Time Wasters: 18 Reasons Why You Spend More Time at Work
For the vast majority of people, doing company tasks/work is a necessity in order to earn money that allows them to provide for themselves and their loved ones.However, there are actions that unnecessarily lengthens the work done by an employee or their time spent in the company.
The unnecessary actions might be done by the employees themselves or done by the company to their employees.
Whatever the reason or whomever might be doing these unnecessary actions, it is important that they be identified and if possible eliminated. Identifying them enables the employee to lessen the time they spent on their job or their working day in the company.
Here are a few time wasters an employee should know about:
Note: This list was taken from my actual experience, professional studies and online websites about time management.
18 Reasons Why You Spend More Time at Work Than You Need To:
1. Unnecessary Meetings2. Too Much Emails
3. Social Media
4. No Direction
5. Procrastination
6. Perfectionism
7. Disorganization
8. Multitasking
9. Not Saying “No”
10. Outdated Technology
11. Interruptions
12. Not Delegating
13. Poor Communication
14. Distractions
15. “Busywork”
16. Chatty Colleagues
17. Micromanaging
18. Not Relaxing
Final Words
The Details:
1. Unnecessary Meetings
Company meetings are a good way to improve employee relationships, improve company performance thru consultations and feedback, and to improve company strategies.
However, unnecessary meetings can waste an employee’s precious working time when a simple e-mail or telephone call to the direct persons involved is all that is needed.
Possible solutions:
1.1 Try to limit meetings to 30 minutes or less.
1.2 Make sure that the meeting has a specific purpose.
1.3 Everyone attending the meeting must know why they need to attend the meeting.
1.4 The agenda for the meeting should be clear and the meeting should stick to it.
1.5 Avoid consecutive meetings, give everyone time to absorb the previous meeting and to do their actual job before scheduling another meeting.
1.6 Don’t make an employee attend a meeting just for the sake of attending. The employee must have a clear purpose/need to attend the meeting.
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2. Too Much Emails
Reading emails is a necessity for doing work. However, tending an email inbox overflowing with emails can significantly waste an employee’s time which should be devoted to actual work.
Possible Solutions:
2.1 Set regular intervals for answering emails, which could mean not answering emails even though you receive notifications.
2.2 Setup a company policy that enables an employee to know which are urgent emails that need to be answered immediately. This could mean placing codes in the title of emails that defines their urgency.
2.3 Setup a company policy that prohibits the mass sending of emails to employees especially if they have no direct involvement in the matters being discussed in the email.
2.4 Setup a company policy that provides a cutoff to how many emails an employee can process in a day.
Doing this means being fair to employees like customer service personnel who receive a disproportionate number of random emails from everyone on an hourly basis.
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3. Social Media
Without a doubt, social media is one of the biggest time waster that exist. Unfortunately, a lot of people can’t stop checking their social media account on a regular basis.
It also doesn’t help that social media apps are designed to be addictive. Social media apps trigger the brain’s pleasure nerves whenever a person checks their social media account.
Also, social media bombards you with notifications to ensure that you continually check your social media account.
Possible Solutions:
3.1 Develop a resistance to social media apps, don’t let social media dictate how you spend your time by it constantly bombarding you with notifications.
3.2 Set a finite time to check your social media account and stick to this schedule.
3.3 You might even go to the extremes and completely remove social media apps from your smartphone. Social media is just entertainment. You don’t really need it to live.
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4. No Direction
If you have no goals or plans, you’re like a boat with no rudder which aimlessly drift to where the current takes it.
You might devote a lot of time and energy into doing unnecessary tasks or devote no time and energy on necessary tasks, either way, you won’t know until you see the results of your labor.
Possible Solutions:
4.1 Think before you leap. Don’t do anything unless you know why you are doing it and what needs to be done. Think what you would be doing tomorrow, today.
4.2 Consult with your coworkers and especially your superiors regarding what is your duty in your company, to clarify your direction regarding your job.
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5. Procrastination
Are there tasks you especially hate doing in your company no matter how much you enjoy your job?
For example, you might enjoy your job as a factory floor manager supervising factory workers but hate doing paperwork.
You are not alone. All jobs have both enjoyable and boring/irritating tasks. This is a simple fact not only about jobs but everything in life itself. Everything has a good and bad side.
Possible Solutions:
5.1 Change your mindset, accept that everything in life has a tradeoff, including your job. You would have to enjoy the good and endure the bad.
5.2 Make a conscious effort to do the tasks you hate most first, this way you would have something to look forward to after you’ve finished it: doing the tasks you actually like.
