According to Robert Half International, the average employee works at about 50 percent of their capacity. They say people spend 37 percent of their time in idle chit-chat with coworkers. They waste another 13 percent of their time coming in late, leaving a few minutes early, taking extended lunch breaks, reading the newspaper, drinking coffee, and of course, surfing the Internet. 
During the 50 percent of time actually dedicated to real work, they tend to get distracted toward low-priority tasks that they often fail to complete. They procrastinate, delay, find excuses to wander and then complain about being overworked.
Years ago, when we decided to home-school our children, we quickly discovered that if we spent 2 hours in focused instruction time daily, we would be well ahead of what could be expected in a traditional 8-hour-a-day school setting. I suspect the same is true of work situations. I am constantly amazed when I spend time in corporate settings – the inefficiency of organizing, setting up meetings, dealing with distractions, etc. that do appear to easily eat up 50 percent of the time.
If you tracked one week of your time, what percentage would be classified as Productive, Planning, Organizing, Distractions and Wasted Time?
Okay, a lot of people ask me about my level of productivity. How do I write, coach and communicate at the pace I expect of myself – and still have time to have a complete life. Here’s my plan:
Dan’s Time Allotment — There is a Time for…………..
(Based on 50 hour week)
CREATING 50% — Research and Writing (25 hrs)
Guest Articles, magazines, websites, books, ebooks, manifestos
New products, promotions, attending seminars and workshops
SHARING 20% — Speaking, Teaching & Coaching (10 hrs)
Live Events, Paid speaking engagements, Civic presentations
Lunch apts, Interviews – Radio, TV
COMMUNICATING 15% — Email responses (7.5 hrs)
48Days.net comments and notes
PLANNING 15% — Business Meetings (7.5 hrs)
Bill Paying, Strategy, Making it Work
That allotment of time allows me to keep on track with my major projects without going into a cave. And no, I’m not attempting to get down to a 4-hour work week. I’m doing work I love.
Great post, Dan. Truer than true north. I am a public school educator, and quit education so I can become a teacher. As odd as that sounds, it is precisely what I have done. Among other anesthetizing and capricious vagaries of public school, the time wasting and disruptions you speak of have contributed to inspire my decision to quit. I would love to be a coach/speaker/writer, and am perusing your resources and “shop” pages right after my reply! Thank you! Hope to be at a live event some day.
Dan – oh my gosh. Your comments are so poignant. Seeing you say “I quit education so I can become a teacher” breaks my heart but I have seen the truth of that played out so many times. I’ll be anticipating your contributions in more meaningful ways – and yes, as a coach/speaker/writer you can greatly amplify your voice. Keep me posted.
Great insights here Dan! Once we homeschooled our kids, i quickly realized we had the afternoons for introducing them to more “creative” types of education that allowed us to get outdoors or away from the house.
Also, I structure my week similar to yours. My mornings are for Creating (writing, podcasting, video) and Compiling (paid courses, products, and services) and the afternoons are for Connecting (interviews, networking, mastermind groups). This model works for me because it allows me to do creative work first.
Jonathan. Isn’t it awesome to help our kids expand their “education?” We traveled, rebuilt old cars, raised a garden, and went to hear speakers like Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy – all as part of raising kids. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I’ve heard Kevin say several times the impact that listening to Zig Ziglar at a young age had on him. My12 year old daughter has been reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People [Teen Edition] and we’ve had awesome conversations on what being “proactive” means in your life and work!
Great stuff Dan! Thanks for giving us a peek behind the curtain 🙂
Thanks for sharing this Dan, I know from working in corporate environments that your statistics seem to be legitimate. The amazing amount of time that is wasted on chit-chat and meetings that have no purpose or stated agenda. For me a meeting without an agenda is like a life without goals it goes no where!
Thanks,
Tom Henricksen
PS See you next year at Coaching with Excellence
Tom – cool, looking forward to seeing you here! Thanks for your comments.
Hi Dan – One thing I have truly learned from you is about living with purpose. Your daily time allotments is already giving me ideas on how I can better structure my days THANKS
Keith – awesome. I don’t have a boss looking over my shoulder telling me what to do next but I can’t imagine not having a clear sense of how I spend my time. Thanks for your comments.
I really have to plan my days as I’m the CEO for a non-profit mission, Founder and lead instructor of a medical training company and I also blog at http://www.kingdomthinking.org on top of traveling full time ministering and teaching and also now podcasting =) BUT your 48 Days book and your podcast and emails are such a blessing and help to my daily life! Thanks for everything Dan…
Thank you for posting how you allot your time Dan. How silly of me to feel guilty spending so much time learning, researching and creating. It is still an adjustment to me to schedule most of my time for learning. The workplace focuses so much on tasks and doing a bunch of things. While action and application of what you learn is critical to your success- always going and doing and ceasing to learn and keep up with new trends will destroy your success.