What do we waste our time on?
According to a study developed by Salary.com in collaboration with Microsoft and America Online, of the 45 hours a week in an average working day, 16 hours are unproductive, i.e. around one third of the time is wasted.
However, we must point out that “Wasting time” doesn't mean taking a break between hours or having an hour-long break for lunch, as these breaks are recommendable and healthy for reactivating concentration. authentic time thieves son, according to the report:
- Talk with colleagues on non-work-related issues (the 43%).
- Browse by internet (the 28%).
- Send and receive text messages (4%).
- Consult the social media (4%).
- Attend calls (4%).
- Perform online shopping (2%).
We must also not forget that it takes an average of 120 seconds for anyone to regain their concentration After an interruption or when changing from one activity to another. This causes us, involuntarily, to lose another 60 minutes a day in micro-breaks, according to the Workmeter study. In the case of Spanish professionals, employees do not dedicate even a minute and a half to carrying out a task without interruption.
How does time work?
Albert Einstein already put it: time is relative. Nevertheless, various scholars have delved into this time perception and management, The results of this study are a series of generalised conclusions on this concept.
Thus, there are a number of principles that will help us understand how the human mind works Regarding time management.
- Carlson's Law or the Principle of Homogeneous Sequences: This principle holds that if we carry out a task continuously, we will need less time than if we carry it out in an interrupted manner.
- Pareto Law: According to this researcher, any task will extend to fill the total time available, meaning the more time we allocate to a job beforehand, the more we will dedicate to it.
- Law 20-80: according to this paradigm, 20% of our work produces 80% of the results, which highlights the importance of focusing our efforts on strategic tasks.
- Laborit Law: Professionals tend to get more enjoyment from completing tasks we like over those we find tedious, easier ones over more complex ones, and urgent matters over important ones. Hence the importance of knowing how to prioritise tasks so as not to be swayed by this principle.
- Fraisse's Law: Each individual has a different way of achieving optimal time management at work, so each employee should study and establish their own rhythms and times of greatest efficiency.
Guidelines for effective time management
With these principles known and the main time-wasters detailed, it is logical to consider how we can improve our time management at work. In this respect, the following advice will help us be more efficient:
- Set aside some time to analyse our objectives. It's about taking a few minutes to study what we want to achieve and how we're going to achieve it, which helps us prioritise tasks and focus our attention on what's truly important. Greg McKeown, on the other hand, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, It is advisable to use the first half hour of the working day for this planning, as our minds will be at peak performance after the previous night's rest.
- Draw up a to-do list. Making a to-do list allows our brain to concentrate on each action, without having to remember what the next step is. Furthermore, this technique offers us a global and summarised overview of our objectives, which also increases efficiency. However, one must be careful not to become obsessed with ticking off tasks, as this will lead us to prioritise simple and quick matters, leaving aside others that are more complex but also more strategic.
- Reserve time for the most important goals. It's not enough to just jot down a task in your diary; it's also advisable to decide how and when you're going to carry it out, setting aside that time for it. This way, we avoid falling into procrastination or suffering disruptions during its development.
- Break down more complex projects into blocks. As we've mentioned, faced with a large objective, we can feel overwhelmed, leading us to prioritise simpler, but less vital, tasks. To counter this, we can break the project down into smaller, more manageable objectives, tackling them step by step.
- Delegating to improve efficiency. One of the most common mistakes in the workplace, especially among superiors and managers, is to think that if we personally undertake a task it will take less time than if we delegate it to someone else. Although the first few times, more time may need to be spent teaching and explaining how to do something and supervising the result, in the medium term, empowerment represents a great saving of hours and effort.
- Planning meetings. Según Workmeter, el 19% de los profesionales considera que las mayores distracciones en el desarrollo de sus funciones provienen de la celebración de demasiadas reuniones en la oficina. Sin embargo, el problema no radica en el encuentro en sí, sino en su ejecución y desarrollo. Si lo planificamos correctamente, identificando los asuntos que vamos a tratar, el objetivo que queremos lograr y las preguntas que necesitamos hacer, estas puestas en común entre compañeros contribuyen a generar equipos de alto rendimiento.
- Resting is not wasting time. Breaks for a breather or going out for lunch during the working day do not mean that we are wasting time. In fact, experts advise taking breaks of a few minutes every two hours to help our brains recover.
- Analyse how we waste time and take action. To overcome bad habits in time management, there’s nothing better than first knowing how we waste our workday: are we interrupted too much? Do we check emails too often? Are we unable to concentrate on a single activity for more than two minutes at a time?… Once we know what's going wrong, we can adopt specific solutions.
Apps for better time management at work
Although technology (internet, social media, WhatsApp, etc.) is, to a large extent, one of the factors that causes the most distractions at work, it is also true that we can turn it into a great ally.
On the market we can find numerous mobile applications that will help us improving our performance. These are some of these time management apps:
- Flipd. This is an example for iOS of bDistraction blockers. These apps allow users to block emails, alerts, incoming calls, and social media notifications on their device for a set period, enabling them to focus on a task without interruptions.
- MoneyPenny. It enables real-time tracking of the work done by each professional and/or task, their performance and effectiveness, from any computer device. It also offers reports, notifications via Slack and HipChat, a billing log, project tracking, and live task monitoring.
- 18 minutes. Inspired by Peter Bregman's eponymous book, this tool helps us strengthen our ability to concentrate. It involves focusing on the app for 18 minutes, without doing other activities, to train this skill.
- RescueTime. Fancy knowing how you spend your time on your computer? With this app, you can monitor your activity on the device and receive reports on it. To correct any possible deviations, the software also sends alerts, blocks websites or programmes and allows you to write notes on objectives achieved.
- Tomato Timer. Francesco Cirillo developed the Pomodoro technique in the 1980s, which involves dedicating 25 minutes to a single activity. This application helps you practice it through a timer that notifies you when the time is up.
- Mindfulness APP. Every day we need to meditate and analyse what we have done, what we need to do, and how we are going to achieve it. To help us with this introspection, there are different apps on the market specifically designed to strengthen this reflection.
