Time management: fake work, shallow work & deep work

The topic of effective working has been of interest to us not just since the days of working from home. Sensible time management has always been a major topic.

Sure, everyone has had the following feeling: you spend the whole working day at your computer and yet you hardly get anything done. You may have sent a lot of emails, made phone calls and perhaps even ticked off several items on your to-do list, but you often haven't produced any truly outstanding or even innovative output. Why is that?

We spend too much time doing unimportant and unproductive things. It is estimated that we spend more than two hours per working day doing unproductive work, and some estimate the proportion to be much higher! This work is known as fake work and shallow work. Of course, many of these things still have to be done. But it is worth taking a very close look and considering where you can make savings in order to optimize your time management.

The high proportion of fake work and also shallow work has consequences for the individual(s), the team and the company. 

What it's all about:

Fake work refers to all the things at work that feel and look like work, but in reality are not. Real work moves the company forward, fake work does not.

Deep work - "A process of performing professional activities [...] in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes cognitive abilities to their limits. These efforts create new value, improve your skills and are difficult to replicate." -Cal Newport

What counts as fake and shallow work?

• Hours of repetitive appointments with no result. 
• Meetings in which you are out of place due to responsibilities.
• A flood of emails and phone calls that contain no relevant information or are of no significant use.
• Avoidable redundancies due to duplication of responsibilities and work that is done more than once due to a lack of reconciliation.
• Errors that are avoidable and require a complete restart.

What is the problem with fake work?

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The high level of wasted time reduces productivity and results in enormous costs. In the long term, employee dissatisfaction increases. 

The first step is to identify the proportion of fake work in yourself and your team. If you know the weak points, then it's time to act:

• Formulate goals that team members and managers alike must adhere to. 
• Avoid distractions & interruptions. It is important for deep work phases to have fixed times when the phone and email inbox are not checked. 
• Wherever possible, performance should be made measurable. 
• Intermediate steps and sub-goals should be coordinated within the team.
• Especially important: empowering the employees themselves! It is not without reason that fake work is hardly an issue for the self-employed or freelancers. Those who are allowed to (co-)decide are more motivated and therefore much more productive.

If this is successful, new time windows are created in which intensive and concentrated work can be carried out and extra time is gained for quality breaks. 

Our conclusion:

It is impossible to avoid fake work altogether. Reducing it increases productivity, lowers costs and increases profits .

This creates space for deep work phases and leads to satisfaction and motivation at all levels!
A WIN WIN spiral is created .

‍Is thatexactly your topic? Then our coaching Time and self-management is the right thing for you.