Why it can feel so difficult to get things done at work

To better understand how people spend their workday, Microsoft analyzed the activity of millions of individuals who use their business applications. According to the report, the top 25% of users spend an average of 8.8 hours per week reading and writing emails and 7.5 hours attending meetings.

"Those figures don't include time spent instant messaging, on the phone or in other, impromptu conversations with co-workers," Smith writes. Overall, the report found that employees are dedicating 57% of their time on office software for communication, leaving only 43% for actual work, such as building spreadsheets or writing presentations.

Workers and managers both complain that digital overload has a negative impact on innovation and productivity. In a separate survey of 31,000 people worldwide, almost two out of three workers admitted to struggling to find the time and energy to do their actual job — and those people were over three times more likely to say that innovation and strategic thinking were a challenge.

"People feel quite overwhelmed, a sense of feeling like they have two jobs, the job they were hired to do, but then they have this other job of communicating, coordinating, and collaborating," said Jared Spataro, head of Microsoft's modern-work team.

While communication and meetings are a key part of most roles, "many workers and bosses say all of the time spent talking and collaborating isn't necessarily improving workplace communications," Smith notes.

For example, in a 2022  Harris Poll survey of over 1,200 workers and executives, leaders estimated that their teams lost an average of 7.47 hours a week to poor communications.

How to mitigate digital overload

To combat communication overload, some companies like  Slack and  Dropbox have tried blocking out time to give employees space to focus on their tasks. Meanwhile, other companies are "shortening meeting times and raising the bar for calling a meeting in the first place," Smith writes.

Scheduling-software company  Calendly  restricted its core meeting hours to between noon and five PM, reserving the remaining hours for focused work time. "We've found our people continue to embrace it," said Calendly CEO Tope Awotona.

Rita King, EVP of workplace-consulting firm Science House, noted that meetings are often scheduled without a clear objective. "The key is to not invite someone to a meeting unless you are absolutely certain that they belong there, and you can tell them why," she said. This way, employees can focus more on their tasks without constantly being interrupted by distractions and unnecessary discussions.

To capitalize on AI's potential to lessen workloads, Microsoft is integrating generative AI features into tools like Outlook and PowerPoint — a move that aims to remove the "drudgery" of some work tasks and help workers become more efficient.

However, while a majority of workers surveyed believe AI can help decrease their workloads, almost half expressed concern about the potential impact on their job security.

Some employees, like project manager Kimani Bonner, have found ways to address communication overload by blocking time on their calendars for "heads-down work," Smith writes. These adjustments have helped Bonner, who attends as many as 10 back-to-back meetings a day, avoid working 60 to 70 hours per week. (Smith, Wall Street Journal, 5/9)