Productivity Hacks for Managers
Mark Topps
Social Care Leader l Regional Business Manager | Co-Founder of The Caring View | Blogger | Award-Winning Care Mentor for Business Development, Mental Health, and Work-Life Balance
As a manager (especially in social care), balancing multiple responsibilities can be challenging. Often many managers have come from a frontline role, and worked there way up the career ladder, often with little training and upskilling, leaving a gap in knowledge and awareness when it comes to the soft skills needed to cope and lead a team.
I thought I would look at some of my favourite productivity hacks to help you stay on top of your management game!
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Learn to Prioritise
Prioritising tasks is an essential task to learn as a manager and is not always something to do when leading a team. It is likely you will be pulled in all directions with a mounting list of things to do.
Start your day by identifying the most critical tasks and prioritise these. I find using the Eisenhower Matrix to categorise tasks into four quadrants: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important really helps me focus on the tasks that fall into the first two categories.
I also find a to-do list is essential for that quick glance look at outstanding tasks...
Learn to Delegate
Delegation is key to managing your workload and is not a skill that comes easy (even for me). Being able to identify tasks that can be handled by your team members
Not all tasks will be suitable for delegation and therefore it is important to identify ones that are. Try to choose ones that can be built into a routine or that you find time consuming that your team could do such as data entry, scheduling or preparing meetings, writing minutes etc. ?
When delegating you should ensure you provide clear instructions and set expectations to avoid misunderstandings.
Delegation can help to upskill and empower your team, but also will allow you to build trust within your team allowing you to reduce your workload and focus on other things.
Set Clear Goals
I am not talking about setting goals and deadlines for your team, but for yourself. Define clear, achievable goals for (ensuring they are SMART) and work towards these to keep you motivated and on track. Ensure you celebrate your successes along the way.
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Time Block
I have found this a game changer in 2024! In a world full of online meetings, being needed by your team or other things that crop up, having dedicated time in your diary to do a task is essential. If i have something that needs completing on a regular basis, either daily, weekly or monthly, I have this diarised so that this time is protected.
I like to block in 1 hour slots (unless more time is needed) for three reasons:
Be strict with your time and do not allow others to book over it.
Take Breaks!
I am being hypocritical here as I do not always do this, but do as I say, and not as I do! Ensure you incorporate short breaks into your schedule so that you have time to grab a drink, stretch your legs, check your phone and get away from the desk. I have someone in my team who swears by the the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working for 25 minutes followed by a 5 minute break.
Other than short breaks, it is essential you take your paid break! This is your time, not your companies and you should utilise it... again, do as I say, and not as I do!
Utilise Technology
Don't try and do everything yourself! Utilise the technology available to help you. With the increase in AI products and services, look for ones that will help you in your roles. Some great tools that I have seen are ones that create infographics, create PowerPoint presentations , take minutes/notes during meetings and ones that can analyse your data.
Reflect and Adjust
Remember to regularly review your strategies and make adjustments as needed. There is no one-size fits all!
I hope you have found this useful and given you food for thought. I am not writing anything that is not widely available so if something caught your eye, please do go away and research further (or reach out to me). The above suggestions are all things I do, so more than happy to talk you through these in more detail.
Do you have another hack that works for you? Please do share it in the comments! Remember, Sharing is Caring!
Drop me a message and let me know if there is any topics you would like me to write about!
Adams Care Training Ltd Bespoke training that truly makes a difference
1 周I think that one of the best things about our industry is the opportunity to progress, with many managers starting out their careers as support workers (myself included). However, I do agree that this can lead to knowledge and skills gaps in softer skills. The Skills for Care Lead to Succeed and Well Led programmes can really help to fill those gaps and develop strong leadership skills and strategies, but they do need to be facilitated by experienced practitioners.
? Thank you for sharing! You can also check out this related post:? ? “Mastering the Art of Leading Underperformers: 10 Agile Strategies Every Leader Should Master to Skyrocket Team Productivity”? https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/leadership-avenue_personalgrowth-linkedin-mindsetmatters-activity-7296378950941863936-FAcr?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAA3SaJYBYrHTvFg5fTo7DMj_nSPNg1UPRds? ?
Registered Manager w Walfinch Chiswick, Hammersmith and Kensington
2 周I absolutely love easy-peasy AI. It really helps me to summarise reports and give me ideas on where I am missing :) Using technology and available resources smart will assist in our workload and reduce stress ?? Thank you Mark - very insightful!
Bright Sky Care Ltd
2 周Tell me about it! I appreciate your insights in providing support to people like me. However, if you want to be in the position of a care manager you need to enquire about the skills that you require to lead and manage. Unless you’re there by favouritism and not by merit which I have experienced in some of the positions that I have been. Those above you have even got Leadership and Management Level 5 or equivalent certificates but they haven’t got a clue about what they need. The worst part of it all is when you are trying to help you’re considered a threat. There are training organisations out there fast forwarding certificate that just render them as educated illiterates. There are few out there. Terrible for services Users and psychological unsafe environment for all. Some CEO’s spend fortunes to put systems in place with poor structures to implement the systems. Don’t you ponder and think why are we still dealing with abuse and neglect towards service users and employees? When CQC, Health and Safety, regulations, guidelines, frameworks benchmarks serious case reviews etc. yet still organisations are still getting it wrong. Office politics, favouritism etc is ruining the industry.