5 Time Management Tips for Professionals in AEC & M

Get the most out of your busy day with these pointers!

Here at Eagle Point Software, we understand your days are busy from beginning to end! From juggling meetings and client calls, responding to emails and messages, wrangling projects, and putting out fires, your day can be hectic and non-stop. But there are ways you can get organized to set yourself up for success; that’s why we’ve compiled these time management tips for professionals in the architecture, engineering, construction, and manufacturing industries.

1. Prioritize your day/tasks
2. Avoid multitasking
3. Create milestones
4. Record unbillable time
5. Use a collaboration or e-learning platform

When you can structure your day a bit better, you’ll see an increase in productivity and perhaps even motivation. You may even see parts of your day open up that were previously busy! 

Keep reading to learn more about these time management tips for professionals in the AEC & M industries.

Prioritize your day/tasks

Have you ever looked at the time and realized it was late afternoon, and you hadn’t even started on your most essential tasks for the day? It’s key to prioritize your tasks each day or week! When you can order your tasks from “must get done” to “it would be nice to complete,” you’ll feel more organized and, more importantly, know where to focus your time and energy for the day.

Prioritizing your tasks for longer-term goals can help you, too. Listing out your upcoming projects can help you plan out your tasks so you can shuffle things around to best suit your workload.

Avoid multitasking

It might seem a bit counterintuitive — can’t you get twice as much done when you’re multitasking? The short answer is no! Studies have shown that multitasking is ineffective and less productive than focusing on one task at a time. One of our biggest time management tips for professionals in AEC & M is to simply focus on one task or project at a time; this will also reduce the number of errors and, as a consequence, you’ll spend less time revisiting or reworking on the project later down the road.

Create milestones

This might seem a bit out of place on our list of time management tips for professionals, but when you break something down (like splitting a large project into smaller chunks), you’ll be able to fit it into your busy schedule a bit easier! For example, instead of blocking off three hours for a larger project and trying to finish it in one day, break it down into 30-minute chunks over the span of a week. You’ll be able to find 30 minutes in your busy schedule easier than trying to block off a larger section of time.

Record unbillable time

While your AEC or M organization may not require you to record your unbillable time, it can be a great (and eye-opening) way for you to see where you’re spending the bulk of your time. For example, if you’re recording your daily tasks and find you’re spending the majority of your unbillable time answering team members’ questions, your time may be better spent elsewhere. That brings us to…

Use a collaboration or e-learning platform

A knowledge-sharing platform can free up a lot of your time each day! Instead of spending time answering questions from colleagues or your team, repeating your company’s design standards, or even recreating content that has already been made but not shared, you can store all the content, design standards, and more in one centralized location. Plus, with an e-learning solution like Pinnacle Series, you’ll have access to training and on-demand learning, so you’ll reduce the time wasted searching for help or answers!

Once you and your team start improving your time management, increased efficiency will follow! Check out our blog posts on how to increase workplace efficiency with Pinnacle Series and surprising things that may be hurting your organization’s productivity for more helpful tips.

If you’d like more information on how Pinnacle Series could help you manage your team, time, or company more effectively, get in contact with our team today! We’re happy to answer any questions you have or discuss a pilot programfor your organization.

If you’re already a Pinnacle Series subscriber, you can log in now to add more time-saving custom content to your organization’s libraries.