A deluge of emails and meetings, coupled with an ever-growing to-do list at work, are keeping working professionals constantly busy.

Mobile technology, which lets workers do more even when working from home or on the go, also contributes to an overbearing workload.

It’s almost as if there’s always too much to do; almost 1 in 2 employees in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia are dissatisfied with their work-life balance.

However, this busyness doesn’t always translate to productivity.

What’s more is that employees—your most valued resources—aren’t just paying the price of chronic busyness with their time; this impact the bottom line as well.

This issue can be pegged to inefficient processes, which cost companies as much as 20 to 30 percent in revenues per year.

Getting to the crux of busyness

You may have heard of advice from productivity gurus aimed at combating busyness, such as Seven Habits, Pomodoro Technique and Kanban.

Yet they all have one thing in common: their focus on the “critical few”, which refers to how 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of customers—or otherwise known as the 80-20 rule.

When applying the Pareto Principle to work, we can infer that:

  • 80 percent of the workflow output stems from 20 percent of its activities. How can we identify what the 20 percent are, and monitor them closely?
  • 80 percent of the time devoted to a workflow stems from 20 percent of the efforts. Which of these belong to the 20 percent, and how can automation enhance this?

Staying productive, therefore, is dependent on identifying and focusing on the “critical few” activities, and delegating or automating mundane and repetitive activities.

To that end, workflow management optimises your company’s business processes. It can:

  • Reduce risks: Minimise human error by eliminating unnecessary steps, so that every task is carried out with a level of consistency
  • Offer easier access to information: By enhancing how information is moved around the office, information becomes more accessible—ensuring that everyone has quick access to files they need, when they need them
  • Remove bottlenecks: Workflow Management generates data in a variety of ways, which can be analysed to identify bottlenecks, so that businesses can allocate resources to minimise or remove them

Download our whitepaper “Why are we so busy” to get more insights into overcoming chronic busyness at the workplace.

Original via FUJIFILM