12 Common Time Wasters in the Workplace (and How You Can Avoid Them)

Did you know that the average worker spends up to 30 minutes to 1 hour on time-wasting activities, which many extend to 2 hours?  It is a notable chunk of your day lost to unnecessary interruptions.

Workplace time wasters are those bad habits and behaviors like procrastination and distractions that throw your productivity off track. They rob you of precious minutes, slow you down, and get in the way of your career development.

But with good time management, you can turn things around. You focus on what really matters and improve your productivity.

In this article

• Most common time wasters in the office
• Eliminating the biggest time wasters at work
• How much unproductivity hurts your business
• Office vs. Remote: Different Places, Different Distractions
• How can managers reduce time-wasters

Let’s begin!

A survey by Getvoip

What Are Time Wasters in the Workplace and How to Avoid Them

Here are 12 time stealers at the workplace and some effective strategies to avoid them to increase employee productivity and a balanced work-life schedule.

1. Social Media

Mindlessly scrolling through social media has become a habit for all of us, and it doesn’t stop at work. Even a quick sneak peek to check your notifications takes away your focus and makes deep work impossible.

You'll have an average of 40 seconds of attention span when your phone is near. No wonder social media usage is now one of the biggest wastes of valuable time and biggest productivity killers at work.

To avoid this time waster in the workplace, you must resist the urge to access social media during work hours. Establish block times when you'll refrain from using social media at any cost.

This is essential for improving employee productivity and reducing office distractions.

2. Emails

It's estimated that an employee wastes around 2.5 hours of productive time each day by checking emails.

Although checking email is part of the job, a major portion of it is just another source of distraction. This is a prime example of activities with an effective time track at work. But an overflowing inbox can be a huge time-waster.

Avoid randomly checking emails. Divide your day into multiple segments and keep a specific portion of the time for email checking and replies.

Also, clear out unnecessary messages by deleting them in bulk using Gmail features or automation tools like Clean Email to help manage your inbox efficiently. This approach is a part of effective communication strategies.

Keep in mind that your focus and concentration work timeframe should never be distracted by anything at all.

3. Smartphone/Personal Work

Frequently checking smartphone notifications, irrelevant calls, texting with your friends and relatives, online shopping, etc., are just killing tons of your time.

These are some of the best work time wasters and contribute to personal internet browsing during office hours.

If you want to be productive, there is no other way than dropping these unproductive habits.

Be as restrictive as you can regarding doing any personal work during office hours. This not only helps you keep yourself on track but also benefits your office to a great extent by reducing idle time and task overload.

4. Unnecessary Meetings

Do you know what's worse about meetings?

They never feel like time wasters, but they always end up wasting an insane amount of time every office day. Meeting overload or needless meetings are among the top workplace useless activities.

What's the solution?

Just put a full stop on unnecessary meetings.

Ask yourself before creating or joining any meeting. What are the specific outcomes you and your team are going to get?

If that's nothing significant, just plainly avoid those meetings. This strategy helps with meeting management solutions and workflow optimization.

Moreover, you can introduce meeting-free days, set time limits, and document meetings to ensure employees feel comfortable missing meetings when their attendance may not be 100% necessary.

Check out some more tips on How to Stay Organized at Work

5. Gossiping

When you are in deep work, your coworker can come to you with irrelevant work or discussion that can damage your productivity.

Researchers have found that 86% of employees gossip during the workday. That’s why it is one of the main examples of office interruptions and typical time wasters in the workplace.

Additional studies by the University of Virginia and Indiana University demonstrate that gossip has negative effects as it damages trust and diminishes employee engagement, morale, and reputation.

How can you tackle this? Unfortunately, there is no proven way.

The best you can do is enforce a modern workplace culture and have policies in place to deal with extreme cases of negative gossip against employees.

6. Multitasking

Do you think multitasking makes you smart & productive? You are wrong.

Multitasking is actually a time killer that increases stress levels and prevents you from finishing prioritized single tasks on time. Along with that, it diminishes your focus and productivity as well. It's one of the hidden productivity killers and leads to inefficiency.

Learn how to prioritize instead of doing everything at once. Take one task after another and learn to say no to additional workloads that are dumped on you. This aligns with best practices for focus and concentration, and task management.

7. Procrastination & Overthinking

Procrastination is one of the biggest time thieves in any workplace. It usually comes from a fear of failing, striving for perfection, or simply feeling swamped by a task.

