Advances in digitization already allow us to have 24 hours more per month for our things

As if the months began to have 32 days. Digitalization allows us to save time, up to one day a month, to dedicate it to our leisure, our family or whatever we like the most. The time we used to spend waiting, commuting and more repetitive tasks has been leaving more and more space for free time, which is estimated at 24 hours more per month for our business.

This is one of the conclusions of the report prepared by Deloitte on the Impact of Digitalization in Spain, which analyzes the contribution of the 44 companies that make up DigitalES to the Spanish economy, a total of 34.5 billion euros of Gross Value Added, and the impact of Digital Transformation on our lives.

It’s a long time, but it’s not a coincidence. Tasks that used to be as mundane as shopping for clothes or food, managing personal finances or searching for information are now done over the Internet. Nobody goes to a bank office if it is not strictly necessary and we only go to clothing stores if we need to return something because we did not get the right size when buying on the web.

These tasks have become so commonplace that we have come to realize how much time they save us. Digital marketplaces, for example, give us Spaniards 14 hours a month for our stuff. It is the time we avoid traveling, going to stores, asking sales clerks, waiting for a shift…

We hardly remember anymore, but shopping took time, let alone going to the bank office. There was one on every corner and yet they were always full, with queues that often made you lose half an hour to make a simple transfer. Today we do almost everything over the Internet and the number of electronic banking users in Spain has risen from 40% to 54% in the last three years.

Savings in teleworking

Another growing trend is teleworking. In 2018, the number of employed people who teleworked from home was nearly 1.5 million people, up 20% from 2016. A person who teleworks one day a week can save 4 hours a month in commuting to work, a figure that rises exponentially in large cities, where huge amounts are invested in commuting to offices. By the way, we not only save time, but also money. The report prepared for DigitalES estimates that thanks to e-Administration, users save an average of 75 euros per procedure.

And digitization gives even more. Does anyone remember the libraries? What about encyclopedias? Before the advent of Google and other search engines, they were used for research on any subject and, certainly, the queries were much slower than those provided by the network. Although the use of this technology is fully integrated into our lives, on average it allows us to save up to 4 hours more per month for our activities.

The truth is that access to new digital technologies, facilitated by connectivity, has caused a profound transformation in people’s daily habits and activities, such as daily shopping or access to information. Spain has fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) coverage of more than 77% of homes and 4G coverage of more than 99% of the population. All of this translates into many things, but one of them, perhaps not often mentioned, is that we have one more day a month to do our own thing. If we think about it, that’s 12 more days of vacation per year. Welcome!