Improve your time management with our tricks and advice to increase efficiency and productivity.
One of the most common complaints with office workers across the world is that they don't have enough time.
There has been lots of research into the efficiency and time management of employees, with some of the facts highlighted below:
- According to Dr. Donald E. Wetmore, an average worker sends and receives about 190 messages per day and gets interrupted as often as once every eight minutes. If each interruption lasts five minutes, a worker can spend more than four hours per day spending time on things he did not actually set out to accomplish. (Source: Chron)
- Sleep deprivation is costing U.S. companies $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity. (Source: 'Harvard Medical School, 2013' / Key Organization)
- Office workers spend an average of 4 hours per week in meetings. They feel more than half of that time is wasted. (Source: 'Opinion Matters, for Epson and the Centre for Economics & Business Research May 2012' / Key Organization)
- Each day a typical office employee checks email 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times (Source: 'RescueTime' / Profound Impact)
- Fewer than a third of all projects were successfully completed on time and on budget over the past year. (Source: 'Standish Group' / Capterra)
- 57% of office workers spend an hour a day looking for missing documents. 20% have to recreate documents that they couldn’t find. (Source: 'Unlocking the UK’s Daily Savings Time' / DPG)
It is true that most professionals are overworked but how can we make things easier for ourselves?
1. Stop with all the meetings
Meetings are often a roadblock for getting on with tasks, supporting colleagues or overseeing employees/junior staff.
If it isn't necessary for you to attend then don't.
A best practice is to ensure every meeting is 'goal oriented'. Make sure there is an agenda set for the meeting and that people don't get side tracked by distractions and idle chat.
- TIP: Don't use the standard 1-hour block for a meeting. Choose 15-, 30- or 45-minute blocks instead.
If a goal can be reached without a meeting and, instead a simple two minute catch-up, do it.
2. Avoid multi-tasking
It's a common misinterpretation that dividing yourself across multiple tasks will speed up completing your 'to do' list, but it simply isn't true.
Read our recent blog post on the real importance of focusing on individual tasks.
3. Swallow the frog
We all have one task that we hate doing, be it sales calls, follow up emails, invoicing, filing... Just do it!
The more barriers you put in place of that dreaded task, the more you will drag your heels until you've ended up doing that one job.
Do it first and move on with the rest of your day.
4. Say "no" to neediness
This is perhaps the most difficult to resolve. Every now and then you might have to deal with a client, supplier or staff member that is 'needy'. We don't mean this is in a negative way - but some just take more time or focus than others.
Ultimately, it can be incredibly powerful for customers, suppliers or staff if you can give them that desired extra time, but there needs to be a limit. If it is cutting too much into your workday, limit the time of your meeting or call. Encourage them to write or email their concerns so you can resolve them quicker.
5. Schedule tasks
Use your work calendar to block out time for particular tasks. If you know you have that dreaded task (#3) coming up then set some time aside to focus on completing it.
It's wise to block out time for 'must do' tasks so that you don't fill your week with other activities and stretch yourself too thin.
6. Adopt the 45/15 rule
The 45/15 rule works really well to ensure your mind is staying active and productive whilst keeping you happy.
After 45 minutes your mind starts to lose its focus, so build your day around 45-minute working sessions. During these:
- Minimise open windows
- Turn off mobile, desktop and email notifications
- Don't take coffee or bathroom breaks
Use your 15 minute break each hour to do these and stretch your legs.
Discover how to manage your daily routine with our handy blog post.
7. Track your time
Time tracking is incredibly powerful for many reasons:
- Track if you are charging clients the right amount for the work involved
- See if your staff are out performing targets and goals
- Monitor activity to discover any issues
- Focus yourself and your team onto the task at hand
By monitoring your time you will really start to see where your productivity wanes and when you are getting distracted.
Find out more about this via Productivity.
