7 ways we are unintentionally wasting time at work
Waste of time at work can cost us irreparable loss in professional life and indirectly at personnel capacity. Sometimes we experience that our progress at work has been slowed or stopped but we fail to comprehend consciously that it was due to the waste of time. At this moment, it appears to us that we are properly doing our work but we remain oblivious to the fact that we are doing undesired tasks and wasting our time. Hence by wasting time we burn our energies on unnecessary pursuits, which could have been used for some worthwhile endeavors.
How to know that we are wasting time at work?
Looking busy while doing nothing is the practice of wasting time. In our daily to do list, there are certain time-wasting activities that we do not notice and tread our routine in a run of the mill manner. Hence to root out time wasters we need to consciously evaluate every daily task. Our mental discipline and approach toward work can cause us the waste of time. Unintentionally dwelling on useless thoughts, emotional disturbance, working hard to complete petty tasks, and engaging in distractive activities like using social media are instances of unconscious time-wasting.
What are the ways of wasting time at work?
1. Multitasking
Multitasking robes our attention and results in waste of our precious time. Multitasking diminishes our productivity as our mind switches between different tasks. Our mind is naturally designed to work on one thing at a time. Switching tasks means no task gets our full attention. Focusing on one thing at a time is the best strategy to use our time effectively.
2. Small task addiction
By focusing on small tasks, we keep ourselves away from the actual tasks that are necessary for achieving our goals. Hence small tasks eat our precious time at work. However, it is good to complete small tasks as it gives a sense of completion but they burn our energies in petty pursuits.
3. Doing other people’s work
If doing a task is not your responsibility and it is not serving your goals it is wasting of time at the workplace. In fact, it might be other people’s work that you are doing. Further, if you are not delegating tasks to others properly it means you are wasting your time.
4. Procrastinating
Procrastinating is when you unnecessarily postpone things. Sometimes it is due to unconscious stress or mental indiscipline. Procreating keeps us engaged in a task while making no progress to finish it. By little mental discipline and motivation, one can break the fetters of procrastinating.
5. Working on wrong priorities
Streamlining the tasks to stress the most important one is the best practice to save time at work. When we do not prioritize our tasks, we mostly wander and waste precious time. While working on the wrong priorities we remain too much busy without achieving any use.
6. Use of social media
Scrolling down social media and unintendedly reading unimportant news is the major time waster at work. Social media is a thief, that steals our time, and we give away this precious belonging without any hesitation. To avoid time waste at the workplace we must limit the use of social media and other gadgets to the minimum.
7. Being too available
Being available to others in the hours of need is a good thing but if other people get the idea that they can approach you at any time it became a curse. Being too available to other increase stress and waste our time at work, without we being aware of it.
