How always being busy kills productivity – and 5 ways to avoid it

“Your car is having trouble and will need repairs at a cost of around $1,500. How would you handle that situation?” Scientists from the University of Warwick led by professor Anandi Mani stopped customers at a New Jersey mall and asked them that question. Next the subjects took an IQ test and the results was stunning: … Continue reading How always being busy kills productivity – and 5 ways to avoid it

New research: Overwork kills productivity AND employees

Yikes – overwork can kill you: … those working a 55-hour week face 33% increased risk of stroke than those working a 35- to 40-hour week. And to make matters worse, all those extra hours don’t even mean you get more work done: [Overwork] … doesn’t seem to result in more output. So overwork is … Continue reading New research: Overwork kills productivity AND employees

This is how you improve happiness AND productivity at the same time

Yesterday I spoke to 200 people at Umbraco Codegarden 2010, an annual IT developer conference for web developers who use the open source CMS system Umbraco. Niels Hartvig, the founder of Umbraco, has a clear vision that focuses on both a good platform (so that the actual product is great) but equally on creating a … Continue reading This is how you improve happiness AND productivity at the same time

The top 5 new rules of productivity

We all want to increase productivity and get more done with our working hours. There’s just one problem: Most people’s view of productivity comes from the industrial age. This leads to some fundamental misconceptions about work, including these: If you work more hours, you get more work done. Adding more people to a project means you can … Continue reading The top 5 new rules of productivity

Go see The Rules of Productivity presentation. Now!

Thanks for all the great comments on my last post on The Cult of Overwork. It’s clear from the comments that: The Cult of Overwork is alive and well. Waaaay too many businesses still equate number of hours worked with productivity. This is hurting people! In one comment, Jorge Bernal linked to a great presentation … Continue reading Go see The Rules of Productivity presentation. Now!

Top 10 reasons why happiness at work is the ultimate productivity booster

Lisa was falling behind at work. Every morning she woke up nervous about the workday ahead of her. Every evening she went home thinking of all the tasks she hadn’t gotten around to. Lisa is a 35-year old engineer and project manager at a Danish IT company. With business booming, keeping up had become a … Continue reading Top 10 reasons why happiness at work is the ultimate productivity booster