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6. Perfectionism
Quality Work is not the same as a Perfect Work. Quality work means doing a job as much as you can while perfect work literally doesn’t exist. This is because there is no such thing as perfection.
Perfection means never ending improvements to something, while employees are paid a finite amount of money to do something.
Expecting perfection is counterproductive to business as the resources of a business would be exhausted chasing after perfection which would never happen.
Possible Solutions:
6.1 Stop chasing perfection! Accept the fact that there is no such thing as perfection, but work as hard as you can to deliver the best possible work that you can deliver for the time allotted to you.
6.2 Accept the fact that you would make mistakes in your work no matter how careful you are. It might be due to inexperience, oversight, and so on. Learn from your mistakes and do better and faster work next time.
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7. Disorganization
Disorganization is one of the biggest time wasters for employees and for everyone. For example, a disorganized work tool bench can waste your precious time by making you look for your tools everywhere.
The same thing goes in ordering the tasks you have to do. You could end up doing the task that should be done last in a certain procedure first, and doing the first task last.
As a result, you end up doing the procedure incorrectly. I’m sure everyone has experienced this situation before at some point in their life.
Possible Solutions:
7.1 Get organized! Sit down and make a physical or mental layout of your work desk and office, so you would not have to waste time guessing where things and people you want to find are.
7.2 Before you do anything, stop to think first how you would have to do your task logically and sequentially, so you would do your tasks in the right order and not waste time repeating them.
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8. Multitasking
Multitasking is doing pieces of several tasks at the same time. While it might seem that multitasking is making maximal use of time, it might actually stress an employee so much that they do less work instead of more work.
Also, by doing several piecemeal tasks at the same time, each task takes longer to complete. This is especially harmful to time sensitive tasks.
Possible Solutions:
8.1 Decide which tasks you would not multitask with other tasks. There are tasks that need the immediate and full concentration of an employee, and there’s no going around this.
8.2 Complete one task at a time if possible. Usually, the quality of your work will improve as well as your speed when you do this.
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9. Not Saying “No”
Your inability to say “no” to your colleagues and even your bosses might eventually overload you with tasks that is totally unrelated to your actual job.
You might be an efficient worker while your colleagues and bosses are inefficient. As a result, they want you to do the tasks they are supposed to do to lessen their workload.
Possible Solutions:
9.1 Learn to say “no” and explain politely to your colleagues and bosses your task and their unfairness at unloading their tasks to you.
9.2 Since most employees are still being paid on a per hour basis, pace your work such that you complete your tasks on time, neither underworking or overworking.
This might seem like sabotaging your chances to become a star employee, but, you actually exchange time with quality. You actually, do your best high quality work for the amount of time allotted to you.
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10. Outdated Technology
Today, technology is a part of our everyday life, and technology is progressing at such a fast rate that even recent technologies are fast becoming obsolete.
This is especially apparent with Electronics Technology. Computer hardwares are fast becoming obsolete with the deluge of more complex and computer memory hungry softwares and apps.
As a result, computer devices work much slower than they used to, or newer software and apps don’t work on them anymore.
Possible Solutions:
10.1 There is no going around this: If you want to continue being productive, you would always need to update your electronics devices, softwares and apps.
10.2 Make sure your electronics devices are serviced like your printers and Xerox machines. Even just a malfunctioning Xerox machine can result in complete work stoppage for the entire company.
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11. Interruptions
There’s no working around it, you would be faced with constant interruptions as you try to do your work in piece.
Email and app notifications, telephone calls, text messages, coworkers stopping by to ask questions, and so on. There is an endless list of interruptions you face on a daily basis.
Interruptions can make you lose focus in your work, causing you to work slower and you might even have to start your work again after your focus has been lost.
Possible Solutions:
11.1 Put your smartphone inside your drawer or in a place where you cannot see or hear from it. Schedule a time where you would check up on it and stick to it.
11.2 If you have a door in your office, close and even lock it if you have to. You can also put a “Do Not Disturb” sign to emphasize your point to your colleagues.
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12. Not Delegating
If you hold a senior, supervisory, management or owner position in your company, you might be doing tasks that your subordinates are supposed to be doing.
This is the reason why employees are hired in the first place, to relieve managers and owners of their more menial tasks so they can concentrate on doing more important tasks.
Not delegating means not making full use of your employee’s time who are usually paid on a per hour basis.
Possible Solutions:
12.1 If you are holding a management or owner position in your company, delegate your more menial tasks to your employees. Hire additional employees if you have to.
