Working with a stopwatch is not an inference to working as fast a humanly possible, setting world land speed records in report writing or cutting hair. Rather, when talking about working with a stopwatch, I want you to consider how you spend your time while working. There is research that suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes. What are we doing with the other 5 hours and 7 minutes? Well, productive ain’t exactly the word that is coming to mind right now. Let me share this with you too, your boss knows this also.

Work today in the 21 century is much different than in the past. We spend much more time in what is considered “mind work.” Mind work is the type of work where we are receiving data, processing this data, making decisions on how to proceed with this information and finally reexamining the process all over again. In centuries past we did back labor, now we do brain labor. It is hard for anyone to stay focused in a thinking activity for any real extended period of time. Think about TV, for every seven minutes of programming there is at least 3 minutes of advertising. So, our minds are constantly switching form active intake to passive exposure all the time. It has been said that it takes about 23 minutes for you to become re-engaged in your work activities after being interrupted from it. How can we improve on this statistic? First off, we need to eliminate distractions. Turn off your email notifications, your Facebook notifications, your alarm to feed your cows in Farmville. Allow yourself a set amount of time to be engaged in this type of activity and set a stopwatch so that you are reminded to get back to work. No one is going to deny you a little rest from time to time, but 5 hours a day on average? That equates to 1,300 hours a year and at $20 per hour, you are in reality stealing $26,000 from your boss each year. Have you thanked him?

What else can we do to improve our time spent working? Don’t become a slave to your email or your voicemail. Set aside time each morning and afternoon to do just those activities. When you are on a phone call, set a timer and see if you can keep your calls to under five minutes, set a timer too when checking your emails, so that you don’t find yourself out in the weeds playing just one more game of Candy Crush.

If you have a tendency to procrastinate, like I do, set a timer and make an agreement with yourself that you will give it all you have got for 15 minutes and see just how much you can actually get done in that amount of time. If 15 minutes is too daunting, start with five minutes and work up from there.

You have heard of the Pareto effect, or the 80-20 rule. In this instance, you will find that 80% of your results are obtained through 20% of your efforts. Doing just a couple of stopwatch activities will help you improve on your efficiencies at work and will also give you a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Ready! Set! Go!