3 Ways We Waste Time At Work – And How to Prevent It

Work Day

‘If only we had more time in the day,’ we say to ourselves as we bemoan the ticking hands of the clock.

‘If only I had more time to do what needs to be done,’ you might tell yourself, as you realize you might need to commit to overtime again.

If only!

But the truth is this: Many of us are guilty of wasting time in business, and this is why we don’t complete the many tasks that befit our to-do lists.

We waste time in business meetings that have little to no purpose.

These include the meetings that we head across town to attend when meeting with clients or other business colleagues. And these include the meetings we call ourselves when we gather our employees together. But here’s the thing. There are faster ways to communicate without wasting our own time or annoying our employees when we interrupt their workflow, and these include Slack, email, and project management software. And sometimes, of course, we have no reason to communicate at all, so why waste time holding meetings in the first place? You can answer that for yourself if you are relating to this point.

We waste time using outdated processes and technologies.

You will be able to relate to this yourself if you’re still running a paper-based office, or if you’re using tech that firmly belongs in the last century. Your productivity will suffer as a consequence, possibly because you spend ages trying to find an important document in your filing cabinet, or because every keystroke on your aging computer takes an age to appear on the screen. If you are relating, here’s what you need to do. Boost your productivity by replacing your older technologies. Download the apps and software programs that will make light work of your most time-consuming business tasks. And seek the support of managed IT services such lie vtechsupport.com for advice on transitioning to the cloud to move you closer to a paperless office. Your business will benefit if you take these steps as you won’t have to waste time with your failing tech and your manual work processes.

We waste time with needless distractions.

It might be a casual glance at Facebook. It could be a non-work-related conversation with a colleague. We might scroll through the messages on our phones. And we might have yet another cup of tea. It could be one of any number of time-wasters, and while some of them might only be for a few minutes, there are others that could swallow up the precious time we have (hello social media). Still, no matter how much of our time is taken up with these things, one thing is for sure. They prevent us from getting work done. Relegate these things to your break times only, and be more diligent with the work you have to do. 

Do you waste time during your business day? Think about it, and then make the necessary changes to give you the opportunity to actually complete your working day without feelings of guilt or the need to do overtime. Both you and your business will benefit if you do. 

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