New Time Management Statistics 2024
As Timewatch develops time related products: resource scheduling, timesheets, time tracking and Outlook and Google Calendar add-ons, it has a keen interest in time management and regularly research and publish our research and time management statistics.
In 2022 we questioned 300 full-time employees in a wide range of industries and published our findings. In 2024 we wanted to explore how time management has changed in the past couple of years.
Overview:
For our 2024 time management statistics research we asked 382 employees in a range of professional services industries in the US and UK about their time management. We wanted find out:
- How many people utilize a time management system
- What time management system they use
- Which time management systems are most effective
- How much time people lose on unimportant tasks or meetings
- How using email constantly, reactive and planned affects efficiency
- What people feel are the main benefits of effective time management
- How time tracking affects time management
- What is needed to incentivize people to use a better time management system
Key Takeaways Of This Study:
- 48% of people surveyed use a to-do list to manage their time, and increase of 10% from 2022
- 23% schedule everything in their calendar, 12% use their inbox and 9% do whatever feels most important
- Of the specialist time management systems, Time Blocking at 5% is the most popular, however although only 1% said they use the Eisenhower Matrix, 92% use parts of the Eisenhower system
- 37% of people feel they have things under control at work 5 days a week, a decrease of 5% over the past couple of years
- People overwhelmingly agree that better time management increases productivity, reduces stress at work, improves focus on tasks, increases self-confidence and improves their reputation at work
- Most people check their email constantly or whenever they see a notification, yet the people that are most in control of their time check their email once an hour or twice a day
- 75% of people say they spend up to two hours a day on tasks or meetings that aren’t important to their role, and the number of people that waste 1-2 hours a day has increased 10% over two years
- People that use a time tracking system say they are more in control of their time than those that do not use a time tracking system
Lets take a look at what we asked and more details of the new time management statistics we found:
How do you manage your time at work?
- 48% use a to-do list to manage their time, an increase of 10% over 2 years
- 23% use their calendar
- 12% use their email inbox
- 9% do what they feel is most important, down 5% from 2022
- 5% use Time Blocking – where you break your day into time blocks and assign a task to each block
- 1% of people use the Rapid Planning Method, Eisenhower Matrix and Pomodoro technique methods
How effectively do people manage their time at work?
We wanted to find out how effective people felt they were at managing their time. To quantify this we asked how often they felt they had everything under control at work.
- 38% of people felt they have everything under control every day at work, in 2022 it was 44%
- 33% say the having things under control 4 days a week an increase of 10% since 2022
- 20% say they have things under control just 3 days a week
- 8% say they only have things under control less than 2 days a week
The trend that people say they feel less in control than two years ago is consistent in both the data from the US and UK.
How Time Tracking affects how well people manage their time at work
When we cross referenced the level at which people felt in control at work with people that used time tracking we found a divergence:
- For people that used time tracking, 42% felt they had everything under control five days a week vs 31% for people that did not use time tracking
- The margin was greater for UK respondents, where 54% of people that used time tracking said they felt in control of their time five days a week vs 24% for people that did not use time tracking
- Why this would be is not yet known, but one possibility could be that people that track their time are more conscious of where they spend their time. Whatever the situation, it is an interesting statistic that we will explore more in the future as it is a valuable benefit and return on investment for anyone implementing a time tracking system.
What do you feel are the benefits of time management?
We wanted to understand what people felt were the main benefits of time management. To achieve this we compiled a list of eight unique benefits, then asked people whether they strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, disagree or strongly disagree that these are benefits of time management. In the summary below we’ve provided the percentage values of those that either agree or strongly agree that these are benefits:
- 94% say better time management will lead to increased productivity
- 91% say better time management will lead to reduced stress at work
- 90% say it will lead to improved focus on tasks
- 88% say it will lead to better decision making
- 87% say it will help in reaching goals faster
- 85% say it will bring a better reputation at work
- 81% say it will give people more confidence at work
- 76% say it will lead to better workplace relationships
These values are consistent with our research from two years ago, but with increased weighting for increased productivity, reduced stress, improved focus on tasks and better reputation at work.
How often do you look at your email in a day?
Email is still one of the main communication systems at work, and also one of the main distractions. A common recommendation from productivity experts is to disable email notifications where possible and check email at regular intervals.
