Questions tagged [time-management]

Questions around how to control where one allocates energy over the course of a work day. Where does one spend time and make the most of that time in the office.

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3 votes
5 answers
703 views

What should I do if I am over tasked?

I would like to know what people on here do when they have a workload which is at maximum, and then they find a task they have runs over time. Examples: Technical tasks which are difficult to solve ...
  • 187
-1 votes
3 answers
392 views

How to improve team collaboration in different time zone?

Recently, I started a new job where team collaboration seems difficult. Several of our business team members work in a different time zone that differs by ten hours. The only time I can get in touch ...
  • 189
97 votes
9 answers
21k views

Some coworkers are committing to work overtime for a 1% bonus. How can I best opt out of this?

I'm part of a massive death march project that really seems unlikely to be finished in shorter than six months. The company has announced a 1% bonus for everyone if this particular project is ...
user avatar
34 votes
14 answers
12k views

How to help a dev, who is otherwise good, improve the speed at which they work?

I work as the lead dev on a small team. I manage 3-4 devs. I don't have any issues with this particular dev apart from that given their level they should be completing tasks faster. This isn't just my ...
  • 1,038
1 vote
2 answers
597 views

How to work with a boss who procrastinates and provides no opinion until the last moment?

I work in India in healthcare sales. I am very goal-oriented and a person who is particular with my work. I don't like the idea of deadlines and my work is finished way before the deadline. For the ...
1 vote
3 answers
410 views

Is it wise to turn down this job offer? [closed]

I'm newly 18, a freshman in university and unemployed. I've never had a job before, my family is chinese, and they highly valued getting into a good university over getting a job. So, I never even ...
  • 19
4 votes
4 answers
2k views

How do I communicate to my boss that meeting scope creep is out of control?

I am in the USA. My team is completely work from home. My boss likes to "cross train", "collaborate" or "see what you're working on" and frequently demands the team ...
110 votes
15 answers
20k views

Is it wrong to manage my time in such a way that I don't have to work past 5:00 PM?

I am exempt salaried in the USA, working from home. My work hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM with an hour lunch from noon to 1:00 PM. While I complete all my tasks on time and receive exceptional reviews, ...
0 votes
1 answer
656 views

How to deal with a poor work-life balance?

I'm a 4+ years experienced Software Engineer working in an Indian startup from last 7 months. I chose this startup because in my last organization: the work was highly repetitive I wasn't learning ...
29 votes
12 answers
13k views

How much time should be spent on an assessment? Applied to entry level job that has 10 hour assessment

I have been making a renewed effort to find permanent work with my computer science degree. I have been doing retail work to pay rent etc. but now am focusing on finding a position that I can advance ...
  • 1,892
2 votes
1 answer
440 views

Associate Business Analyst been assigned a task which senior business analyst is not able to do

To give some background I am working at a fintech company in India as an Associate Business Analyst in Delivery department of a MNC. Associate BAs are considered as Level 1 employee at this firm ...
0 votes
2 answers
227 views

How do you comeup with multiple teams where work in interlaced and all deliver the same Single UI project

I currently hold a team of 17 all of whom work on delivering single product --Admin UI. The problem with such a big team is Grooming, Standups, dividing works, scaling new team members, handling ...
  • 822
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

How can I convince my manager that I cannot multitask?

I've never been able to multitask. Task switching takes a very long time for me. Writing software requires quite a lot of mental "setup" and I need to get into the flow of it. This takes ...
  • 119
10 votes
6 answers
2k views

Small business, dysfunctional and overloaded; how to convince cultural change?

Joined a small business who’ve built a SaaS platform for a niche and complex business domain. It’s basically “Business Guy” / CEO, “Tech Guy” and “Sales Guy”. The product is clearly valuable with ...
8 votes
6 answers
2k views

How can I convince my manager that I am overloaded?

I'm in my first year as a team lead, and the team I'm managing is mostly new employees who have all been hired in the past 6 months so they haven't gotten to a stage where they're comfortable with all ...
  • 1,487
43 votes
9 answers
10k views

How should I manage conflicting schedules from project managers who refuse to communicate with each other?

My manager left the company a few weeks ago. Instead of replacing him, the organization was re-structured so that I have 4 contracted project managers. They all micromanage everyone's hours and ...
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

Am I too slow or are my boss' expectations high?

