Team Taskmaster

Food for thought: Your procrastination habit isn’t your fault. Your brain is to blame.

That’s right — we’re hard-wired for it. That because our brains trick us into procrastinating, saysTimothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. Pychyl notes that five innate quirks of the brain (as described by David Rock, in a posting about why all self-help books sound the same) create a perfect storm for procrastination.

• Quirk 1: The brain is built to firstly minimize danger, before maximizing rewards.
  Procrastination Effect: We avoid tasks that threaten the self, and we discount future rewards in favor of immediate gratification.
• Quirk 2: Too much uncertainty feels dangerous. It feels like possible pain so we avoid it.
  Procrastination Effect: Uncertainty — not knowing what to do next — is scary. Delaying a task becomes a way of coping with or avoiding that fear.
• Quirk 3: Our conscious processing capacity is small, which makes us terrible at a lot of things, including predicting what might make us happy.
  Procrastination Effect: It’s difficult for us to set realistic goals — or stick to them.

For the other two quirks, read Pychyl’s full post on Psychology Today.

And if you choose to do that later or not at all, remember: It’s not your fault. Blame your brain.

(image by brunosan via Flickr, CC 2.0)

If you see a co-worker in a neighboring cubicle contorting into a strange pose, relax. She’s probably not having a convulsion. Rather, it’s more likely that she has embraced the latest workplace stressbuster: yoga.

A pilot study published in the journal Health Education & Behavior found that 20 minutes per day of guided workplace meditation and yoga, combined with six weekly group sessions, can lower feelings of stress by more than 10 percent in sedentary office employees.

Researchers from Ohio State found that yoga and meditation combined reduced participants’ stress, improved their awareness of external stressors, and helped them sleep better. In addition to 20 minutes of practice at their desks, participants attended a weekly, one-hour session during their lunch breaks.

Since lowering stress can increase productivity, adding yoga to the mix can be a win-win for the workplace. Want to put this into practice in your office? Learn some simple yoga moves you can do at your desk or in your office, try a little meditation — the approach used in the study was mindfulness-based stress reduction, or MBSR, but any type can help — and try to attend a weekly yoga class.

(image by enfad via Flickr, CC 2.0)

When it comes to our brethren in Europe, we tend to have a love-hate relationship with the French. I’m a Francophile myself, having lived in Paris once upon a time, but I have plenty of friends who jumped on the Freedom Fries train and consider the French to be rude, snobby, and generally insufferable.

(Of course, I have French friends who consider Americans crude, slobby, and generally unutterable, so I guess we’re even.)

So I thought it was funny to see some recent statistics that indicated that the French may be both lazier than Americans — and simultaneously more productive.

A survey from UBS has shown that the French continue to work the least amount of hours per year in the world. The average in surveyed cities was about 1,900 hours per year, but workers in Paris and Lyon are logging only about 1,600. (Most hours worked? Cairo, at 2,373 per year.)

However, point out Vincent Fernando and John Carney of The Business Insider, the real message here isn’t about laziness — it’s that the French are likely some of the most productive people in the world.

Think about it. Nationmaster ranks France as #18 in terms of GDP per capita, at $36,500 per person, yet France works much less than most developed nations. They achieve their high standard of living while working 16% less hours than the average world citizen…Plus, if you visit France you’ll also realize that their actual standard of living is probably much higher than GDP numbers would indicate.

Thus, if one were to divide France’s GDP per capita by actual hours worked, you’d probably find that the French are achieving some of the highest returns on work-hours invested. Labor Alpha, if you will.

In fact, crunch the numbers and you’ll find that the French Labor Alpha is about $0.50 GDP/capita/hour over the U.S.

It may sound small at first, but add that up across millions of people, and a few decades. Now you’ve built a lesson for the rest of the world to learn.

The message? Work smarter, not harder. And maybe revisit your assumptions about the French work ethic.

(image by mabel flores via Flickr, CC 2.0)

Are your PowerPoint presentations putting everyone to sleep? Is your business culture so steeped in slide decks that your audience immediately zones out when the lights go down? If so, you need to do something to spice up your slides and get people to pay attention.

