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25 Best Time Management Activities, Games & Exercises

Time management is a supremely important skill. A good way to improve this skill is through games. The following activities are some of the best time management activities, games, and exercises.

1. The Circadian Rhythm Game

How to play:

  • Print out pages containing 24 blocks, one for each hour of the day.
  • Participants should fill in each block with what they did that hour.
  • For example, 8 o’clock showered and had breakfast, 9 o’clock drove to the office.
  • Along with this, participants should write down how they felt during these hours.
  • This can be anything from energetic, to exhausted, hungry, sleepy, and so on.

Tips:

  • The idea here is that at different times during the day, we have more energy.
  • What you want to do is synchronize your schedule with this internal clock. You’ll find that your best results happen when energy levels are at their peak.
  • Unimportant tasks should be left for the times you’re feeling less energetic.

2. The Bad Habits Game

How to play:

  • Break players down into pairs.
  • Next, each person writes write down the bad habits which decrease their productivity.
  • Finally, the pairs problem-solve and think about ways to break these bad habits.

Tips:

  • This is one of the most effective time management activities on this list.
  • The reason why is because bad habits are probably the biggest reason for unproductivity.
  • For example, many people spend hours each day taking coffee breaks or wasting time on the internet.
  • The good news is that, once these habits are broken, everyone becomes more productive.

3. The Day Before Today Exercise

How to play:

  • Provide each participant with a piece of paper.
  • On this page, they should write down five or more things they achieved the previous day.
  • Along with this, they should mention one way in which they wasted time.

Tips:

  • One of the simplest time management tips is to keep a record of what you do.
  • This is the best way to improve because it forces you to think about what you’re actually doing.
  • Once the exercise is completed, everyone should discuss these lists and their contents.
  • This game helps people think about what they actually do with their time.
  • It also makes them feel good and focus on the things they achieved.
  • This is a useful exercise because we often do more than we thought we did (conversely, we often beat ourselves up for not achieving enough).

4. The Pomodoro Technique

How to play:

  • This technique is one of the world’s most famous time management strategies.
  • It involves breaking time up 25 minute work periods followed by 5 minute rest periods.
  • After doing this four times, you take a longer break of 15-20 minutes.
  • After discussing this with your group, have them experiment with the technique.

Tips:

  • The biggest advantage of this method is that it gives you a sense of urgency.
  • The idea is that you race against the clock and finish as much work as you can during the 25 minute period.
  • What you’ll probably find is that you do more, as opposed to working without this constraint.
  • Taking short breaks during the day is also a good way to avoid burnout.
  • This is what makes the Pomodoro technique one of the most useful tools for increasing productivity.

5. The Not To Do List Exercise

How to play:

  • Tell team members that they need to brainstorm a not-to-do list.
  • This should include tasks that do not contribute anything, are not important, or have a low priority.
  • The point is that these activities should be completely avoided.

Tips:

  • We often waste time and do things that are not important at all.
  • This doesn’t help when we have large amounts of work or projects to complete.
  • During these times, it’s important to know what’s not important.
  • This way, you can organize your time better, finish work faster, and avoid tasks that do not contribute to the bottom line.

6. The Task Value Game

How to play:

  • Each member of the team should assign a monetary value to their tasks.
  • This can be between $1-100 dollars.
  • Ask this question: if they were to invest this money, which task would give them the greatest profit?

Tips:

  • This game forces players to think about the actual monetary value of their work.
  • It also helps them consider which tasks are valuable to the company.

7. The Mayo Jar Activity

How to play:

  • Take an empty jar and fill it with large rocks, followed by smaller stones, and then sand.
  • Next, reverse this order and start with the sand and then the smaller and larger rocks.

Tips:

  • The point of this exercise is that the order in which we perform tasks determines how much we can do.
  • Placing your biggest or most important item first means you can fit more in the jar.
  • On the other hand, placing smaller items (less important tasks) means you can fit less in that same jar.
  • BTW, you may not want to deal with the hassle of jars, stones, and sand. In this case, simply search online for a short video of someone else performing the exercise.

8. The Ace of Spades Game

How to play:

  • You’ll need two decks of cards to play this game.
  • Shuffle one deck of cards and hand it to a team member.
  • The other team member receives an organized deck, arranged in ascending order (aces to kings).
  • The players must then attempt to find the ace of spades.

Tips:

  • This game works best with small groups. One team leader and two team members are ideal.
  • Even quick activities like this can have value. This time management activity highlights the importance of an organized schedule.
  • It also demonstrates the need to do important tasks first.

9. The Puzzle Game

How to play:

  • For this game, you’ll need a jigsaw puzzle.
  • Give the puzzle to your team and have them build it without looking at the box.

Tips:

  • This game teaches that you get better results and achieve goals faster by looking at the big picture.
  • You may want to give participants a limited time to finish the puzzle.

10. The Colored Blocks Game

How to play:

  • For this game, you’ll need several blocks of different colors.
  • Team members must grab as many blocks as possible.
  • Everyone only has a minute to do this and can only use their non-dominant hands.
  • After the one minute is up, record the results.
  • Then, assign a point value to each block and do the exercise again.

