Funeral directors are some of the most hardworking people that I know. With arranging funeral services, comforting grieving families, and organizing community events all while running a funeral home, you’re constantly busy.

That’s why time management is crucial for funeral directors. You cannot afford wasted time or else important tasks may not get done. Sometimes you only have a few days’ notice to plan a funeral and learn someone’s life story. Without effective time management, it may seem impossible to get everything done.

But through a little planning and prioritization, you can make of the most of your everyday tasks.

Prioritize the Most Important Tasks

First, determine what tasks are the most important and have the soonest deadline. Put those tasks at the top of your to-do list. Then, you can add tasks that are important, but not time-sensitive to the list. However, don’t let these other tasks fall through the cracks. For example, even though posting to social media may not be at the top of your to-do list, it’s still important.

When making your to-do list, choose a method that works best for you. You can use a planner, calendar, phone app, dry-erase board, or whatever you wish. Then, decide the time range for your to-do list. Do you want to create a weekly to-do list of tasks? Or maybe you want a more detailed daily to-do list? Or why not do both? A weekly list is great for keeping track of deadlines, while a daily list helps you better manage your time each day.

Create a Tentative Schedule

Creating a to-do list helps you develop a tentative schedule for the day. Of course, the workday for funeral directors can be unpredictable. Things like death calls or families stopping into your funeral home can alter your planned schedule for the day. But that’s okay, you can plan for some unexpected things to come up.

By keeping track of how long it takes you to do certain tasks, you can better manage your time. Ask yourself, does this seem like a reasonable time or is it something that needs more or less time? Then, you can schedule those tasks for that time frame.

However, you don’t have to follow your schedule strictly to the minute. The tentative schedule serves as something to help you determine how long certain tasks may take and adjust your schedule as needed when things come up like a last-minute funeral service to plan.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help

Another thing to keep in mind when managing your time is to not be afraid to ask your funeral home’s staff members for help. By dividing up various tasks among your staff members, you can get more done and be more productive. Just be sure to train your staff members on how to do the task. By taking some time out of the day to train everyone, it will save you more time in the long run.

You also can consider hiring on another staff member or an intern to do a specific task. It would help take some of the workload off and allow you to focus more on helping your client families funeral plan and grieve. Some additional job or intern positions could be a social media specialist, photographer, marketer, event coordinator, or whatever duties you want assistance with.

Invest in Time-Saving Tools

There are many innovative tools out there that can help save funeral directors time. For example, with a social media automation platform, you can schedule social media posts ahead of time. So you can pick a time each week to schedule your posts and then you don’t have to worry about it. Plus, our free monthly social media kits can make social media even quicker and easier. Just copy and paste the pre-made posts to schedule or post them.

Taking advantage of integrations is another way to save time. It can prevent wasted time from double data entry when you could be spending time with your client families. For example, our Frazer-powered websites integrate with Tribute Center — our all-in-one personalization suite — and all major data management softwares and answering services. You not only eliminate redundant data entry, but you also can show the personalized funeral stationery you create in Tribute Center on the obituary.

Share your time management tips with us in the comments!