Do you often feel like a single day is not enough to complete all your tasks? Do you often think like – “I wish I had more time in a day?” You are not alone. 90% of people think that they don’t have enough time to meet all their deadlines at work.
But how much truth does it hold? Are eight- nine hours not enough to complete all your tasks? Or do you waste a lot of time without even noticing? If you don’t know the answers, it’s high time you pay attention!
According to a recent research, modern employees waste more time than ever before. As a result, it is affecting the company’s profits. When surveyed, 80% of workers waste about three hours on non-work tasks. Also, 4% of employees waste half of their days on non-work-related things. So, what are people doing instead of working? Here are the most common time wasters that ruin your productivity.
Smartphones And Social Media Platforms
This is the biggest distraction that hampers every employee’s productivity. In today’s fast paced lifestyle, your phone is the single device that has kept your tuned in. But, it is also the main culprit that takes out most of your time. As per the survey records almost 60% of staff spend at least two hours a day on social media and non-work websites. While taking short breaks is necessary in-between work, you might not even realize how you spend hours on social sites.
Fix: Block all the notifications when you are working. Browse your phone in your lunch breaks.
A Noisy Work Place And Chatty Co-Workers
It’s hard not to chat with your workmates, especially when most of them are your friends. You meet them every day and you like their company. But, chatting with co-workers is wasting lots of your work time. With a large and open work floor, you are in the middle of others talking and laughing. All these distractions like office phones, the noise of printers can hamper your concentration.
Fix: Use headphones and listen to deep focus music when you are working.
Failed Attempt Of Multi-Tasking
You might feel multi-tasking is your jam but in reality, it is ruining your productivity. Studies have shown that most people perform low when they are multitasking. SO, if you find yourself juggling with three or more tasks at a time, reevaluate your work habits.
Fix: Set up a timer and finish one task at a time.
The Immediate Procrastinator
Do you feel like you have achieved a lot every time you finish a task? You might take a long break and dread your next task. Everyone procrastinates a bit or more. There are times when you know you have an urgent task to finish. But you can’t find the motivation to do it. You trick yourself into thinking that you need a ‘break’ but in reality, you are delaying the original task but doing something less important.
Fix: Remember why you started the project, what does it mean to you, and how urgent it is.
Conclusion:
The first step to avoid wasting your work time is to understand that you do it regularly. It never feels good to make up all the wasted time in the upcoming days. In today’s sedentary lifestyle, it is easy to fall behind. Control your mind before it starts controlling you and push yourself to work as much as you can. But don’t forget to take proper breaks like one lunch break (thirty to forty-five minutes), two tea breaks (ten to fifteen minutes) in between your work.
