3 Time Management Techniques We Use at Houseables That Actually Work

We at Houseables pride ourselves on having an equal balance of fun and focus. Once a month or so, we put together some sort of company activity that we can do together. Since we have been doing things in more of a virtual capacity this year, we have enjoyed many a happy hour and escape room together via Zoom. But in order to have the capability to take some time off from the everyday responsibilities of running a business, we are very conscious of our time. 

Here are the top three ways that our team works to manage our time effectively.

1. SMART Goals

SMART goals follow a particular pattern. Each one should be written down in the following way:

Specific – What do you want to achieve?

Measurable – How will you measure the progress you make?

Achievable – Can the goal be achieved with the resources you have?

Relevant – Does it move the needle for the company? Why do you want to achieve this goal?

Time-bound – What is the deadline for the goal?

Writing down goals in this way keeps us not only more accountable, but ensures that we remain realistic on what is achievable with the resources at hand. If the resources are not yet available, then the goal should be put on hold until the proper supplies are available for the project to begin.

2. The Eisenhower Matrix (with the help of Asana)

The Eisenhower Matrix prioritizes tasks into four categories.

Urgent + Important (Do first)
Not Urgent + Important (Schedule)
Urgent + Not Important (Delegate)
Not Important + Not Urgent (Eliminate)

With the help of Asana, our team assigns and places priority levels on tasks in this fashion. Asana makes it so easy to place tasks on people’s radar and mark them as urgent, not urgent, important, and not as important.

3. Batching

We do our best to batch similar tasks and meetings together for cohesiveness. Doing this allows us to focus on specific projects at a time rather than dipping our hand in several, in a short period of time. It takes a decent amount of time to change gears and focus on a task of a completely different nature, so the batching method allows us to stay focused on one category at a time without having to refocus ourselves for another.