The Five-Minute Task That Isn't Really Five Minutes

“This only takes five minutes.”

It's something you hear a lot when reviewing a process.

And they're probably right.

The task itself might take five minutes.

But how often does it happen?

If a five-minute task happens 20 times a day, that's already:

• 100 minutes a day

• 8+ hours a week

• 400+ hours a year

Even valuing that time at just £12.21 an hour, that's nearly £5,000 a year spent on one five-minute task.

And that's just one person.

If five people are doing it, you're suddenly looking at more than 2,000 hours — or around £25,000 of staff time — every year.

That's before considering interruptions, switching between systems, waiting for information or getting back into whatever they were doing beforehand.

This is why small inefficiencies are easy to overlook.

Nobody raises a project because something takes five minutes. It doesn't feel important enough.

But when reviewing a process, don't just ask:

“How long does this take?”

Ask:

“How long does this take, how often do we do it, and how many people do it?”

That's when five minutes can start looking surprisingly expensive.

Small doesn't always mean insignificant.