Overload leads to Waste

Here are various proclamations about wasted time, resources, and days; sad if even half true!

* Americans waste 9 million hours per day searching for misplaced items.
* The average adult spends 16 hours a year searching for lost keys.
* 80% of the items we file, we never look at again
* The average person spends 8 months of their life reading junk mail.
* 90 million trees are consumed each year to provide paper for junk mail.

Temptation Over the Top

More 23 million American workers may be fooling around on the jobs most of their day. They use company time to play on the computer, search for new jobs, and communicate with friends. Could it be that having too many information and communication sources at one’s fingertips is too great a temptation?

Multitasking: Not Recommended

Researchers at the Federal Aviation Administration and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor found that while doing multiple tasks at once may appear to be more efficient it actually is more time consuming and in some cases poses health risks.

Four groups of young adults participated in four experiments. They were all asked to carry out a series of tasks and switch between different tasks, some complicated, such as solving a math problem, and others easier and more familiar, such as identifying a geometric shape. A
participant's performance speed was measured as the tasks were carried out.

The findings: human capacity for multitasking decidely has its limits. Participants lost time in performance speed when switching tasks and they lost more time as the task became more complex.

Are You "Out of Control"

Early warning signs when you’re heading for an "out of control" situation: Control is always based on your perception; still any time you start stacking horizontal piles on your desk you are operating in a malfunctioning mode.

If you find yourself perpetually 5 to 10 minutes late for meetings and always handling activities up to the last minute before turning your attention to what is next, you are leaving yourself wide open for some anxious moments. Also if you don't give yourself enough physical space to handle a task you are also likely to feel out of control.

The High Cost of Procastination

A recent article “Man returns book overdue since 1960” features the high cost of procrastination! Robert Nuranen of Hancock, Michigan just turned in a book that he had borrowed for a ninth-grade assignment. Mr. Nuranen claimed that his mother misplaced the copy of "Prince of Egypt" while cleaning the house. Every now and then the family came across it, only to set it aside again. (Hardly his mother’s fault.) He found the book again around New Year’s day while goinh through a box in the attic, presuming looking for something else

"I figured I'd better get it in before we waited another 10 years," he reported on Friday with a $171.32 check, equal to 47 years' worth of late fees. Current librarian Sue Zubiena said that the library had long ago lost any record of the book, but she said, "I'm going to use it as an example," she said. "It's never too late to return your books."

If only he had read my book, The 60 Second Procrastinator (Adams Media) Ref: http://tinyurl.com/fedl8. He might have turned it in a bit earlier!

A Game Plan for Today

You need a game plan for your day, and for your week. Otherwise you'll allocate your time according to whatever information happens to land on your desk or whatever communications begs for your attention. As such, other people's actions will determine your priorities. And you will find yourself making the fatal mistake of dealing primarily with problems rather than opportunities.

Three Simple Blogs

If you have yet to visit my other two blogs, start Autumn off right by clicking below:

* for the time-pressured: www.BreathingSpaceBlog.com
* for meeting planners: www.OpeningKeynote.com

Antidotes to Racing the Clock

A read says, “No matter how conscious I am of saving time throughout the day, I still find myself racing the clock. What, if anything, am I doing wrong?

Answer: Consider the following example: any one-hour activity that you undertake in the course of the day will consume one solid year out of the next 24 years of your life. One hour is to 24 hours as one year is to 24 years. With this realization, consider the cumulative effects of reading junk mail for only 30 minutes a day, or of spending 15 minutes a day in line at the bank which could be avoided if you judiciously used mail, phone, or email services. Make each 30 or even 15 minute segment count.