In 2013, Salary.com conducted the Wasting Time at Work Survey, which found that 69% of people admit to wasting time at work on a daily basis. By far the biggest time wasting activity was found to be interacting with co-workers (43%), and in close second place, surfing the internet (28%). For leaders, the report raises some interesting points. First, the good news; only 8% of respondents cited their boss as being the cause of their biggest time-wasting activities, which is (pleasingly) down from 14% in 2012. Now for the bad news; 19% cited meetings and 17% cited insufficient team members as their biggest cause of work-related time wasting. When we look at these figures collectively, we see that nearly half (44%) of respondents reported their biggest work-related time-wasters to be things that the leader has a significant influence over, ie; their own leadership capabilities, team cohesiveness and the effectiveness of, and mindset surrounding, meetings, (please see RIP Unproductive, Boring Meetings for more on this).
The report also looked into why people are wasting time and found that one third are doing so because some aspect of their job makes them unhappy:
- - lack of incentive (11%),
- - unsatisfied in their jobs (10%),
- - boredom (9%),
- - low pay (3%)
What this report highlights is that the biggest problem facing leaders is that of disengagement, as both time-wasting activity and those work-related tasks deemed to be time-wasting will result in disengaged employees.
There is a growing body of research supporting the link between engagement and a number of performance-related factors, these include workplace happiness, attrition rates, number of sick days taken, depression and anxiety, productivity levels and even very recently; an increased chance of smoking. Put simply; engaged employees are more productive, more effective and deliver greater results for their organisation.
Leaders should exercise caution before rushing in to eradicate these time-wasting activities. Consider this...regular breaks increase productivity, better enable decision-making, boost energy levels and aid concentration. In addition, happier employees tend to be more engaged and employees tend to be happier when they enjoy a more relaxed working environment. A relaxed working environment is not one where employees feel they're only able to have work-related conversations and are given very little freedom around their responsibilities and how these are delivered. It would seem that a happy medium needs to be found. Before taking any action, the leader should clarify the extent of the (so-called) time-wasting activity and examine what impact this is having on the team. Where the overwhelming impact is negative, perhaps the more critical question for the leader is why their team are disengaged in the first place?
In my next post I'll take a look at how leaders can tackle some of the most common causes of disengagement.
5 Responses
Time Management Activities
I need to have several time management activities fire my training. Please help me.
Time management
Hi Jimmy,
Could you clarify exactly what it is you're looking for and I'll be happy to help.
Tracey
Hi Tracey,
Hi Tracey,
I will be conducting a Time Management training class and would like to do some exercises or activities that I can Link it back to Time Management.
Hi Jimmy
Hi Jimmy
First of all, have a look at this conversation posted on Training Zone, which offers some different solutions to your question:
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/anyanswers/time-management-exercises
You might also want to look into Franklin Covey's Habit 3 – Put first things first, which uses the 4 box matrix exercise to demonstrate the importance of time management.
Another suggestion is to split your delegates into groups, giving them all the same task to complete (this can be anything from building a marble run out of paper to completing a general knowledge quiz – whatever fits with your space and theme for the day), but give each group different instructions over how much time they have for the planning section of the task. Then compare the results of the different groups – it will spark discussion over the importance of time and how you use it.
Good luck with your training class.
Tracey
Time management
I especially agree with the suggestion to stay focused on one task and keeping a running list of thoughts and ideas that occur while we working on that particular task. Usually, I will write an action plan detailing the steps I need to take for some major projects and scheduled time for the work in each step directly into my time tracking software – http://www.replicon.com/time-tracking-softwares.aspx .
I find that having this plan and knowing I have the time set aside is allowing me to work more effectively and helps to focus on the tasks at hand and has decreased my stress level about getting it all done.