Most people feel like they're too busy attending meetings and sending messages to actually think at work

• I barely had time to write this story because of a full slate of meetings, unanswered Slacks, and emails.
• The average worker spends 57% of her time communicating in meetings, email, and chat, says Microsoft.
• So if all of us are answering emails or going to meetings, when are we doing actual work?

I had trouble finding time to write this story.

In the two-plus hours since I signed onto work at 9:15 a.m., I've had three Slack huddles, about two dozen Slack messages to answer, and some admin work to do. I even managed to set up a source meeting. Luckily, two video meetings got canceled, so now I have time to write.

Of course, this is most people's mornings, right? But, just because it's a standard in corporate America, doesn't mean I — and many people, I imagine — can escape feeling frantic as we start our days.

A recent study by Microsoft helps explain why.

The company found that within its Microsoft 365 applications, people spend 57% of their time communicating in meetings, email, and chat. And 68% of people said they don't have enough uninterrupted focus time during the workday, according to its 2023 Work Trend Index, which surveyed 31,000 people in 31 countries from February to March 2023, and analyzed trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, along with labor trends from the LinkedIn Economic Graph.

The bottom line is that most of us are so busy with the ancillary duties that it shrinks the time we have to think — and innovate.

Microsoft's survey also found about 60% of leaders believe a lack of innovation or breakthrough ideas on their teams is a concern.

A nifty feature on my Google Calendar tells me that I spend anywhere from 15 to 18 hours a week in meetings. I won't even try to estimate how many Slacks I send (or the hours I spend checking Slack on my laptop and phone).

I'm not alone. Microsoft's survey showed that across the tech giant's suite of office apps, the heaviest email users spend 8.8 hours a week on email and 7.5 hours a week in meetings. (I'm jealous. That's it???)

So all of us are answering emails or going to meetings, when are we doing actual work? Turns out a lot of us are in the same boat, and that isn't good for productivity.

My colleague Joe Ciolli wrote about how US productivity has fallen off a cliff the past several quarters. Productivity measures the efficiency of the work done by a company and its employees by comparing output to hours worked. And as companies keep hiring in a still-strong job market, they're not getting as much out of their workers overall. And that's fueling a stealth economic slowdown, he wrote.

Ciolli further explained that productivity is important to the US economy because it's the primary input for a population's standard of living. It goes well beyond simply getting people to work harder. We should be looking at how to increase productivity by using technology to improve workflows and overall efficiency, and training employees to get the most out of these tools.

Microsoft's survey said the top five obstacles to productivity are inefficient meetings, lack of clear goals, too many meetings, feeling uninspired, and having a hard time finding the information needed to make decisions.

We've been talking about radically rethinking our workdays, doing meeting purges, and shortening meetings for a long time, and nothing has helped.

Many are hoping AI is the answer.

Despite concerns about AI replacing jobs, Microsoft found "employees are more eager for AI to lift the weight of work than they are afraid of job loss to AI," and 76% of people said they would be comfortable using AI for admin tasks and 79% said they'd be OK using it for analytical work. Of course the biggie is 80% of people would want AI to summarize their meetings and action items, and 77% would want help planning their day.

Of course the AI rush has quickly heated up — and concerns are rampant — yet the race for talent is on to smartly and safely develop these products.

While it seems clear AI has potential to help manage our workflow, boost productivity, and perhaps eliminate some stress for overworked employees, we know that AI on its own won't fix our days and our work. But it could help us evolve how we work — and hopefully give us time to think.