If time is money, how much is your time worth? Whatever the figure, think about each and every activity that you’re spending time on on a regular basis. Whether it is sending unnecessary emails and checking for a response, or just surfing the net, we all waste time. To quote Peter Drucker ‘Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed’.
Remember the time and motion studies of the 60’s ? This was a method for establishing employee productivity and was used by many businesses all over the world to improve efficiency. These methods may no longer be in daily use, but the basic idea of trying to find the best way of managing our time is highly relevant today, given all the distracting technology we are now surrounded with.
A survey by OfficeTime.net was used to compile a list of the top ten time killers, based on people spending between 1 and 2 hours a day on non-productive activities. The obvious time wasters hold the top 3 places, but it is interesting to see that fourth place is procrastination. 19% of people who took part in the survey admitted they spend between one and two hours a day just putting things off.
Non-business related conversations are another major time waster, with 9 out of 10 confessing to spending up to 2 hours a day on idle chatter. With an horrendous 75% admitting to using social network sites such as Twitter or Facebook for up to 2 hours a day it is easy to see how we fritter our time away.
Time management is one resource that we cannot buy more of, so we have to learn to use it wisely. Our infographic looks at how effective time tracking can be and offers some useful suggestions to help us make the most of what we have..