Why, How & Where Our Time Gets Lost at Work [Infographic]

Why-How-Where-Our-Time-Gets-Lost-at-WorkThe average workday lasts about 8 hours. Since there are five workdays in a week, it follows that on average, we should be working 40 hours a week.

Interestingly, very few people work that many hours in a week. According to multiple studies, including one by HubSpot, 89% of workers admit to working less than eight hours a day. In the HubSpot study, for instance, a majority of respondents said they work for only about 5 hours every day, translating to approximately 25 hours a week. Put simply, the average worker is only productive for 3 out of the 5 weekdays!

Where do the other two days go?

There are a number of culprits here, with emails (43.5%) topping the list. The average C-Level staff receives 34 business emails per week. Since it takes 16 minutes to read, digest, and respond to an email, one is likely to spend over 9 hours on emails alone every week!

Unproductive meetings come second, accounting for 42.3% of time lost at work. On average, executives spend 7.75 hours on unproductive meetings every week. The other three main time-wasting activities at the workplace are:

  • Browsing online (21.8%)
  • Commuting (17.4%)
  • Procrastination (10%)

Put together; these activities can consume over 3 hours of your work time every day. If you want to be successful, find a way to minimize them.

Thanks to Scoro.com for this useful infographic.

About Mike Gingerich

Mike Gingerich, President of Digital Hill & TabSite is a business blogger Marketer and Consultant. Part geek, part marketer, part strategist, total fitness and running junkie. Mike is an author and speaker, having presented at Social Media Week Lima, Social Media Camp (Canada) and more. Mike is a marketing, social media, and business startup enthusiast with 10+ years experience building apps, consulting, and training businesses with winning integrated strategies. Mike loves deploying tactics to increase awareness, sales, and maximize ROI in both B2B and B2C markets via digital media.