I joined a company three and a half months ago and prior to that, I worked for another industrial automation company as a junior software engineer for one year (late 2018 to early 2020). I have a ...
  • 299
0 votes
3 answers
540 views

How to deal with client on requirement?

I am software developer and the client gave me some requirement. So, the topic is I know that the requirement which is given by client will take too long to implement/finish and it will cost more ...
0 votes
2 answers
355 views

What to do when supervisor doesn't follow the time schedule?

I currently work in a company with ~10 people. My supervisor is also one of the business owners. My job description is related to product management, where I have to prepare tech specifications, ...
83 votes
10 answers
18k views

How can I discourage my new hire from working such long hours?

I've recently hired a new mid-level developer (not a junior but not a senior yet) and have been really impressed with their performance. My only complaint about them is that I get work-related emails ...
  • 711
47 votes
14 answers
16k views

A way to fight back the meeting-bongo, how dangerous is this idea?

Last week I had 40 work hours and about 25 of it were spent in various meetings, talks, and so on. This has become commonplace and I think it is time to fight back. I think the company needs think a ...
  • 4,751
-4 votes
2 answers
586 views

What are the various excuses which can be given to the manager while interviewing in office time?

I'm an experienced Software Engineer in India. My manager is a weird person and want all of his team to sit in front of PC all the time, despite having no work. He calls anyone anytime and if someone ...
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

Should I report unrealistic deadlines assigned to me by other colleagues to my manager?

There is this person X, who would assign an unrealistic deadline and ask to build things that she won't use regularly. This has happened previously also and I had reported it to my manager and he ...
  • 51
2 votes
2 answers
534 views

How to deal with time planning dispute

I am a software developer who is creating integrations services between the ERP system of our customers and our system (dataflow happens via XML and webservices). I am doing this for around 4-5 years ...
4 votes
4 answers
1k views

How to work in multiple programming languages at same time?

Anybody here working on projects where they have to code in Java & Python in different modules? How do you handle multitasking and organizing your programming cells in your brain well? I am ...
1 vote
3 answers
689 views

How to deal with a Team lead who expects me to deliver ad-hoc tasks and asks me to deliver it by EOD? [closed]

I have recently joined a new company, where my lead expects me to finish a task in a few hours, As I am new to this project, I am taking some time to figure out everything out. There are no ...
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

How to deal with colleagues who schedule meeting and join late

There is this colleague who would schedule 15-30 minutes meeting and join themselves like 10-15 minutes late (I am the only attendee). It has happened on several occasion and I have ignored it but now ...
  • 588
13 votes
8 answers
5k views

My boss wants me to reply an acknowledgement for every email I get from a coworker, is this fair?

My boss wants me to reply “got it” 300 times a day: every time someone sends me something to confirm I received and read the email and archived it. This has become a robotic job where I have a lot of ...
user avatar
5 votes
6 answers
2k views

Quality vs Development Time & a jerk Manager

Quality vs Development time As a developer I like to deliver quality. This means thinking out an sensable architecture, reading docs (in case of integrated a new package to the code base or when ...
  • 571
9 votes
7 answers
9k views

How to request help on a project without throwing my co-worker "under the bus"

I have a project that needs to be completed by the end of the year and I've been working on it for a little under a month. Another more senior co-worker is working on another project, but has given me ...
  • 115
5 votes
1 answer
671 views

How can I tell my boss that the task I'm given is impossible, but keep my job?

My company makes a product and due to circumstances that we've seen coming for months, it's going to stop working extremely soon. We've known it was coming, but didn't know the exact date. I'm ...
  • 59
1 vote
2 answers
231 views

How can I focus on a task when my job keeps bringing multiple small sub-tasks?

I'm leading a small team of developers. I'm also the technical head of a product that is used internally and externally by several clients. I have a bunch of tasks in pipeline which need focus and ...
0 votes
1 answer
702 views

Are agile processes taking too much time in a sprint?

The agile processes are focused on increasing velocity but at the same time seem to require lengthy meetings. Assuming a 2 week sprint, if I understand correctly, at the very minimum there must be: a) ...
  • 753
8 votes
5 answers
1k views

Company now wanting employees to do on call and/or after hours support

I work for a three year old, small sized software development company - more or less 20 employees. The company has used from the beginning strategies of giving employees relative freedom on their work ...
  • 89
1 vote
4 answers
844 views

Is uncertainty about what to work on normal?

