Time-wasting costs a day a week

Workers lose a day every week to timewasting activities, meaning New Zealand businesses are throwing away $19 billion a year, says an Ernst & Young study.

The Productivity Pulse Survey, the first of its kind measuring workplace productivity, questioned 1220 workers across a range of industry sectors to uncover areas of significant time loss.

The biggest culprits included: responding to pointless emails (17 per cent), waiting for other staff to finish tasks or for management approvals (16 per cent), technology malfunctions (13 per cent) and unnecessary meetings (9 per cent). The end result was that 21 per cent of all workforce time is spent on activities which added no value to the company.

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce CEO Max Mason said time wasted at work was an ongoing issue, and there were two main aspects to consider.

"Firstly, employees need to understand they have an obligation to their employer of working a full day. I think that gets forgotten sometimes. Many people could probably cut down on time on Facebook, surfing the web, personal emails or just chatting with friends on the phone.

"Secondly though, when you are at work, concentrating on the wrong things wastes a lot of time. We could all improve our productivity and personal efficiency."

Mr Mason is an advocate of personal efficiency and time management programmes.

"I would encourage businesses to place staff on time management courses and to use the technology available today." Mr Mason said there were simple ways to help get the most out of your work day.

"Things that you can do now, which will take less than 10 minutes to complete, do them now, don't put them off.

"Emails can consume a lot of time. I look at my emails once a day about mid-morning and set aside 30-45 minutes to deal with them. Many people work through their day without any real structure, simply responding to things. That's very inefficient. Make a list each day and prioritise. Spend some time at the end of each day planning for tomorrow, just 10 minutes. It has huge benefits."

One of those benefits is personal.

"You sleep better," said Mr Mason. "It takes the stress away and you don't wake up worrying about things because you are organised and you have a plan of action. A lot of stress comes from feeling out of control."

Phil Van Syp, managing director of 1st Call Recruitment, said employees spending excessive time on Facebook or personal emails was a well-known issue. A number of his clients had implemented computer systems which blocked non work-related sites.

Mr Van Syp said one area his company had addressed was cutting down on meetings and making those they did have more focused.

"We've tried to limit meetings to once a week. We're not always successful but that's what we aim for, and we structure them to keep on topic and get results. We create action points and have an administrator keeping minutes so at the next meeting people's words can be read back to them. It's about getting results, that's what meetings are for at the end of the day."

Five tips to manage your time

Decide Now

Decide what tasks can be completed within 10 minutes and do them. Completing short tasks rather than postponing them aids efficiency.

Diarise

As tasks arise, diarise them. This helps with planning.

Delegate

Those tasks that can be delegated, and where it is appropriate to do so, delegate.

Designate

Designate depending on the importance of your tasks. Make a list of tasks for the day and prioritise the most important.

Deposit and Delete

Create separate files for those non-urgent tasks and file them. Clear your inbox by deleting all unimportant emails.