Time management games are a fun way to start being more productive! The easiest kinds of games you can implement are those where you time yourself against a clock to get tasks done, with a reward for speeding up your time.
For example, if it normally takes you several hours just to fold all the laundry, see if you can set goals to help you go faster. Use a kitchen timer and allow 20 minutes to fold the towels, 10 minutes to pair all the socks, and 30 minutes to hang all the shirts and slacks. If you get it all done in an hour, you get 30 minutes to spend doing whatever you’d like.
At work, you can use the same system. Instead of spending the first hour you are there running through your physical or email inbox, count the number of items you have to deal with and allow 2 minutes for each one. Every time you open, read and reply to or otherwise deal with an email or inter-office communication inside 2 minutes, reward yourself with an M&M or other small favor.
Online time management games have become very popular in teaching people to multitask. A ‘diner’ set up is one of the most popular, where you are the only character in the game designated to wait on all customers. A typical diner game requires you to juggle the following actions:
- Greet and seat customers
- Take orders
- Deliver food to tables
- Clear dirty dishes
As levels progress, more and more customers arrive, and if all tasks are not handled quickly, they become irate and points are lost. If you don’t make enough in tips to cover operating expenses, you lose the game; however, if you perform well under pressure you can earn enough to work your way up from a greasy spoon to a five star restaurant.
Other online time management games include farming operations, child care or pet care, cooking or cake decorating, and even real estate management. Of course, the main danger of these games is that they – well – take time. This means if you want to improve your time management, you have to schedule time for such games and not exceed your allotted playing minutes.
Playing games to improve time management skills also works in a team environment, where team members have to work together to figure out the most efficient and fast way of solving a problem.
These games may consist of having to move a lot of objects from one place to another using a prescribed set of tools, or an assembly line type of set up where the quicker things get done, the more points are racked up.
Two teams may be set to compete with each other to make the games more intense.
The main goal of these activities is to accelerate brain function and expand task solving capabilities. If you can use time management games to learn how to better multi-task and take an open-minded approach to problem solving , you are using them appropriately.