I work as a Software Engineer. The team has bi-weekly sprints. For the past 2 months sprint planning has been basically impossible to do. The manager himself doesn't know if we're going to start a ...
  • 139
3 votes
5 answers
1k views

Can you make half the money working half the time?

This may be the wrong place to ask this, but I have a software dev/engineer lifestyle question. If this indeed the wrong place, please redirect me elsewhere before marking this as spam. Is it possible ...
  • 65
-2 votes
2 answers
554 views

What are some good practices on when to click "Mark as read" in work-oriented chatting softwares?

What are some good practices on when to click "Mark as read" in work-oriented chatting softwares? As a result of COVID-19 era life style and the increasing prevalence of remote working, I receive ...
  • 113
-1 votes
1 answer
362 views

How to properly ask for extension on assessment projects

I have been trying really frantically to apply for a software engineering internship for my university graduation requirements, which I have never secured one before, and for most jobs that reached ...
1 vote
2 answers
550 views

How to approach a manager that's possibly over complicating things?

Summary: boss asks for automation of task. Doing it manually will cost 30 developer-days of work, but creating custom CMS to automate it will cost 120 developer-days. How can I bring this to manager's ...
  • 1,301
9 votes
2 answers
1k views

Supervisor Consistently Scheduling Meetings That Run Over Standard Work Hours

I am currently on a tiny software team of four people. We work very standard work hours and over time is not an option. Two of us get in at 7 and leave at 4, the other two team members get in at 8 and ...
8 votes
5 answers
716 views

Time management while studying part time with a full time job and a family

I would like some help, I am starting classes in the fall and I am worried that time management will get the best of me. I am a husband and a father, with a house to take care of and I normally work ...
  • 1,562
0 votes
3 answers
165 views

How to handle work capacity across different teams

As a software developer with some years of experience, I seem to run into this same issue in one form or another, so I'l generalize it the best I can. Let's say I'm on 3 teams. Team A has given me ...
  • 109
35 votes
6 answers
29k views

Messed up at work and don't know what to do

I have been working for one year on a data science project, from finding the stakeholder and the work to running A/B tests and finally to productionising the project. Part of running A/B tests ...
  • 485
1 vote
3 answers
610 views

Why do I feel like I'm working very hard yet feel very unproductive? [closed]

I'm a software developer and think myself very fortunate as I really enjoy writing code and learning about it and feel confident in my abilities. When I finish what I wanted to do for the day I feel ...
user avatar
53 votes
4 answers
17k views

I missed an important client meeting and hurt my standing. How can I recover?

I work for a medium-sized software consultancy in London. The company employs 300-500 people across multiple locations in Europe. For the past month or so I've had a lot of trouble with my sleeping ...
  • 27.8k
2 votes
3 answers
492 views

How to get my colleague to work with our new Supervisor?

Me and a group of colleagues now friends work for a medium sized start up. We were all working fine until our manager changed. We were given various assignments to complete before and after the change ...
2 votes
2 answers
239 views

How do you ask for help if you're stuck with a problem where your peers work at a differenct location and time zone

I started on a project and have been on it for about a month now (since my on-boarding) give or take. I normally pride myself a good employee, able to complete my task to at-least my own standards. ...
  • 573
56 votes
11 answers
9k views

How to deal with severe mental fatigue without taking time off?

I work as a remote software developer. I work on a casual basis from home, and I'm free to work as much or as little for my boss as I like, while billing my boss on a weekly basis for the worked time ...
  • 4,337
79 votes
11 answers
13k views

How to be productive while waiting for meetings to start, when managers are casual about being late

The problem: I cannot work normally when I know I will be interrupted any minute. Example: My manager say we have a team meeting (all 12 members) with the big boss in 14:30. In 14:27 I am already ...
  • 1,967
1 vote
2 answers
827 views

How to manage time for studying after travelling 4 hours daily to work? [closed]

I'm a 2 years experienced Software Developer in an Indian company. My hours are 9 to 6 but I usually leave the office at 6:30-6:45 pm. Normally my commute takes 1.5 hours in the morning and 2 hours ...

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