Quick switches away from your primary task could cost you more than 2 hours of distracted time. And that’s not per day. That’s per switch! What’s going on with task-switching, and is it as unproductive as it seems?… Read More How Much Time Do We Lose Task-Switching?
Why is email such a headache? Email is consistently named one of the biggest distractions, an unproductive waste of time for knowledge workers, and a huge source of stress. In this special series on email and productivity, I’ve highlighted several major problems with email that cause workers to hate it so much. I’ve already noted… Read More What’s Wrong With Email Part 4: False Sense of Urgency
Workers check their email a lot, but they don’t necessarily do anything with the messages when they check them, which causes a big loss in productivity.… Read More What Wrong With Email Part 3: We Check, But We Don’t Process
Who pays the cost of email, not the financial costs of running and supporting email as a technology, but who pays in time and effort when an email is sent? Answering that question gives us better insight into what’s wrong with email that makes it a productivity killer.… Read More What’s Wrong With Email? Part 1: Who Pays for Email?
How does a death in the family or serious illness affect your personal productivity and effort? The answer, as well as how long the effects last, is surprising.… Read More How Much Does Trauma Decrease Productivity?
When we want to get work done, we usually try our best to focus and minimize interruptions. But some interruptions, under the right conditions, can actually help productivity without sacrificing quality. Researchers from The Netherlands and Russia (Zijlstra et al., 1999) ran an experiment where office workers completed a task in a simulated office environment.… Read More Interruptions Benefit Productivity, Study Shows
Before you blame your needy cat or a chatty co-worker for interrupting your work, make sure those distractions aren’t actually coming from within.… Read More What Interrupts Us?
Is multitasking is bad for your productivity? A growing body of research says just the opposite.… Read More Forget Everything You Think You Know About Multitasking
Email is necessary for work, right? Most people make some kind of conciliatory case that doing email is somehow a productive task, even people who deplore email. Typically, however, email is related to work, but it’s not the real core work itself. It’s not the hard work that earns the money. And according to studies,… Read More Email Worse for Productivity Than Facebook
Rain, snow, and cold weather sour our moods and make us less productive, or at least that’s what most people believe. But when it’s put to the test, the opposite turns out to be true.… Read More Rainy Days Make Us More Productive
PRODUCTIVITY REPORT 