Overthinking makes it worse by spending way too long planning or analyzing instead of just doing the work.

Putting things off doesn’t just cut down on the time you have to get things done; it also increases stress and anxiety levels. And when you overthink, decision-making freezes up. It becomes even harder to take that next step.

8. Noisy Environment

The noisy office environment or unnecessary loud coworkers can distract you from your work, which is a complete waste of your time.

A loud printer, the ring of cell phones, gossiping, and talking loudly make the office environment noisy. This is one of the major things that wastes time in the workplace, which often goes unnoticed and contributes to workplace interruptions.

You have to have zero tolerance for the noisy office environment. Point it out to the management and ask for instant action.

9. Ineffective Delegation

When managers or team leaders don’t delegate tasks properly, things fall apart fast. Responsibilities tend to pile up on just a few individuals, while others remain underutilized and disengaged.

This imbalance often leads to burnout among the overwhelmed team members.

Then, confusion sets in, deadlines get missed.

Ultimately, team members waste precious time trying to determine who is accountable for what, further damaging productivity and collaboration.

10. Overcommunication

Yes, communication matters. But let’s face it, too much communication can backfire.

Flooding people with endless emails, constant messages, and a barrage of meetings leads to information overload and lower energy levels throughout the workday.

This nonstop stream of messages pulls them away from deep, focused work.

That way, constant distractions pile up, productivity takes a nose dive, and creativity takes a hit. Critical thinking suffers the most, and all of this stands in the way of meaningful results and real innovation.

11. Micromanagement

Micromanagement kills creativity. When employees feel suppressed, they disengage. It’s a waste of time for both managers and workers.

Micromanagement kills creativity and innovation within a team.

When employees feel consistently suppressed and controlled, they are more likely to disengage from their work. It decreases morale and productivity.

This detrimental cycle not only affects the individual workers but also wastes focus time and resources for managers.

12. Remote Work Distractions

Working from home comes with its own set of time wasters; the household chores, family members popping in, or that enticing television in the background trying to distract you.

Without the structure of an office, it’s easy to let work and personal life blend into one chaotic mess. Staying focused can feel like an uphill battle.

You must recognize these sneaky time-wasters and tackle them head-on. Prioritizing your tasks helps maintain efficiency and find that sweet spot of work-life balance.

So, what is the number of top workplace time wasters?

Throughout this article, we have identified seven major time wasters. In our analysis, these 12 common time wasters in the workplace are the most significant contributors to reduced productivity.

Why It is Important to Address The Biggest Time Wasters at Work

Manpower is one of the biggest assets for a company of any size.

Your ultimate goal has to be utilizing this power to the best of your ability and attaining peak efficiency.

Time wasters in the workplace keep you from reaching this goal. Also, consider the financial loss you incur.

According to Forbes, millennials waste 2 hours a day or 40 hours on average time at work, and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics states that an employee in the private sector earns $32.92 per hour.

That’s $1316 wasted every month for each millennial worker. This highlights the issue of time theft.

So, it's in your best interest to eliminate these common time wasters in the workplace.

The Real Cost of Time Wasters: Surprising Productivity Statistics and Insights

Wondering what the real-time consequences of time wasters or online distractions in the workplace are? Here are some surprise stats you must check out:

1. According to a study, workplace distractions cost U.S. businesses more than $650 billion annually.

2. Research found that employees spend approximately 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings. It results in an estimated $37 billion lost per year in the US alone. In 2019, the US lost about  $399 billion on unnecessary and unproductive meetings.

3. According to new research, switching between tasks creates mental blocks that slow down performance. It can lead to a 40% decrease in productivity.

Get more insights from ActiveCampaign's Focus Fridays:

With a global shift to remote offices in 2020, ActiveCampaign faced increased employee burnout. It is mainly due to pointless meetings, unclear work-life boundaries.

To tackle these challenges, the company introduced Focus Fridays, a weekly initiative. The agenda was no meetings no meetings were scheduled on Fridays to ensure uninterrupted workflows.

The result?

• 76% of employees said their work-life balance improved with increased productivity in the workspace.
• 85% of employees showed a desire for the initiative to continue.

The Financial Implications of Time Wasters: Case Studies and Results

1: Shopify's Meeting Reduction Initiative

Shopify noticed that excessive and boring meetings were consuming valuable employee time. It just results in decreased productivity and low employee morale. To mitigate the problem, CEO Tobi Lütke introduced a calendar purge.