- 23% of people live in their email system, checking their email constantly throughout the day – down from 32% in 2022
- 35% use notifications to look at emails the instant they come in, up from 31% in 2022
- 5% say they look at their email at least every 10 minutes
- In 2022, 24% looked at their email at least every hour, in 2024 this has increased to 34%
There does appear to be a noticeable shift from constantly looking at email to looking once and hour or so or reacting to notifications.
TIP: Research shows that email notifications can be distracting, take you off task and waste time. A common recommendation is to turn notifications off, block out time to deal with emails and plan your tasks in order of importance or urgency or both, as explained in this article from Forbes.
How much time do you spend per day on tasks that aren’t important?
For the people that weren’t using time management, we wanted to find out how much time they waste in a day on tasks that are not important to their role at work.
- 32% waste less than an hour a day (38% in 2022)
- 42% waste 1-2 hours a day (32% in 2022)
- 16% waste 2-3 hours a day (17% in 2022)
- 6% waste 3-4 hours a day (7% in 2022)
- 3% waste 4-6 hours a day (6% in 2022)
How much time is being lost on unimportant tasks?
From these statistics we were able to calculate average hours lost and compare these to the same data from 2022. Here we found that the total time lost per person has decreased from 1.64 hours in 2022 to 1.25 hours in 2024. (We calculated this by summing the multiple of the number of people in each group by the average number of hours (eg for 1-2 hours the average time is 1.5 hours) for each of the groups and dividing the total by number of people in the sample set)
Having asked people to think about how they currently manage their time, how much time they spend on unimportant tasks and the benefits better time management provides, we wanted to see how much time they would be prepared to spend every day to improve their time management. We asked the following question:
If better time management saved you 90 minutes a day, reduced stress, and improved your reputation at work, what is the maximum time you would spend per day for that gain?
- In 2022 76% said they would invest up to 15-20 minutes a day in time management
- In 2024 a similar number said they would only invest 5-10 for the same gain
Some surprises in Time Management in business for 2024
Ignoring the people that already have a dedicated time management system, 84% use some form of time management system (a calendar (23%), to-do list (48%), inbox (12%)), but don’t recognize what they use as a time management technique.
- Although only 5% of people say they use time blocking, a further 23% are using time blocking techniques, scheduling things in their calendar
- Although just 1% say they use the Eisenhower Matrix, a further 92% are actually using some elements of this system (to-do list, scheduling, doing what feels important), offering the possibility that with a little extra effort they could improve their time management with the full Eisenhower time management system
- 63% of people say they do not have things under control at work 5 days a week
- on average people waste 75 minutes on unimportant tasks each day
- more than 79% of people are distracted at work by emails
- 94% agree that better time management will increase their productivity at work
- 43% of people who use time tracking say they are in control of their time at work 5 days a week, whereas people that don’t use time tracking only 26% say they are only in control of their time 5 days a week.
People do recognize the benefits of better time management though and say they would be prepared to make the effort to better manage their time:
- on average 86% of people agree or strongly agree the benefits we listed would be gained through better time management
- 75% say they are prepared to invest between 5 and 10 minutes a day to gain the benefits of better time management
Time Management Research Details
Timewatch carried out this research in late September 2024 with Pollfish. 382 people were surveyed in the US and UK. The poll was split as follows:
- US – 200 people, UK – 182 people
- Male 65%, Female 34%
- 5% 18-24 years of age
- 33% 25-34 years of age
- 43% 35-44 years of age
- 19% 45-54 years of age
How Timewatch Helps
Our time tracking systems integrate with Outlook and Google to use existing calendar data to help users complete their timesheet more quickly and more accurately. Outlook in particular is an excellent productivity tool to use for time tracking 92% of people are active within Outlook at least once an hour.
As our Outlook timesheet App runs within Outlook, users access their timesheet as they access Outlook! This makes for a easier, more streamlines time tracking process and saves users valuable time.
Do you want to re-use these statistics?
If you wish to use these statistics and data in your web site or research papers, please do so, but please reference Timewatch plc as the source and provide a link to this page. If you want to access the raw data or discuss any aspect of these data, please use the contact form below.
Want to Learn More?
Want to learn more about these time management statistics? Contact us or complete the form to arrange a call with a Timewatch specialist.
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Learn more about Time Management or how we can help your employees improve their time management.
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