks, and mentorship. So, why do the same with time management?

Below, we’ll share some specific examples of how you can effectively support your team. But first, let’s walk you through a few of the benefits you’ll reap from doing so to make sure you’re really on board with how important this all is.

Why set time management goals?

Setting time management goals helps your team reduce wasted time and feel empowered, calm, and in control of their workdays. This investment pays dividends in five big ways. 👇

Better work-life balance

Setting time management goals gives your day structure. It helps prioritize and schedule tasks efficiently within working hours, so you never find yourself checking Slack or sending “one quick email” during engagement party drinks. By optimizing your pockets of time to focus only on what matters, you boost productivity and overall well-being with a better work-life balance.

Less procrastination

By setting yourself a roadmap to meet deadlines, you break tasks down into manageable steps. These are less overwhelming to tackle than a whole mountain. Use small wins to build momentum and get in the zone. Working on this habit consistently will decrease procrastination and free up time for personal activities.

Learn how to prioritize impactful tasks

Prioritization and time management go together. If you can effectively identify high-impact tasks, you can build a plan for your time to make sure they get addressed. It can be tempting to procrastinate big things with less critical work, especially if they’re tasks we feel less capable of or don’t enjoy. Remember, being busy is not the same as being productive. This is a one-way road to burnout. Speaking of which…

Reduced risk of burnout

Managing your rest is just as important as managing your work. If you don’t know how much time you actually have to spare, it can be easy to find yourself in “omg-I-overcommitted-and-now-I’m-stretched-so-thin-I’m-gonna-burst” land. That’s not good for anyone’s stress levels and can lead to burnout.

Longer periods of deep work

Use time management techniques to create dedicated chunks of uninterrupted time. This allows you to focus for longer periods of deep work. Eliminate distractions, set a timer, and don’t look up till it goes off. This structure is great for high-importance activities with no hard deadline. By tapping into your concentration, you make better use of your time and have a more productive workday as a result.

15 SMART goals for better time management

SMART goals are crucial for effective time management. They’re specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Here are 15 examples of SMART time management goals in action.

Set daily priorities

Daily priorities keep you organized and on track instead of veering off course with distractions. You can use different frameworks to decide on priorities, but overall, a priority can be considered urgent and important. This keeps your workload realistic and specific.

💡 Example: I will start every work day by identifying the top three tasks on my to-do list. I’m not allowed to move on to other activities until these three are done.

Time blocking

Time blocking is a SMART goal that enables you to track your time on certain tasks while keeping them time-bound. This can mean allocating specific time slots for different tasks throughout the day to minimize distractions and increase focus.

💡 Example: I will spend two hours every Friday morning from 9 to 11 a.m. working through a leadership development course to help me achieve my goal of becoming a manager next year.

Use the Pomodoro technique

The Pomodoro technique keeps you working in focused 25-minute sprints, followed by a five-minute break. You can repeat as many intervals as you’d like. It’s a great technique for concentration and productivity and is useful to push through tasks you’ve been avoiding or feel like a drag.

💡 Example: I will use the Pomodoro technique to clear my inbox and reply to everyone who needs an answer from me.

Limit meeting times

Bad meetings are not often SMART (especially if you get stuck with coworkers who have no sense of organization or urgency). They’re notorious for being nonspecific, leading to no measurable next steps, and often running overtime. Limiting meeting times could be a big win for reclaiming your time.

💡 Example: I will allocate three hours of my time per week for meetings. Every meeting must be limited to 30 minutes and have a clear agenda that is best served by meeting in real-time.

Delegate tasks

If you have too much on your plate, use the Eisenhower Matrix to do a quick analysis. Delegate anything urgent but not important. This will free up your time and mental space for bigger and better things.

💡 Example: Every Monday morning, I will spend 30 minutes analyzing my week’s to-do list with the Eisenhower Matrix. Anything urgent but non-important will be delegated accordingly before lunchtime. This way, I can streamline my week and focus on my high-priority tasks.

Track time spent on tasks

What you can’t measure, you can’t improve. So if you don’t know where your time is going, tracking it might be a good way to go. Over time, you’ll accumulate data on how long different tasks take you, making it easier to allocate time for them accurately in the future.

💡 Example: I will use a time tracking app to measure how long different tasks take so I can design an attainable workflow within an accurate timeframe.

