Resources in the working world are almost entirely measured in hours. Eight-hour work days. Billable hours. Clocked-in hours. Hours are the currency of labor. Saving hours on a project or hours in someone's calendar frees up that person or resource to do other work, saving the company money. Saving hours saves money.
I don't think we talk enough about saving seconds. Finding simpler, more efficient ways to do mundane tasks may not have the same immediate financial return that saving hours does, but it sure saves a ton of mental health credits. Doing a five-second task one hundred times is a hell of a lot more draining than doing a two-second task a hundred times, completely disproportionate to the actual aggregated time difference. Saving hours saves money, but saving seconds saves sanity.
As companies look for ways to stretch their employees' time even further, I think it's important to consider how critical saving seconds can be. It may sum to only a few minutes in time saved, but the employee will be smiling a lot wider during those few minutes, and don't overlook the effect a smile has on productivity.
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