Productivity Killers

I wanted to spend some of today discussing productivity killer. I recently had the pleasure of helping one of my employees out. After working through the task, I realized what is taking her four hours to complete was done in 45 minutes under my watch. Astonished, I had to ask why. I saw with her to see if she did things wrong or if I had missed something, I never led on why I was asking.

My employee did everything the exact same way I did. The only difference? When she was working with me as her shadow, she completed the task in just over an hour. Where were the other three hours I was paying her for? At this point I questioned her. She explained she is answering emails and taking phone calls between actual work. While this was a possibility, I didn’t see it as a three hour difference. In fact, I was also responding to emails and taking calls on speakerphone and still completed the task in less time.

After further investigating, I found the productivity killer. Google! Yes, Google. While my employees have to use it to look things up, it turns out they get distracted by the headlines, links, etc. And then they Google things they should be looking at on their off time, get tied up in related industry news headlines, and so forth.

No, my employee didn’t get in trouble. It wasn’t a deliberate act and we created an action plan together. I also figured out a way to take my employees off line when needed to ensure productivity. The point is, I wanted to share this so you know just how distracting Google can be to any task. It is a productivity killer. So, if you need to think, brainstorm, write, plan, or just need to relax- leave your phone at home and find a place with no internet or computers!

Until tomorrow,

Twyla N. Garrett