Question:  What country’s workers log more time on the job than people in any other country? 

From what we read every day, it can sound like Americans are winning in terms of long hours, work-related stress, and poor work-life balance.   However the winning country is…South Korea!

According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, this country is champion, working more hours per year than any other developed nation.  In 2007 they logged 2,316 hours yearly, on average, which was actually lower than their 2,592 from the previous decade.  Compare this with 1,794 hours in the United States.

After years of drilling into the population that their primary goal should be to build the nation’s economy, the government is now trying for a reversal.  The reason for this is that, despite the hours, the country’s productivity falls below all of the other 30 countries belonging to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, with the exception of some former Soviet-dominated nations.

In my time mangement seminars, we discuss the correlation between longer hours and declining productivity in a day.  Because of  disorganization and multitasking attempts, American workers often drag out the day, staying late or bringing work home so that they can catch up.  Yet the more hours they work, the longer it takes to produce results.  Not every hour of the day is equal.

Rather than adding on hours, the answer is to find ways to limit distractions each day so that you actually get more done within a shorter period.  You can do this by grouping activities and by setting aside an uninterrupted block of time.  Save the majority of socializing for lunchtime,  planned breaks, Happy Hour, or family time.

Taking your accrued vacations each year also helps you return refreshed.  You will find your creativity and focus are improved—and you get more done within the ‘normal’ work hours!

To find out more about how South Korean officials are trying to convince workers to take their annual vacation time, read the article by Evan Ramstad and Jaeyeon Woo in the Wall Street Journal.

After so many companies set up furloughs or cut hours, many employees are questioning time expectations. 

• If your schedule was cut back to four days a week and you were working 60+ hours a week prior to that point, what is your week like now?
• If your colleague agreed to a two-week furlough, did your work hours increase?

In current businesses where staff cuts were made or are anticipated, those employees still at the office are working longer and longer hours.  Are we going to expect this amount of extra time from everyone going forward?

Another result of uncertain times is that a second job is becoming more common to make up for lost family income, and budding entrepreneurs are starting their own businesses on the side so that they will have options in the future.  If you are working two jobs, how do you find time for both?

The magazine “Internation Living” ranked Australia as the second best country in the world for quality of life.  Their standard work week is 37.5 hours, and many businesses require strict compliance in order to meet workplace laws and health standards.

I’m not saying that Australia should be the ultimate model.  From my brother’s long time experience living and working in Australia, there are some limitations associated with that.  He calls it “The Tall Poppy Syndrome.”  Anyone who stands out gets cut down or isolated.  You are expected to stay on the middle ground.  This discourages those who are motivated to work extra and achieve more.

On the other side, American businesses have grown and thrived because of people with vision and the drive to work hard for their goals.  Yet we seem to have leaned so far in the direction of long hours and shorter leisure time, that work/life balance is now an issue.  Check out some of the time management statistics associated with this problem of balance.

Do you recognize yourself in any of these scenarios?  If yes, where do you see yourself at the end of 2010?

Is shopping an adventure for you or a chore?  More and more Americans are finding that shopping is just one more chore on their list, especially when it relates to groceries.

I personally am a kamikazee shopper–I have my list, I zip through as quickly as I can find the items, and then I’m out the door.  It’s not something I enjoy doing. 

Several stores have made attempts to help by offering online grocery shopping, but for the most part this concept has not taken off.  It is more expensive, in an economy where we are monitoring our spending, and then the delivery is often at an inconvenient time, specifically during our own work hours.

I like what is taking root in France.   You order online from a selection of 7000 products.  Orders are ready for pickup after two hoursand can be held for 24 hours. You are guaranteed no more than a five-minute wait upon arrival.  They pack your trunk and home you go. 

