Beyond Folders : productivity, time management, communications

Wasting Away at Work

Community Manager — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:27:00 GMT

We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.

- Alice Bloch

We have all heard that time is a precious resource that we should not squander. But, in Salary.com's latest Wasting Time at Work Survey, 64% of the full-time workers responding reported wasting one hour or less each day; 22% said they wasted approximately two hours daily; and 14% admitted to wasting three hours or more each workday. The main time-wasters reported were:

Internet use (48%)
Socializing with co-workers (33%)
Conducting personal business (30%)
Personal phone calls (19%)
Long lunches and breaks (15%)

And the primary reasons cited for all this wastefulness were:

Being dissatisfied with a job (48%)
Feeling underpaid (34%)
Waiting for a co-worker to finish something (42%)
Attending work-related meetings or activities (42%)
Doing administrative work (32%)

Acknowledging these stark statistics, the Cyclope-Series Team Blog suggests that employers can curb waste by providing "opportunities for employees to grow personally and professionally." Likewise, employers would do well to recognize the motivating force of "regular praise, respect in the office place, a sense of having a real voice in the business and some level of job security."

For additional guidance, this Wall Street Journal post on Ways to Stop Wasting Time Online compares four online services designed to help distracted computer users stay focused. You can find similar tips in this review of 15 Free Online Time Management Tools. Offering less concrete, but equally valuable, insight is a recent New York Times article - titled Talk Deeply, Be Happy? - that explores the importance of engaging in meaningful conversations.

by Bradley Eggers

Welcome to the Beyond Folders™ Blog

Community Manager — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:05:00 GMT

Beyond Folders™ is a new Community steeped in history. Twenty five years ago, Pendaflex launched the I Hate Filing Club™, delivering information and techniques for organization in the workspace and home. While still providing great ideas and inspiration, Beyond Folders™ goes a step further.

In late 2009 we surveyed our Community members and other professional organizations to ask where they spent time gathering information and inspiration to help make their work and personal organization tasks more productive. We then observed and questioned our members, small business owners and knowledge workers and found several common areas of interest, needs and concerns.

Our communications will be built around these subjects, offering sound advice, ideas and methods to achieve success in these areas. Beyond Folders™ blog contributors are subject matter experts in workplace organization, productivity, communications, time management and more.

Carly Fadako is one of our workplace organizational experts, working daily with our customers to find value added solutions to their organization challenges.

Bradley Eggers is trained and certified to deliver "Lean" processes, studying under Shingijitsu of Japan, Moffit Associates and TBM. He is an expert at implementing Lean and Kaizen as tools that create "TIME" and competitive advantage for companies.

Candie Harris is our marketing and communications guru. She has given over 1000 presentations to audiences of varying size and composition and as VP of Marketing, has been responsible for all aspects of our company communication.

We hope you find our posts interesting, useful and inspirational!
Check them out, and let us know what you think.

Beyond Folders™ will also be on FaceBook and can be followed on Twitter@beyondfolders