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What are the ‘time thieves’ that steal minutes from us at work

Work on a word document while exporting data from excel and checking email alerts. All this, with the mobile phone in sight to answer WhatsApp messages. And in the breaks – of undetermined frequency –, we consult the social networks. Technologies are a valuable help for our day to day life, but they can also be powerful disruptors of our attention. Avanzadi, a consulting firm specialized in technological management of Human Resources, identifies five of the disruptors that end up becoming “time thieves” and that end up generating professional and even personal frustration.

multi-tasking: the number one suspect

For a long time – and in many companies it still is – the ability to work on different tasks at the same time has been considered a virtue. Although simultaneity is inevitable at certain specific moments, today it has been shown that the so-called multitasking is actually a myth in decline. Back in 2009, a Stanford University study showed that multitaskers are less productive and tend to excel in fewer aspects than those who manage to focus on a particular task.

Labor presenteeism or ‘the syndrome of dead hours’

The so-called ‘job presenteeism’ is often nothing more than the consequence of the loss of attention. Our brains are not capable of focusing on different jobs. If our attention falls, ‘hours of work’ become a euphemism for ‘hours lost’, since all that investment of time does not translate into concrete results. It is a key aspect for all companies, since many work in terms of ‘hours’ without taking into account that this hourly unit does not measure real productivity at all.

Social networks, the ‘black hole’ of productivity

Nine out of ten Spaniards use social networks in Spain, and the average number of hours invested is 1h 53 minutes per day, a figure that grows exponentially among the youngest users. This is confirmed by the 2022 Digital Report, prepared jointly by Hootsuite and We Are Social.

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In fact, another Adecco study revealed that 90% of companies recognize that their employees use them during the working day. How many times do we interact in networks? How often do we allow ourselves to be interrupted or lose focus due to an ad or for the simple pleasure of checking the latest news? Unanswered questions that show what we all know: social networks are, for many, a well into which we throw buckets full of hours without realizing it…

Email: a ‘delinquent’ with an alibi

Of all the ‘cannibal tools’ that steal our time, email has the strongest alibi. A study carried out by Carat under the title ‘Social networks: angels and demons’ shows that email is the reason why we connect to the Internet in 51% of cases. It is necessary to work in office environments, and for this reason it is often not even questioned. The problem comes when it is the mailbox that sets the priorities. The ‘new mail in inbox’ notices often (for no solid reason) become the new priorities. The battle between the ‘urgent’ and the ‘important’ is waged daily in every office…

housework

As a result of the pandemic, household chores have unexpectedly ‘snuck’ onto the list of obstacles to deal with during the workday. Hanging out the clothes, putting on the washing machine at the cheapest time… Teleworking had its climax in the 2020 confinement and allowed us to appreciate the advantages of remote work. But experience has also allowed us to observe the disadvantages of working at home.

After confinement, anxiety grew in almost all European countries (21% in the case of Spain), according to the study ‘Addressing the mental health impact of the Covid-19 crisis: an integrated response from the whole of society’, prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The report reveals that telecommuting “can blur the boundaries between work and home, contribute to extended working hours and result in a feeling of detachment from the workplace”.

In short, teleworking is not always a beneficial option for the company or for the worker. The latter ends up mixing their domestic tasks with work, generating a drop in productivity and a perception of endless hours that does not always correspond to reality. In this sense, blended work can be a good solution (not always suitable for all profiles equally).

Solutions for optimal management

The difficulty of managing time optimally is evident when all these factors come into play. Data analysis certainly helps (hours invested in each project, time spent on each tool, downtime management…). The data undoubtedly help to draw conclusions.

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