Think about the advantages:

• If economy is a priority for you, you can avoid impulse items.  No more shopping after work, hungry and being lured by the junk food aisle.  Distractions are limited.
• Even for those who are kamikazee list-shoppers like me, there is still a time-saving factor. I do not have to guess where they moved the peanut butter. 
• In my time management seminars, I talk about grouping as a productivity tool.  However I cannot say how many times I have criss-crossed the store because my idea of what items should be grouped together does not match theirs.  Theirs is not necessarily wrong.  It is just that we do not think the same way.  Now I can skip doubling back across the store.

The idea is just being tested in the U.S.  where Sears opened its first drive-through in Illinois last spring.  Wal-Mart lets you buy anything online now to pick up in the store, except groceries.  They are studying the possibility of expanding this to groceries also.  However I still have to park and go into the store.

I think this combination of online grocery shopping with personal pickup would have a market in the United States.  I see it as a strong time management tool for workers who have tight schedules and long hours.  You could “shop” on your lunch hour, spend ten minutes after work athe grocery drive-through and have decent food for dinner.  From a health standpoint, it beats doing the drive-through McDonald’s routine.

Check out the French model at Chronodrive.com.  Hopefully I will have a chance to use something similar close to my home in the near future.

We are all busy, plugging away non-stop until late in the day.  Then we often feel that we didn’t get anything done.  How could you stay so busy and not accomplish what you wanted to do?

If you find yourself frequently asking, “Where did this day/week go?”, there are two strong possibilities that may reflect the way you are working:

1. You get absorbed in, or sidetracked by, Internet and email activities
2. You jump from one task to another and back, trying to multitask and manage everything.

Re #1:  On the first point, loosing precious time at work is epidemic.  Back in 2007, Salary.com found the we waste about 20% of our time in the office.  34% of those interviewed said that the Internet was the biggest distraction.  I’m sure those numbers have increased since then.

Re #2:  Despite our best efforts and claims that we are good multitaskers, it remains impossible to multitask effectively.  You will be taking longer to accomplish two things performed at the same time, and neither will be done at 100%.

If you are serious about getting more done with your days, here are some examples of programs that can help you track time. 

• RescueTime Pro monitors your computer activity as well as noting time awayand provides you with graphs to show actual minutes spent on computer applications and websites.
• Klok lets you set your tasks for the day and then note starting and ending times.  It’s a good program for seeing how your estimates and reality may not be in sync.  Plus your initial input means you have a game plan for the day.
• ManicTime tracks your computer time, with a summary showing percentage of minutes spent on each application, as well as idle time on computer so you can see how many “mini-breaks” you take.

Any of these will help you see if you are multitasking too much or easily distracted, and then you can make needed adjustments for better time management.  Find out:

•   How quickly do you bounce from one activity to another? 
• Are your day’s projections fairly accurate? 
• What can you do to stop wasting that 20% of the day that gets lost due to inefficient work habits?

I recently watched four-year-old children “playing” soccer, and it struck me that the activities they attempted and the characteristics that they modeled could easily transfer over into creating an ideal work environment. 

• There was no fear of trying something new.
• Each one got to play and contribute.
• All played to their level, including the handicapped.
• They were continually learning.
• Their coaches gave them the training needed to reach the next level.
• They worked as a team.
• They had a great cheering squad.
• Enthusiasm was evident, and everyone had fun.
• They felt successful at the end of the session.

There was no actual team against team competition.  Instead they playfully competed against each other as they built up their own skills and learned to work both together and as individuals.

Wouldn’t it be great if we started out each work day eager to learn more and contribute to the team, getting all the help we needed, and being appreciated for our efforts?

What a successful day we would have if we could reignite some of those traits that help our children develop into successful adults!

If ever proof was needed to justify the fickle nature of the human mind, this is it – it was not long ago that Facebook, Twitter and other social networks were being blamed for the decrease in office productivity because employees were wasting their time updating their statuses, leaving comments on their friends’ photos and status messages, and trying out the numerous applications that litter the online social world. But a recent study by an Australian university has suggested that Facebook, Twitter and the rest of their ilk can actually improve office productivity.

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson.  It expands on my interview with ABC-KFO radio and my article, “Facebook, Twitter, and Productivity.” 

