Friday, August 11, 2017
Fewer Interruptions, High Productivty - Interruption Management
Get interrupted less, achieve more: With office and workplace interruptions on the
rise, career professionals everywhere are experiencing
monumental struggles to stay focused. By some studies, today’s
typical worker is interrupted every 11 minutes and then takes
another 25 minutes to return to the original task because of
all the other distractions along the way.
The more often you can keep interruptions at bay, stay focused on the
task at hand, and allow yourself to do your best work, the more you’ll
get done in a day.
Labels: achievement, distraction, focus, interruption, productivity, workplace
Sunday, August 06, 2017
The Benefits of Solitude - Interruption Management
From Angela Brown International, ©1998, Wellness Training
There's a huge difference between being lonely and being alone. Alone is embracing solitude as you harmonize your material world with your soul. Lonely is living in emotional scramble mode, rushing to the phone or internet to connect with just anybody, doesn't matter who, or turning on the TV and radio for the sake of noise.
The next time you want to fill the void, please don't. Take a few minutes and enjoy just being you. Why would others want to be with you, if you don't want to be with you? It is a basic human need to be with and around others, yet you will continue to feel lonely until you are first, comfortable being alone. Labels: alone, Angela Brown, lonely, solitude, soul
Saturday, July 22, 2017
Too Little Sleep, More Interruptions - Interruption Management
Only 3 percent of professionals get eight hours of sleep every night of the working week. According to a Travelodge sleep study, company directors are the most sleep-deprived of all, with 8 per cent getting under four hours of rest per night.
The survey included more than 5,200 individuals from 30 different careers to discover more about how work affects rest. Those in the travel industry, such as cabin crew and pilots, found it hardest to get to sleep: 86% struggled with sleepless nights. Teachers were the most likely to stay awake because they were worrying about their work (39%). Here are the top 10 most sleep-deprived professions are:
* Company directors (averaging 5.9 hours of sleep a night)
* Ambulance crew/paramedics (6 hours)
* Tradesmen (6 hours)
* Leisure and hospitality workers (6 hours)
* Police officers (6.1 hours)
* Factory workers (6.2 hours)
* Nurses (6.3 hours)
* Engineers (6.3 hours)
* Doctors (6.4 hours)
* Civil servants (6.4 hours) Labels: fatigue, health, information overload, insomnia, productivity, rest, sleep, sleep deprivation, stress, work
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Keen Focus or Predictable Distraction? - Interruption Management
I couldn’t help but be amused when I came across a Forbes article years ago on the dangers to a company when top executives are distracted by opportunities for “adulation.”
“Cancel That Cover Shoot”
by Dana Wechsler Linden, Forbes, January, 31, 2005
Forbes picked the Charles Schwab Corp. one year as the company of the year. Within two years the stock dropped to $7 from $30, and 35% of the employees were on the street.
Now two economists -- Ulrike Malmendier of Stanford and Geoffrey Tate of Wharton--have gone beyond anecdotes. As specialists in "behavioral corporate finance," they studied the performance of more than 500 chief executives from 1975 to 2002. Half won media awards, such as best manager or entrepreneur of the year, and became pseudo-celebrities. The other half didn't win awards but had company performances and profiles remarkably similar to the ones who did.
Guess what? Celebrity leads to hubris -- and lower returns for shareholders. Malmendier and Tate don't name names, but here's some of what they found:
* Return on assets at companies with "celebrity" executives deteriorated steadily for at least three years after a big award, while those without did consistently better than the superstars.
* Award-winners write more books than nonwinners -- autobiographies, collections of self-help advice and homespun philosophy. Ghostwritten or not, they're distractions from the bottom line.
* The more awards chief executives win, the more likely they are to sit on three or more boards, leaving less time for their own directors.
None of this surprises Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, head of the Yale School of Management's Chief Executive Leadership Institute. "The truth is, people do get distracted. You can almost see them start to grow weary of the business and thrilled with the adulation." Labels: adulation, business, distraction, focus, Forbes, market, office management, trends
Monday, July 03, 2017
Remove Your Name from Lists! - Interruption Management
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse explains that many websites sell, or provide for free, personal information about individuals and it offers tips and help on getting off of lists. Labels: directory assistance, junk mail, privacy, security, spam
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Too Much Information is Disruptive - Interruption Management
This is a scary one: Having too much information can be as dangerous as having too little. In his report Dying for Information, commissioned by Reuters Business Information, based in London, David Lewis, Ph.D. observes that too much information can lead to a paralysis of analysis, making it harder to find the right solutions or make decisions. Labels: choices, decision-making, information access, science, study
Friday, June 16, 2017
Junk Mail is an Interruption - Interruption Management
This story years back in Newsweek, “Dear Junk Mailers: Leave My Son Alone,” speaks volumes about the junk mail industry in our society. Thirteen years after the death of a seven year old boy, advertisers still target him with offers of tuxedos and snack cakes.
Gary Wiener, writing in Newsweek: “When his 18th birthday arrived, my son, Jacob, became awfully popular. The U.S. Navy wanted him. "Before you find your place in the world, maybe you should see it first," it urged. A local menswear shop offered him 50 percent off a tuxedo package for high-school graduation. And a razor company sent him a free razor, hoping, I suppose, to make a lifelong customer out of him. Their only miscalculation was that Jacob didn't shave. Nor was it likely that any of the armed forces would gain Jacob's services. And he certainly wouldn't graduate from high school. Jacob, you see, died in 1993. He was only 7 years old when a cancerous brain tumor stole him from us.”
“As much as we loved Jacob, that period of our lives is still incredibly painful to remember. Yet, years after his death, letters addressed to Jacob find their way into our mailbox. Early on, I was driven almost to tears by these inducements for our son to attend a ritzy local private school or to sample a particular snack cake. I knew my wife would be devastated by such mail, and I tried to get to the mailbox first so that she would never be affronted by envelopes addressed to her dead first child."
"Much later, I realized she had been doing the same thing, hastily throwing out mail addressed to Jake so I wouldn't have to endure the epistolary abuse.” Labels: advertising, junk mail, mailing, marketing, spam
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