How to Save Time at Work to Become More Efficient and Productive

By?Ruzanna Hernandez, Ed.D.

Introduction

Do you feel like you are constantly behind at work and can't catch up??Are there things you can do to save time to become more efficient, productive, and actually get home on time each day??How effectively and efficiently we use time matters.?Saving time will help you achieve more goals in your personal life and professional life.?You may have plans to continue your education, change your career, get a promotion, spend more time on hobbies, raise a family, start a business, or grow a side business.?If you use your time effectively, you'll have time for these activities!?Saving time effectively will help you achieve and accomplish more in life!

Data and Statistics on Use of Time at Work

Here are some interesting facts, data, and statistics on the use of time and time management:

• On average,?employees spend 44 minutes on social media every day .
• Only 17% of people track their time ?for practical usage.
• An?average worker in the United States spends 41.5 hours per week at work ?(full-time employees).
• About 75% of people could not strike a work-life balance .
• Employees who spend 10 to 12 minutes a day planning will save 2 hours of time, on average .
• Within the last 20 years, the time that a person works has increased by 15%.
• Self-interruptions, or distractions, are responsible for 44% of all interruptions? during work.
• 31% of workers waste 30 minutes a day, another 31% waste 1 hour a day, and 16% waste roughly 2 hours .
• According to 2019 data,?an average employee spends 2 hours per day recovering from distractions .
• A person who works with a "messy" or cluttered desk spends, on average, 1 1/2 hours per day looking for things or being distracted by things .??

Importance of Saving Time

Saving time is like saving money.?The tiny bits add up!?Saving a minute here, saving a minute there, will add up to significant amounts at the end of each day, week, and month!?What can you do with that saved time??A lot!?Being efficient with time can open up more opportunities, help you seem reliable, and help you get home on time.??Effective use of time ?is critical in our lives because we can never get the time back that we have lost.?Effective time management ?will lead to:

• Less wasted time
• More time for leisure and relaxation
• Better lifestyle
• Improved morale
• Improved production
• Less procrastination
• More opportunity for growth
• Improved focus
• Positive reputation & better evaluations
• Reaching goals faster
• Getting home on-time more often

6 Strategies to Save Time at Work to Become More Efficient and Productive

If you want to save time at work to become more effective and efficient, here are 6 things you can do immediately.?Choose one to three of these and develop SMART goals around them.?Track how well you do to meet the goals each week, biweekly, or monthly.?This is the one true way of improving time saving and time management skills!

1)?Make time-saving a priority.?

If you want to save time at work, you have to prioritize it.?Set a goal for yourself that is measurable, attainable, and timely.?Once you make saving time the main focus, you'll notice yourself doing everything you can to work toward achieving it.?Here are 5 examples of SMART goals for saving time at work from which you can choose:

• I will make a priority list every single day at work for the top 3 to 5 things I must have accomplished each day.?
• I will not use my telephone for social media at all while I am at work to not lose focus and concentration.
• When I have downtime, I will ask to learn a new skill or trait that can eventually help me get a promotion.
• I will?track how much time I spend on various activities ?at work for 1 week to see where I can save wasted time.?
• I will limit the self-distracting behaviors by 50% in the next month.

2)?Curtail side conversations and personal conversations.?

You will be surprised by how much time is spent at work doing non-work things.?When you track your time for a week, you'll realize how much conversation happens on the telephone or in person about things that are not related to your work.?The workday is ending and you are asked if you accomplished a task or project you were assigned.?If you reluctantly say you did not have time to finish, stop to think about how effectively you used your time.?If you did everything you could to finish the task, you did nothing wrong.?If you spent time on activities that were non-essential, you have to change your work habits.?Remember, your reputation proceeds you. The better you use your time for the good of your organization, the more highly you'll be recommended to move up or to get a promotion.

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