I have a friend that says he works 45 minutes a day. And he has a great argument to back it up.

He attended an efficiency seminar and the presenter took the group through a typical workday. It started with coming in, catching up with coworkers, meetings that were not productive, lunch, phone calls, co-worker distractions, more meetings that may or not be related to work product and time spent on emails and online – at the end of the day he claimed there were only 45 minutes of time to actually “work” in an 8 hour work day.

The conclusion was that it was important to eliminate all of the wasted time and distractions and find more time to work during the day. My friend decided to start a business and work the 45 minutes and stop wasting all of the time going to the office. Of course he works more than that, but he doesn’t spend any time that is not focused on getting something done.

Not everyone has the luxury of directing how he or she organizes and achieves an efficient work life.  Someplace between those magical 45 minutes and an 8-hour workday is a balance between productivity and activity with no output.

I’ve been thinking about this since I had a chance to work from my home office before an evening flight to Ireland. I was logged in remotely to all of our systems. I had access to all of the features of everything I had at the office, and I felt that I got a lot done. In hindsight, I had more time, no commute, efficient phone meetings, and no interruptions. I also realized I wasn’t alone.

Most of my team works remotely. It’s become part of our culture and I’m pleased that our solution may make it a bigger part of how your team operates in the future.