Time Management Games

In time management games you run a small business, which means there's always more to do than hands to do it. Customers waiting, orders coming in and tasks piling up: your job is to decide what gets attention first. There are more than 150 games.

How they work

Almost all of them follow the same pattern. You serve whoever shows up, collect payment, put your earnings into upgrades (a faster machine, a bigger shop) and move on to the next level with more work. You lose momentum when a customer gets tired of waiting. You play with the mouse or a finger, tapping the item or the customer you want to deal with.

The business changes from game to game. There are supermarkets and shops, like Monkey Mart and Mini Monkey Mart, and food places: Papa's Pizzeria, Sweet Shop 3D, Bar de helados (ice cream bar) or Sim Lemonade Millionaire, where you set up a lemonade stand. There are also lodging games (Janes Hotel, Bed and Breakfast 2), cleaning and laundry (Laundry Girl, The Smurfs Village Cleaning) and a few others, such as Gas Station Arcade, Hamster Island or Rescate de animales (animal rescue).

A few tips

• Serve the customer who has waited longest first, not the one closest to you.
• Spend your money on whatever speeds up the work before you spend it on decoration.
• If the game lets you chain actions together, do it. It usually earns tips or a bonus.

It isn't always as easy as it looks at first. The early levels are calm, but past a certain point orders start stacking up and you can tell who organized the place well. Replaying a level is pretty normal.

Where to start

Monkey Mart is one of the most played games in the section and it makes sense from the first minute, so it's a good way in. If you already know the genre, Papa's Pizzeria asks for more attention to the steps of each order.