How many times do you find yourself working early in the morning, late night, or even on weekends? Whether you are responding to email, checking the report, or participating in meetings, the workday often seems to be that it never ends. This is especially true in this era of remote and hybrid workers. Well, at least one major technique is clearly your pain.
Title in a new special report “Dissect“Microsoft states how and why the never -ending workdays affected many professionals. The special report is followed for the company’s recent”2025 Working Trend Index Annual Report,
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With the new report, the company analyzed how and when people use various Microsoft 365 products, such as outlook, team and office. The goal was to map the time and duration of a specific working day. In its unknown analysis, Microsoft seems to have found a road to productivity as infinite working day. Here is how many professionals play for many professionals.
Never end working
Workday often starts at 6 am, in which 40% of people review the email so that the work of the next day can be preferred. The average worker receives about 117 emails each day, most of them are skimped in less than 60 seconds. (Next time you send an email to someone, keep in mind that one-to-one email has fallen by 5% in the last one year, with a large-scale email killing 20 or more recipients.
By 8 am, Microsoft takes over for email as the main method to communicate teams. Here, the average worker receives messages from about 154 teams every day. Worldwide, this number represents an average profit of 6% compared to the previous year. However, in areas such as Middle and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, the increase increases by 20%. In the UK and South Korea, the number of messages jumps is 15%.
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After dealing with all early emails and messages, it is time to focus on some staunch work. Ah, not so fast. Meetings come here.
Depending on the analysis of Microsoft, half of all meetings occur from 9–11 am and may look appropriate at 1-3 pm. But Past research It is indicated that your productivity spikes exactly during those hours. Instead of spending the time in meetings, you should focus on your desk more demand or challenging work that requires your concentration.
In addition, the meetings themselves have become more as a piece. According to the report, some of them 57% are determined on the fly without a calendar inviting. Even some scheduled meetings are booked at the last minute. Larger meetings with 65 or more participants are the fastest growing types. About one third of the areas are included in many times.
After a break for lunch, many employees turn to productivity apps such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. This is when they eventually focus on work such as writing, analyzing data and preparing presentations. But here too, the time is fragmented, Microsoft said. On average, a worker is interrupted by email, notification or ad hoc meeting every two minutes.
Okay, now it comes time to leave at 5 pm, right? No. Data shows that the workday continues. As an example, meetings running after 8 pm have increased by 16% in the last one year. This is largely due to global and flexible teams that are trying to accommodate people around the world. Also, the average employee receives more than 50 messages after normal commercial hours. By 10 pm, 29% of the workers return to their inboxes to check their latest emails.
Ah, but now it’s weekend. Time not to relax and think about work. think again. About 20% of employees check their emails before Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Some 5% return to their emails after 6 pm on Sunday evening as they are ready for more with the same for another week.
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Even in a workholic society and culture, infinite working day is madness. Not only does it suck the time of work that should be spent more productively, but it is but it feels tired and burnt out. And it hurts not only themselves but also their employers.
What is the answer? For this, Microsoft suggested that we rely more on AI, especially AI agents. Although I think we now pin our hopes on AI too much, it is worth reviewing what the company has to say.
Follow the 80/20 rule
Activity is not the same as progress. What is good if it is just a busy task and a good job to deal with the right tasks or goals? Here, Microsoft recommends adopting the Pareto theory, which suggests that 20% of the work should distribute 80% results.
And how does it include AI? Use AI agents to handle low value tasks, such as status meetings, regular reports and administrative brainstorms. It frees employees to focus on deep tasks that require human touch. For this, Microsoft suggested the Microsoft 365 Community Conference to see Keenot Future firm building,
New form for work chart
Instead of using an ORG chart to portray roles and responsibilities, turn to a task chart. A task chart is operated more than the result, in which teams are conducted around a specific target. Here, you can use AI to fill some gaps, again free employees for more intensive work.
Microsoft cited a specific product launch as an example. For this, material rests with marketing, data with analytics, budget with finance and message with communication. This means that a basic change such as price increase can lead to several days and meetings to receive all essential parties on board.
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Instead, Microsoft indicated SupergoopAn AI-first agency is first called supernatural. In Supergood, employees use AI to include the right data in all proposed services, from consumer research to brand strategy creative ideas.
Accepting that AI may trigger anxiety among people that they are afraid that they will be replaced by machines, supernatural co-founder Mike Barrett said: “AI is not coming to your job, which has come for carpenter’s jobs compared to circular saws. The idea that you are going to turn on some electricity equipment, you leave them in a room, and the bail is left in a single room, and the bail is all ended, Gave that workers see AI as “a power tool for creative people”.
Use AI agents wisely
Finally, Microsoft pointed to a new breed of professionals known as agent owners. They handle the infinite working day, not in more hours but by doing smart work. An example quoted in the report is Alex Farach, a researcher of Microsoft. Instead of having marshes in manual work, Farach uses a trio of AI agents to act as its assistants. Collects a daily research. The second does run statistical analysis. And the third draft briefs to tie all the data together.
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Of course, the challenge is still the challenge to learn how to use AI wisely. And it may have time and patience. Microsoft said in its report, “AI provides a way out of the mier, especially if combined with a rhythm of work,” Microsoft said in his report. “Otherwise, we risk using AI to accelerate a broken system.”
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