The purpose of this study was to gain a general overview of the time management disposition of clinical nursing managers in China and its related factors.Effective time management is important for managers to achieve organizational goals. However, there is a lack of big-sample research exploring the impact of psychological and socio-demographic characteristics on time management disposition.The study adopted a cross-sectional and descriptive design; 531 nursing managers from seven regions of China were recruited.The nursing managers performed best on sense of time's value, followed by time monitoring ability and sense of time efficacy. Time management disposition was predicted by self-efficacy, SDS scores, managerial experience, the character strength of self-control and number of children.The "norm" level of the Chinese clinical nursing managers' time management disposition was at a favourable level, but these managers performed poorly in the aspect of time monitoring. It is recommended that actions be taken to improve nursing managers' time management disposition in order to maximize their time-use efficiency and enhance the quality of nursing management.A greater understanding of nursing managers' time management disposition will provide a reference for subsequent actions to improve nursing managers' time management behaviour, which in turn will improve the quality and efficiency of nursing management.