--- title: "How much time do people spend redoing work that already exists? (4.6–5.7 h) | The AI at Work Fact Book" description: "Workers lose about 4.6 to 5.7 hours a week, 10 to 14 percent of the week, to duplicated work. Primary sources, country differences and misquoted figures." url: "https://evy.so/facts/time-spent-duplicating-work/" last_updated: "2026-10-16" --- F-07 · Where the Week Goes # How much time do people spend redoing work that already exists? 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. 4.6–5.7 h a week on duplicated work, 10 to 14% of a 40-hour week - Medium confidence - 3 primary sources - 2018 to 2021 - Last checked October 13, 2026 ## Cite this 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. Copy citation [Data as JSON](https://evy.so/facts/time-spent-duplicating-work.json) [Markdown](https://evy.so/facts/time-spent-duplicating-work.md) ## How to read it 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. ## Every study on one scale Shaded: 4.6–5.7 h One figure A range in one study Chart values as text - Scale: hours a week on duplicated work. Shaded range: 4.6–5.7 h. - Asana 2019 (2019): 4 h 38 min - Asana 2021 (2021): 4.5–5.2 h (13%) - Panopto (2018): 5.68 h **Why medium confidence:** 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. ## Sources Sources for F-07 | Study | Creator | Year | Sample | Method | Figure | Link | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Anatomy of Work Index 2019 | Asana, survey by Sapio Research | 2019 | 10,223 knowledge workers in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US | Online survey, August to September 2019, self-reported. Asana sells work management software. | 4 hours 38 minutes a week duplicating work, more than 10% of the week “waste more than 10% of their time duplicating efforts” | [resources.asana.com ↗](https://resources.asana.com/rs/784-XZD-582/images/Anatomy-of-Work-Index.pdf) | | Anatomy of Work Index 2021 | Asana, survey by Sapio Research | 2021 | 13,123 knowledge workers in seven countries | Online survey, October 2020, self-reported | 13% of time on work that has already been done, 236 hours a year “Teams are spending 13% of their time on work that's already been completed” | [asana.com ↗](https://asana.com/resources/anatomy-of-work-index) [Archived copy ↗](https://web.archive.org/web/20210301155022/https://resources.asana.com/rs/784-XZD-582/images/PDF-FY21-Global-EN-Anatomy%20of%20Work%20Report.pdf) Archived copy of the full 2021 report PDF. | | Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report | Panopto | 2018 | 1,001 US employees with at least 5 years of work experience | Online survey, self-reported. Panopto sells video knowledge-sharing software. | 5.68 hours a week reinventing the wheel and duplicating others' work “nearly 6 hours each week "reinventing the wheel" and duplicating other people's work” | [assets.panopto.com ↗](https://assets.panopto.com/asset/fd3223fa-08dd-46ba-94ad-80d29a787d12/Social-Learning-Workplace-Knowledge-Panopto-White-Paper.pdf) | By country ## Which countries lose the most time to duplicated work? 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. How common ## How common is duplicated work across teams? 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. How common is duplicated work across teams? | Study | Creator | Year | Sample | Method | Figure | Link | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | The State of Teams 2024 | Atlassian Teamwork Lab | 2024 | 5,000 knowledge workers and 100 Fortune 500 executives | Online survey. Measures how many people have experienced it, with no hours. | 50% have worked on a project another team was also doing “only later found out that another team was working on the same thing” | [atlassian.com ↗](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/state-of-teams-2024) | ## Numbers you may have seen These figures circulate widely. Here is what the original source says. - **Panopto: workers lose 5.3 hours a week waiting for information or recreating existing knowledge.** 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. - **Asana: 209 hours a year on duplicated work, 103 hours in unnecessary meetings, 352 hours talking about work.** 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. - **IDC: reworking information takes 15% of knowledge workers' time.** The 15% is an assumption inside a cost model of a hypothetical 1,000-person company (Feldman, KMWorld, 2004). No one measured it. ## More from Where the Week Goes - [F-01**19–25%**How much of the work week do knowledge workers spend searching for information?](https://evy.so/facts/time-spent-searching-for-information/) - [F-02**53–61%**How much of the work day goes to coordinating work rather than doing it?](https://evy.so/facts/time-on-work-about-work/) - [F-03**3–18 h**How many hours a week do people spend in meetings, and how much of it is wasted?](https://evy.so/facts/time-in-meetings/) - [F-04**20–26 min**How long does it take to get back to a task after an interruption?](https://evy.so/facts/time-to-resume-after-interruption/) - [F-05**13–28%**How much of the work week do knowledge workers spend on email and chat?](https://evy.so/facts/time-on-email-and-chat/) - [F-06**3–4 h**How much time do people lose switching between apps at work?](https://evy.so/facts/time-lost-switching-apps/) [The whole chapter](https://evy.so/facts/where-the-week-goes/) · [Chapter poster](https://evy.so/facts/where-the-week-goes/sheet/) · [All of The AI at Work Fact Book](https://evy.so/facts/)