If You Ever Wondered Where Your Day Goes… Read This
Readtime: 4 minutes
After three years of running corporate workshops on high performance, I’ve developed a simple hypothesis.
Only about 25% of the workday is productive.
This lines up with what thousands of professionals have told me in my Sustaining Success workshops. Where, on average, people say they get about 2.5 hours of genuinely important work done each day.
The rest of the day fills itself with everything around it.
Here's how I think it breaks down… (how does this compare with your experience?)
15% – Time that just disappears
This is where people bounce between notifications and quick questions.
They’re moving, reacting, responding… but not quite sure where the last hour went.
10% – Routine tasks and processes that no longer add much value
Updating dashboards. Maintaining templates.
Entering data to keep a system alive because “we’ve always done it this way”.
These tasks often continue long after their usefulness has stopped.
30% – Conversations about work instead of doing the work
Status updates.
Alignment calls.
Team meetings with way too many people on them to be productive.
These meetings feel necessary, but they rarely move work forward in a meaningful way.
Maybe I’m estimating too low at 30%...
15% – Hard work that ultimately leads nowhere
This is the part most people recognise instantly.
(And is probably the most frustrating.)
Thoughtful slide decks for projects that get cancelled.
Drafts for initiatives that lose sponsorship.
Campaigns paused because priorities changed overnight.
The effort is real.
With nothing to show for it.
5% – Tasks done to keep someone else happy
A weekly report for a leader who barely looks at it.
A rewrite to match someone’s preference.
A last-minute deliverable created because someone senior wants something “ASAP”.
These tasks maintain relationships but don’t usually move the business forward.
And finally, around 25% – the work that actually moves things forward
Based on what people tell me, this usually adds up to about 2.5 hours a day.
It tends to happen:
early in the morning,
later in the day,
or in those rare stretches of quiet where no one is asking for anything.
These are the moments where people feel closest to the work they were hired to do.
And they are smaller pockets of time than almost anyone would like to admit.
Why This Breakdown Feels True for So Many People
People often talk about a gap between what they know they can do and what their workday actually allows.
They feel capable, but they’re constantly pulled away from meaningful progress.
It’s because of the way modern work organises itself: around tools, meetings, approvals, and endless small tasks that take up space but don’t create much impact.
That tension is draining.
It makes people feel like they’re running hard without getting very far.
A Practical Upside
When someone steps out of corporate life – even briefly – they often notice something striking:
Almost the entire day becomes filled with important work.
Focus increases.
Output becomes obvious.
Progress shows up quickly.
And I think that reveals something encouraging:
Most people have far more potential for meaningful work than their environment allows them to use.
The ability is there.
It’s just that the conditions get in the way.
The Takeaway
If you often feel like your days get filled with tasks that don’t matter, you’re not imagining it, and you’re not the issue.
That frustration is simply your ambition tapping you on the shoulder, reminding you that you’re built for meaningful work.
And here’s the good news: if you can create the impact you already do in just 2.5 hours of focused effort, imagine what becomes possible when even a little more of your day is protected for the work that actually counts.
That’s all for today.
See you next week,
Mostyn
P.S. If your team is stuck in this situation, there is a way out. The companies I worked with see an average 41% improvement in their ability to get meaningful work done. Curious? Watch my showreel and schedule a call.