Say what? Yes, you read that right – wasting your time online can actually make you more productive in the office. If you’re asking how, the study states that workplace Internet leisure browsing (WILB – another new acronym that we can soon expect to see included in the Oxford and Webster’s dictionaries) helps boost concentration and allows employees to focus better.

While it is true that a short break helps employees work more efficiently and boosts productivity at the office, this is not relevant when it comes to using the Internet for leisure activities. For one, this survey does not include people who are addicted to the web and who remain online all the time or for the better part of the day. And for another, when it comes to social networks, it’s hard to find the motivation to get back to work when there are more interesting things to be done online.

The Internet has redefined the word addiction and given it a new twist – what we earlier mainly associated with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes has now moved on to all things that are not productive (this again depends on one’s perception of and the meaning each of us assign to the word productivity) and that we spend way too much time on. It is worse than drugs or alcohol in a way because we don’t realize it is bad or addictive unless we are already trapped in the net.  

So while you may initially go online with good intentions – for example, you may need to do some research for your latest assignment – you tend to get caught up in the various email IDs you have, reading chain mails and forwarding them to your “friends”, playing Farmville or any other of the hundreds of thousands of applications on Facebook, or just jumping from one random site to the other without really doing anything worthwhile. And before you know it, you’ve lost track of time and your whole day has been taken up to wander aimlessly on the Internet.

So you can see how social networks could become detrimental to office productivity, no matter what the study says. Yes, browsing the Web for leisure could be a welcome break that may rejuvenate you and motivate you to stick to time management strategies, but only if you are aware that it could become an addiction and that you must have the determination to stick to your time limit and get back to work once you’re done taking a break.

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of accelerated online degrees.   Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson1@gmail.com.

Has anyone described you recently as sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic or choleric?  We may not use these terms as common descriptors anymore, but these are the personalities that Hippocrates categorized.

While it is important to recognize your own personality traits and those around you, it is also important to recognize communication styles.  The problem is that, while personalities are generally fixed, a person’s communication style can change with circumstances.

For a productive office to function at its peak, you need to:

1. Understand personality traits
2. Recognize basic communication styles of your co-workers
3. Be aware of circumstances that may temporarily alter communication styles

Modern communication styles are grouped into four categories:

• Expressive–high energy, big picture, enjoy heated or opinionated discussions
• Systematic–stick to facts and the small details, avoid conflict
• Sympathetic–all about people and building relationships, good listeners, do not like conflict
• Direct–to the point, big picture, managing lots of projects,

You often easily place  the people around you into one of these groups.  There are two challenges after recognizing distinctive styles in an individual:

1. How you adjust your style and your response to get the most from working with this person
2. How to recognize when a situation is causing that individual to respond in an uncharacteristic manner

Regardless of what terms you might use, a good manager may intuitively adapt.  However if you are finding that there is often more conflict than ideal for a productive environment, it might be good to review your approach.  With whom are you having difficulties?  Has anything changed?

Sometimes just a new awareness and acknowledgment can make the difference in getting things back on track.

In a world of distractions, what kind of work environment do you need to improve productivity?  There are constant debates about the value of cubicles and open floor plans versus enclosed offices.  Companies switch back and forth over the years, trying one and then succumbing to trends or complaints and reversing their layouts.

While there can be advantages to both, the challenges my clients face center on trying to focus and concentrate.  Business distractions for everyone include ringing telephones, dinging email messages, and drop-in visitors.  When you in a more open space, not only do you have to cope with these distractions, but you have to find a way to work through the conversations, phone calls, and traffic of others around you.

Advantages of cubicles or open floor plans:

1. Saving money by fitting more employees into less space
2. Increasing collaboration by quickly sharing ideas
3. Fewer status issues

Advantages of closed offices:

1. Limiting distractions for greater concentration
2. More space

Home Offices:  It is not just about big companies.  The same decision has to be made in a home office situation.  Do you have a blocked off room, away from family and the noise of household activities or do you have your laptop set up on the kitchen table?

