The average human lives for about 26,645 days. That doesn’t seem like much, really.
Out of those days, we’ll spend about 10,000 at work.
That’s almost half our life spent working!
Are we putting that time to good use, though? Or, could we use some good time management strategies?
Let’s take a closer look at the facts and figures.
That’s equivalent to 34.5 hours per week, which isn’t bad. But how does it compare to elsewhere in the world?
While the US still has a way to go before it enjoys the same working hours as Europe, it’s still a massive improvement from those who had to suffer 3,150 – 3,650 working hours per year in 1850!
How are workers spending their work weeks, exactly?
Almost 3,500 freelancers were surveyed across 84 countries, and it was found that:
This is an improvement from previous years. Overall, the average number of weekly hours worked in 2023 was 40, compared with:
Despite the long working hours, not all of it is productive. The same study found that:
That’s about six hours weekly on tasks like client acquisition, accounting, and customer care.
Despite this, 58% of all surveyed said that time management was the main benefit of switching to freelancing.
Asana surveyed the behaviors and attitudes of 10,223 knowledge workers across several countries. A knowledge worker was defined as someone who spent 50% or more of their time using a device to complete tasks.
The “less meaningful” work refers to “work about work.” Activities such as communicating, looking for documents, managing priorities, checking emails, etc.
As such:
Out of the time spent on less meaningful work, 10% was wasted on duplication. That’s over four hours per week on unnecessary repetition.
The reasons for all of these issues were found to be due to a lack of communication – such as working in silos – and inefficient processes.
This correlates with a recent 2024 study that found:
These are the things that don't add value and don’t contribute to productivity.
Other top productivity killers, according to the report, include:
Speaking of interruptions…
In 2023, Microsoft surveyed over 31,000 of its users. According to the time spent in Microsoft 365:
In total, the average employee spent 57% of their time communicating (in meetings, email, and chat) and only 43% creating or being productive.
That’s over half of the workday spent talking or communicating with other people!
This data is based on a survey that examined how AI can free up time and energy and protect focus time for the creative work that leads to innovation.
And, the tide is turning toward AI. According to the same survey:
Here are the key ways that workers will use AI to do this:
This leads back to the previous statistic on how inefficient processes waste time and increase duplication.
Now, there are so many digital apps out there that can streamline processes and help you manage your time, from automated time tracking to payroll software, communication, and everything in between.
Since there’s no need to rely on manual processes, technology should be helping us, right?
Not necessarily.
That means a whopping 82% of people lack a proper time management system.
Instead, the 2024 study found that this is what people rely on:
Incredibly, 25% of people don’t have any kind of system at all and say they just deal with the most important thing at that moment in time.
This leads to “firefighting,” where you are reacting to situations as and when they arise. Along the way, important (but less urgent tasks) get swept aside or forgotten.
The result? You feel you are not in control of your workload.
According to the same survey:
The remaining 50% say the Eisenhower matrix allows them to be in control at least 4 days a week.
The Pomodoro Technique is also very popular, with 60% of people feeling work is under control either 4-5 days per week.
Although time management techniques help, the best method is to use a dedicated time-tracking app to record how the day is spent.
Speaking of apps…
The more apps people use, the more likely they are to say they are less efficient and the more time they waste.
Additionally, 25% of the people using 16 or more apps said they missed messages and actions.
The fewer apps you use, the better things get:
There’s more!
Workers using the highest number of apps could save 9.6 hours a week.
It’s no secret that mobile phones are one of the biggest time sinks out there. Whether it’s social media pings or email notifications, it all distracts the same way.
To minimize this problem:
That’s more than half of our waking hours spent online!
Gen Z and Millenials spend even more time online – about nine hours per day. And, the time spent online goes down as we move through the generations:
The average American will check their smartphone around 144 times a day.
But, the biggest time sink was the number of hours we spent with our heads buried in our inboxes.
23% of the day disappeared when dealing with pointless emails. That’s over 2.5 hours a day reading and responding to messages.
Over a 45-year career, that’s ten whole years!
So, how do we curb this obsession?
Post-COVID-19, it doesn’t look like the meeting situation has improved much.
Meeting overload is responsible for workers having to work overtime, with 51% clocking up extra hours several times a week.
The same percentage also finds it hard to keep on top of a growing workload.
One of the main contributors to this problem is those in supervisory roles:
Unbalanced workloads have a huge impact on time management and a lack of clarity around responsibility feeds into that. If you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing, then you don’t know what your workload should be.
Effective leadership is key. And, organizations should implement management training so supervisors understand how to optimize their team’s time.
Across the pond, our Britsh counterparts are also experiencing workload issues.
“Gruelling” work intensity is a big problem. Employees say they are working harder and longer and must fit more work into working hours.
The result is that work often spills over into private lives.
Overall:
Perhaps most shockingly, 40% of workers have reported that they are required to do more work in the same amount of time.
This means that…
According to the poll conducted by Michael Page:
Unsurprisingly, overwork leads to burnout which has a big detrimental effect on productivity.
These problems are not just limited to the UK.
An additional 34% said they have to push aside activities like exercise, hobbies, and even taking care of their home for the sake of their work.
Disappointingly, 27% say they can’t take time off from work despite wanting to.
Interestingly, it’s those who are mid-way through their careers that are being overburdened:
Flexibility around time management is highly desirable, with 70% of workers saying that asynchronous work is important to job satisfaction.
In contrast, only 32% said they prefer working the same hours as their colleagues.
A study exploring the effects of multitasking on individual performance determined that multitasking not only takes more time but also stifles creativity and worsens performance.
Multitasking under pressure presented even more problems and reduced accuracy and decision-making consistency.
A study performed in 2019 conducted a meta-analysis across 158 existing studies on the subject of time management.
Its job was to find out how time management influences job performance and personal well-being. It was found that since the early 1990s, good time management has been increasingly linked to better performance reviews.
However, personality and demographics play a smaller role in time management than you may think:
The biggest win around time management is life satisfaction.
The analysis revealed that having good skills in this area significantly boosts life satisfaction – far more than it boosts performance, challenging the common belief that its primary benefit is improved work output.
One could argue, though, that the happier a person is in life, the more likely they are to be productive and engaged at work.
Effective time management is challenging without a structure or support in place.
Time management methods help but without a clear picture of where you are spending time, it’s hard to know how to optimize.
Using time-tracking software will build that picture for you. By accounting for every second spent, you can see where it is being wasted. Eliminate your time sinks, and you will suddenly find you have a lot more to spare.
