School administrators wear many hats. They’re responsible for ensuring clear communication among different groups, keeping operations efficient while navigating increasingly scarce resources, and making strategic decisions that support the unique needs of their students and communities.
With so many tasks falling under their job description, it’s no wonder that time management can become an issue as they constantly switch gears between initiatives. When time isn’t managed wisely at the top level, it can lead to staff misalignment and misunderstandings among teachers and program managers, who are the ones actively bringing the administrators’ visions to life.
Luckily, the solution to this problem can be simpler than you think. By implementing the right time management and transparency tools, you can keep everyone within your organization on the same page and improve efficiency despite limited resources.
Why Time Management Is Important for Education Administrators
Proper time management is critical to any business role, but it’s especially important in school administrative roles. It helps administrators effectively balance a wide variety of priorities, such as:
- Overseeing curriculum development
- Managing and communicating with staff
- Addressing student needs, both academically and behaviorally
- Supporting teachers with professional development and improved classroom practices
- Ensuring compliance with academic records
- Evaluating the effectiveness of curricula, programs, and teaching methods
- Implementing necessary technology upgrades
Without healthy time management practices, administrators can quickly become overwhelmed and miss crucial deadlines, which can impact the health of the entire school.
Strategies & Tools to Foster Successful Time Management
Improving time management requires a higher level of organization and setting up systems of accountability. A great way to accomplish these things and more is to implement a workforce management system that includes all the tools your school needs to increase its efficiency and connectedness for better outcomes.
Here are a few strategies that can improve your time management skills and how features of this kind of software can help you put them into practice.
Set Clear Goals & Priorities
Make a list of all of your organization’s goals and the steps needed to complete each one. Note which ones have specific deadlines and which ones are flexible. Then, rank each one based on importance and urgency to prioritize which tasks need to be worked on first. For the ones that don’t already have a due date, assign one based on what you think is realistic, given your other competing deadlines.
How workforce management software can help: Built-in project management tools like those found within coAmplifi enable you to track as many projects as you need. You can break down each goal into individual tasks with specific assignees and due dates and have your progress measured in real-time so you can visually see how far along you are on each project.
Create a Schedule & Stick to It
At the beginning of each day, map out how you plan to spend your time. This includes time you plan to spend in meetings as well as how you plan to spend your focus time. This may mean being heads-down on mapping out a new recycling program for your school with email and chat notifications turned off for a certain block of time. Doing this and sticking with it can help you get more done without distractions.
How workforce management software can help: You can create your own individual calendar view with what you plan to work on for the day that is visible to anyone else in your organization. This way, your colleagues can see when you’re available to chat and when you need uninterrupted time.
Improve Accountability & Delegation
If there are tasks that don’t have to be done by you, consider delegating them to another member of your team to free up time for more mission-critical work.
How workforce management software can help: You can assign a specific person to any task created in the system, which will automatically notify the person of their new assignment. They’ll be able to see the due date, any instructions you left them, and which organizational goal the task is associated with. Meanwhile, you’ll be able to track their progress in real time. You can also choose an assignee based on who has the most availability in their schedule to avoid piling too much on one person.
Set Alerts for Tasks That Are at Risk
When you track deadlines on sticky notes, it’s up to you to stay on top of them and remember to check them. This can make it easy for one to accidentally slip through the cracks.
How workforce management software can help: When you track deadlines in coAmplifi, you’ll receive alerts for assignments that are at risk of being overdue or that are overdue, giving you some peace of mind that you do not forget anything major.
Keep Communication in One Place
Time can quickly be eaten up by answering emails, instant messages, video calls, and more throughout the day. These communications are often received across different apps, which means you have to continuously check each one for messages you may have missed.
How workforce management software can help: coAmplifi includes built-in communication tools such as instant messaging, video call integration, an internal message board, and more all within the same app so you don’t need to switch back and forth to find a message. This can help keep staff aligned and up to date on company announcements.
Operate More Efficiently With the Right Tools
Workforce management software can help you increase transparency, connectedness, and time management across your entire organization, increasing your operational efficiency at every step. coAmplifi creates a seamless experience that helps both individuals and teams stay on track and achieve academic excellence.
See why other education administrators are using coAmplifi. Schedule your demo now!