Measuring Productivity at Work

Work expands to fill the time available for it... does this sound familiar?

I have always wondered if I am actually being productive at work. We all have our responsibilities, our deadlines and our priorities. There are some of us who are able to meet each deadline with relative ease, and others who seem to be at work all the time, but still do not find it as easy to meet deadlines. There was a time when I remained at the office for well over 12 hours every day, and worked even weekends. I did get my job done, but I felt exploited. I began to nurse a feeling that I was being over worked with no personal time. It was then that I decided to scrutinize my normal work day critically to determine if I was being as over worked as I thought I was.

I started recording time taken for each activity that I performed at work. From the time I switched on my faithful PC till the time I bade goodbye and shut him down. I spent a minute or two after every half hour to write down what I did during that half hour that elapsed. Here is a sample of what I did:
1. Personal emails..........10 min
2. courtesy hellos to colleagues....3 min
3. Bringing coffee to the desk............5 min
4. Offering a solution to a problem faced by another colleague........8 min
5. Reviewing project documents.......................15 min.

The first day was a real fiasco, I felt that it was a waste of time to record as much detail as I was doing, but I carried on with it, anyways. At the end of the day, I picked up all the activities and the time taken for the activities for analysis. I had taken nearly an hour to make this record, the two minute break after every half hour, was not being just two minutes. I felt that this was a real distraction to my daily routine, nevertheless continued to keep track for the next week. As the days went by, I found it easier to stop and track time.

I then grouped the activities into 3 main categories:
1. Related to the project directly
2. Related to the project indirectly
3. Not related to the project.

After this I positioned each of my activities for the day into one of these three slots. The results really shocked me out of my wits! Although I seemed to be working hard and effectively, I found that I was performing activities directly related to the project for less than 35% of the total time I spent in office. The numbers even angered me, I did not want to believe what I saw, but this was quite substantial evidence of how I spent my time. No wonder I had to work more than nearly 12 hours and stretch during weekends too.

Determined to have a better score, I tried to improve my timings every day, and the % of time spent on activities related to the project directly kept getting better and better. I had changed my way of working. The project trotted ahead merrily and I felt at ease with myself. I had begun working SMART rather than working HARD. The difference was amazing!

This little excercise was a real eye-opener. I found that I was able to crack the project with enthusiasm and efficiency, ontime with highest quality standards. The best part was that I did not find the need to work beyond the work timings, and I had the week ends for myself! No marks for guessing the outcome of all these positive changes!!

I have shared this little excercise with my team members. It is only the awareness of how one spends time at work, that works the magic of trying to get better. Its nice to know that all my team members work only for 9 hours every day, and stay away from work during the weekends, but the work gets done so quickly that everyone else is almost jealous of the way we work. We find time for team outings and weekend dinners when others are sweating it out at work! My little excercise has met its purpose!

Do you feel exploited at work,? Do you feel you have lots to do with really less time? Probably its time to check your productivity... !!