Manager's guide to Clockwise

As a manager, your priority is your team. You want to ensure they have the time they need to accomplish their goals so you spend a lot of your week in 1:1s. There doesn't seem to be enough time in the day or the week to get your own work done. Clockwise can't add more hours to your day, but if used correctly, you can make the most of the time you have.

Here are tips on how to leverage the tools available to ensure both you and your team make the most of the time you have within your workday.

Tailor your 1:1s by marking them flexible

The best meetings to mark as flexible are small, internal, recurring meetings. Managers have the most 1:1s to navigate, so your calendars have the most to benefit from. Of course, the fewer restrictions you add to your flexible meetings, the more Focus Time you'll save, but Clockwise has given you controls to ensure every meeting optimization works for you.

Everyone manages their work, their days, and their reports differently, so make sure you tailor your preferences for flexible meetings in a way that works specifically for you. You have multiple tools to customize a plan that works for you.

• Set your meeting flexibility to move within day or week
  • If meetings have to happen early or late in the week, setting flexibility for movement within a week will not be suitable for you. Make sure you set the meeting to move within specific day if you have this preference.
• Set your time of day move range to customize the ideal times to meet with your teammates
  • If you have more energy in the morning, make sure to set your meeting move range to restrict rescheduled meetings before you hit your afternoon slump.
  • If you'd like to prepare for your 1:1s in the morning, set your time of day range to reschedule your meetings after lunch. 

  • If you have no preference, leave the default range to provide more flexibility for optimizations.

    

    
    

Click here to learn more about Flexible Meetings.

Reflect your working style in your meeting preferences

Most people don't want to start their week with an early meeting on Monday. Most people would grumble if they saw a flexible meeting scheduled at 4:30 pm on a Friday. Tailor your calendar to make sure you give yourself a buffer to prepare for your day or at the end of your afternoon to make sure your workday doesn't drag on later than necessary. 

Click here to learn how to update your meeting preferences in your settings.

Use Team Analytics to understand team bandwidth

Your team's Focus Time should be a regular topic of discussion in your 1:1s. Understanding how your reports are feeling and how it relates to their bandwidth is important to appreciating each individual.

Use Clockwise Team Analytics to elevate the right data to understand your team's needs and understand the right adjustments required to get more Focus Time.

All the calendars in the screenshot above may complain that they don't have enough bandwidth and feel overwhelmed at work. Based on the data, each calendar has a different issue affecting them and this, it's easier to propose different solutions on how their calendars can improve:

• Calendar A:
  • Low on Focus Time, OK on fragmented time, and incredibly high number of hours in meetings
  • Potential Solution:
    • Analyze this report's meetings and understanding where they can cut down will be critical to getting them more Focus Time to ensure they have what they need to be successful. 
    • Do they need to attend all of their meetings?
    • Can some of their weekly meetings be moved to bi-weekly?
    • This calendar is not sustainable and you may risk burn-out.
• Calendar B:
  • Doing alright on Focus Time, high on fragmented time, and pretty high number of hours in meetings
  • Potential Solution:
    • Analyze this report's meetings similar to the calendar above, cut down where possible.
    • Their fragmented time is high, can any of their meetings be marked as flexible?
    • If their meetings are flexible, can they increase their meeting flexibility so Clockwise has more room to optimize their calendar?
• Calendar C:
  • Has a lot of Focus Time, high on fragmented time, and a good number of hours in meetings
  • Potential Solution:
    • Not having enough Focus Time is not this calendar's issue.
    • Other issues may be work prioritization, time management, or feeling fulfilled with their work.

Click here to learn how to access Team Analytics.

Force yourself to set a weekly Focus Time goal

You may be tempted to not set a Focus Time goal because you want to maintain your availability to your team. As a manager, your job is to be available in case your teammates have a question for you – blocking off Focus Time sends the wrong message. This, however, is a common mistake made by managers. Setting boundaries for yourself sets a good example for your team, allows you to accomplish the work required of you, and if you set the right Focus Time goal, you can still maintain available time on your calendar for ad hoc meetings or drive-by questions.

Use the Team Analytics steps above to understand what your own Focus Time trends are week over week. If you're worried about maintaining availability, aim your goal to be extremely low. Two hours of Focus Time per week is better than nothing!