Resource Management Games to Boost Your Team’s Productivity

At least once in your life, you’ve wished that the clock had more hours in it.

In the professional world, this happens a lot. It could either be because of a rescheduled meeting that you’re not prepared for or a deadline that’s fast approaching.

Realizing the clock won’t change could help your team’s productivity to improve.

In this article, we’ve listed the best resource management games that you might find useful:

1. The Puzzle Challenge
2. The Ace of Spades
3. The Circadian Rhythm
4. The Blind Polygon
5. The $86,400
6. Colored Blocks
7. The Big Picture Challenge

What are time and resource management?

Why is time important?

How to use our resources properly?

We’ve learned the answers to these questions the hard way.

To be honest, time is our most valuable resource. That’s why we should find the best way to spend it.

The majority of people feel crushed by their to-do lists because they seem endless. We have way too many responsibilities to handle, but way too little time to do it.

The opposite of effective time management is procrastination. Some call it last-minute productivity, but let’s be honest – it’s usually laziness.

That’s why time management is important.

It’s the practice of planning our day, making sure that we organize our tasks according to their level of importance, and spending enough time on them to ensure better performance.

Without further ado, let’s get started with some of the best resource management games.

1. The Puzzle Challenge

Acquiring time and resource management skills in the workplace is essential for various reasons. The path towards achieving this consists of planning and having an idea of the bigger picture, and setting a goal.

To convey this message to your co-workers or employees, complete the following steps:

• Divide all your people into small groups.
• Give each team a puzzle of similar difficulty.
• Don’t show them yet what the completed puzzle should look like!
• Set a time.
• Teams must try to piece together the puzzle within the time limit and they should stop when the time is up.
• Now the players have the practical experience of working without knowing the bigger picture.

To make this a learning experience for them, elaborate on this concept. Explain to them that we usually don’t know what the final product of our work will be. However, when we strive to achieve something particular, we organize our time more efficiently and use the proper tools.

2. The Ace of Spades

If you want to highlight the importance of planning and taking on priority tasks first, this resource management game is perfect for a team of 3.

• Get some decks of cards.
• Shuffle one of the packs and organize the other in ascending order.
• Give each player a pack.
• Players must try to find the Ace of Spade in the deck as quickly as possible.
• The player with the organized deck will succeed much easier.

3. The Circadian Rhythm

Oftentimes, people are productive at different times during the day.

Some enjoy working late at night, others in the morning, and so on. You get the idea.

However, when it comes to teamwork, the employees’ body clocks (aka circadian clocks) should be synchronized to be time-efficient.

Here’s how this time management activity works:

• Each member of the team should write down their daily routine.
• Players then must determine how energized they usually feel during each hour of the day.
• Once everybody is done, discuss the following questions:
• When do you get the most work done?
• At which time are you most distracted?
• When is it best to take a break?

This way you will find workers with similar productivity hours and you’ll be able to form better teams.

Use a tool like Doodle to input all the data and you’ll have the best work routine for this team.

4. The Blind Polygon

Of all resource and time management games, this one is the ice breaker.

It requires one leader and a few smaller groups of people.

Here’s how to make people feel more comfortable in a new environment:

• Blindfold each player and give the team a rope.
• Now put them in the back of a shady trunk. No, scratch that, the wrong manual!
• Groups should fold and adjust the rope into a shape that the leader has specified in advance.
• Set a time limit.
• Removing the blindfold is forbidden and everybody should be touching the rope at all times.
• Let the group see their masterpiece before tackling it again.

This exercise develops critical thinking, and analytical skills, and is excellent for team-building.

5. The $86,400

This is one of the best time management activities for changing how your employees perceive time.

It could be done individually or in groups:

• Ask each person or group, “If you had $86,400 only for a day, how would you spend it?”
• Tell them to organize their time according to what they would spend on and at what time?
• They can’t save a part of the money for the next day. Either spend it all or lose it all.

It’s an allegory of time since we have 86,400 seconds at our disposal each day. It’s our choice whether to make use of them or waste them. Also, it answers the question of why time is important.

6. Colored Blocks

If you want to encourage employees to address important matters first, you might find this resource management game quite useful:

• Find a set of colored blocks. How many you use will depend on how many players participate.
• The participants must use their non-dominant hands to pick up as many blocks as they can in one minute.
• They’re allowed to pick only one block at a time.
• Once the time is up, give each player a point for every collected block.
• Write down the results.
• Spread the blocks again and assign a specific point value to each color. For instance, yellow could be 1, red could be 2, etc.

This will show them the importance of prioritization.

7. The Big Picture Challenge

The Big Picture Challenge is a very cool activity that requires coordination, collaboration and adopting a ‘big picture’ perspective to make the project successful.

How does it work?

• Employees should be divided into small teams (2 to 4 people).
• Each team should be given a piece of paper with only a segment of The Big Picture.
• Teammates should work together to complete the segment properly.
• Teams should, most importantly, cooperate to make sure that they’re using the same colors and are following the lines.
• When all segments are done and positioned next to each other The Big picture shall be completed.

The learning outcomes are varying since the exercise develops networking and communication skills, quick thinking, and creativity.

Did you find the best resource management games for you?

You might be wondering what the importance of a time management article is and why we’re discussing this topic in detail.

As we’ve pointed out, being considerate of your time not only increases your productivity at work but also has various health benefits, such as decreasing stress levels and fending off burnout.

That’s why you should try different resource management games and exercises to get a better grasp of the concept of time and find the best practical way for you to integrate it into your lifestyle.