The most valuable resource for modern professionals may be an intangible one: time. We’ve all heard the saying “time is money,” but did you know that businesses that place a quantifiable value on billable hours experience improved ROI, reach their goals faster, and create scalable work environments for future revenue generation? Conversely, SMBs (small-to-midsized businesses) strapped for time often fall short in other areas of delivery as well, including quality assurance, product rollouts, and customer satisfaction.
Forbes calls this concept “time scarcity” and “a new form of poverty” where those wealthy in time resources are more apt to succeed. Non-value-added activities impact everything from revenue to employee wellness and mental health. This is because when we waste time, our teams end up scrambling with more tasks and responsibilities than they can handle, at the risk of lower quality and output standards.
Take it from Elizabeth Harris of Forbes: “Another way of thinking about all this is in terms of opportunity cost or what economists call the value of what you forgo by doing one thing and not the other. The hour you spent commuting or mowing the lawn cost you an hour of doing something you really want to be doing.”
This is where time tracking apps and software that boost time efficiency can help teams scale, especially on tasks that do not contribute to their end goals. To make the most out of these tools, developing a deeper understanding of value-added vs. non-value-added activities is essential for organizational structure.
To define these two categories as simply as possible, value-added activities are those that propel a project forward and directly result in deliverables. Non-value-added activities are those that consume time and resources with no measurable outcome or benefit to the customer. Another way these tasks are commonly classified is as billable vs. non-billable hours. Billable hours are those that can be charged directly to customers, such as in the case of law firms and accounting practices, while non-billable hours are strictly administrative and not necessarily delivering ROI.
Every business must balance the need for repetitive, administrative work with the time cost for non-value-added activities. Too often, teams get caught up in the cycle of “busy work” and projects stall. Deadlines may be missed, quality can take a downturn, and morale drops because of task overload. When this happens, it’s essential to get your team back on track.
Let’s get ahead of project burnout by taking a closer look at value-added activities that drive results and non-value-added activities that indicate you’re wasting time on a project. These five indicators are clear signs that it’s time to rethink and reprioritize your time budget. The team at eBillity can help with seamless, efficient project tracking to keep you and your crew moving forward.
5 Signs You’re Wasting Time on a Project
With a basic understanding of what does and does not add value to a project, we can properly assess indicators of a failing project management strategy. Identifying these 5 signs of poor project management serves as an opportunity to adjust workflows and prioritize value-added activities. This often means taking work off employees’ plate to free up time for focused, billable hours. Change is a welcome shift for project goals as well as team morale.
1. The Project Isn’t Moving Forward
Can you track a predictable and reliable project journey? Do you know how much time is spent per day moving a project forward? If the answer is no, you may have spotted your first red flag. Value-added activities are those that directly impact key parts of a project and can be tracked as they push tasks forward to the goal and deadline.
A stalled project indicates excessive time spent on non-value-added activities with true progress taking a backseat. A few common culprits of stalled projects include:
- Too Many Internal Meetings. Client meetings may be unavoidable, but we can control the logistics surrounding internal meetings. 1:1s, planning sessions, and team huddles all eat up valuable work time. Let’s face it; no one likes being stuck in meetings. A full calendar of recurring meetings is cause for review. Listen to your teams to get an accurate idea of how much meeting time cuts into working time. Consider consolidating and cutting back wherever possible.
- Need for Constant Approvals. Are your teams stuck waiting for approval from other teams? A good example of this type of roadblock is sales waiting on marketing approval for an outbound campaign. If this dynamic is prevalent, consider setting reasonable deadlines for responses and focusing on improved collaboration and communication between departments.
- Too Much Micromanagement. No one likes to be told they may be a micro manager, but it’s worth considering whether frequent check-ins are harming productivity and morale. Instead of taking time away from tasks to stay up to date, consider asynchronous updates for simple progress tracking and utilize smart tech tools so the whole team can have visibility into timesheets, billable hour tracking, and employee schedules, PTO, and working hours.
2. Constant Rework or Revisions Are Holding Your Team Back
Ensuring client satisfaction does not mean relinquishing control of a project entirely. While some back-and-forth is to be expected, many companies become too gracious in allowing clients to dictate rework and revisions. For example, a design team may be asked to rework marketing collateral due to a brand’s aesthetic changing for the third time or a coding team might have to re-code software features based on updates that were not disclosed earlier.
Whether changes are being requested internally or from clients, setting boundaries and expectations is helpful in navigating a new project launch. Many firms implement a policy within client contracts that allows a maximum number of revisions. If a client exceeds this number, they can be expected to be billed for the additional time.
If requests are coming from senior management, consider focusing on improved internal communication between teams. Utilize project management software to create shared checklists and templates so all members of the team have visibility into each draft of a project. This will allow approval entities to catch errors sooner and change direction with much less hassle and frustrations for the project team.
In either case, ensure project requirements are outlined and clear well before the start of a project.
3. Simple Tasks Aren’t So Simple: Overprocessing and Overcomplicating Workflows
Overprocessing is a unique roadblock in value-added activities that overcomplicates workflows and wastes time and resources. Overprocessing is defined as putting more time and resources into a task than reasonably required; going the extra mile when there is no clear ROI for doing so. FlowPlus, a leading consulting firm specializing in lean project management, states, “often mixed up with overproduction, the waste of overprocessing is rarely properly explored. Its intangibility arises from a veil of uncertainty surrounding customers’ true desires and values.”
