We must address this imbalance – the 'gold dust' of time is constantly slipping through our fingers . . . and we need to use our most precious resource more proactively.
We don't have time to think. I mean that – when do we allow ourselves time to reflect at work? Sometimes when we are busy we think we can save time by doing two things at once. What we actually do is neither of them properly.
Get time back on your side – book "me time" in your diary and value it. Thinking time – not 'catch up' time. You never catch up anyway
A recent study of over one thousand UK corporate contacts by a leading recruitment and contract staffing agency looked at efficiency in the workplace. The findings are alarming. The survey reports that poor time management 'robs the UK office worker' of thirteen days a year! Just imagine what could be done with this extra time?
UK companies lose the equivalent of £6.85 billion worth of "working hours" a year - we can see that more than 72 million hours are lost each week due to inefficient time management! Shocking isn't it! In visual terms, that is enough money to pay for nine Wembley Stadiums to built every year!
There is something we can do about this. During a workplace study in 2009, Wizard Solutions identified that the average UK manager 'owns' approximately twelve minutes a day.
Traditional time management techniques try to apply structure and planning to increase this ownership. However, until we value time properly (ours and others) the gold dust will continue to slip away.
Considering that the UK has the longest working week in Europe, we can begin to see a clear picture emerging about working methods and patterns of inefficiency. Efficiency at work involves valuing all resources – don't waste energy and don't waste time.
This is nothing new – take some time to think about it...
"If time is of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality: since lost time is never found again and what we call enough time proves to be too little"
Benjamin Franklin US Statesman (1707-90)
