New Research Suggests UK Business Losing Thousands Each Year to Poor Time Management

We all understand the importance of time management when it comes to running a business. Whether you’re self-employed, a team leader or just trying to keep on top of your day-to-day schedule, an ability to effectively plan and manage your time is crucial in keeping yourself productive.

But how good are we at managing our time? According to a new study from STL Training, not as good as we think. The survey, which polled 1,000 full-time workers across the UK, found that whilst 65% of us would describe our time management abilities as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’, 68% of employees don’t use any kind of time management system on a regular basis, and a shocking 71% of us have completed work-related activities outside of our normal work hours to help us manage our workload.

When asked how they were managing their time each day, employees most commonly turned to old-fashioned ‘to-do’ lists (59%) and their email inbox (51%), with nearly a quarter of respondents saying they just do whatever feels most important in the moment. 

Shockingly, 1 in 10 employees don’t feel on top of their workload at all, with nearly half claiming they’re only on top of their work schedule 3 out of 5 days per week.

According to the study, distractions might be playing a notable role in our inability to properly manage our time. Half of all employees say they regularly use social media unproductively at work, and almost three quarters claim they spend more than an hour a day on low or zero value tasks. Similarly, meetings are responsible for wasting a lot of employee time, with 30% saying they spend more than an hour every day in pointless meetings.

As you might imagine, all of this time adds up. STL found that an incredible 40 hours every month is wasted by the average employee, with time lost to social media, emails, low value tasks and pointless meetings. This means £6,500 is lost to unproductive time every year, per employee.

So how can businesses improve the situation? According to the studies’ authors, time management training is badly needed across the country. When asked how better time management would affect their work life, 63% of employees said it would improve productivity, and 57% said it would improve their stress levels.  On 12% said they didn’t think it would make a difference to their daily work, something STL says is unlikely:

“Time management is a crucial aspect of our work-life balance,” said a spokesperson for STL Training. “Our survey results clearly show that employees need better training in this area. Not only would this help improve productivity across the workforce, but it could prevent businesses losing thousands in lost time.”