Cognitive science to the rescue! Last year, Harvard scientist Stephen M. Kosslyn spoke in a symposium about the visualization of data and how people can best present information in a PowerPoint format. Writer Annalee Newitz summarized Kosslyn’s four rules of PowerPoint.

1. The Goldilocks Rule: Present a “just right” amount of data. Too much is overwhelming; too little won’t get your point across.
2. The Rudolph Rule: Guide your audience to important details, just as Rudolph’s red nose guided Santa. If you present a piece of key data in a list, make it a different color or size, point an arrow to it, highlight it, or circle it in red. In a pie chart, pull out the important sector. Our brains are wired to immediately notice what’s different, and this helps your audience distinguish what’s important from what’s background information.
3. The Rule of Four: Never offer more than four pieces of information at once. Why? The brain can generally only hold four pieces of visual data simultaneously — so when we take in the visual information on a slide, more than four items starts to overwhelm us.
4. The Birds of a Feather Rule: If you want to indicate to your audience that several items belong in a group, make them similar by giving them the same color or shape. Or group them very close together.

For more details, read Newitz’s full post, with examples. Or check out Kosslyn’s book, Clear and to the Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations. And happy PowerPointing!

I read an interesting post over the weekend from Diane Mermigas, who writes about the big-picture implications of technology. She discussed Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s assertion that multiplayer video games are good training for workplace collaboration.

Schmidt, speaking at the G-20 in Pittsburgh, said the game world teaches players how to build a network and to use interactive skills and thinking. Collaborative dynamics can be easily seen in the big changes in open-source applications, notes Mermigas, and consultants and analysts are embracing the idea of using a multiplayer game approach to build a more effective workplace.

One example of a game that translates well to the business environment is World of Warcraft, in which players work both with and against each other in mastering increasingly difficult challenges.

Says Mermigas,

The adopted personas, strategies, execution and teamwork make WOW a reasonable template for dealing constructively and creatively with real-world challenges working with others. As more participants join a carefully-designed work environment and  knowledge economy, the more valuable its resources become, and the faster players increase their improved performance.

Interesting parallels, don’t you think? I’m not a gamer myself but I can see where the crossover could apply.

Might the workplace of the future include a gaming room along with a break room? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

What productivity suite do you use in your workplace? Most likely, it’s Microsoft Office, the undisputed heavyweight champ in that space. But a new contender may soon be nipping at Office’s heels.

The challenger is Google Docs, the Web-based word processor/spreadsheet/presentation application from Google. A new survey by market-research firm IDC finds that 20 percent of respondents said Google Docs is “widely used” in their workplaces.

Yes, it was a small survey (262 people) and it didn’t prove that people are using Google Docs instead of Office, rather than as an adjunct. But it does point out that Google Docs is gaining momentum, since an earlier IDC study (2007) found that just 5 percent of respondents characterized it as widely used.

Google’s official blog says over 1.75 millions businesses, schools, and organizations use Google Docs, with an additional 3,000 signing up each day.

That might speak volumes for its increasing popularity, but folks with loads of experience in the tech industry, like my former colleague Preston Gralla, note that client-based suites are still more trustworthy than Web-based ones, at least for the moment (remember Google’s infamous outage?).

Cloud-based computing is not necessarily ready for prime time in the workplace, concurs PC World’s Ian Paul: “It’s not all rainbows and light when you dance in the clouds, because eventually a storm rolls in.” Paul points out that while online storage is incredibly convenient, even a behemoth like Google isn’t immune to problems and glitches that can cause you and your business time and money — or even lost data.

What do you think?

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When I wrote my sarcastic ode to PowerPoint the other day, one of my readers chimed in with a humorous comment defending the practice of printing out slide decks as meeting hand-outs. He (or she) wrote, “You gotta remember that PPT print-outs give your attendees an important opportunity to doodle on the pages — very important for business!!”

While the comment was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, it made me think back to an article I read in Wired magazine earlier this year. Believe it or not, doodling has been shown to improve focus and attention.

A study in Applied Cognitive Psychology found that a slightly distracting secondary task may actually improve concentration during the performance of dull tasks that would otherwise cause a mind to wander, according to Wired’s Brandon Keim.

