Time management at work

[HappyChappy56]

I have just returned to work part time after a career break with the kiddos.

I work from home and have chosen to work part time to fit in housework, errands etc.

I was just wondering how much of the following activities would be deemed reasonable to do in working time. It all seemed clearer when I was working full time, but it's been a while since I have had to manage my time, certainly with so many other things to juggle.

Things I feel are a grey area but maybe IABU:

Meditation
Reading personal development books
Reading books on my industry
Offloading to a friend/journal
Planning the day/week/month (which involves thinking around my personal time / upcoming hols etc)
Calls with a mentor
Brief bouts of exercise

To me, these are not 'work' in the sense of being sat at my desk and producing output, but help me work better. Should I be reducing my hours to fit them in or doing them in work time?

Things I think are more clearly personal time activities, but maybe other people would weave them into a work day without giving themselves wrinkles over it:

Laundry
Making lunch (already prepped, just needs cooking)
Popping to the post office
Putting grocery delivery away
Asking Mumsnet for time management tips
Longer bouts of exercise

I am trying to ascertain if I am stressing too much about whether I have signed up for the right number of hours. Should I be:
a. Thinking far less about it and just getting on with things
b. Reducing my hours
c. Getting some help for time management

What are your productive 'at the desk' hours vs your 'I am letting my brain assimilate' hours?

Thanks MNers!

Yeh I think this is what I'll aim for. Busy periods I do work flat out

Oh, the post office is 3 mins away so I'd literally be away from my desk for 10 mins altogether

I can believe that from my memories of being in an office! Am far more productive now even though part time, which is what prompted the question.

I do apart from my lunch and breaks. Works out as 8hrs at a desk after breaks
Not fun but that's my job

If you work flexi time then completely normal to work less in less busy times. So record 6 hours one day and then 9 hours the next when you are busier.

What's utterly taking the piss is doing laundry, going to the post office or other and recording it as work time.

Yeh I've been out of work a while and self employed a while too so could structure the day how I needed...also have done a lot of work on how the human body works and it's not optimal to be sat still for 8 hours, do some intense exercise and go to bed, rather to have bouts of movement through the day. Also I am more creative while I'm moving so working on content even if it doesn't look like it, then when I sit down I can write all the stuff I've been churning down, whereas if you ask me to sit still to work on the content I feel stagnant and can't think of things as easily. But it seems like I'm definitely in the minority here.

Also, am surprised that's the direction the workplace has gone in the last decade when there has been so much interest in mental health, standing desks, walking meetings etc simultaneously.

So it'd completely OK and normal to be flexible during the day. But that's not working time.

You can't honestly think that you can record the 10 minutes to go to the post office as working time?

It is tricky to fit everything in when you have a hard stop for childcare but that is just life.

How many hours a day are you expected to work?

And a walking meeting is work. Sitting somewhere else making notes is work.

All the things that you are mentioning are categorically not work

Exercise I never count as work. However, I do some of my best thinking in the swimming pool and I do sometimes think I should have classed my swim time as work time when I have gone away and come back with answers after a swim!

My work are accepting of me blocking myself out of the office for a day or two to just cogitate if it comes to a particularly big task so I do know what you mean about thinking time. But I try and be clear about when I am using that time, rather than it just being bits and pieces.

Wfh has been so brilliant for so many people, particularly women.

And there is a massive push to move people back into offices because of a belief that people take the piss at home.

I always completely defend how hard people work at home, so genuinely surprised that you would think this would be acceptable.

And if people do think it's acceptable then sadly we will all be pulled into the office again.

I don't really care how my team plan their time as long as their allocated work is completely punctually and well, and as long as I'm not getting any complaints about them.

We have a few people who work part time, and again as long as they are attending meetings and all of their work is submitted on time and well done I don't care if they're working 9-5 or in the middle of the night tbh.

The post office would be closed before/after work so we went during. People played football during work hours with colleagues.

Your previous workplace sounds extremely unusual!

I wouldn’t be expecting to do any of those during working time tbh. You have a lunch break and of course can prepare food, go for a walk or whatever else you want to do then. But when you are being paid to work, you should actually be working and not “meditating”.

Jeez! Planning your holidays and chatting to your friends… I can only assume this post is a joke! I’m glad I’m not your boss I’d you’re even questioning if these things are acceptable to do on work time! Call with your mentor are the only thing that I think is ok. And brief bouts of exercise- depends how brief? If you’re taking a five min stretch sesh then fine, but anything more on work time? No.

This.
Epitomises how WFH can be misused and abused

If you wouldn't feel comfortable doing it on an open plan office with your boss behind you, then don't do it in working hours

By planning hols I mean when I can take them between all the meetings and deadlines, not where I am going and my itinerary there.
Chatting to friends, when I worked in an office there was a lot of time spent chatting about things.
Exercise.. I meant a quick boogie to a song to release some energy or a 5 min stretch, not a full blown work out ...I guess what they call "movement breaks" in school. I'm genuinely surprised these are not considered normal parts of a working day.

No, these things are definitely what would be considered a normal working day.

I think this depends on the workplace. When I worked there was one guy who'd always stretch at his desk every hour or so, he was considered weird but 5 years later we all got health and safety training from HR about how we should be stretching every hour - noone was bold enough to follow through even though we all agreed it would be good for us to do that.
When I worked abroad the whole office took a 15 min morning break, an hour lunch, and a 15 min afternoon break all at the same time. They had a proper chinwag, let loose, really relaxed. It was the easiest team I've ever managed and incredibly productive. They thought the Brits were well weird for working through lunch with a sandwich at their desk and having "breaks" just to go get a tea top up.

Okay thanks everyone. I work 4 hours a day and my DC is in school 7. I was wondering whether I was short-changing myself by thinking I need to be at my desk all 4 hours, because I wouldnt manage being at my desk the whole working day if I went back 9 to 5 but I think the general consensus is that if you're at work you should be at your desk. I'll unfollow this chat now as some replies have been really helpful but some have been quite sarcy.

I work from home fulltime and my boss is in another time zone, so no one is aware of what I'm doing past midday. I work in the kind of role where no one gives a shit what I'm doing and when as long as the work is done. I would do all of those things you listed, and more, as appropriate to the level of work I have on. There are some days where I do not very much work at all, and some days where I work 7am-9pm.

Obviously every job/industry is different but I really couldn't go back to working somewhere that was so strict about what people were doing with their time, it's so joyless and petty. And a good manager should know whether someone is performing to expected standards without knowing what they are up to every second of every day.

It’s fine to chat to colleagues, that’s part of being in a team. That is why the chatting is tolerated/encouraged. You can still do that via phone or Teams. But you can’t spend work time talking to friends who are not also colleagues.

Good lord, if you work 4 hours a day I definitely wouldn't expect you to be doing anything like meditating or banter with colleagues in your work hours! I'd expect you to be working.

That's a very part time job, you shouldn't be chatting or socialising in those hours. If you worked 70hr weeks then I'd expect a degree of that, but that 4 hours a day drip feed makes it sound like you're an absolute piss taker.

I would say most no, but in response to all the ‘can’t believe you’d expect to meditate at work comments’ it’s positively encouraged at my work and even had a guided meditation at the end of a company all hands.