In following FlowPlus’ assessment, overprocessing usually arises from a desire to impress key accounts. However, the most competitive, adept industry leaders rely on expertise rather than time spent to truly prove their worth in today’s market. Focus instead on high-value tasks that move projects forward in a timely fashion. Achieving this may mean setting boundaries and time constraints on review cycles and feedback loops.
But how can teams feel confident in dedicating enough time to key accounts? This is where reliable time tracking tools come into play. Having a clear picture of billable hours allows operations managers to know exactly how much time should be spent per project and ensure dedicated resources are being allotted where they matter most.
4. Waiting for Resources
Budget, staff, and approvals can all cost valuable project time. No one likes being stuck in limbo when it comes to project management. Waiting is, of course, the clearest waste of time that could be spent on key tasks. The first step to driving efficiency of processes is understanding where, when, and why bottlenecks occur. Involve the impacted teams in an all-hands meeting to come together and review processes and communication. Approach these meetings with a spirit of empathy and collaboration. Set realistic goals and deadlines, establish routes of communication, and set a backup plan before you need one.
Consider empowering more team members to make key decisions and utilize automation tools to trigger alerts when approvals are overdue.
5. Duplicating Work and Creating Redundancy
Redundant tasks are one of the most demoralizing aspects of being on a project management team and one of the most inefficient when it comes to value-added activities. Think of poor CRM management where two departments are entering the same data into multiple software platforms or poor task management tools where the same notes must be duplicated across platforms.
Automation is how today’s businesses are prioritizing their valuable working hours. Rather than having multiple departments handling the same tasks and information, companies are partnering with integrated software solutions that allow information to cross-populate throughout CRMs, sales platforms, and accounting apps. Other tools automate redundant and recurring tasks such as outbound email campaigns and inbound marketing.
Reducing duplication of tasks gives your staff time back for specialized assignments that require their full attention and drive value for your clients. The result? Improved ROI and less frustration and burnout for your best people.
Driving Value-Added Activities and Reducing Busy Work
Of course, being able to identify the signs of wasted project time is only half the battle. Check out these 5 simple steps for leaner, meaner project management to turn awareness into action.
1. Streamline to Future-Proof
Improve your workflows through identifying areas that can be streamlined. The best way to start is by outlining your processes from beginning to end, using process mapping tools like Lucidchart or Miro to help visualize each step. From here, you can accurately spot inefficiencies and opportunities to consolidate or cut any steps that don’t align with your goals and outcomes.
This is a great method for future-proofing your operational strategy and scaling project management in SMBs.
2. Leverage Automation
Automation is key to staying competitive in today’s fast-paced market. Repetitive tasks such as data entry, report generation, email follow-ups are the best places to leverage automation. With software such as HubSpot for marketing workflows and Monday.com for sharing project updates, businesses are becoming more efficient every day.
3. Prioritize Like a Pro
Learning prioritization skills is the best asset a leader can bring to project management teams.
Use frameworks like Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Matrix or the MoSCoW method (Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, Won’t-have) for agile project management workflows. These frameworks help teams to rank urgency and need. Focus on creating the greatest impact with value-added activities at the top of the task list and work backwards from there.
4. Improve Communication
Collaboration is key when it comes to driving efficiency. That means ensuring clear, concise communication from the start. Determine methods of communication for updates, daily notes, and other commentary. For example, is a revision request an email, Teams call, or simple Slack message? Synchronize communications to one channel whenever possible to avoid scattering conversations across channels, which can lead to confusion and missed messages.
Be mindful of staff time, but schedule regular meetings and check-ins in advance to ensure that calendar time is held. Create a culture where questions and feedback are welcome to drive added value to every project.
5. Review and Audit Regularly
Many companies don’t realize how much time non-value-added activities consume. To ensure value-added activities are prioritized, review and audit your teams’ billable hours on a regular basis. Pull in-depth quarterly reports to track billable hours throughout the lifetime of various projects. This will give leaders insight on how their teams are spending their time, empower managers to spot inconsistencies and errors in time tracking early on, and accurately bill clients and quote new projects.
Start Treating Time Like Money
Time is the most valuable resource a company has. Not only does every hour spent on a project have a tangible dollar value, but non-value-added activities impact morale, erode focus, and can cause projects to run off course. By recognizing the warning signs that your team is spending too much of their valuable workday on tasks that do not contribute to ROI, leaders can take proactive steps to engage their colleagues, streamline workflows, and refocus their efforts where it counts.
Build a future-proof culture where efficiency is celebrated not seen as cutting corners and start putting clients before meetings as you scale, adapt, and grow. Time tracking software can help achieve this goal.
With Time Tracker by eBillity teams can track time from anywhere, on any device. In today’s increasingly remote business landscape, accurate, transparent time tracking is a must for contractors, home office staff, and everyone in between. If you’re ready to get more value for your time and start tracking what really matters try Time Tracker for 14-days for free.