Associate Member
Member IPO & NPEX
FUN FACTS
Time and Multitasking
Office distractions ate up 2.1 hours a day for the average worker. $28 billion a year
Employees devoted an average of 11 minutes to a project before being distracted. Once interrupted, it takes workers 25 minutes to return to the original task, if they return at all.
People switch activities, such as making a call, speaking with someone in their cubicle or working on a document, every three minutes on average. Betty Lin-Fisher (for Knight Ridder Newspapers), Houston Chronicle, 2/27/2006)
Employees spend an avg. of 36 minutes per day at work on personal tasks. By gender, men take 44 minutes and women 29 minutes, with the 18-34 year old group using the most time. Office Team surveys, February 2007
The cost of interruptions to the U.S. economy is estimated at $588 billion a year. Jonathan B. Spira, "The Cost of Not Paying Attention," Basex Research, 2005
Americans work an avg. of 45 hours per week, with sixteen of those hours labeled as unproductive. Microsoft Survey, March 15, 2005
Your IQ falls 10 points when you're fielding constant emails, text messages, and calls, the same loss you'd experience if you missed an entire night's sleep and more than double the 4-point loss you'd have after smoking marijuana. On average men fared worse than women because, researchers say, men have more difficulty multitasking. YogaJournal, p. 22, 12/2005
On a typical day, office workers are interrupted about seven times an hour, which adds up to 56 interruptions a day, 80% of which are considered trivial, according to time-management experts. Wendy Cole, TIME Magazine, 10/11/2004
People who multitask are less efficient than those who focus on one project at a time. Managing two mental tasks at once reduces the brainpower available for either task. Sue Shellenberger ( from the Wall Street Journal), Star Telegram: "Multitasking Makes You Stupid, Studies Say," 12/2/2003
For 10 years researchers studied the behavior of busy managers in a dozen large companies. They found that 90% of managers squander their time in all sorts of ineffective activities. In other words, a mere 10% of managers spend their time in a committed, purposeful, and reflective manner. Dr. Helke Bruch and Dr. Sumantra Ghoshal, Harvard Business Review, 2/2002
Time and Stress
45 percent of high-earning managers are too tired to converse with their spouse or partner after a long day at the office. This strain is wreaking havoc on family and personal lives. Study by Sylvia Ann Hewlett & Carolyn Buck Luce, Harvard Business Review, 12/2006
40% of American adults get less than 7 hours of sleep on weekdays, up from 34% in 2001. 60% of meals are rushed, and 34% of lunches are choked down on the run. To avoid wasting time, we're talking on our cell phones while rushing to work, answering e-mails during conference calls, waking up at 4 a.m. to call Europe, and generally multi-tasking our brains out. Business Week, p. 60, 10/3/2005
51.2 million Americans, or 35% are vacation deprived, earning an average of 14 days and taking eleven of those days, the least amount of vacation days among their international counterparts. Expedia.com, 2007
Rising stress levels can cause seriously inappropriate behavior. 13% of surveyed workers claimed to have personally committed, or have observed co-workers commit, an act that would be described as "desk rage"--angry or destructive outbursts during work time because of the high levels of stress. Caravan Opinion Research, 2000
U.S. companies lose between $200-$300 billion a year due to absenteeism, tardiness, burnout, decreased productivity, worker's compensation claims, increased employee turnover, and medical insurance costs resulting from employee work-related stress. National Safety Council, Priority Magazine, 1-2/2007
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state unequivocally that 80% of our medical expenditures are now stress related. Fast Company Magazine, p. 88, 2/2003
Mayo Clinic states 80 to 85% of patients were ill, directly or indirectly because of mental stress. Mayo Clinic study
The number of individuals citing excessive hours at work on the part of a spouse has tripled. A lack of communication and a lack of attention are also frequently mentioned by both sexes as reasons for going their separate ways. Patricia Katz, Pause Newsletter, 3/29/2006
Since 1973, the median number of hours that people say they work has jumped from 41 a week to 49, That has mostly come out of people's leisure time, which has dropped from 26 to 19 hours a week over the same period. Harris Interactive - Wall Street Journal, 1/26/2004
Paper and Filing
1000 middle managers of large companies in the U.S. and U.K., 59% miss important information almost every day because it exists within the company but they cannot find it. Accenture, Wall Street Journal, 5/14/2007
15% of all paper handled in businesses is lost and 30 percent of all employees' time is spent trying to find lost documents. Jane M. Von Bergen (Knight Ridder Newspapers), The Boston Globe, 3/21/2006
Executives waste 6 weeks per year searching for lost documents. survey of 2,600 executives by Esselte, FastCompany Magazine, 8/2004
95% of all information is on paper. International Data Corporation, Document Magazine, 2/2004
Email and Internet
The average projected number of corporate emails sent and received per person, per day: 142 in 2007, 156 in 2008, 177 in 2009, 199 in 2010, 228 in 2011. By 2009, workers are expecting to spend 41% of their time in email management. Radicati Group, Palo Alto, 2007
15% of Americans say they are addicted to email.
59% of those using portable devices check email as it arrives.
43% of users sleep near their email unit to hear incoming messages.
40% consider email accessibility when they plan a trip.
83% check their email once a day while on vacation.
43% check their email first thing every morning. AOL & Opinion Research Corp., study 7/26/07
19% of all drivers text message while driving. 37% of those drivers are between the ages of 18 and 27. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., Christopher Cooper, Wall Street Journal 3/14/07
More than one in twenty U.S. adults surveyed nationally said their relationships have suffered from excessive use of the Internet. 12% said they often stay online more than they would like to. 14% say it is difficult to stay offline for several days. Elias Abonjaoude, Stanford University, Impulse Control Disorders Clinic
Americans will consume media 9.5 hours a day in 2007. Nielsen Survey, Wall Street Journal, 12/2006
Organizing and Clutter
700,000 to 1.4 million Americans may have compulsive disorder syndrome--difficulty in throwing away anything for fear that they may need the items later. Self Storage Association: Obsessive Compulsive Foundation
70% of office trash is waste paper. The average U.S. company could recycle up to 50% of the current waste. Priority Magazine, 9/2007
Getting rid of excess clutter would eliminate 40% of housework in the avg. home. National Soap and Detergent Association
