Mark Ellwood’s Brainy Blog of Fascinating Facts and Timely Tips

Eliminate Time Wasting At Work

Eliminate Time Wasting At Work

“What a waste of time!” Do you ever hear this at work? It’s an incriminating observation for what is often just a petty inconvenience. Time was wasted, and someone is to blame. Though it’s curious how no one ever dares to take ownership of the problem. In so many...

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Conduct A Time and Motion Study To Improve Productivity

Conduct A Time and Motion Study To Improve Productivity

Pick up just about any time management book and you’ll find a common piece of advice somewhere near the beginning. “Conduct a time and motion study on all of your activities for a week”. This will be accompanied by a nifty table with snappy rows and impressive columns...

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Please Interrupt Me

Please Interrupt Me

A day without any interruptions would be a very strange day indeed. Would you really want to eliminate all the interruptions that you get? Imagine arriving at your work space early in the morning. You write out a to-do list, and then launch into your first task,...

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Cut The Glut of Email

Cut The Glut of Email

Our time study research indicates that employees spend 3.3 hours per week on miscellaneous email messages that are not connected with any of their main projects. That’s a massive amount of time that could easily be reduced. Here are some tips for handling email...

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Top Reasons Why People Hate Meetings

Top Reasons Why People Hate Meetings

Here’s why people hate meetings. Boss tells you the meeting is urgent, then is always the last to show upDifficult to conceal the fact that you really have to take a nap“Let’s vote on whether to take a vote”Tray of squishy pastry things filled with weird flavored...

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How Do Sales Reps Spend Their Time?

How Do Sales Reps Spend Their Time?

What  differentiates top performing sales reps from the rest of the pack? The best sales reps focus their efforts on their most important priorities. This means a) finding qualified prospects, b) determining potential needs, c) closing sales and d) taking...

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Procrastination Definitions

Procrastination Definitions

Here are a number of defiintions of procrastination. Do any of them fit? To voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay – Piers SteelThe intentional and habitual postponement of an important task that should be done...

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The Burden of E-Mail

The Burden of E-Mail

Based on data from a number of our time and motion consulting projects, e-mail is indeed the burden that many employees believe it to be. Using our TimeCorder device, employees tracked their time on a number of activities, many of which involved using e-mail. We also...

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Productivity Hurdles

Productivity Hurdles

What really bugs people about productivity? We conduct time and motion studies using our proprietary electronic TimeCorder device, gathering thousands of hours of real-time data from employees. We like to complement the time study results with additional data, so we...

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Hours Worked By Job

Hours Worked By Job

Who works the longest hours? The sales rep trying to firm up a deal? The president who has to solve a delicate legal issue? Not surprisingly, there are a range of work hours, based on results from a number of time studies we have conducted using our proprietary...

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