Tips:

  • This game teaches organizational skills and forces employees to think about which blocks they need to pick up.
  • It’s not about the number of blocks they grab, but about which ones will give them the greatest points.

11. The $86,400 Challenge

How to play:

  • Tell team members that they have $86,400 and only one day to spend it. They must spend all of the money, or they lose it.
  • Ask them how they would spend this money, what would they do with it, etc.
  • Once this is done, you then explain that there are only 86,400 seconds in each day.

Tips:

  • This fun activity highlights the fact that we only have so much time in the day.
  • It also helps to raise awareness of the reality that time must be used wisely and different tasks scheduled intelligently.

12. The Rope Challenge

How to play:

  • Split your employees into groups.
  • Blindfold each participant and give the group a piece of rope.
  • The groups must then turn the rope into a shape, e.g., a circle, square, triangle.
  • Each team member must also touch the rope at all times.
  • Set a time limit for doing this.

Tips:

  • This real-life game is an excellent team-building exercise.
  • It also gives team members the experience of analyzing tasks within a limited amount of time.

13. The One Minute Game

How to play:

  • Ask everyone to stand in a circle with their eyes closed.
  • Tell them to sit down once they think a minute has passed.

Tips:

  • This game makes you aware that time is mostly about perception.
  • In certain cases, time goes faster, and in other cases, it lags.
  • Talk about this with your team.
  • Also, mention that this phenomenon is connected to their mental attitude.

14. Overcoming Time Wasters Challenge

How to play:

  • Assign your staff into two or more teams.
  • Have one envelope for each team. On the back of each envelope, write down a time-waster (e.g., social media).
  • Inside each envelope, put blank index cards equal to the number of teams you have. (So if there are three teams, each envelope contains three index cards.)
  • Give each team one of the envelopes.
  • To play the game, everyone writes down all the good ideas they have for overcoming the time-waster on one of the index cards in the envelope.
  • When this is completed, each team passes its envelope to the team next to it.
  • Do this until the envelopes have passed through each group.

Tips:

  • After the game, each group should read out the solutions on their index cards.
  • This helps staff become aware of how much material and time are wasted each day.
  • It also makes them think about different ways of overcoming these problems.

15. The Time Squared Exercise

How to play:

  • Print out 3 pages with 24 squares on each page (these squares represent hourly blocks.)
  • Give the first page to participants.
  • Ask them to fill these squares with their routine activities (e.g., sleeping 8 hours equals 8 squares, eating 2 hours equals 2 squares)
  • Next, give participants the second page.
  • On this page, they should fill out inessential activities (e.g., taking breaks, socializing with colleagues, and so on.)
  • Finally, give them the third page.
  • On this page, they should combine the data from pages one and two.
  • They should also use a highlighter or marker to outline the blocks on pages one and two.

Tips:

  • Explain to the group that the remaining uncolored squares represent productive time that is available to them.
  • This exercise helps people think about how little time they actually have.
  • It also helps them think about how they really spend their day.
  • Another benefit is that it makes them aware of the importance of time management and ways their daily routine can be more productive.

16. Delegation Skills Practice Exercise

How to play:

  • Ask the group which task they hate doing most on their to-do lists.
  • Tell them that today they’ll have the opportunity to delegate this task.
  • Ask them how they would explain this task to someone.
  • Also, ask how they would check that the task is complete and motivate someone to finish it.
  • Then divide the group into teams of three.
  • In each of these groups, assign the roles of observer, delegator, and employee.
  • Have the delegator role play, delegating their task to the employee.
  • The observer should watch while this is done.
  • Go through three rounds of this game so that each person has a chance to practice delegating.

Tips:

  • When this game is complete, your staff members should discuss what was challenging and what was easy about this task.
  • Have them talk about what they did and did not like about the game.
  • Also, consider who was good at delegating and who got the best results in carrying out the task.
  • Finally, think about ways your team could improve the delegation process.

17. The Paper Strip Exercise

How to play:

  • For this exercise, you’ll need a long strip of paper. Break this strip up into 100 blocks.
  • Ask participants how long they think an average person lives. Most people will answer somewhere in the 70s.
  • Let say the average response was 78 years. This means you should cut 22 blocks off the strip, leaving you with 78.
  • Next, find out the average age of the group. Let’s say it’s 28. Cut 28 blocks off the strip, leaving you with 50.
  • Next, factor in things like weekends, holidays, sick days, etc. When you do the math, this could add up to something like 35 years. Cut 35 blocks off the strip.
  • You should now have 25 blocks remaining.
  • After this, you factor in things like sleeping, eating, and traveling. This could, for example, add up to 18 years. Once again, cut these blocks off the strip. You should now be left with 7 blocks.
  • Tell the team that these seven blocks represent their opportunity to engage in productive activities.

Tips:

  • This exercise makes staff members aware that they actually have almost no time at all.
  • It’s basically a dramatic example that should make them aware of how precious time actually is.

