When was the last time you checked your email account? A few hours ago? Were you looking at your inbox right before you started reading this article? Stats from Business Insider reveal that over 1/3 of Americans check their email continuously throughout the day. According to AOL’s 2010 survey, 47% of people claim to be
You're sleep deprived, hungry, cramped, surrounded by distractions, and stuck on a 6-hour layover in a tiny commuter terminal. The last thing you want to do is power up your laptop and dive into some work, but that deadline is tomorrow and it's not going to move. When you'd rather sit through yet another in-flight
You might have read our blog post, "10 Phrases You Can Never Say When You Delegate a Task." If not, stop what you're doing and read it. It provides insight into some commonly heard phrases in the workplace that hinder everyone's productivity. Maybe you're even saying a few yourself? In response to that article, one of
When we need the answer to a quick question like, "What time is it in Beijing?" we immediately jump on Google or ask Siri. We’ve grown accustomed to having answers and resources instantly available. But as efficient and effective as these tools are, Siri can’t tell you when that new gadget you’ve had your eye
In 1955, Cyril Parkinson created Parkinson's law. The concept centers around the idea that work is like gas; it expands to fill whatever container it is placed in. For project management, this means that if you give a task five hours, it will take five hours to complete. But if you give that same task
You know all about Pomodoro, GTD, and 80/20 — and you're either a huge fan, or they've left you cold. Here are a few new productivity and task management techniques to help you be super productive without burning out. 1. Jerry Seinfeld's "Don't Break the Chain" Yep, that Jerry Seinfeld. Turns out, he's been sitting on a
Thinking about goals is easy, but setting and completing them is tougher. Only a mere 8% of people consistently achieve their New Year’s Eve goals, which, according to the Harvard Business Review, has a lot to do with a cognitive bias toward seeking unattainable benchmarks. In this article, we’ll teach you how to make your
It's Friday! Time for the weekly Work Management Roundup, where we pull together recently published articles on productivity, work, and killer strategies to level up your awesomeness. Without further ado, here are this week's suggestions: Tutorials You Need to Read How to Cure Procrastination by Harnessing Temptations (Fast Company): By bundling an indulgent behavior with
Startup success isn't just about the perfect product. Now the emphasis is on speed: faster ideation, faster iterations, faster time to market. Startups are even told to "fail fast." But where do successful startups invest their precious time? And what are the costliest time management mistakes? Here are the top 5 time wasters to avoid. Failed
As conventional workplace barriers continue to break down in favor of open, exposed spaces, music is proving to be an effective tool to boost focus and improve productivity in the workplace. We asked academics at the forefront of psychology to weigh in on the positive effects of music on productivity in the workplace.
Studies report that happy workers are 31% more productive, with up to 37% higher sales and three times the creativity as the rest of your workforce (Harvard Business Review). Isn't that enough incentive to keep your people happy as they spend upwards of eight hours a day contributing to your bottom line? The infographic below shows
We asked our own team of designers as well as design experts on social media what they consider to be the top productivity roadblocks, and present them here alongside some solutions and advice for getting past these challenges.
Some days are just harder than others. It's the end of a week, or the day after a holiday, or there was yet another office birthday. (Cake-coma, anyone?) When your team is having a hard time focusing on their work, don't just sigh and hope things will change soon. You can actively help them jump back
Vacations, weddings, long weekends camping.... with so many wonderful distractions, the last thing you want is to be stuck under your office's fluorescent lights instead of gorgeous oceanside sunlight. Unfortunately, unless your managers are just as distracted as you are, you still need to get stuff done between June and August. So if you find yourself
Confession time: in the course of writing this article, I’ve checked Facebook, Slack, Skype, and Reddit. Instagram twice. I've switched to two other tasks and sent four emails. No, the irony is not lost on me. Distractions are everywhere, and blocking them out can feel impossible. New emails never stop coming, along with questions and requests
According to CMS Wire, workers, on average, spend 36% of their day looking for and consolidating information. But 44% of the time, they can't find the information. This wasted time and effort are caused by information silos. Information silos are costly, but they are also fixable. Although they’re often thought of as unavoidable, the truth is
If you love food as much as I do, then you're always looking for excuses to eat throughout the day. Bored, stressed, nervous, happy... all very legitimate reasons to head to the kitchen. I'm here to share with you another reason to eat: greater productivity. Hard work requires a sharp mind and plenty of energy,
Once you need to collaborate with a team and oversee a dozen simultaneously moving parts, email suffers from a load which it wasn't meant to bear, and makes it increasingly difficult to find information or consolidate feedback. Let's examine exactly how email reached the end of its usefulness in project collaboration.
