Two hours a day is wasted on so-called multitasking and technology is making it harder to separate work and leisure, according to an organisation which “helps individuals and organisations transform the way they work”.
Research from the Energy Project Europe found that the lack of focus multitasking necessitates means that business people across the UK are wasting more than two hours every day on unproductive work.
Business people across the UK are wasting more than two hours every day on unproductive work
The study, published to support a new book, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working by Tony Schwartz, Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy, also found that the ease with which people could access their emails, whether from the office, on the move or at home, now meant that work encroached much further into people’s lives. Of the 233 entrepreneurs polled, 87% admit to checking emails on holidays and days off. Two-thirds of those asked are spending just two hours each day disconnected from their email account, while 22% only switch off for 30 minutes.
There also appears to be uncertainty as to whether Twitter is good for businesses, as only half of those asked were regular users and 47% admit to being distracted by the service.
Meanwhile, 55% of those polled are failing to take their full holiday entitlement with one in 20 missing out on more than two weeks’ annual leave.
Jean Gomes, Chairman of the Energy Project, which on its website claims to have “developed a set of simple principles and actionable practices that allow people to become both more productive and more satisfied at work”, says: “What this survey confirms is the growing realisation that we’re not designed to work like computers.
“Whilst many of us have negatively and unconsciously adapted to the notion of ‘internet time’ – the expectation that we should always be on – we only truly perform at our best when we regularly renew.
“It’s a myth that top performers are at their best with no sleep, no holidays and no breaks during the day. They all recognise that they excel only when they balance working and recovery. What our work says is that we need to turn conventional wisdom on its head.”
Gomes continues: “In our experience, the very top performers across all disciplines employ recovery as the means to achieving the best performance. The fact that it leads to a happier and more satisfying life all round should be embraced by employers looking t find some positive new in these challenging economic times.”
