The thin veneer separating work time and personal time has seemingly disappeared. Mobile devices, like smartphones and tablet computers, now allow professionals to get to work as quickly as it takes to unlock their home screens. They can respond to emails, field phone calls, answer texts, edit presentations, and more, all on their mobile devices. Plus, they’re the dominant way for people to get online now, too. Consumers spend about 60% of their time online on mobile devices, as opposed to laptops or desktops.
Perhaps surprisingly, many business professionals think that this is a good thing. According to a new survey from Entrepreneur, about 80% of surveyed professionals felt positively about being tethered to their offices via their mobile devices, while nearly three in 10 thought it was “great.” Naturally, a lot of work is being done remotely. According to the survey, about 10.5 hours of work per week, in fact.
However, it’s not that these professionals enjoy being on the grind 24/7, but rather the opposite. They enjoy a freer work schedule. If they get half an hour of work done at night, that means they have half an hour of free time to spend the next day. If they need to stay home with their kids because of a snow day, they can, and still get work done.
Now, more work than ever is getting done. Mobile devices have made professionals more productive. According to the survey, 67% of surveyed professionals said they could get an average 24.5 extra minutes of work done on their commute, responding to emails, or working on documents. If just 100 employees are taking advantage of this extra time, they’ll clock an additional 41 hours of work for the company each day. That’s like getting the work of five extra employees for free.
Meanwhile, not a single survey respondent thought their mobile devices made them less efficient.
In the age of the Internet, there’s virtually no difference between personal time and work time. The two blend and bleed into the other, and according to the survey, that’s not a bad thing. It helps professionals make more efficient use of each.