Managers wear many hats, and it is easy to get bogged down. One little thing happens, and you think you have it covered. However, something else pops up, then there’s this other thing and just one more thing. Before long, you are dealing with problems galore and no longer remember what being productive was like. Never fear. There are ways out.

1. Use the Eisenhower Matrix

This matrix separates your tasks into four priority levels: Do, decide, delegate, and delete. Do is urgent and requires immediate attention. Decide is not urgent, but you must schedule a time to do the task.

Both delegate and delete concern tasks not so essential you have to do them. Delegate is self-explanatory. For example, you can have virtual assistants or staff members handle your email, phone calls, and scheduling during certain times. Delete is for tasks you can eliminate altogether.

2. Track Your Time With an App

Using a time tracker app achieves more than merely tracking your time, although that end result is critical for its own sake. By tracking your time, you are able to visualize your day at a glance. 

You get concrete numbers relating to what you have worked on and when. As the days, weeks, and months pass, you can generate reports to get insight into how you use your time. Look for an app that lets you color code, tag, title, organize, and track your entries in different ways so you can find the tracking methods that work best for you.

Some apps also have team features. In other words, they can perform time tracking for teams (with team timers, tags, reporting, etc.) instead of being limited to individual tracking.

3. Focus On Being Proactive and Preventive

There’s a reason experts recommend regular doctor and dental checkups. Same with having your car maintained and serviced after a certain number of miles or months. Preventive measures catch problems early and often prevent them from developing in the first place.

This concept applies to managers in several ways. For example, if you are aware early on of personality clashes between two team members, you can be proactive and preventive about ensuring the conflicts don’t end up undermining projects and goals.

Being proactive applies to yourself, too. It’s good to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. You can take steps to acknowledge and compensate for your weaknesses so that they do not hurt you or your team.

Proactive managers tend to have visionary thinking, confidence, active listening skills, and excellent communication skills. They are reflective, humble, and calm. They also practice critical thinking to analyze challenges and the paths to success. Actionable steps include these:

• Seek solutions for problems as soon as you identify them.
• Build trust with team members and demonstrate genuine care for them.
• Diffuse tension.
• Seek new opportunities to grow your team.
• Assess the possible outcomes of situations to reduce risk.

4. Hold Quick Meetings or Bypass Them

Meetings can be a huge time drain and often are not necessary. For example, an email may accomplish the same thing a meeting sets out to do in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the effort. 

If you do want to have meetings, consider stand-up sessions rather than sit-down gatherings. When everyone stands, meetings go by a lot more quickly and concisely. If you feel it would appeal to your team, you could even do walking meetings. They are meetings you host while walking or moving. The fresh air and motion sometimes get the creative juices flowing.

Another thing is to limit meeting participants to only those who absolutely have to attend. It’s not just about your productivity as a manager. Team members who constantly attend unnecessary meetings lose productive time, too.

5. Remain Consistent

Employees are, to some degree, a source of stress for managers. However, some managers fail to realize that their own behavior affects employees’ behavior. “Bad” manager behavior increases both employees’ and managers’ stress levels.

If you are inconsistent and unpredictable, you are more likely to have stressed and reactive employees who turn in subpar work. They are more likely to fear you, miss work due to chronic stomach aches, and constantly seek work elsewhere. Productivity and morale suffer.

6. Keep Results in Mind

With all you’re juggling, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that you and your team are expected to deliver results. Keep results in mind, and you have a better chance of becoming more productive. If a task or idea is not results-oriented, either directly or indirectly, then you won’t waste time on it.

7. Work With the Right Assistants

Assistants play a huge role in manager productivity. That is true whether they are virtual, remote, or in-person.

Assistants can handle tasks such as email, phone calls, scheduling, research, delegation, report prep, and even marketing (either completely or to a certain extent). Assistants who know their stuff give managers more opportunities to focus on what they do best. Meanwhile, assistants who need a lot of hand-holding or who lack initiative are productivity drains on their managers.

Being a productive manager requires smart prioritization, time tracking, prevention, consistency, and a results-oriented mindset. It is also critical to work with the right assistants and to make meetings work for you, not against you.