The Productivity Pro® Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

I have a friend who jokes there are always three people in her bed: herself, her husband, and her Blackberry.  I was in California last week on vacation with my family and witnessed people typing away on their Blackberries while at Disneyland, with their children tugging at their pants legs, asking to go see Cinderella.  I was presenting a seminar yesterday, and one participant kept looking up to say, "Would you repeat that"? not because I wasn’t clear, but because she wasn’t paying attention to me—you got it—checking her email during class.  Examples abound but the bottom line is Americans are addicted to email.  Slaves to the Send/Receive button, countless workers sit at their desks, waiting for the next Desktop Alert, beep, cursor change, envelope in the system tray, whatever trigger prompts their Pavlovian response to interrupt whatever they are doing and check it.  And unopened email!  A present—for me!  Someone loves me.  Many workers allow themselves to get sucked in the email vortex for an entire day and not actually complete any work.  And then we blame the sheer mass for sucking all of our time, rather than acknowledging the reality: you are controlled by your email. 

A new study released July 26 by AOL in partnership with Opinion Research Corporation reveals that more Americans are using portable devices to email around the clock from virtually anywhere—even in the bathroom and at church.  Even more dangerously, 53% of respondents admit to tapping away *while driving.*  Some other interesting statistics:

* 83% of email users are checking while on vacation;

* 59% of those with portable devices are using them to check email every time a new message arrives.

* 43% of users keep the device nearby when they are sleeping to listen for incoming email.

*  15% describe themselves as "addicted to email" (really? only 15%?)

These statistics are just sad.  AOL was extolling this like a virtue, of course, that you can stay connected anywhere, anytime.  I think it’s a dangerous message.  We’re teaching people that in order to be productive and be a valuable worker, you have to be "always on," give up your private time, and check email at all hours of the night.  Portable devices are very convenient when you’re traveling for business, sitting on an airplane, in a taxi, driving as a passenger in a car with nothing better to do, at a business conference to stay in touch with the office, waiting to pick you kid up from soccer, etc.  There are certainly and definitely valuable uses for handhelds and they can be quite handy.  But be very careful about throwing yourself upon the altar of email addiction and sacrificing the quality of your life balance and time with your loved ones. 

The big differentiating factor is control.  If you shut your Outlook down completely for an hour, would you be able to resist checking?  Can you turn off your device for two hours while having a nice dinner with a spouse without thinking about it constantly?  Would you get hives if your Blackberry wasn’t charged?  Do you feel like the world is going to end?  I’m not here to judge you and neither should anyone else—only you know—intuitively—whether you have a problem.  Time to control yourself rather than letting technology control you.  If you think it’s bad now, just wait to see what happens in a couple years.

The 3rd annual Salary.com "Wasting Time Survey" for 2007 reports that the average employee wastes 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour work day.  Salary.com reports that figure is down from the 2.09 hours wasted per day in 2005.  The #1 culprit of wasted time?  Internet use at 34.7%.  Followed by socializing with co-workers (20.3%) and conducting personal business (17.0%).  Over 63 percent of respondents admitted to wasting time at work.  The 20-29 year olds waste almost twice as much time (2.1 hours) compared to 40-49 year olds (1.4 hours).  Keep in mind this does not take into account how much work people are doing at home and on weekends, however.  What, do you think people aren’t conducting business while at home?  Of course they are!  In my opinion, they might be asking the wrong questions.

It’s interesting that wasted time has declined 19 percent since the first survey in 2005.  Yes, you can point to a growing economy and increases in productivity.  But is it possible that people are wasting less time because they want to get things done more quickly and get the heck out of dodge?  Are they deciding they are going to control their technology better, rather than letting it control them?  I believe it’s the beginning of a backlast against the corporation that is happy to work people to death.  Workers have had it with the years of their personal lives suffering, and a rebellion is building.  As I forewarned years ago, the pendulum is swinging the other way.  With a tightening labor market, skilled workers will be at a premium and will start to call the shots on when, where, and how much they will work.  By reducing wasted time at the office, they can get the results they need, do it in less time, and get home to their lives.  A win/win for employer and employee. 

What will the results show in 2008?  How low can we go?  Well, we can’t eliminate all "wasted" time.  People aren’t robots.  All socializing isn’t bad.  Some is necessary for relationship building and stronger teams.  Let them get on the Internet and buy a birthday gift for a spouse.  Who cares.  They go back home and log back in and continue working anyway.  Employers will have to get hip pretty quickly with the way people are working if they want to keep the best and the brightest.  Maybe they are wasting time because they are underpaid or there are system problems or computer issues or politics or horrible meetings or a lack of challenging work.  I wonder what the results would be if we turned the tables and surveyed the management on what they do to slow down their employees and cause them to waste time?  You think?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the results of its annual American Time Use Survey for 2006 on June 28, 2007, which is actually conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.  You can sift through all the data files and accompanying documentation, but let me save you some time and summarize some interesting results.

