"(Situation) I currently work in a casual fast-food restaurant where there is a breakfast, lunch, and dinner rush. Since reopening after COVID, we have found ourselves short-staffed and unable to hire new employees due to budget cuts. (Task) I am the Assistant Manager, which means that I hold a wide range of task responsibilities while also needing to act as a positive and efficient influence on the rest of the team. (Action) For the first couple of weeks after reopening, I often ran out of time to complete my tasks before the next business rush. To better organize my time, I decided to implement the concept of time blocking. Time blocking is a popular time management method where I divide my day into 30-minute time blocks. I dedicate each block to accomplishing a specific task, and only that task. For instance, 30 minutes will focus on cleaning, then 30 minutes to food prep, 30 minutes for back stocking, and 30 minutes for staff development and training. I give the most urgent tasks the first blocks in the day and move down the list in terms of urgency. (Result) This approach helps me to get through my daily tasks, solving our issue of being short-staffed. I have also eliminated plenty of management overtime hours for the company."
