This is where all your time goes in your working week

Have you ever gotten to the end of your working week and wondered where all the time disappeared to? It's that bizarre feeling of knowing you've been busy, but feeling like you've achieved nothing at all.

You're not alone in your questioning. In fact, there are multiple sources that state that in an 8-hour day, only three of those hours are truly productive.

If you manage teams, you know how important it is to utilise every moment you can in order to get the job done. Unproductive time is a loss, we can all agree on that.

However, you might be surprised to learn exactly where you're losing time each week.

There are four main aspects of a job (especially for people in management positions) that prove time and time again to drain productivity:

1. Document Management

The time wasted every day looking for the documents and files you need is a silent productivity killer.

Did you know:

• Approximately 19.8% of all business time is spent searching for the correct information to do a job effectively. That means for every five people you employ, one of them is entirely dedicated to searching for files.

2. Remote time

Managing remote workers can be a struggle for Project Managers who don't have full clarity of what tasks are being completed in a given time frame. Checking up and managing communication takes time. We need to get this time-sink sorted, because remote work is here to stay.

Did you know:

• According to Buffer's 'State of Remote Work' report, a staggering 99% of respondents said they would like to work remotely at least some of the time for the rest of their careers.

3. Meetings

Probably the biggest contributor to being constantly occupied, but not achieving much productivity, regular meetings take up a significant amount of business time.

Did you know:

• 15% of an organisation's collective time is spent in meetings, a percentage that has increased every year since 2008.

4. Task Management

Juggling difficult-to-manage workloads and employee's tasks is a big undertaking and can consume a lot of your week. If you’re managing tasks manually, you’re not only wasting time but it's also very difficult to get accurate, and timely, information on progress.

Did you know:

• By implementing automated workflow management software, teams have reportedly cut down nearly 50% of manual touchpoints. That's a lot of time saved.