{
  "id": "F-07",
  "url": "https://evy.so/facts/time-spent-duplicating-work/",
  "chapter": "Where the Week Goes",
  "question": "How much time do people spend redoing work that already exists?",
  "answer": "Workers report losing about 4.6 to 5.7 hours a week to duplicated work, or 10 to 14 percent of a 40-hour week. Every figure is self-reported, and two of the three come from the same publisher.",
  "range": {
    "low": 4.6,
    "high": 5.7,
    "unit": "hours a week on duplicated work",
    "display": "4.6–5.7 h a week on duplicated work, 10 to 14% of a 40-hour week"
  },
  "confidence": "medium",
  "confidence_reason": "Three reports agree closely, but two come from Asana with the same method, so there are only two independent creators, and every figure is self-reported in a vendor survey.",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-13",
  "how_to_read": "All three figures are people's own estimates in surveys run for vendors, mostly from 2018 to 2020. Panopto's average comes from a lopsided spread: 21% report zero hours and 14% report 10 or more. Asana's 2021 hours are our conversion: 236 hours a year is 4.5 hours a week, and 13% of a 40-hour week is 5.2. No newer independent measure was found.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "creator": "Asana, survey by Sapio Research",
      "title": "Anatomy of Work Index 2019",
      "year": 2019,
      "sample": "10,223 knowledge workers in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US",
      "method": "Online survey, August to September 2019, self-reported. Asana sells work management software.",
      "figure": "4 hours 38 minutes a week duplicating work, more than 10% of the week",
      "url": "https://resources.asana.com/rs/784-XZD-582/images/Anatomy-of-Work-Index.pdf",
      "quote": "waste more than 10% of their time duplicating efforts"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Asana, survey by Sapio Research",
      "title": "Anatomy of Work Index 2021",
      "year": 2021,
      "sample": "13,123 knowledge workers in seven countries",
      "method": "Online survey, October 2020, self-reported",
      "figure": "13% of time on work that has already been done, 236 hours a year",
      "url": "https://asana.com/resources/anatomy-of-work-index",
      "archive_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210301155022/https://resources.asana.com/rs/784-XZD-582/images/PDF-FY21-Global-EN-Anatomy%20of%20Work%20Report.pdf",
      "quote": "Teams are spending 13% of their time on work that's already been completed"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Panopto",
      "title": "Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report",
      "year": 2018,
      "sample": "1,001 US employees with at least 5 years of work experience",
      "method": "Online survey, self-reported. Panopto sells video knowledge-sharing software.",
      "figure": "5.68 hours a week reinventing the wheel and duplicating others' work",
      "url": "https://assets.panopto.com/asset/fd3223fa-08dd-46ba-94ad-80d29a787d12/Social-Learning-Workplace-Knowledge-Panopto-White-Paper.pdf",
      "quote": "nearly 6 hours each week \"reinventing the wheel\" and duplicating other people's work"
    }
  ],
  "related_findings": [
    {
      "question": "Which countries lose the most time to duplicated work?",
      "answer": "In Asana's 2019 survey, Germany reported the most at 5 hours 9 minutes a week, followed by Australia and New Zealand (5 h 7 min), the UK (5 h 5 min) and the US (4 h 55 min). Japan reported the least at 2 hours 56 minutes.",
      "sources": []
    },
    {
      "question": "How common is duplicated work across teams?",
      "answer": "Half of knowledge workers (50%) have worked on a project and only later found out that another team was doing the same thing, according to Atlassian's 2024 survey of 5,000 knowledge workers.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "creator": "Atlassian Teamwork Lab",
          "title": "The State of Teams 2024",
          "year": 2024,
          "sample": "5,000 knowledge workers and 100 Fortune 500 executives",
          "method": "Online survey. Measures how many people have experienced it, with no hours.",
          "figure": "50% have worked on a project another team was also doing",
          "url": "https://www.atlassian.com/blog/state-of-teams-2024",
          "quote": "only later found out that another team was working on the same thing"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "numbers_you_may_have_seen": [
    {
      "claim": "Panopto: workers lose 5.3 hours a week waiting for information or recreating existing knowledge.",
      "what_the_source_says": "In the report, 5.31 hours is time spent waiting for colleagues' knowledge. Duplicating work is a separate 5.68 hours, and the report says the two overlap and cannot be added."
    },
    {
      "claim": "Asana: 209 hours a year on duplicated work, 103 hours in unnecessary meetings, 352 hours talking about work.",
      "what_the_source_says": "These blog figures mix editions. 209 hours is the 2019 duplication figure (2021 says 236), and we found the 352 hours in neither the 2019 nor the 2021 report."
    },
    {
      "claim": "IDC: reworking information takes 15% of knowledge workers' time.",
      "what_the_source_says": "The 15% is an assumption inside a cost model of a hypothetical 1,000-person company (Feldman, KMWorld, 2004). No one measured it."
    }
  ],
  "citation": "EVY (2026). How much time do people spend redoing work that already exists? The AI at Work Fact Book, F-07. https://evy.so/facts/time-spent-duplicating-work/ (last checked October 13, 2026). CC BY 4.0.",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0"
}