Stop wasting your day with these top time wasters

(MoneyWatch) My dad used to tell me that "if you lose an hour you'll spend the rest of the day looking for it." His work ethic was Herculean, and I've spent my life trying to mimic him -- though I have to contend with and wade through electronic distractions he could not even imagine during his working years.

Recently, software developer OfficeTime conducted a survey of about 600 small business owners, business professionals and freelancers to develop an infographic that highlights the top 10 time wasters plaguing modern office pros. Many of their results aren't particularly surprising -- though a few did catch me off-guard. Here are the top time wasters:

• For better productivity, stop organizing email
• Do teleworking employees have higher productivity?
• Why email signatures are dumb

1. Email -- More than half of the responders spent at least an hour each day on email. 22% spent more than 2 hours.

2. Web surfing-- 80% of us spend more than 2 hours a day on the Web.

3. TV watching-- The boob tube is alive and well, taking an hour or two out of about a quarter of the respondents.

4. Simple procrastination-- One in five folks waste up to 2 hours a day just not doing what they know they should.

5. Meetings-- You knew this would be on the list, right? 70% of people say they're trapped in meetings for 2 hours a day. That even seems low to me; at times, I've been in 5 or 6 hours of meetings a day.

What are your biggest time wasters? Does this list sound like it describes your day? Sound off in the comments.

[Jeffp77100]

Really? People watch TV at work?

[milesakiyama]

1,2 & 4 hit it right on the nose. Especially wasting time on the web on things like this. hahaha

[JerryXShea]

I knew what they would be - yet here I am "wasting my day" reading this anyway and now I am sending in my comment - Damn, I hate it when I waste my day - ha.

[DKlos]

Hey Dave... it's interesting and ironic that this story would come to me in an email also alerting me to a CBS Money Watch article about Facebook. Talk about top time wasters.

Also, above in the article you introduce the meat of the story with this line: "Here are the top time wasters:" then whoever laid out the page inserted arrow bullets in red. Did I bite on it thinking those are the time wasters you were introducing? Of course! I clicked on the first one after reading them all, a bit confused but dutiful to following your style, and come to learn I was lured away to other articles that also proceeded to waste my time. So kudos to you on a cute and pertinent article, but shame on the site editors for placing time wasting land mines to steal our time and make us less productive! #6 should be, watch out for time wasting layouts. They'll suck you dry.

[mail2ri]

Well, I think email, web surfing, and meetings can contribute to one's productivity, if done wisely and in moderation. However, TV watching and simple procrastination are indeed unproductive activities which all of us indulge in now-and-then. However, besides these I feel some of the biggest time-wasters - chatting at water-coolers / tea-coffee vending machines, doing personal work / making personal phone calls during office hours, using social media sites (FB, Twitter) during office hours (unless your job requires you to), trading in shares, etc. can all be huge time-wasters. In fact, I would consider some of them to be misuse of one's position for personal gain, that too during office hours, which is a strict no-no for me. Sadly, many such avenues for time-wasting (or being unproductive) is not regulated at the workplace, though some employers do restrict internet access, or at least social media websites' access at workplaces.

[[e-mail]]

I do waste a lot of time on web surfing still being a respected employee. If web access is not limited everyone would surf.

[Wareagle11]

Spenidng time correcting the work of others. I spend more time trying to correct the submission of memos, invoices and payment document by others than can be imagined. These items should never get to me without being 100% correct; yet it keeps happening.

[littleredtop]

In essence, most American office workers do very little or nothing.

[Krowster]

Has it ever occurred to Dave that people love doing these things! What may be a waste of time for him, may be a pleasurable outlet and possibly have some therapeutic value to others.

Not everyone is a workaholic or has aspirations to build junk, talk aimless violence or care about how some in society crave to feed their egos and greed.

[davejohnso]

@Krowster: Yes, it is odd that I would write about improving productivity on a professional business web site. If you enjoy surfing the web for hours at a time, that's awesome--do it on your own time. Because if you did it at my company, I would fire you.