Randall Dean Consulting & Training, LLC
Timely Tips February 2014:

Truly Scary Workplace Productivity Statistics 
 
*Plus, a link to an "anytime" Taming E-mail webinar replay
February 2014
  
I will be the first to admit:  I overpromised and underdelivered in last month's Timely Tips.  I announced a "Save the Date" for a Taming E-mail Using Outlook and/or Gmail webinar for today, and that obviously isn't happening.  I fully expected the crazy winter weather to calm down, but, as any of you in the Eastern US that have lived through it know, it did anything but that.  I've never had a winter with so many air and driving travel delays, and I just ran out of time coordinating this webinar.  Becaus of this, I will very soon be announcing a new date for this webinar program, and to the right below the app of the month, you'll see a link to a webinar replay from my Taming E-mail Webinar from last year.  For a reasonable fee, you can access my Taming E-mail strategies anytime at your convenience through BizYeti.

I find it funny that February is the shortest month of the year, yet often feels the longest.  This year, it has DEFINITELY felt the longest -- we hit somewhere around -12 last night, and we are still projected to have below zero temps into MARCH!  (It is almost SPRING people!)  OK, so I'm done venting, but I thought you'd enjoy my newest T-shirt.  (Of course, I probably truly shouldn't wear it until I survive the next couple of weeks!)  I will be wearing this proudly on my family vacation to Florida later this spring.  ;-)
  

My apologies for making a promise I couldn't keep.  Hope you'll give me a little slack considering the completely abnormal circumstances.  Let's get to a Timely Tip that will simply make you fret (next month, I'll share my solutions to each of these issues.)
Some Truly Scary Workplace Productivity Statistics (or Lack Thereof)

I led a session for a group of senior managers at Michigan State University this week, and when I speak to a high-level audience, I like to pull out the whole list of scary office statistics.  Thought I would share them with you too -- these make me shaky in the knees:

The average office-based professional now spends 2+ hours every day just working on e-mail.  Typically half or more of my program attendees report 3-6 hours of e-mail work daily.

The average professional e-mail user reads each and every e-mail they receive 3-7 times before either taking the action inside that e-mail or adding it to their calendar or task list.  3-7 times!!!

20-25% of professional e-mail users check their e-mail inbox 20 or more times per day.  (That's every few minutes.)  And they wonder why they can never get longer-frame project work completed?

Yet, only 1-3% of these same knowledge workers have had formal, strategic level e-mail management training (that makes you an aberration, as I know you've likely attended one of my classes previously.)  This, by the way, has been very good for yours truly.  ;-)

From my own polling, the average office-based worker gets somewhere between 10-20 unexpected interruptions per day.  A recent study by Basex found they lose an average of 4-15 minutes of productivity each and every time they get interrupted.  (That translates to 40 minutes to several hours of lost productivity daily simply due to distraction.)

Any information worker that lacks a basic and effective filing/organization system at the physical (paper), e-mail, and electronic file levels loses on average 1-2 hours PER DAY in lost productivity simply due to not being able to find their stuff when they need it.

And, to cap it off, the average office-based information worker also spends about 1-2 hours per office day doing personal stuff during their work time (much of that personal e-mail and social media.)  Quick counterpoint: another recent study found that those workers that OCCASIONALLY take breaks for social media are actually more productive than those that don't.  (I think it gives them a little mental break/reset, and also keeps things a bit more fun and less stressful.)  Of course, I stress the word OCCASIONAL!

When you look at each of these statistics, it is frankly amazing ANYTHING gets done, and if you have workers on your team guilty of virtually all of these troublesome statistics, those folks are likely getting almost nothing done, or are having to work crazy hours in order to just get 1-2 hours of true productivity done each day.  This is INSANE.

Next month, I'm going to address EACH of these statistics with a single simple tip to help keep this from destroying your work team productivity.  And, I'll turn this around next week so I don't leave you hanging too long.  In the meantime, look at each one of these statistics and think about a strategy you could personally employ to stop much of this insanity and get back to work!  Look for Part 2 -- my solutions -- next week.



Did You Miss the December Issue?

One last reminder:  If you missed the December issue of Timely Tips, it was an important one (but I will admit that I sent it heading into the holiday, with yet another snowstorm on the horizon.)  I included access to my catalog of free productivity PDF articles, links to ALL back issues of Timely Tips back to 2004, AND a listing of all the cool smart phone/tablet apps I've featured over the last couple of years. 

Here's the link to the issue in case you missed it. 
 
Think SPRING!

It certainly doesn't feel like it if you live in the Eastern US, but we are getting CLOSE!  Spring is ALMOST here (and, if you go outside, you do notice the warmth of the sun and the longer days.)  Take advantage of the cold weather right now to get your productivity infrastructure in place -- get that e-mail cleaned up, get your papers filed, recycled, and/or shredded, and get your other electronic files in order.  Also, get your calendar and task list better organized. 

That will allow you to fully take advantage when the weather turns -- I know that first 60-degree day we get here in Michigan, I WILL NOT be in my office -- I'll be working on my golf swing!  (And that, my friends, is called keeping your priorities straight.)  ;-)

Look for a quick turnaround with my Part 2 of this special issue next week.   
********
Until next month, Stay Timely!

Sincerely,


Randy Dean
Randall Dean Consulting & Training, LLC
http://www.randalldean.com 
 
PS:  Please consider joining my networking list on LinkedIn -- http://www.linkedin.com/in/randydean (would love your recommendation!) and/or becoming a Taming E-mail fan on Facebook here. Follow me on Twitter @timelyman.  (And I'm on YouTube & Google+ too.) ;-) 
 

App of the Month

Scan to PDF Free  



Scan to PDF Free-- available both on ITunes app store and Google Play  *ITunes users please note that Scan to PDF 2 Free has been released for IOS 7 users.  It is a new release so it hasn't had time to build a compiled rating for the app.


A couple years ago I shared CamScanner as a great app for using your phone/tablet camera to scan physical documents.  Well, I've found another that I'm actually using more frequently on my Android devices:  Scan to PDF Free. 

I just like the user interface a bit better than the one that was on CamScanner, and I've also found the first scan typically works and registers better.  They both work great, but if you are in the market for an app that allows you to turn physical documents as well as screenshots into actual PDF documents, check this one out.  It is a good, useful, quick tool. 

(And if you use it all the time, you might want to consider upgrading to the full professional version -- looks like it is only $4.99 for that -- that is pretty cheap for turning your phone/tablet into a real time scanner/PDF creator.  Enjoy!)


  Always available
TAMING THE E-MAIL
BEAST
Webinar Replay


Available on BizYeti

As I said above, you can access a replay of my Taming the E-mail Beast program on BizYeti at any time.  It is priced at a reasonable per-person price, and allows you to view my e-mail strategies (especially for MS Outlook users) at your convenience.  You can even pause, back up, and replay the tips in real time so you can practice the tips while viewing the webinar. 

Here's the link to the webinar replay purchase information.

This program replay is about 2 years old, so I will very soon be announcing a new and updated webinar covering both Outlook AND Gmail strategies.  Look for that announcement soon.