£5,000? That's a lot of beer tokens!

I've written before about the state of UK working hours and our lack of Lack of enough public holidays in the UK so now it would appear that company's are using the current economic climate to eek even more work out of us.

Great.

We have some of the longest working hours in Europe and now, because we may all lose our jobs at any given moment we feel the need to stay chained to a desk for no extra pay. Plus you may still get made redundant even after all that hard work.

So, if your boss asks you why you're leaving on time you can now officially tell them you're not skiving off, you are in fact increasing your productivity!

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

• Appraisals aren't there to look back and apportion blame, they're a tool to discuss how you want to move forwards
  
  
• Recognise that people may not be comfortable with certain aspects of their working lives and offer them help towards resolving these problems rather than seeing them as a lost cause
  
  
• Ask for the employee's point of view, don't just say "This is what you're going to do, like it or lump it"

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

From the Stephen Covey Website:

The site allows you to make friends, set goals and start your own groups. Current groups include:

• Body Goal Groups
  
• Heart Goal Groups
  
• Mind Goal Groups
  
• Spirit Goal Groups
  
• Life passion groups
  
• Occupation Groups
  
• Geographical Groups
  
• School Groups
  
• Company Groups
  

And current goals include:

• Getting up early and exercising
  
• Closing the gap between work and family
  
• Overcoming procrastination
  
• Identifying your personal heroes
  
• Loving a person you dislike or hate
  
• Recovering from substance abuse
  
• Improving communication
  

The site has over 50,000 members, is free to join and allows you to keep journals of progress, add "friends" (in a FaceBook type way) and view instructional videos made by Stephen Covey himself.

If you're a fan of the "7 Habits" then I'd highly recommend checking the new community site out.

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

From the article:

The strange thing is, multitasking (or Switch Tasking as Crenshaw calls it) make us feel more productive. We feel as though we're getting more done when in fact all we're doing is working on more tasks in a piecemeal fashion not actually accomplishing anything at all!

How many times have you got home from work and thought "Wow, I've had a really productive day!" only to look at your to-do/action list and not find a single thing crossed off?

In my job, I suppose that I'm fortunate in that if I start something the logical conclusion is to finish it before moving on to the next task - I can't really complete a website without following a logical order. However I still get the odd email, phone and conversation interruptions. The answer? If someone calls and I'm in the middle of something I ask if I can call them back, I've set a very unobtrusive alert for my emails so they don't distract me and I can look at them (and respond as required) at my leisure and conversations are kept to a minimum. Great, huh?

Crenshaw (and a fair few productivity experts) advocate that you set allocated times to check emails, return phone calls etc. I've had a rant about this before in my post "Four Hour Work Week in the Real World? Dream on" in which I express concerns about how this "batch processing" (particularly of phone calls) would affect not just your productivity, but also your general reputations as someone to go to - "There's no point in calling Katy, she won't return my call for another 3 hours. I'll ask Bob - he gets things done".

Dave Crenshaw was kind enough to email this in response to my little tirade:

More from the New York Times Article:

That's almost 5 hours out of an 7 and a half hour working day!

So, maybe Dave and the others are onto something after all. I don't completely go back on my previous comments but it's something to certainly think about considering - even if I just get an extra half-an-hour out of my working day!

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Having recently sat down to dinner with someone who had "Blackberry Twitch" - you know the sort, the Blackberry's in their pocket and they're itching to look at it but know it'd be considered rude so they develop a nervous tick - and also been to dinner with someone who checked emails whilst they ate (excuse me?) surely it's better to have a focused, non-Blackberry twitching President? I mean, can you imagine him sitting in the Oval office talking to some official whilst browsing his emails? Me neither.

It's probably for the best when you consider that the current administration has potentially lost 5 million (yes, five million) emails - some of which may contain dodgy dealings of White House Staffers:

In the days of Sarbaines-Oxley, greater accountability and greater transparency losing even 500 emails should be unforgivable. But anyway, enough of my ranting! Why am I talking about Obama's Blackberry dilemma on a productivity blog? Well, because a lot of other productivity blogs are!

General consensus amongst the sites I've been reading is that Obama losing the use of his Blackberry is a terrible thing as if he won't be able to function as President without it. I'm not convinced that the impact it will have on his "productivity" will be that great. With the amount of advisors around him, he's going to be pretty sheltered from the majority of mundane contact that he'd usually be dealing with so I can't see it as being a huge issue.

I don't have what I'd consider a "Smart" phone. Sure it does basic emails (which I don't use) and has a calendar (which I do use as I have a memory like a sieve) and that's about it. I've been toying with the idea of getting a Blackberry/iPhone/GooglePhone for a while but the more I read about people "needing" to be around them 24-7 (especially during dinner thank-you-very-much) the less I seem to want one - not because I don't need it, I do, it's just the whole "addict" image that surrounds them.

Maybe I'm missing the point and maybe my life would be 100% more organised if I had one of these things. I don't know, can anyone explain what I'm missing out on here?

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Firstly, before I begin my "mashup" of politics and lifehacking I'd like to give a big round of applause to all that voted for - who I personally feel - the best candiate we could have hoped for in terms of impact on not only America, but the world as well.

Plus I'd like to applaude everyone that voted in general. Exercising our democratic right to vote is something we often take for granted (although not so much in the UK as we haven't been given the right to vote in a General Election since 2005 the current guy just inherited his post and we therefore haven't voted in the schmuck "democratic" leader of of our country).