Schools:  The school environment also faces these issues.  There were years when the open concept was in full swing.  You would have 3 or 4 classes spread out with small barriers like bookcases.  Each class might have 25 children in it.  It is hard enough to keep 25 students controlled and focused without them checking out what is going on in the other areas, especially if there was a “fun” activity with associated noise.

In my time management training sessions, noise is an issue brought up by participants.  There are some tools that you can use to cut back on this.  Try headphones or a white noise machine designed for cubicles to reduce much of the sound to a background drone.  Even in a “box” office situation, you need to close that door sometimes in order to be really productive.

Not everyone can thrive in the same environment.  Wouldn’t it be great if, when you joined a team, you were given a choice based on what works best for you?  Are you easily distracted or does a busy environment stimulate your thought processes?  Take away the status issue connected with a closed office and instead assign the spaces based on:

• Type of work
• Space requirements for your job
• Your personal style

If we all followed a common sense approach to email usage, productivity would jump and consequently so would profits.  The estimated cost due to email mistakes was calculated at $420,000 annually for companies with 100 employees, according to Debra Hamilton in her report, “Top Ten Email Blunders That Cost Companies Money.”

As simple as email is, we often rush through and forget the basics. There are two elements that go into using email productively:

A. Composition
B. Processing

A.  COMPOSITION

Divide your email composition assessment into three sections:
1.  Subject
2.  Message
3.  Tone

1. Subject.  Think of this line as a telegram.  How much information can you impart in six to eight words.  If there is an action required, note that in this space.  (”I need figures from you by 3 p.m.”) If you are replying and switching topics, change the subject line.
2.  Message.  Keep it short and state what you need.  If there is no response expected, say something like “Thanks in advance” or “No reply needed.”  That will cut down on those return messages like “Okay” that can fill your inbox.
3.  Tone.  Reread your message before hitting the Send button.  Then you can add the small niceties like “Please” and “I appreciate….”  Otherwise the actual wording may appear brusque since there are no external visual or auditory clues to convey your meaning.

B.  PROCESSING 

To keep email from interrupting you throughout the day, set up time blocks for processing.  The ideal would be twice a day.  If you feel you need to, check your inbox when you come in to be sure there are no emergencies.  Then, move on to other projects until your scheduled email processing time. 

If dealing with email two or three times a day is not realistic for your business, perhaps you could check it once every hour to be sure you are not missing any urgent request.  When there is no emergency, wait till your time block to continue working with the mail.

When you work in time blocks instead of multitasking throughout the day, you can be up to four times more productive.  The wasted minutes come from switching back and forth between diverse activities.

We all recognize that an outsider coming in to speak or train has a degree of automatic credibility.  Even if the Human Resources Department has someone who can provide information on the same topic, there is cachet in hiring an external source.

Since I am personally one of those outside people who are brought in to train departments in productivity and time management skills or present at association conferences, it is not in my best interest to discourage you.  However I do find it intriguing that there some of the people in my audiences have a good grasp of many of the techniques that I share.  Yet no one ever asked them to mentor others. 

One drawback is, of course, the corporate culture. If you are in need of help and they are designated to assist, you may be thinking that you are smarter than they are, you rank higher in the food chain, or you are equal so what makes them think they know it all. A barrier is erected.

When looking for expert help in an area, there are more indicators than just field knowledge that would lend to being an effective internal source of help.  In a recent article (Wall Street Journal, “Who Knows What?” by Dorit Nevo, Izak Benbasat and Yair Wand, 10/26/09), the following attributes went into evaluation of experts:

—25% Extent of knowledge
—9% Currency of knowledge
—12% Experience
—9% Awareness of other resources
—12% Willingness to help
—14% Communication skills
—19% Trustworthiness

There is always a need for outside experts and consultants, who bring in unbiased focuses and new knowledge, but with today’s tighter budgets, take a look within and see if you might also be overlooking resources within your company or within your association’s membership.