In today’s business world, the quest for higher productivity too often ends up in a debate about longer working days, home versus remote work and how to motivate employees to put in more time - just for this project (yeah, right). There's a pervasive notion that we must work longer and harder to be successful, however, this mindset overlooks a more crucial factor: working efficiently is far more important than simply putting in more hours. 

The truth is that trying to address productivity by working more hours provides diminishing returns. According to the OECD, countries with longer work hours tend to have lower productivity per hour. The United States works longer hours but has lower GDP per hour worked compared to countries like Germany and Norway, where the work week is shorter but productivity per hour is higher (1). 

Many of us working in SMBs or startups are regularly putting in many more than 40 hours per week, which is perfectly fine, especially if you have a personal stake in the business or love what you do. However the data suggests that each hour we add on top of our workweek becomes less productive as we are not providing the time we need to reset.

Focusing on improving efficiency in our work processes can yield far better results. So, why should we work longer when we could work smarter?

The Real Issue: Inefficient Use of Time

Equating higher productivity directly to more hours worked misses overlooks the key issue - it’s not about having too little time to get the job done, it’s about how we use the time we do have. The real challenge for most workers and companies is not insufficient working hours, but inefficient utilization of those hours.

Research supports this claim. A study by McKinsey & Company shows that as much as 30% of working time is wasted due to inefficient meetings, unclear communication, and duplicated administrative work (2). There is a strong indication that too much time is spent on tasks that don't add real value. Key culprits that inhibit efficiency across industries include unnecessary meetings, interruptions and multi-tasking.

A Microsoft analysis revealed that employees spend 6.5 hours per week in unnecessary meetings. For a company with 1,000 employees, this results in a staggering 300,000 hours of lost work annually, without any real added value (3). Overly frequent and poorly organized meetings drain both the time and energy that should be focused on value added tasks.

Interruptions are another major contributor to wasted time in the workplace. According to a study by the University of California, Irvine, employees are interrupted on average every 11 minutes. Even more concerning is that it takes about 20 minutes to get back to the task at hand after each interruption (4). This constant disruption is a huge source of lost productivity and employee frustration.

Another fallacy is the belief that multitasking increases productivity. Research from the American Psychological Association (APA) confirms that multitasking actually impairs productivity, and switching between tasks costs the average worker 40% of their productive time (5). Rather than being a time-saver, multitasking causes errors, delays, and a decrease in the quality of work.

If inefficiency is responsible for so much productivity loss and should be addressed instead of simply adding more hours, what do we do?

The Solution: More Efficiency, Less Waste

The key to improving productivity is about working smarter and more efficiently. Companies can achieve significant gains by improving their processes, eliminating unnecessary work, and adopting smarter structures. Here are a few best practices to get started with:

1. Minimize Meetings 

A study by Doodle found that $399 billion is wasted on unnecessary meetings every year in the U.S. (6). By cutting down on unnecessary or ineffective meetings, companies could see a 20–30% increase in productivity. Meetings should be purposeful, well-structured, and scheduled only when absolutely necessary.

When meetings are needed, make sure only those who need to be there are invited and come prepared. Send any prepared or relevant material in the invite and ask them to review before hand. When scheduling, do you need 1 hour? It may be the default setting but can you achieve the goal in 45 minutes? 40 minutes? And as the moderator it is your job to make sure the meeting starts on time, progresses and ends on time with clear action items.

2. Eliminate Muda

Administrative inefficiencies, such as redundant tasks or poor document management need to be eliminated at all costs so that employees can save time and focus on more value-added tasks. Many tools exist to help identify and eliminate waste or Muda, as it is commonly known in the business world.

3. Focus on the Few

In project management there is a concept of having many tasks that progress very slowly (long and thin) or very few tasks that progress quickly (short and fat). I have never witnessed a case where long and thin is better. The most successful people focus on one, or very few, key projects at a time and drive them relentlessly. This helps to eliminate the inefficiencies from disruptions noted above.

A personal Kanban board can be a great tool to use where the bottleneck should be your ‘Doing’ column. In a Kanban system you place tasks, often written on a post-it) on a board with at least 3 columns - To Do, Doing and Done. While your To Do column may be full of post-its, if you limit your Doing column to 3 tasks, this can help mentally focus on things until they are complete.

Conclusion

Extending working hours is often touted as a solution to productivity challenges, but it’s a misleading and ineffective approach. The true key to increasing output and improving workplace satisfaction lies in eliminating waste and inefficiencies. If you can minimize the number of meetings, eliminate muda in your processes and focus on fewer tasks, driving them to completion, much more can be gained that calling for longer hours.

References:

1) https://www.oecd.org/employment/productivity-and-work-time

2) McKinsey & Company. (2021). "The productivity paradox: How organizations are wasting time and money." [McKinsey](https://www.mckinsey.com)

3) Microsoft. (2023). "The Cost of Unnecessary Meetings." [Microsoft](https://www.microsoft.com)

4) University of California, Irvine. (2017). "The Cost of Distractions in the Workplace." [UCI](https://www.uci.edu)

5) American Psychological Association. (2020). "The Myth of Multitasking." [APA](https://www.apa.org)

6) Doodle. (2020). "The Annual Cost of Unnecessary Meetings." [Doodle](https://www.doodle.com)