Of full-time workers, men work 8.4 hours a day on average, while women work 7.7.  But 52 percent of women cleaned each day, while only 20 percent of men clean each day.  65 percent of women cook each day and only 37 percent of men.  Men average 5.7 hours of leisure a day, and women average 4.9 hours.  Women spend 1.2 hours a day caring for children, while men spend .4 hours.  Men spent more time watching television and participating in recreation. 

Lastly, women slept slightly more: 8.69 hours a day vs. men at 8.56…not a wonder…they are tired from all the extra work!

Here we go again: another report showing us how much technology is going to save us time and reduce the American workweek.  Didn’t we hear this 20 years ago?  How we would all have so much extra time on our hands due to technological improvements?  That’s just like the "paperless office," which of course is a joke, since we generate much more paper now than before the advent of the computer. 

A Gartner research report released on May 30 says that by 2015, workers will be working 20 hours instead of 40.  It argues that workers are seeking a more fulfilling life balance and employers better catch on if they want to retain good employees.  They sort of forget to consider that many people consider working an ecomomic reality and can’t afford to drop down to a 20-hour week.  The report encourages employers to create job descriptions for 20-hour positions.  Ugh….don’t we just call this part time?

It does cite the need for increased flexibility for workers, which I agree with, but usually that’s the ability to be able to work some hours from home.  It also states that it will be very difficult to draw a distinction between the personal and work computing environment.  Many employers have already figured this out and provide access to the corporate workstation from home.  Others use Blackberries or laptops as a desktop with a docking station, so the work environment is portable.  This is already being done, of course, so I fail to see what is to unique or novel in this report.  Increased flexibility and combined computing does not equate to a 20-hour week.  In my work teaching corporate seminars and speaking at conferences, I’m finding the work week continues to *climb* for the average worker.  As people have more flexibility and can work from home, they tend to just add more to their plates.  They leave work, go home, plug in, and keep working!

What’s your experience?

I’m the proud founder of national Leave the Office Earlier day, named after my book of the same title, and the movement to tighten efficiency in the office in order to work fewer hours and get a life.  This holiday is listed in Chase’s Annual Events,and we are celebrating the 3rd annual event on June 1, 2007 this year.  Normally it’s June 2 (my birthday), but that date fell on a Saturday this year, so it was moved up one day.  It asks participants to only work an 8-hour day and is intended to focus workers on improving their personal productivity.  It’s an opportunity for people to change work patterns, adjust priorities, and to discover how much more productive they can be in an eight-hour workday (sorry, no playing hooky or leaving early than you’re supposed to allowed).  If you’d like to in the event, you can register and receive a free ten-day eCourse on How to Leave the Office Earlier.  Here’s an electronic media kit you can use to promote the day in your workplace and get others to commit to working 8 hours, which includes a letter to your boss, a press release, articles, and a workplace flyer.

Here’s a great article in Fitness Magazine.com on how to make time for your friends and family without getting overscheduled.  Oh, wait!  I’m quoted in it.  :-)  Enjoy!

Now here’s a pharmeceutical company selling non-drowsy allergy medication that came up with the 2007 Reactine Quality of Life Report and the impact allergies have on sufferers of the condition.  Highlights from the report include:

    -   Allergic and Unbearable. Three out of four Canadians with allergies
        say symptoms increase irritability and fatigue, and 55 per cent claim
        reduced productivity (housework; on-the-job, academia).

    -   It’s not in Your Head: And this doesn’t come as a surprise to health
        experts. This season 71 per cent of health professionals agree
        allergies can regularly or often affect a person’s quality of life.

    -   Love, Labour & Snoozing. According to the Quality of Life Report,
        allergies permeate all facets of life, including sleep patterns, work
        performance, and even libido.

Although I could crack about salespeople doing anything possible to sell a product and convince people how miserable they are to sell product, I happen to have seasonal allergies.  I’ve been getting allergy shots twice a month for a couple years now.  When the season started this year—nothing—absolutely no symptoms.  Yes, you can medicate and should.  But why not see if you’re a candidate for shots, invest a little bit more time short term, and reap the long-term benefits?  I’ve been medication-free and enjoying the great outdoors.

Geez if all these studies tell us how much our productivity is decreased from allergies, smoking, obesity, watching football, surfing the Internet, being sick, etc., it makes me wonder how they ever find a single worker with "normal" productivity to study!

An article called "Japanese Housewives Win Right to Share of Ex-Husbands’ Pensions" describes a new law now in effect in Japan to allow Japanese women to take half of a man’s pension following divorce, women are filing in droves.  In response, a new organization was established called Japan Aisaika — the Devoted Husband Organization — to urge men to leave the office earlier and change the way they behave at home.  The group encourages husbands to stop being such workaholics, pay more attention to their families, and when they retire, become more independent and stop hanging around the house so much, which creates "husband at home stress syndrome" in women who have been used to their workaholic husbands never being home.  Finally!  A law that actually stands a chance of changing the social fabric of workaholism and a culture that has oppressed women in that country for years.  This should trim their public debt and ease poverty-relief spending on women.  Kudos to the Japanese Social Insurance Agency for the wonderful productivity legislation! 

