Improving productivity by taking frequent breaks

By test -
In this McKinsey article the author tries to dispel the myth of Multitasking. She talks about how the brain is really not capable of doing multiple tasks but keeps switching between tasks. Too much of switching between email to reading to speaking on the phone results in stress and mistakes.

 In an example, a founder of a company implemented the concept of taking frequent breaks. Some of the techniques that he implemented were

  • Schedule breaks between meetings
  • The CEO would take 25-45 minutes break to go offline which would include being switched off from mail, messages, etc
  • Go off for a walk
  • cheering people who would leave office to go for a run.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Development Myth

By test -
In his book "I, The Citizen", Dr.R.Balasubramaniam talks about his experience when he worked with Tribal communities in South India's rural hinterland. During one interaction with women in a Tribal colony, he learnt that they trekked 8 - 10 kms everyday to fetch water. He was aghast on hearing this and disturbed at the plight of these women. He spoke to the local Administration and within a week had a Tube well with a hand pump installed at the colony. About 6 months later he visited the colony again expecting to receive adulation from a grateful community for reducing their workload and making their lives better. However, he was shocked to receive the choicest expletives from the women who were angry to see him. On probing further he found out that he had taken away from the women what was most valuable for them. Fetching water was the only time they had for themselves when they could get away from their homes, their family and their husbands. This was a time when...
Read more

Eliminating Elevator waiting time complaints with Mirrors

By test -
At a large Multistoreyed office building, people complained about long waiting times for the Elevator during peak hours. Increasing the number of elevators was not feasible so an alternative solution was needed. The management called a meeting of the staff to brainstorm. A young employee who was a graduate in psychology observed that people complained about waiting only a few minutes for the elevator. The main issue was boredom rather than elevator performance.  He suggested installing Mirrors in the elevator boarding areas so that people could be busy looking at themselves or looking at others. This was promptly done at a very low cost. The complaints stopped immediately. Related reading Defining the problem of Elevator wait times
Read more

100 Years Ago Sears Sold Cheap Mail-Order DIY Homes!

By anon -
Image
In 1908, Sears issued its first specialty catalog for houses,  Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans , featuring 44 kit-house styles ranging in price from the US $360–$2,890. That's the equivalent of US $9,147-$73,431 today .  Cover of 1922 Sears Modern Homes catalog As Sears mail-order catalogs were in millions of homes, large numbers of potential homeowners were able to open a catalog, see different house designs, visualize their new home and then purchase it directly from Sears.  Sears reported that more than 70,000 of these homes were sold in North America between 1908 and 1940. In late 1918, Sears conducted a “race,” building two houses, a Sears Honor Built the pre-cut kit home and an identical house with no pre-cut lumber.  The pre-cut Honor Bilt Rodessa was the easy winner in this race, with 231 hours to spare (compared to the stick-built house).  Today, those two houses are still standing side by side as Sears struggles ...
Read more