Today's managers and employers are expected to do more with less. Many of them try to cut the labor costs to achieve this objective. Most employers introduced innovative employee productivity measurement systems, and some have added incentive-based pay systems to entice higher productivity levels. However, only a few have made efforts to understand the core element of labor, which is idle time. Time is a valuable asset for us, and wasting it in any profession, can cost a lot to a firm. After all, there are only 24 hours in a day, and the reason why we often thrive, to make every single second count.
Scientists say that our prefrontal cortex (PFC) is generally dedicated to rational thinking, executive functioning, and training willpower against shocks. A good break should give this hard-working part of the brain a little breather. Even letting your mind wander will switch brain activity to another area.
The PFC deserves a time out, guys!
The idle hours can be cleverly utilized by doing something productive, as it will increase productivity and get our minds relaxed. In this article, you will read about dealing with idle hours at work without being unproductive. Let us first understand- what is idle time.
What Are Idle Hours At Work?
Idle time is a paid time that an employee, or machine, is unproductive due to factors that can be regulated or uncontrolled by management. It applies to full-time operators rather than experts, who typically have to charge for every hour of their time. When employees are not engaged in any productive work, it can have implications for organizations. According to a 2018 study from the Harvard Business School, 78.1% of workers find themselves weekly with habitual idle time, which costs employers approximately $100 billion per year!
6 Quick Tips To Utilize The Idle Hours And Make It Productive Enough
Here are some quick tips on how to deal with idle time at work-
Get some educational knowledge-
If you are done with your previous tasks and are waiting for new ones, do not waste time sitting idle. Instead, you can listen to some motivational podcasts or learn a new language. You can also watch videos on how to improve managerial skills, increase productivity or whatever is your area of work.
Schedule your pending work-
To be triumphant at anything, you must first set clear goals of what you want to accomplish. Maintain a To-Do list to save time in the future. If you use your spare time to record your daily and long-term goals, it will kill other distractions and give you an objective to focus on effortlessly.
Listen to audiobooks-
If you aren't a book reader type, then give audiobooks a try! Everyone is a learner forever, as acquiring knowledge never loses its value. Nowadays, technology has made it very convenient to get information with a wide variety of audiobooks that can be obtained from the library at no cost or downloaded with the click of a button. You can listen and learn while traveling, exercising, or even relaxing on the beach. It is like someone reading a book for you!
Exercise! It is never a bad option-
When you are stacked up with tasks, you must do a short workout to release stress and get a fresh mind to keep you fresh,active throughout the day and also boost work efficiency.
Complete all the small tasks-
Utilize the idle hour to complete all the pending short tasks that are incomplete, maybe due to procrastination, and remove them from your lists to have a few words to focus on. Do it every day to avoid getting piled up with work you need to get done with.
A short nap is fair-
Taking short naps during your idle time will refresh your mind and boost your productivity. Make sure you manage your work in a specialized manner and be stress-free.
Apart from these tips, many organizations/companies choose to install employee monitoring software that can track employee work performance, productive and unproductive hours, idle time, and much more. Having such information about the workforce helps in motivating them to increase their productivity and appreciate their efforts and contributions.
But not every software is packed with such features, so it becomes difficult to choose the best one from a pile of options. Let us look at some of the best options that are currently high in demand-
The Top 4 Employee Monitoring Software To Track Idle Hours
EmpMonitor
Features-
- Records the internet behavior of employees
- Takes screenshots at regular intervals
- Provides overall productivity reports
- Detects malicious activities
- Provides real-time screen monitoring
- Provides calculated idle hours of the workforce
- Provides detailed timesheets
- Manage all the employees from a single dashboard
- Cloud-based information storage
Workpuls
Features-
- Automatic Time Tracking
- Computer Activity Tracking
- Data Processing Policy
- Productivity Analysis
- Protect Sensitive Information
- Real-Time Overview
- Screenshots
- Time & Attendance
- Timekeeping
Everhour
Features-
- Syncs with productivity apps you may already use
- All your project details automatically get populated
- Add a timer button inside the web-based app of your choice, allowing you to start and stop recording time from within the app
- Tracks employee availability
- You'll see available hours (by day) in green, time off as gray, and sessions that went overtime in red.
HourStack
Features-
- It is a collaborative time tracking tool that looks different from much other time tracking apps
- It represents time in blocks or windows, just like if that working time were an event on your calendar
- Create projects and tasks, which you can visualize using color-coding
- It warns you when an employee goes into overtime by showing their total time worked for the day in red at the bottom of the screen
- Detects idle time and overtime of employees
Wrapping Up
It is clear from this article that there are several options to utilize idle time and do something productive, so why waste time sitting idle and having thoughts that might take you to a different circle. Sitting idle will eventually make you slow and kill your productivity. So, you can give the above tips a try and see the positive results.