I do have to find it slightly amusing that the result of the US Election - which some pundits are already calling the biggest change to politics ever (er, I think that may be the voting system in general, no?) - was announced on the day that in theory could have changed the course of modern politics (including those of the States) forever. Yes, today is the day that poor old Guy Fawkes gets tossed on the bonfire - we omit the hanging, drawing and quartering bit as there are kiddies present. If he had succeeded blowing up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 the political landscape (and no doubt the economic one too) would be a very different beast altogether.

I'd like to enter a disclaimer here that as being British (and not living near America) this is just an opinion of the way that I've seen things through various news items and documentaries - no offence is meant at all! Anyway, enough of my witty banter, on to the meat of this post!

Katy, come on! What on Earth has the election got to do with motivation?

People were getting disheartend with the Bush Administration - in a similar way to Blair was suffering here. The "War on Terror" was losing support and was no longer in the forefront of peoples' minds and other issues - particularly any big "whoopsies" the incumbent parties made - began to make front page news.

The upshot of this? People began to get restless, they wanted change - whether it be Democrat or Republican - anything was better than the deal they were getting now.

Now, when people get restless they tend to do one of three things:

1. Wallow in self-pity and wonder "Why Me?"
   
   
2. Think "This is rubbish, I wish someone would sort this mess out"
   
   
3. Think "What can I do to change this for the better?"

Such was the level of disatisfaction - heightend immensely by the current global economic issues - that the majority of people who would usually fall into camps "A" and "B" in the above list jumped feet first into camp "C". You can see this from the level of grass roots support that both candiates received from the "Average Joe" (although moreso with Obama). People wanted change and they were motivated enough by their current situation to get off their backsides and do something about it.

Okay, I can see how that motivated people, but what's that got to do with real motivation?

Once people are galvanised into action, they tend to maintain that action - and it spreads throughout everything they do.

People who voted yesterday, especially those who had never voted before, will be motivated to act again as they helped make a change. Because they now feel they have the power to control things, they will continue to make changes throughout other aspects of their lives whether that be finding a better job, asking the person they fancy out on a date or simply deciding to stop eating so many doughnuts, they will have the motivation and courage to do it.

I can sort of grasp your link there - but what's all that got to do with productivity?

When people are motivated, they are productive. This election result is being heralded as the one that will change America's fortunes and turn back the tide of the global crisis - and I really think it will, but not because Ombama was elected I think it would have happened equally if McCain had won.

Why? A change is as good as a rest as they say. People (the now motivated people) will begin to feel better about their lives in general as they perceive things to be on the up. As a result they'll be more productive at work, they'll earn more money, spend more money and the economic balance will slowly start to return.

I know it's not as simplistic as all that of course but happy people tend to be productive people!

So, what to you think? Am I talking out of my *ahem* or do you agree that this election has motivated people more than any other in recent history which will filter down into every day life?

I'd love to hear your comments - so please leave one on this post or feel free to contact me privately.

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

1. A Customer drops me an email stating that the administration function of their website wasn't working and generating errors.
   
   My Issue: The customer won't be able to add new products until this is fixed and therefore lose revenue from the site. This may mean - depending on the contract signed - that we (or I) are liable for any loss of earnings that stemmed from this bug.
   
   4HWW Result: Customer sees the autoresponder and doesn't bother to call as to them at the time it's they don't think it's that urgent. Results in a loss of X number of orders, plus they can't do any work on the site at the time they put aside to do so. Further Result is a loss of faith in me and my company.
   
   My Result: Confirm with the customer within 5 minutes what they're trying to do and clarify the issue. Look into the issue and fix it within 28 minutes (man, I'm good aren't I?). Results in the customer being able to carry on working quickly and no loss of orders. Further Result is that they know they can count on my and my account with their Emotional Bank Balance is increased.
   
   
2. Another Customer is trying to get hold of me regarding an issue they're having regarding a quote I sent to them.
   
   My Issue: Something that probably would have taken 5 minutes in an email will now take 15 minutes in a phone call. That's 10 minutes of productive time lost. Multiply that across all calls I'd probably receive and you're looking at probably an hour a day lost using this "productivity" technique.
   
   4HWW Result: The customer sends an email asking a question, sees the autoresponder and decides to call me as to them their enquiry is urgent. They don't leave a voicemail but instead call the "emergency" phone number which I answer. We discuss their question and then invariable move on to other - not necessarily related - issues. Results in lost time for both me and the customer, plus there's no "paper" trail to back up the discussion that was had.
   
   My Result: Read the customer's email and reply saying I'll get back to them with the answer later as I need to look into something (irrespective of whether I need to or not). I can then schedule in a convinient time to send the email. Results in the customer knowing that I'm aware of the query and I'm looking into it and allows me to answer their question at my leisure.

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Multitasking is worse than a lie

Don't believe it? Try it yourself

Will it catch on?

Final Thoughts

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Okay Facebook, thanks for reminding me - like my Dad doesn't do that enough already.

If it's possible, I think Google actually annoyed me more. All I did was open an Excel sheet in Google Docs as I thought it would be quicker and more convenient to do that than download it. What does Google then do?

Saves it for me.

Without asking.

If I wanted to save it, I'd have saved it thank-you-very-much.

Then it took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to delete the blooming thing.

I know I could stop using these, but they're so entrenched and prevalent in every day "Inetrnet" life that it's difficult to get away from them.

It would be rather interesting - and frightening - to see how much, and what, information just these two companies hold on me.

Maybe I need to stop using the internet and start wearing a tin-hat.

Photo by Desperate Dan

What do you think? Am I being paranoid or do we really need to start worrying about this?

</end rant>

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

• What is a meeting?
  Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
• Types of meeting
  Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
• Before the meeting starts
  Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
• During the meeting
  What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
• Bad Meetings
  Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
• After the meeting
  Wrapping it all up and what happens next