‘But we don’t have the time to do this’ is the response we get from busy and often stressed managers!
Does the day seem in control of you rather than the other way around? Do you spend hours in meetings wondering why you’re there?
Do you have those days when you get home absolutely worn out but having achieved little of what you set out to?
Consider how many hours you spend at work in one year. It can be quite a sobering thought, but also consider how making small changes can make a big difference to how you spend that time.
Sir Cary Cooper argues that the British obsession with out of work email checking and the need to keep our smartphones on is damaging our home and family life and also our workplace productivity.
Something like a quarter of people are checking emails whilst on holiday and almost everybody is checking emails at home long after they’ve left the office. It has already been proven to cause health problems and now it is causing family and home life destruction adds Cooper.
The view is shared by Tony Crabbe author of ‘Busy’ who says that ‘the cult of busyness stops us from getting real work done’ and that we do not differentiate the important from the unimportant’.
This is evident in our need to ‘slash our way through our emails’ confusing them with real time communication and feeling as though they need to be dealt with immediately. This, he argues means we end up becoming busier, unhappier, and less creative.