Discover essential time management tips for grant team leaders to optimize workflows and meet deadlines effectively. Learn how Instrumentl’s calendar feature enhances grant management processes for improved efficiency and success.
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We’ve all had deadlines sneak up on us. One second, we have plenty of time, and the next thing we know, it is due tomorrow, and we’re scrambling to make it happen.
No one likes to find themselves in this position.
Thankfully, Instrumentl has a solution. With our grant calendar solution, you can:
In this article, we’ll dig into how Instrumentl’s grant calendar can improve your team’s time management. Using our practical tips, you’ll never miss a grant deadline again.
Sound good? Let’s jump in!
We could all accomplish so much more if we simply had more time, so let’s go over some quick time-saving tips that can help your grant management team streamline operations!
It is absolutely critical that you set clear deadlines for every task.
Deadlines give you direction and a clear plan of attack, helping you best manage your time when you’re juggling multiple timelines. They also help you organize your workflow, as each task often must be completed in a sequence in order to properly complete the overall project.
As you look to set the deadlines, ask yourself the following questions.
Funders often have a small window when they are accepting applications. If you miss it, you’ll have to wait until the next cycle. It’s important to be generous with your deadlines. Account for the unexpected and give yourself a grace period.
Once you set your deadlines, make sure that you clearly communicate them with the rest of your team. Ensure the deadlines work with their schedules. If not, make adjustments.
How Instrumentl Can Help:
Instrumentl makes grant tracking easy, especially when it comes to important deadlines. The grant calendar will help you and your team visualize deadlines, as well as set new ones based on workload.
You can set deadlines for submission goals, internal approvals, and so much more.
You’ll never miss a grant deadline again if you have a clear plan of attack.
And, even better, you can save time when you prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance because you don’t have to waste time spinning on where to start. You already know what you need to complete and when.
The Eisenhower Matrix is a popular tool many teams use to help them decide where to spend their time.
This decision matrix helps rank tasks based on urgency and importance, allowing you to decide what needs to be done now and what can wait. It is a great tool for time management.
With grants, there are a lot of tasks that need to be accomplished, but not everything can be done right away. Trying to tackle everything at once is a trap that those who struggle with time management often fall into.
If you need help sorting tasks as part of the grant management process, consider the following:
Most teams already have a full plate, so they need all the help they can get prioritizing. It’s your job to make the process feel more manageable, and a grants calendar is a great way to do so.
Plot everything in the calendar to make sure that priorities are well-balanced and organized in a way that will let you meet deadlines with ease. You don’t want to rush because all the deadlines are stacked against each other.
How Instrumentl Can Help:
Instrumentl’s grant tracking features allow you to flag urgent tasks, and these will show up both on the grant tracker and on the calendar view. This will help you manage your time—and your team’s time—wisely.
There are a lot of things that go into managing grants, including writing, reporting, managing, and so forth. While it can be tempting to take on all the responsibilities yourself, that’s not efficient.
You need to learn how to delegate in order to exercise time management during the grant management process. This will ensure that you’re able to get more done and focus your energy in areas where you will add the most value.
As you look to delegate, ask yourself the following questions.
Even if you need to invest time upfront in training someone to complete the task, that’s okay! It will yield dividends in the long run, so it will be time well spent.
Once you delegate, make sure that you communicate the expectations to your team member, and a grant calendar software is a great way to do that. They can clearly see what they’re responsible for and what’s up on the pipeline for them.
How Instrumentl Can Help:
Instrumentl’s task feature is powerful. You can describe the task, choose task types, assign deadlines, add assignees and collaborators, and more.
As you assign tasks, your team members will be automatically notified that something new has been added to their queue. Members of the team can adjust the task status within the platform, add notes, and more. When used properly, you won’t have to waste time tracking down answers!
Regular team meetings are a great way to share status updates, solving issues in real-time to help move your workflow forward.
Team meetings save time by addressing issues upfront rather than when they become an issue down the line. Other benefits of consistent team check-ins include:
Regular team meetings, while they take time upfront, can be used to drive efficiencies and save time in the long run.
How Instrumentl Can Help:
With Instrumentl, you can sync your team meetings with your grants calendars so you have everything in a single location. Even better, you can seamlessly sync your Instrumentl calendar with Outlook. All you need to do is:
Find detailed instructions on how to import your calendar and sync all your meetings here so you don’t have to juggle multiple calendars.
Those who master effective time management regularly use reminders and alerts. With so many competing priorities, it’s the best way to make sure that things get done!
How can you effectively do this?
Your grant calendar should be a place where you and your team get a comprehensive look at your grant pipeline.
Reminders and alerts can help you manage your time effectively so you’re not rushing to submit.
How Instrumentl Can Help:
Instrumentl can automatically send reminders of upcoming deadlines. As long as it’s set up in the platform, you will be notified by email of grant deadlines, upcoming tasks, and so much more.
Many grant calendars allow you to filter tasks by team so you don’t have to manually track who is doing what separately. Why is this important?
Individual team calendars can help drive better accountability on your team. They know what they own, and you can better check in on deadlines that are being missed.
Task calendars for each team member can be a great addition to help you manage your team’s time and allow them to start honing their own time management skills.
How Instrumentl Can Help:
In addition to making sure that all calendars are integrated for ease of use, Instrumentl can also help you to easily filter to export who is responsible for what to get a clear understanding of their overall workflow.
The last way that you can manage your time better is to automate where you can. This will help you optimize workflows in new ways, which is critical when it comes to busy grant managers.
What are some tasks that you can automate?
As you consider your entire grant management process, be strategic in when and how you automate. That will help you better invest your time to add the most value.
Grant calendars are a great way to do this because you can set them and forget them in some ways. They do the work of reminding you what’s coming—and at what frequency you want to be notified.
How Instrumentl Can Help:
What are some ways that you can automate with a grant calendar on Instrumentl?
The benefits of working in Instrumentl for end-to-end grant management is that it automatically notifies you of your upcoming tasks and opportunities so you never miss a deadline.
Instrumentl is a great time-saving tool, helping you navigate your end-to-end grant management process.
Instrumentl’s grant calendar:
With seamless integration on multiple platforms and an easy-to-navigate dashboard, Instrumentl’s calendar feature stands out from the rest.
Your grant teams will never be bogged down by administrative tasks and red tape when they use it. Everything you need to manage your time efficiently and get things done is at the tip of your fingers using this tool!
In this article, we covered seven tips to help you with time management, especially when it comes to using a grant calendar:
A grant calendar—like the one offered by Instrumentl—can help you optimize your workflow for enhanced grant management.
Once you use Instrumentl, you’ll never have to worry about missing a grant deadline again! Ready to try out all Instrumentl has to offer? Sign up for our free, 14-day trial today!
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