12.2 Define which tasks can be automated and automate them accordingly. Company machines are also employees in a way, because they do work meant for humans.
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13. Poor Communication
Speaking is one of the quickest way to communicate, however, speaking is prone to wrongful pronunciations and being misinterpreted.
As a result, an employee can end up doing the wrong task which ends up being redone later. I’m sure that everyone has experienced the harmful effect of miscommunication at one point in their lives.
Possible Solutions:
13.1 Make sure that you communicate your message clearly. If possible, make the recipient of your message repeat your message and correct whatever errors they made understanding it.
13.2 Eliminate other noises around. This might mean asking the recipient of your message to leave the noisy area together with you, so there is no other sound that your message recipient would hear except your message.
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14. Distractions
When you become stressed doing your tasks in your company, do you take a break and smoke a cigarette or check your social media account?
Do you feel a need to smoke or check your social media account just because you saw a coworker doing it?
If you do, you are the type of person who is easily distracted. You probably spend extra time in your office doing your task because distractions easily steal your time.
Possible Solutions:
14.1 Avoid or stay away from things and activities that might distract you from your work. For example, not bringing cigarettes to work minimizes the temptation for you to stop working in order to smoke.
14.2 Keep a minimal office setup by removing all things that could possibly distract you from working. Remove paintings, toys, books, magazines and anything your eye can see which would easily distract you.
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15. "Busywork"
According to Merriam-Webster: “Busywork” is work that seems productive but only serves to keep you busy.
For example, always cleaning your work area in a factory might make you look like you’re busy, but in reality you should be doing your factory work all the time. Cleaning should be done at most during the end of your workday.
Possible Solutions:
15.1 If you manage employees in your company, make sure that you prioritize actual work rather than busywork for your employees, don’t be taken in by employees who pretend to be doing tiring work but of little value to the company.
15.2 Automate busywork. There are cheap company machines that can replace your busywork tasks in the company.
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16. Chatty Colleagues
In most companies, there would be employees who would rather chat or socialize instead of working, presumably because they are bored with their jobs.
Worse, these same employees would brand you a bore or an ass kisser just because you want to work rather than chat or socialize.
As a result, these employees waste company time and the other employees’ company time doing activities unrelated to their work in the company.
Possible Solutions:
16.1 Avoid or stay away from chatty colleagues as they would likely bring you down with them once the company notices how much they are a distraction to company work.
16.2 Socialize with colleagues on work breaks only. Engage only in meaningful talk. This has the effect of preserving your social status in the company and showing that you care about the important personal aspects of your colleagues too without wasting everybody’s time.
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17. Micromanaging
If you are holding a management or owner position in your company, you might be micromanaging your employee, which means that you are dictating every aspect of their job.
No employee likes to be micromanaged. It demotivates, shames, and is a surefire way to bring down the creativity and innovation of your employees.
If you are an employee being micromanaged, just imagine the time you waste repeatedly waiting for your boss to approve each and every step of your tasks.
Possible Solution:
If you are the manager or the owner of the company, you should learn to trust that your employees would do the job you employed them to do.
This can be done by properly informing your employees on what to do regarding their job. Once they have become knowledgeable of their job, leave them alone and only monitor the quality of their work output.
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18. Not Relaxing
Stress makes you lose concentration. As a result, you would likely produce a lesser quality of work. You are also likely to make a lot of mistakes if you are not relaxed when doing your work.
Possible Solutions:
18.1 Listen to music that relaxes you. Different people have different tastes in music: classical, pop, rock, new wave, metal, and so on. The important thing is that music can make a person relax such that they are able to concentrate on their work.
18.2 Have downtimes to bring down your stress levels and to return your concentration on your work. This could be by having short workouts or naps at lunchtime or breaks. It could also be as simple as closing your eyes for a few minutes.
18.3 Vacations help to detoxify a person from their office responsibilities and routines. As a result, after a vacation, an employee would likely have an improved mood while working. This is the reason why labor laws include vacation leaves as employee benefits.
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Final Words
The business world is getting more and more competitive these days and would continue to do so. Companies are making do with lesser and lesser employees doing more and more work.
As a result, many companies are at breaking point trying to make their companies competitive. This is why it is important for companies and employees to remove things and activities that waste their important time.
Time wasters either come from the company or from the employees themselves. Most of the time, companies and employees don’t even realize that they are doing time wasters.
This is the reason why companies and employees must regularly analyze the activities they are doing and determine if a few or all of them are time wasters. Time wasters have a sneaky way of squeezing in an unthinking employees activities, so beware!
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