Optimizing collaborative work can save you one day each week

Last week, I offered a wrap-up of my seven essential tips on mental focus. According to Paul Graham’s classic essay from 2009, focused (“maker”) work is one of two major categories of modern work.

The other category is collaborative (“manager”) work. Today, collaborative work most notably includes e-mail, group chat and meetings. These activities have become much more widespread than most of us would assume: The time we spend on collaborative work has risen more than 50% over the last decade, and in 2021, it consumed more than 85% of our workday.

In late 2021, research conducted at Microsoft found that employee satisfaction with work-life balance dropped by 13 percentage points after going virtual during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the three root causes was a lack of focus time. Not surprisingly, another was always-on collaboration.

As it turns out, research shows that we can reclaim 18 to 24% of that time, or one day (!) each week, by optimizing how we deal with collaborative work. In his excellent book “Beyond Collaboration Overload”, the author of this research and collaboration expert Rob Cross describes how:

“It’s tempting to look for easy answers to overload by obsessing over big inefficiencies that are out of our control, such as demands from unpredictable bosses. But usually the way out is by focusing instead on the small items we can influence and not allowing them to creep around us too much. It’s about avoiding the death of a thousand cuts. Figure out what you have control over, what you can influence. Then play offense on these items.”

Over the following weeks, I will explain how to deal with e-mail, group chat and meetings in a way that helps you do just that. Stay tuned!

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Until next week,
Christian