Study co-author Jackie Andrade, a University of Plymouth psychologist, said in the article, “”It takes a large cognitive load to daydream. That has a big impact on the task you’re meant to be doing. Doodling takes only a small cognitive load, but it’s just enough to keep your mental resources focused on the main task.”

What does this mean in the business world? It means that my reader had a real point. Having paper in front of you and idly doodling while you’re in a boring presentation or meeting can help you pay more attention and retain more information than if you just sat there and zoned out.

Not the artistic type? Never fear; doodling is for everyone. Need a jump start? Find out how to draw a doodle at Squidoo.com.

Doodle on, dudes.

Ever find yourself struggling to complete a task because it seems so daunting? We’ve all been there. Envisioning all the steps that need to be taken to get to “done” can be overwhelming. But if you reduce the friction that’s holding you back, says Leo Babauta on Zen Habits, it’s easier to reach completion.

What’s friction? Things like procrastinating, distractions, meetings, or even being intimidated by a big project. Focus on the friction and eliminate it, and you’ll find yourself moving forward.

Even better, think small. Start by getting the small things done to build momentum. For example, Barbauta explains how he launched a new minimalism blog (mnmlist.com) in just three days:

One day to buy the domain, set up Wordpress, and find a theme to start from. Another day to tweak the theme to what I wanted and write a few posts. A third day to write more posts and announce it on Twitter and here on Zen Habits. Three days, and I was at Done.

Starting a new blog might seem like a big challenge, but it’s not so bad when you break it down into bite-sized pieces.

So think “small” to get your project rolling, reduce friction points where you can, and enjoy the fruits of your labors a lot more quickly and easily than you might think.

Oh, you want me to join your meeting for a quick info download? Great. Don’t forget to tell me to build a PowerPoint presentation.

Instead of letting me speak to the group for three minutes to explain the new initiative, make me present a slide deck. With bullet points. And, preferably, with cutesy little graphics. Bonus points for animated slides.

Make sure we take time to futz with the A/V setup, pull the blinds, and make sure everyone in the room has a good sightline. Burn a little time by making me stand up in front of the group and assigning some random person to click through my presentation for me.

By all means, have me read verbatim from the PowerPoint slides. After all, it would be heresy for me to be spontaneous, natural, or (God forbid) collaborative with my audience.

Remind me to make 14 hard copies of the slide deck to pass out at the conclusion of my talk, which has now taken 20 minutes instead of the anticipated three. Why? Because no one was paying attention to the presentation anyway, so they might want to read it later.

Also, it makes people feel important to walk away from a meeting with a sheaf of paper. Let’s not worry about the trees or the company’s “Go Green!” initiatives.

And above all, never mind that it took me a grand total of two hours — building the slide deck, making copies, and presenting — to convey information that, again, should’ve taken three minutes, max.

What a great use of my time and a fabulous way to boost my productivity! The corporate reliance on PowerPoint for all purposes is clearly a wonderful, wonderful thing.

If you productivity hounds didn’t have enough to worry about already, here’s a new factor to take into consideration: Your favorite organization tool might be harmful to your health.

The Environmental Working Group has released a list ranking more than 1,000 cell phones and smartphones by the amount of radiation emitted. According to the organization’s research, the BlackBerry Curve (8300 and 8330 models) and the BlackBerry Bold 9000 were among the smartphones emitting the highest amount of radiation.

Why is this a concern? Although there’s still debate about whether cell-phone radiation is truly harmful, the EWG says studies find significantly higher risks for brain and salivary gland tumors among people using cell phones for 10 years or longer.

Well, you’re probably not going to ditch your smartphone, but here are 5 ways to reduce your risks from cell-phone radiation.

1. Choose a device that emits less radiation. Happily for BlackBerry aficionados, another model — the Storm (9530 and 9500) — is among the lowest-radiation choices.
2. Use a headset or speaker. If you use a wireless headset, take it off your ear if you’re not on a call (some models emit continuous, low-level radiation).
3. Talk less. Your phone doesn’t emit radiation when you’re checking messages, only when you’re chatting.
4. Text more. Texting uses less power (and thus, less radiation) than voice calling and also keeps the phone away from your head.
5. Call only when you’ve got strong signal bars. Using your phone in a weak-signal area requires more radiation to get the signal to the tower.