By Younas Chaudhary
To operate a positive cashflow business, managing employees, working with vendors and owners, organizing projects, and completing tasks on time are critical. However, we live in a world of time wasters that impact productivity.
Common time wasters include the internet, unnecessary meetings, personal phone calls, texting, distractions while working from home, lack of clear goals, disorganized workspaces and even the weather! Employees surf the net, shop on Amazon, watch Netflix, and check dating websites while at work. They struggle to select tasks that improve the quality of their work as they get immersed in social media.
“Employees facing increased workloads usually tackle easier tasks first. This happens because people feel positive emotions after task completion, yet it could hurt long-term performance. Workloads could be structured to help employee development as well as organizational performance,” says Prof. Francesca Gino in an article in the Harvard Business Journal.
How do we structure workload when time wasters hinder our productivity? Web surfing takes us from place to place, derailing our thought processes. This causes us to lose focus and puts us back to square one! Our urge to check text messages and emails on multiple devices at different hours of the day is a big time waster that hurts productivity.
Time wasters at work vary across generations, but unnecessary meetings are something that’s common to all of us. We lose so much time in unfocused meetings, whether face to face or virtual, without realizing that every minute lost is a hindrance to productivity and impacts the bottom line. I am not saying we must ban meetings. We need to be disciplined about them and you can read some of my previous thoughts on meetings here, detailing how time management is essential.
Yet another big-time waste is a disorganized workspace. Haven’t we seen offices and desks of co-workers scattered and filled with reams of papers and documents showing us that they are very busy? A cluttered, disorganized workspace is not a genius in action. Instead, it’s a confused soul not knowing where to go next. Disorganized workspaces lessen productivity as employees spend more time searching for stuff than doing real work.
For those working from home, there is an endless list of time wasters from crying children, pets, visiting friends, and noisy distractions like the washer and lawn mower. But many falsely claim that they get more work done despite all these interruptions.
Lastly, our biggest time waster is a boss who doesn’t give clear goals, written meaningful instructions, project action items, and clear deadlines. This gives time wasters a chance to coast through every day without the expected productivity!
Looking back, 40 years ago, I was ten times more productive with a college ruled notebook and a pencil! Stay blessed.
Disclaimer
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated. Further, I make no warranty regarding the accuracy or effectiveness of my recommendations, and readers are advised to consult other advisors as well as their own judgments in making business decisions.
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