This week in the Wylde blog we’re looking at work efficiency – how much time do we spend at work actually doing what we were hired to do? So, it turned out the average person will spend one third of their entire life at work. Thats over 90,000 hours over a lifetime, spent at work – so it’s so important that we recognise our patterns, behaviours and understand the ways we work and how to be as efficient as possible.
Recent studies have shown that actually, whilst we may have clocked in at work we actually spend around half our working days doing tasks that aren’t in our job descriptions or ‘work admin’ a.k.a work around work. Apparently we spend between 1-3 hours each day making up for work not done by others or chasing colleagues.
It seems the new norm in the workday is admin and correspondence about work and only spending around 3 hours a day being creative, strategic and productive. The key to unlocking a whole new level of productivity is acknowledging that these behaviours have fast become workplace norms and so in challenging these patterns, you’ll need the whole team on board.
The “ever expanding job” is unfortunately something too many of us are familiar with. Many of us have experienced landing a job we landed with expectation of spending the majority of our time doing one thing, when in reality we spend the time doing office chores, admin or the damned tea-making. Not only is this a disappointment to those ready to learn and develop skill sets or put talents to good use, it wastes time and productivity across the business.
Work efficiency can be optimised through strategic collaboration and communication. With so much of our time spent micro-managing others, one of the ways to stop the problem at source, is to control who is doing what and when. Good management software and systems are crucial.
There are things you can do as an individual to increase your work efficiency and productivity. With so many of us admitting to spending a disturbing amount of the work day checking social media, first things first – turn off non-work related notifications and allocate specific break-time to check and scroll!
It’s important to manage yourself effectively; start the day knowing what you want to have achieved by the end of the day and focus on the most important tasks first. Set time to get into deep focus and non-distracted work – this means insuring no meetings or calls are planned. Allow time to get motivated and inspired, so your work comes naturally and you feel engaged and energised whilst completing the work.
Remember that you have been hired based on a skillset you already have, so optimising you talents and allowing time to focus will only lead to developing and progressing. Get to it!
If you want to find out more about how Wylde can design a workplace for you that will boost how your teams work, check out our Wyldeology here.
