Guide to analyze work habits, save time and gain flexibility

Through its “Human Factors” Laboratory, Microsoft conducted research on brain activity in a group of 14 people, which found that those people who did not try to have a break of between five and 10 minutes between meetings tended to increase your stress levels and accumulate it over time. On the other hand, they found that those people who take a few minutes of rest presented in their brain images a more stable environment with low levels of stress.

Here the question that arises is, do you take a few minutes break between work meetings?

In meetings with friends and colleagues, I have heard that no one wants to be trapped in a culture of “welfareism” again, where they are required to cover a total of hours a week of work in the workplace or in various face-to-face or online meetings. nonsense, when today we have gained flexibility in various aspects.

An action that we can carry out, and that is very to this At the beginning of a new year, to make it renewed and recharged with energy after a well-deserved rest, is to introspect our Work habits. Here are five tips:

1. Know your agenda–calendar; less is more. Rearrange your calendar with meetings with a weekly view, and later monthly, for those that will really contribute to the achievement of your goals. Permanently eliminate those of low value.
2. shorten the duration and changes the recurrence of meetings. Those with a duration of 30 minutes, turn them into 25-minute sessions. Additionally, it changes the recurrence from weekly to monthly, or even quarterly.
3. Occasionally do a “clean slate” on your calendar, this will prevent you from reverting to old work habits and will help you set aside breaks for in-depth deliberation and a greater chance of generating new ideas.
4. Evaluate the value of each meeting. You can establish various criteria, such as preparation time, follow-up, number of participants, whether or not it helps you achieve your goals, etc. This is an applicable example of the value and weight of data in our decision-making process.
5. do it voluntarily. Carry out this introspection voluntarily among the work teams and let them freely experience this dynamic.

Changing routines saves time

A study by Work Innovation Lab presented mixed results in the total savings in working hours in a functional area with 60 people. Only the elimination of unnecessary meetings represented a 30% savings in work teams. On the other hand, modifying the duration of the meetings from 30 to 25 minutes represented a 10% saving; meanwhile, changing the recurrence of certain meetings from weekly to monthly represented a 17% saving.

The fact that we encourage these dynamics in our work teams will bring greater benefits, not only for those who adopt this dynamic, but also for the teams that interact with them. A very powerful tool for this are virtual calendars And Google has a feature known as “Time Insights” that shows you how you spend your time during the week. This can help you observe your habit of meetings, one-on-one chats, and the time you have left a week for other activities that require more space to think about how to solve more complex situations or do more in-depth individual work.

Do this little exercise. Analyze how your last weeks have been by answering the next questions:

• How much time have you spent in meetings?
• How much time have you spent doing individual work (deep work) without interruptions?
• How long do you estimate you have been interrupted by meetings, emails or text messages?

The answer to each of these questions will give you an idea of ​​your Workload. The way to measure it is to define how much weekly time is dedicated to meetings or individual work without interruptions.

Now, analyze and answer these questions:

• How much time do you dedicate to connecting with the members or team leader?
• How much time do you spend connecting with other people?
• What is your balance in relation to the duration of the working day vs. personal time?

The answers above will give you an idea of ​​how quantify your labor well-being. The way to measure it is how much time you spend in meetings and/or emails after work, the size and connectivity of your personal network, as well as the number of interactions with your leader.

According to Gallup, a high workload multiplies by 2.2 the chances of suffering burnout. So much so that employees who say they very often or always experience burnout at work are 2.6 times more likely to actively look for another job, 63% more likely to request sick days and 13% less confident in their performance.

Know and watch over our Work habits in a healthy way it will allow us to take care of ourselves and our teams.

“Improving meetings is crucial to improve employee engagement”Time Ltd.