18. The Desert Island Game

How to play:

  • Break everyone down into groups.
  • Then ask, “if you were stranded on a desert island, what would you take?”
  • The twist is that you don’t give anyone a lot of time to answer.
  • Thirty seconds to a minute is all they should have.

Tips:

  • This game teaches the importance of making critical decisions quickly.
  • It also helps everyone decide what is really necessary for their lives.
  • This gets them to think more deeply about things that are important versus unimportant.

19. The Distraction Log

How to play:

  • Have everyone keep a one-week record of their activities.
  • Each time they become distracted, they should make a note.
  • Have them record what caused the distraction and how much time was wasted.
  • At the end of the week, have a meeting where you discuss these logs.

Tips:

  • Distractions waste an incredible amount of time each day.
  • To increase productivity, everyone must be aware of these.
  • They also need to come up with ways to reduce or remove these distractions.
  • This exercise should help them become more aware of this.

20. The Lists and Priorities Game

How to play:

  • Divide everyone into two or more smaller groups.
  • Give each of these groups a list of tasks.
  • Each of these tasks should be given a point value between 1-10.
  • Give the teams 10 minutes to finish their list of tasks.
  • Once the exercise is complete, count up the points.

Tips:

  • Some tasks should be easier to finish, but have a lower point value.
  • Other tasks may take longer, but will have more points assigned.
  • For a team to win, it needs to understand the value of prioritizing these tasks.
  • The lesson should be that tasks with more points assigned to them should come first, followed by those that are assigned less value.

21. The Paper Boat Game

How to play:

  • Break everyone down into smaller teams. The group size will depend on how many people you have, but try to keep them equal.
  • Each group must select a team leader.
  • Give the team four pieces of newspaper.
  • Instruct the teams to make 40 boats that can actually float (you may have to show them how to do this.)
  • Each boat must be the same size and must be made from the same size of paper.
  • Place a time limit on this task: 10 or 15 minutes is ideal.

Tips:

  • The difficultly here is in constructing boats that are the same size.
  • This means that the group will have to think and plan carefully when using their limited resources.
  • This exercise helps with several skills. To start with, the team leader must delegate various tasks to their team. Then you have things like project management skills, critical thinking, and completing work under a deadline.

22. The Things in Common Exercise

How to play:

  • Your team has 5-10 minutes to complete this task.
  • During this time, each member needs to speak to as many other members as possible.
  • The purpose of this is to ask about their personal lives and learn what they have in common.
  • When they find something in common, they should write it down.
  • The person with the biggest list of commonalities wins.

Tips:

  • Time management group activities don’t necessarily have to involve ways of managing time.
  • This exercise helps people understand how to communicate effectively and why this is important.
  • The players need to ask the right questions and provide good answers in order to find these commonalities.
  • This also allows people to build a connection with each other and develop relationships.

23. The Card Arranging Game

How to play:

  • In this game, your staff is broken up into small teams.
  • The purpose of the game is to neatly arrange a deck of cards according to the following instructions.
  • There should be four rows of cards laid out in the following suits from top to bottom: hearts, spades, diamonds, clubs.
  • Along with this, there must be 13 columns arranged in this order: A, 5, J, 9, 2, Q, 10, 7, 3, 8, K, 4, 6.
  • All cards must be in their correct suits, i.e., hearts with hearts, etc.
  • The team wins that completes this arrangement in the shortest amount of time.
  • Before starting, each team is given 5 minutes to discuss its strategy.
  • Only hand the cards over when this 5 minute period is over.

Tips:

  • To win this game, each team must come up with a winning strategy.
  • Doing this requires delegating and dividing work, communication skills, and good time management.

24. The Big Picture Exercise

How to play:

  • In this exercise, each staff member has to paint a small part of a bigger picture.
  • This can be a picture of anything, for example, your company’s logo.
  • Only when every member has taken their turn is the final artwork unveiled.

Tips:

  • With this game, each team member must think about the big picture.
  • They also need to consider how their efforts contribute in the long run.
  • Ultimately, this requires people to work together as a team – and also think critically.

25. Online time management games

How to play:

  • Computer games can also be used as time management training activities.
  • One of the best games we’ve found for this is called “Over Cooked,” which is a game where you have to manage a burger shop.
  • Other great games for productivity include Game Dev Story, Farmerama, 12 Labors of Hercules, Dinner Dash, Roads of Rome II, and Plague Inc.
  • If you’re interested in playing these games, you can look them up on Google.

Tips:

  • As a video game developer, your job is essentially to create a type of puzzle.
  • It doesn’t matter how complex the game is. At their core, all games are puzzles.
  • Solving the puzzle requires skills like critical thinking, time management, and decision-making.
  • This means that playing games is a great way for your employees to develop these skills.

Conclusion

These time management exercises can be used by college students, staff members, or even corporate executives. By using them, you’ll develop strong time management skills. Not only that, but you’ll also find yourself with extra time, ace your next performance review, and develop a better work-life balance.

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