A Tip to Boost Productivity

Focus: Personal Productivity, Performance Success

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A Tip to Boost Productivity

Wc: 366
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Here’s a great tip and something to consider for boosting your productivity. And that is to take a technology break. Now, I know for some of us this is really a challenge. 

In fact, I very clearly remember about a month ago when the Blackberry satellite system went down and people were just absolutely going nuts. And that’s probably a testimony to how addicted and attached and anchored to technology we really are.

Well, there was a clinical trial done, in fact, there were 80 clinical trials done by a Dr. Glenn Wilson who’s a psychiatrist at King’s College, London University and he found that workers who are constantly distracted by phone calls, e-mails, and text messages actually suffered a greater loss of IQ. That’s very interesting. 

The IQ of those juggling messages and work fell by an average of 10 points which was actually equivalent to missing a whole night’s sleep. Amazing! 

Well, to keep sharp, here’s a suggestion, just resist the urge to continually check messages. For some of us, you know, I know all of our working situations are different but some of us have that message reminder or that message when an e-mail comes to let us know that it’s arrived and some of us could actually turn that off. So, where possible, schedule blocks of time throughout the day to retrieve and respond to them. 

You know, there really is something to be said for the power focus and to manage wherever we have control over the interruptions. Strategic use of time and managing exposure and the use of energy makes a difference to our ability to get more done. 

You know, recently, I saw that one of the major companies in the United States has something called ‘no e-mail Friday’. And what they discovered is that productivity of their employees has actually gone up with that new policy. Boy, for some of us, that would just be a nightmare. 

But I got to say, if someone has tried it and they’re a major, successful company, let’s find other creative ways to not be slaves to technology and thereby reduce our stress and improve our productivity.