It successfully eliminated over 76,500 hours of unnecessary meetings and let the employee focus on their core tasks. [Source: Axios]

2: Microsoft Japan's 4-Day Workweek Pilot

Traditional work schedules cause employee burnout and decreased productivity. Microsoft Japan implemented a 4-day workweek. It not only reduces the working hours but also helps employees maintain a good work-life balance.

Researchers find that this experiment has even resulted in a 40% increase in productivity per employee and cut costs. [Source: National Public Radio]

3: TechNET IT Recruitment's Flex Fridays

TechNET noticed employee burnout due to long hours and a lack of rest. Employees were losing their engagement and leading to decreased productivity.

To combat this, the company introduced "Flex Fridays.” Here, employees get an extra day off to recharge each week.

As a result, TechNET saw a 78% increase in sales, well above improved productivity.

4: RocketAir's 4-Day Workweek with AI Integration

RocketAir faced inefficiencies due to traditional work schedules. Even time-consuming activities cause a loss of productivity and valuable work hours.

The company introduced a 4-day workweek and integrated AI tools. Like ChatGPT, Notion, and Otter.ai, to automate repetitive tasks and streamline operations.

With these changes, RocketAir saw improved efficiency in the workflows. [Source: Business Insider]

Office vs. Remote: Different Places, Different Distractions

Productivity challenges vary between office and remote work environments. Though all the settings have their own set of distractions, they impact differently:

How to Overcome Workplace Time-Wasters

Here are some of the strategies that proved to be very effective in terms of removing the workplace's biggest time-sucking tasks and improving productivity.

Set a Schedule for Deep Work

Setting a schedule for deep work is my personal favorite strategy.

In my long career, I've not found anything that beats focused work.

Focus work means you'll delve into the work with topmost focus and avoid accessing anything. (No social media, no email checking, meetings, etc.). This is how you can eliminate time wastage in the workplace.

Try setting up a task goal and an hour goal for your everyday focus work. You can also encourage your employees to set a schedule for deep work by themselves. Encourage using the Pomodoro tracker, which was very useful in my case.

This method is part of attention management and strategies for better time management.

Every coworker will know the schedule of each one's deep work, so no one will distract anyone in that time frame.

When in deep work mode, you can set your phone to Airplane mode and block distracting websites on your devices using focus apps like Freedom or Forest.

If you don’t want to be interrupted by others, use noise-cancellation headphones. For remote teams, you can share working tips with them to stay more productive, addressing remote work challenges.

Use Time Tracking

Implement the use of time-tracking and employee-monitoring software across your organization. You can conduct project time-tracking or track specific tasks with the prominent apps.

This helps prevent employees from wasting company time at work.

You can encourage your employees to take charge and improve their working process to eliminate time-wasting activities.

Plus, Time-tracking software like Apploye generates performance metrics that will help you hold your team accountable and aid decision-making related to increasing workplace productivity.

Establish Email Communication Hours

You should select a specific time to check the email that you have received and reply to it.

Also, let everyone know what is your typical reply time is so nobody keeps bothering you unnecessarily. This practice helps in managing email overload.

Limit Your Smartphone Usage

Restricting your phone's access at any time can be a game-changer for you. The less you use it, the more productive your days become.

To bring this to effect, you can keep your phone away from your desk (preferably in your drawer or somewhere you can't see it).

Designate a specific personal time of the day when you'll be using your phone. This eliminates the huge time wasters at work and reduces workplace distractions.

Reduce the Use of Social Media

Try a digital detox. Avoid social media at work or limit it as much as you can.

Set a specific time each day when you want to go on social media. Turn off the notifications on your mobile and laptop.

Also, don't forget to sign out of your social media accounts on your office devices. It mitigates the effects of social media on work productivity. Use computer monitoring tools to keep an eye on your employees’ device activity during working hours.

Keeping a certain quota of time to use social media can be very useful for some people.

Automate Your Workflows

Using workflow automation tools will eliminate mundane tasks, manual tasks, and boring tasks from your employees' work schedules.

This addresses some common time-wasters for average office workers and aids in administrative tasks and workflow optimization.

You can integrate most of the tools you use and bring them all into one platform. This cuts back time-wasters as employees can access most tools from one platform, enhancing efficiency.

Allow Healthy Break Times

Trying out a million productivity improvement strategies won’t get you a hundred percent efficiency.