Set weekly goals

By establishing specific goals to achieve each week, you can get more done in less time. This streamlines your focus toward daily tasks that move the needle. The sense of accomplishment you get reflecting on the week will make you feel more fulfilled at work, which boosts well-being in your personal life, too.

💡 Example: I will set 20 minutes aside every Friday at 4 pm to establish specific, measurable goals for the week ahead. I will track progress daily, aiming for a weekly success rate of 80% or more.

Eliminate distractions

Distractions are more than notifications on your phone. They can be noisy environments, cluttered workspaces, or overly social team members. Eliminating even one of these per week from your work environment can be hugely beneficial to your creativity, productivity, and overall focus.

💡 Example: I will keep my phone on do-not-disturb mode until the biggest three tasks of the day are completed (see point 1).

Review and adjust

Proper time management is an active process that requires regular reflection and revisions to keep working. Even something as simple as allocating 15 minutes at the end of the day to plan for tomorrow is a great way to improve your time management skills over time.

💡 Example: I will spend one hour at the end of the month reviewing the data from my time tracking software to understand how much time different tasks took and where I can make improvements.

Batch similar tasks

Multitasking is cognitively taxing. It’s much easier on your mental energy to group similar tasks together. That’s why it is easier to write 10 emails in one sitting than to try to write one per day over two weeks.

💡 Example: I will dedicate two hours every Tuesday to batch-creating five videos for social media and scheduling them to go live throughout the week.

Use a task management tool

When juggling tasks manually, it’s easy to make mistakes. Project management software can help organize your workflow and remove overwhelm. Most options on the market offer features that centralize tasks, deadlines, and priorities, making it easier to stay on top of everything.

💡 Example: I will use a task management tool daily to track all my tasks, set priorities, and receive reminders for upcoming deadlines so nothing is overlooked.

Schedule breaks

Work is a marathon, not a sprint. Scheduling regular breaks helps recharge your mental energy and improve focus without burning out. Plan to take regular breaks when you feel you need them. It’s the best way to sustain long-term performance.

💡 Example: I will take a 10-minute break every hour to stand up, stretch, and spend some time without a screen.

Set boundaries

A healthy work-life balance is built on clear boundaries. Without these, work can easily spill into personal time. Protect your personal time by designating specific work hours. No email is important enough to derail an evening with friends and family.

💡 Example: I will close my computer and turn off Slack and email notifications at 5 pm every day. I will also place a hold on my calendar from 5 pm to 9 am so my team knows I’m offline.

Reflect on progress

Regularly reflecting on your progress helps you figure out what’s working and what’s not. By reviewing your achievements and challenges, you can adjust your approach and stay aligned with your goals.

💡 Example: I will dedicate an hour on the last day of the month to reflect on where my time went versus how much impact it had. This will refine my prioritization in the future, ensuring I’m only putting my time against high-impact initiatives.

Learn to say no

Similar to setting boundaries, saying no is a key part of keeping your work-life balance, well, balanced. Taking on too much can distract you from your priorities. Learn to say no to things that don’t align with your goals so you have more time for things that do.

💡 Example: On the first workday of the month, I will review my responsibilities and identify any projects or tasks I don’t need to lead. I’ll drop or delegate these and focus instead on the more aligned projects.

Time management tips from the experts

We’ve learned a trick or two about time management in our (nearly) two decades in the biz. Here are our top tips:

😵‍💫 Time-block “interruption” tasks: Notifications from Slack and email are some of the biggest distractions at work. Don’t let them hijack your flow. Instead, batch the time you spend replying. 30 to 60 minutes in the morning and again in the evening should be ample. You’re not allowed to check these tools outside these windows.

🧠 Deep focus once per day: Aim for one 90-minute deep work session per day. Use this time to push forward on bigger projects, important tasks, and personal development. If you can do two sessions, that’s great, but it’s not a requirement for a “successful” day.

Use Toggl Track for more effective time management

Setting SMART goals is key for staying organized and productive while prioritizing tasks effectively. Time tracking is a great way to fast-track your time management strategies by learning where all your time goes.

Toggl Track empowers you to manage your SMART time management goals in three key ways:

1) Improves time tracking accuracy: Toggl Track Goals shows your team how their tracked time aligns with their goals, helping them understand its importance.

2) Helps your team prioritize: Toggl Track Goals provides clarity and helps your team stay focused on projects and tasks that matter instead of low-value work or admin tasks.

3) Boost motivation: Use streaks and other fun gamification features to celebrate wins and build accountability & recognition.