3 Productive Ways To Use Free Time At Work

Free time at the office might occur in the days following a big project deadline when you’re waiting for a response from someone, or during a particular time of year. But you don’t need to spend that time staring at your phone or watching the clock. Free time can actually be a useful tool, says Phoebe Gavin, career coach and author of The Workplace Guide to Time Management: Best Practices to Maximize Productivity – one that can help inform and improve your schedule on the whole.

Back to the office

Gavin says that as people work from home, they’ve learned to organize their time differently. She specifies that working from home doesn’t necessarily give an employee more free time. It’s more about changing their entire workday to best suit their needs.

“There are definitely a lot of folks who are sticking to a hard nine to five,” Gavin says. “But many people are finding that they are working more in a time window that works best for the way that they think.”

Now, as the return to work is kicking into high gear, employees are having trouble re-adjusting their schedules to the return. This transition can be rough for some, especially if your optimal work hours aren’t optimal office hours. Employees are returning to traditional hours that don’t suit their brain’s most productive moments, causing subpar time management throughout the day.

What should I do with my free time?

Gavin says that while free time at the office might seem inherently unproductive, for the most part, it’s a natural occurrence. And everyone has free time for different reasons.

“For most other folks,” Gavin says, “they’re really efficient with their time, and they’re able to get everything done, or the work itself is actually not as demanding as it would need to be to take up an entire eight-hour day.”

However, there could be moments where you’re waiting on someone to clear a proof, or you don’t have as much on your to-do list as you usually do.

No matter the reason, Gavin says that there are several ways to use your free time as effectively as possible.

1. Get ahead of your work

Gavin says that as long as you’re at the office, you should be finishing whatever it is that you need to finish so your work doesn’t need to “bleed over into [your] freedom.”

“Are there work-related things you can do with your free time at home? Do them at the office,” Gavin says. “People want their free time for home.”

Productivity, Gavin continues, isn’t just about filling your hours. It’s about utilizing your time in the best way possible – even if that means having a little extra free time.

“The most succinct definition of productivity: doing the right things, done at the right time,” she says. “And always work on the most important thing, which is not necessarily the most urgent thing. Really, any office activity could be the ‘right thing’ depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.”

2. Be proactive

Rather than sitting and waiting for something stimulating to happen to you, try going and doing something to keep yourself entertained.

“This idea of free time is not inherently passive,” Gavin says. If you find that you’re bored around the office, you can use the time for blogs, podcasts, or books associated with professional growth. You can also write about your work goals or journal in a way that cultivates your career objectives.

You can also utilize the resources in your office and use your available hours to network.

“A great way to start a free time into time is in your relationships,” Gavin says. “In your environment, you can use your time to build relationships with people who are strategic or who are important to you on a personal level.”

If you have some free time at the office, mill about, and see if anyone else might need a buddy to chat with for a few minutes. You might learn something new about another department, another team, or another manager.

3. Just think

Another great way to use your free time, Gavin says, is thinking. Whether you stay at your desk or take a walk, you can use your free time to mull over certain problems and try to invent solutions.

“Think about the most important aspects of your role and what you’re truly trying to accomplish,” Gavin says. “There are areas where you can experiment to find ways to do your job better or to get better results.”

Thinking during a break is almost like having a watercooler chat with yourself – you’re letting the conversation with yourself go where it may and seeing what you can learn.

“It can actually be really valuable to have some time to expand the way that you’re thinking about work, to daydream, to brainstorm, to sort of let your mind wander a little bit.”

Just leave!

Gavin says another great option if you have a substantial amount of free time and no meetings are to call it a day (if your team and managers agree, of course). This is something that many people have been doing when working from home, but many haven’t expressly told their coworkers.

“Assuming you’re not feeling the gaze of their coworkers,” Gavin says, “people take off at three because they’ve finished all the things they need to do. And it doesn’t serve anyone for them to sit in front of a computer and pretend to work for another two hours when everyone else clocks out. And I think that’s a really good thing.”