In the end, humans need breaks to function.

Overworked employees are likely to make more mistakes, which can cost you even more money than wasted working hours.

So, allow enough breaks for you and your employees to feel refreshed, which is essential for preventing burnout in the workplace and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

The Role of Management in Reducing Time-Wasters

Proper time management can make a productive workplace. By tackling time-wasting habits head-on, leaders are able to empower their teams to work smarter and get more done.

Creating a Productive Environment

• Set Clear Expectations: Outline specific and measurable goals. This keeps everyone focused and accountable.
• Minimize Unnecessary Meetings: Regularly assess the need for meetings. When they are necessary, stick to clear agendas and set time limits.
• Encourage Work-Life Balance: Promote flexibility and encourage regular breaks. These practices can significantly enhance productivity.
• Recognize and Reward Efficiency: Celebrate successes and highlight effective work habits. This boosts morale and inspires others to strive for efficiency.
• Provide the Right Tools: Equip your team with modern software that simplifies processes and boosts collaboration.

Speaking of the right tools, we have the perfect solution for you.

Why Choose Apploye to Boost Workplace Productivity

Apploye is your go-to work management tool filled with productivity features. It seamlessly combines time tracking, accurate time entries, engagement monitoring, and activity oversight, even snapping screenshots along the way.

With features that track app and URL usage, it helps you spot distractions in real time. Plus, its project management capabilities let you assign tasks and monitor progress effortlessly.

Apploye gives teams the boost they need to stay productive and accountable, all while making work feel more manageable.

Conclusion

Wasted time at work is inevitable, but if you become aware of the time wasters in the workplace, you can reduce wasted time in the workplace.

By implementing these strategies and focusing on performance optimization, you can ensure more productive employees and an efficient work environment.

Frequently Asked Questions about Workplace Time Wasters

What is the biggest time-waster at work?

At work, the biggest time-wasters usually come from personal distractions like scrolling through social media, sitting in pointless meetings, or managing excessive emails. It's so easy to lose your focus when jumping between tasks or getting caught up in office gossip.

How do you deal with time wasters at work?

Use time management tools like Apploye to avoid time-wasters at work. Set boundaries, turn off notifications, and focus. Prioritize your tasks with time blocking or try the Pomodoro Technique.

What are some examples of workplace time-wasters?

Examples of time-wasting activities in the office include scrolling through social media, sitting in meetings with no real purpose, and constantly replying to emails, all day long.

How do time-wasters affect productivity?

Time-wasters mess with your flow. They throw off your focus, push deadlines, and lower your performance. Over time, they can also reduce job satisfaction and increase stress due to inefficient use of work hours.

Which workplace time-wasters concern you the most? How to eliminate them?

Time wasters that you must address include excessive meetings, disorganization, and social media distractions. Also, you need to focus more when multitasking starts reducing your team's productivity.

What are the biggest time wasters at work, aside from meetings?

Aside from meetings, the biggest time-wasters at work are a lack of focus, frequent social media use, multitasking, procrastination, and so on. Things can be worsened if distractions start reducing productivity to a significant extent.

What are the top 10 time wasters that can affect your productivity?

The top 10 time wasters that you need to be concerned about right now are excessive meetings, social media distractions, constant email checking, and personal phone calls. Beyond that, multitasking, procrastination, unnecessary interruptions, poor organization, long unproductive breaks, and lack of clear goals are also in the row.

What are some internal time wasters? How do they compare to external time wasters?

Some most notable internal time wasters include procrastination, lack of focus, being disorganized, and poor planning. Whereas excessive meetings, distracting environments, and frequent interruptions are the external time wasters that are caused by outside factors.

How much time a week does an average worker waste at work?

According to most studies, employees waste about 2.9-3 hours per day at work. Total that up, it equates to roughly 14.5–15 hours per week.

What are your biggest time wasters in your startup or business?

The most challenging time wasters I mostly face include inefficient meetings, constant email management, and unclear task delegation. Most often, just multitasking and distractions like social media affect the overall team productivity.

Who wastes the most time at work?

Employees who deal with poor time management and have a lack of focus tend to waste the most time at work. Also, employees with frequent distractions and those who are constantly interrupted get caught up in unnecessary tasks and waste valuable company time.

How to stop wasting time on the internet while at work?

To stop wasting time on the internet at work, you can better use website blockers and limit distractions. Maintain a schedule for specific times to check emails or social media.