A five-day workload map you can actually act on

Steps
1. Choose one ordinary working week. Keep confidential names out of the worksheet. Divide actual time into planned delivery, people support, coordination, unexpected work and unallocated time. A meeting belongs in one category even if it serves several purposes.
2. Reconcile the categories with the hours actually worked. Record overtime separately rather than silently increasing the available week. For interrupted work, record the interruption duration; do not also count the entire original booking as completed delivery.
3. Keep a second list for unfinished requests: requester role, decision needed, estimated effort, deadline and consequence of waiting. Estimates belong in this queue, not in the actual-time total.
4. Choose one adjustment with the team: stop a low-value meeting, change a decision owner or protect a delivery block. Record who agrees, what moves and which request remains at risk. Repeat the audit before claiming the adjustment worked.

Worked record
Actual time: planned delivery: ____________________
Actual time: people support: ____________________
Actual time: coordination: ____________________
Actual time: unexpected work: ____________________
Unallocated time: ____________________
Reconciliation: ____________________
Queued request, excluded from actual time: ____________________
One proposed adjustment: ____________________

Actual time: planned delivery: 15 h
Actual time: people support: 9 h
Actual time: coordination: 6 h
Actual time: unexpected work: 5 h
Unallocated time: 2.5 h
Reconciliation: 15 + 9 + 6 + 5 + 2.5 = 37.5 h
Queued request, excluded from actual time: Review handover checklist: estimated 2 h; due Thursday
One proposed adjustment: Replace a 1 h status meeting with an asynchronous update; owner checks Thursday whether the review was completed

The 2.5 hours are not guaranteed spare capacity: they may be fragmented or already reserved for work that was missed in the log. Record the largest uninterrupted block as well. If the two-hour request cannot fit, agree an explicit trade-off; do not interpret the audit as a productivity score for an individual. Copy the worksheet below for a second week and compare like with like.

CIPD: line management and job design — https://www.cipd.org/en/views-and-insights/thought-leadership/insight/devolving-hr-management/