4 signs you’re spending time on wrong things, and tips on how to avoid these

Just because you’re at work doesn’t mean you’re getting work done.

You’re drowning in email, stuck in dead-end meetings, and constantly interrupted. When do you have time to do any real work? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. A year ago, 69% of surveyed employees said they waste at least some time at work on a daily basis. But the number of people who now admit to wasting time at work has reached a whopping 89%.

We all waste time at work, whether it’s on purpose (googling unimportant stuff) or on accident (really should have allocated more time for internal meetings). Luckily, G Suite can help you accomplish more at work, quicker.

Stop the trend now!

Here are four signs you’re spending time on the wrong things, and tips on how to avoid these time-drains:

 1. You spend more time emailing co-workers than you have actually working 

The average worker spends an estimated 13 hours per week handling  emails—nearly two full work days. Luckily, you can cut the time spent replying to emails with Smart Reply in Gmail. Smart Reply uses machine learning to generate quick, natural language responses for you.

2. You spend time formatting slides for a presentation

Is an image centered? Should you use bold or italic font? Formatting presentations takes too much of your time and takes away from what’s really valuable: sharing insights.

But you can save time polishing your presentations by using Explore in Slides, powered by machine learning. The Explore function generates suggestions so you don’t have to worry about resizing,cropping or reformatting. You can also use Explore in Docs, which enables research from right within your documents. The feature will recommend related topics or even suggest photos or more content you can add to your document. Check out how to use Explore in Slides and Docs in this episode of the G Suite Show.

3. You can’t find a file you know you saved in your drive

Cut down on time wasted with Quick Access in Drive, which uses machine intelligence to predict and suggest files you need when you need them. Natural Language Processing (NLP) also makes it possible for you to search the way you speak. Say you’re trying to find an important file from 2016. Simply search “spreadsheets I created in 2016” and voilà!

Another way to avoid losing files is by using Team Drives, a hub in Drive that houses shared files. In Team Drives, all team members can access files (or manage individual share permissions), so you don’t have to worry about tracking down a file after an employee leaves or granting access to every doc that you create, individually.

4. You’ve fussed with a spreadsheet formula over and over again

According to internal Google data, less than 30 percent of enterprise users feel comfortable manipulating formulas within spreadsheets. So for many,  “=SUM(A1, B1)”  is easy, but more sophisticated calculations can be challenging.

Bypass remembering formulas and time-consuming analysis and dive straight into finding insights with Explore in Sheets, which uses machine learning to crunch numbers for you. Type in questions (in words, not formulas) in Explore in Sheets on the web to learn more about your data instantly. And now, you can use the same powerful technology to create charts for you within Sheets. Instead of manually building graphs, ask Explore to do it for you by typing the request in words.