Email consumes approximately 23% of the average employee’s workday. Or put another way, a typical employee sends and receives 112 messages each day. And the vast majority of that email is internal. This means the average employee is spending almost two hours a day writing messages that create no value for which customers are willing to pay. But here is the good news. It doesn’t have to be this way. Internal email is entirely within the control of the company. You don’t have to waste all that time! If you cut that 23% in half, which is totally possible, that’s like increasing the size of your workforce by more than 10%. Alternatively, it would allow each employee to go home an hour earlier. How can you not take such an opportunity seriously?
I tell my clients they must put an end to informing each other. Why? Because inform is a Treadmill Verb™. And like other Treadmill Verbs™, such as report and review, it has no destination. There is no way to know when you are done. It is an open invitation to talk on and on with no particular outcome in mind. It leaves people listening, assuming they are listening at all, for nothing in particular. Thus, it accomplishes little, encourages smartphone tinkering, and leaves most people bored and disengaged. Unfortunately, inform remains a favorite agenda item. Even die-hard fans of mine who have memorized the six clarity kernels still argue that it is important to simply inform people.
Unless you’ve had your head in the sand or like to waste time, you know meetings suck up a tremendous amount of valuable time. You’ve also read lots of advice that is supposed to help. You’ve probably even tried some of that advice. And you are not alone. So why is it that meetings are still wasting so much time and everyone is still complaining about them? This is why: 99% of the advice you’ve heard for improving meetings doesn’t work.
Happy end-of-summer-not-quite-fall-back-to-school-time, whatever season it is for you! (Whenever I write stuff like this I wonder if my southern hemisphere readers feel forgotten. Please don’t!) Did you miss my recent article in Forbes? 5 Reasons Meetings Never Improve. The number of hits already proves they don’t. The articles shows why everyone is barking up the wrong tree. I’ve helped clients cut their meetings in half or better. If your company is typical, with employees spending 30% – 90% of their time in meetings, you could free up 25% of your workforce to do something else! Keep in mind that the most costly employees are spending the most time in meetings. Check it out!
The farther you are from the “production line,” the less likely you are to be making something tangible: building a widget developing software writing a proposal Or doing a task with tangible results: loading a truck cleaning equipment or floors receiving orders So what are you doing with all your time that justifies that high salary? Let me guess. I bet you are:
Every company I encounter is trying to do more with less. I know numerous executives and managers who seem to acquire additional titles as often as they receive year-end bonuses. Employees at every level juggle To Do lists more prolific than rabbits. Unbelievably, most accept this fate and persevere the best they can. Since they’ve been told repeatedly to “work smarter, not harder,” many, especially the high achievers, assume responsibility for their long hours and blame themselves for not being smart enough to avoid working so hard. In their spare time, they surf the Internet hoping to find the holy grail — that magical tip that will finally end their suffering and let them please their bosses while also enjoying their evenings and weekends once again. Is it really possible to improve productivity at this point? Absolutely!
The year is half over. If that is bad news for you, I am sorry to be the one to break it! In our not too distant past, weather, daylight hours, changing seasons, and the calendar year ruled all. These days – not so much! Nonetheless, old habits die hard and that calendar controls far too much in the business world. While you reflect on progress to date at this half-year mark, reflect also on all the things that should NOT be controlled by the calendar year. Here are a few just for starters: Strategic planning Budgeting Performance reviews Goal setting Something to ponder while at the beach this summer. Have a great July!
If your to-do list has more than three items, you are in trouble. Why? Because as soon as your list exceeds three items, it actually decreases your productivity. Most people have dozens of tasks on their lists and looking at those lists leaves them feeling exhausted before they even begin. In the face of theses long lists, here are 21 games people play to feel more productive and/or less overwhelmed. All of these activities consume time and none of them help you accomplish more faster. Which ones do you play?
For those of you in the northern hemisphere, I hope you are ready for a rip, roaring summer! Whether you are or not, your employees definitely are. Now’s a good time to clarify expectations so that the work gets done along with the fun. Be flexible, but firm. While work always expands to fill the available time, the opposite is true as well. When people are motivated to finish and leave early, productivity soars. I enjoyed my first paddle of the season last night. The thought of sailing tonight is great motivation for being ultra focused and swift through out the day. Harness the power of that enthusiasm! Happy summer to you!
When I graduated from college, I was not even sort of ready for a full-time job. I saw “real jobs” as a prison sentence that would end my flexibility and steal my chances to travel. Friends proved me right by getting hired and then promptly saying no to every opportunity while they just worked every day and awaited that first week of vacation six months down the pike. So I latched on to seasonal and temporary employment for a year or so instead. I worked at a resort, drove school buses, pumped gas, sold minnows, substituted at the local high school, and tutored the truant officer’s son who refused to go to school. Between times, I moved around, mostly by bicycle. I always made enough to get by.