Before teams can elevate their productivity, they must first figure out where their time is being inefficiently spent. It’s akin to a doctor diagnosing an ailment before prescribing a treatment. Time wasters can range from frequent unproductive meetings and excessive multitasking to inefficient workflows and distractions.

To effectively identify and address these bottlenecks, organizations should employ:

• Time tracking: Use tools and software that record how team members spend their hours. Visualizing the day-to-day makes it easier to pinpoint activities that consume disproportionate amounts of time without yielding proportionate results.
• Time audits: Perform time audits to comprehensively examine how team members allocate their time over a given period. Are team members spending hours on tasks that could be streamlined or automated? Are there recurrent idle periods or tasks that continually extend beyond their allotted time? Through such detailed analysis, time audits help identify inefficiencies and offer insights into potential areas for process optimization and training.
• Actionable solutions: Once identified, strategize to reduce or eliminate these time wasters. For instance, consider setting dedicated email-checking intervals if excessive email checking emerges as a productivity drain. More broadly, consider implementing software to automate repetitive tasks, write standard operating procedures, or promote the 2-minute rule. 

By recognizing and addressing these inefficiencies, teams can reclaim valuable hours, directing their energy towards tasks that truly matter and drive results.