When you promise someone you will complete a task by a certain timeframe, do you do it?  Or does the deadline slip past once again, with you muttering to yourself, “Stupid! What is wrong with you?”  Now you aren’t able to focus on anything, always aware of this dark cloud hanging over your head.  Guilt sucks the energy right out of you!  Instead, decide today that you are going to be a person of your word.  Are you reliable?  Can people count on you to do what you say you’re going to do?  Do you have integrity and keep the deadlines you promise?  What’s others’ perception of you?  Do you live out what you affirm?  Do you do what you complain about in others?  What things do people "jokingly" say about you and your behavior?  Seek to control yourself.  If you say to yourself, "I probably shouldn’t be doing this right now," you’re probably right.  If you’re honest with yourself, how many hours could you save every day by being more disciplined?  And could you leave the office earlier with that saved time?  If tomorrow, you arrived at work and didn’t get a cup of coffee…didn’t get on the Internet…didn’t talk to your friend…didn’t get your new blog postings…didn’t get sucked into email for 90 minutes…what could you use that energy on instead that will made you proud and give you a boost of satisfaction for the entire day?  When you finally complete the task you’ve been putting off, the freedom from the stress it was causing you is its own reward.  Good things begin to flow into the space the negative guilt used to occupy.  You’re no longer paralyzed, and you get your energy back.

I’m quoted in the Alabama Press-Register in an article by Kaija Wilkinson called "Express Yourself," discussing productivity in office cublicles or "workstations" as they are called today.  She discusses how neat they should be, configuration, use of personal items, and design.  Pretty good article.  I come across as a bit of a neat freak, so I wanted to provide some additional commentary on why I think it’s a good idea to maintain a neat workstation.

Order is your ability to sort, filter, and process information effectively. It’s also your ability to FIND what you want, when you want it. It’s how tidy your work areas look, inside and out.

I believe a messy office is a career detriment. I can’t tell you how many negative comments I hear, such as, “Joan’s office and her work are so sloppy.” People equate messy desks with messy work. Not fair, I know, but perception is reality. My HR clients have flat-out told me: “I’d promote someone with a tidy office over someone with a messy office any day.”

A seminar participant wrote, “My time management abilities are fair but could certainly be better. I interface with several agencies and outside individuals on a daily basis, which tends to keep me moving from issue-to-issue. With a little more organization, I could be more productive.”

Some people try to justify their disorganization by appearing as if they are disorganized on purpose. They say things like, “I have a great system. I just let things go and if it’s really important, someone will call about it.” Others tell me they have no choice but to be disorganized. One woman told me in defense, “But I’m CREATIVE, you see. Creative people are naturally disorganized.” I wouldn’t necessarily agree. I’ve known many creative, right-brained people who were highly organized; they simply had to learn different systems. You don’t have to be creative and disorganized, if you are willing to learn and the pain is bad enough.

Let’s make another important distinction: “Neat” does not necessarily equal “organized.” Let’s say, for example, that someone you care about is coming to your home or office, and your desk or dining room table is so full (and has been for so long) that you don’t even remember what the surface looks like. You sweep your arm across the surface, dumping all the contents into a container, throwing it under the bed or in the closet. You have “neat,” yes, but do you have “organized”? Of course not. You could be a neat, disorganized person. Or you can be organized and not neat, but you will experience several problems.

An organized office:

·        Saves time. In my experience, the average professional spends at least 30 minutes a day just looking for things. Many people work longer hours to compensate for this wasted time.

·        Allows you to focus. When you are surrounded by clutter, it’s difficult to concentrate on the task before you. Most people have 1-2 weeks of work on their desks right now, assuming they didn’t get anything else to do today.

Allows others to find things in your office. It’s frustrating for coworkers to locate items in your office when you go on vacation or stay home sick.

·        Lowers your stress levels. People with a cluttered office report having anxiety, and being overwhelmed and frustrated. Your environment directly affects your moods, attitudes, and emotions. Stress-related illnesses cost the U.S. $300 billion per year.

·        Distills the important from the unimportant. Without a system, you will deal with large amounts of extraneous material. Just as we only wear a small percentage of our clothes, we only use a small percentage of information that crosses our desks.

·        Could possibly help in career progression. I hear many negative comments about messy desks.  People tend to equate sloppy desks with sloppy work. Not entirely fair, I know, but that’s the reality. My HR clients have flat-out told me: “I’d promote someone with a tidy office over someone with a messy office any day.”

An organized desk sends this important message to other people: I’ve got it together. Visualize your desk in your mind. What does it “say” to others? That you are overwhelmed by work? That you are disorganized and therefore not too competent? That you obviously have trouble making decisions, since you can’t decide what to do with anything? The next time someone walks over to your cluttered desk and makes a “joke” about the mess, you might want to listen. Regardless of what excuses you offer, your desk says a great deal. Your newly organized desk will now say that you are professional, competent, decisive, efficient, productive, and in control. No matter what you’ve seen on coffee cups, a clean desk is NOT the sign of an empty mind.