Stepping Away From Machines to Regain Productivity

DENVER - April 2, 2013 - PRLog -- DENVER, Colorado, April 2, 2013 – The world’s most productive workers have learned a valuable lesson that escapes many—stepping away from their computers, tablets and smartphones and experiencing the value of non-tech time. That’s the word from productivity expert Laura Stack, who sums up the point in her newest blog titled “Machines Melt Minds.”

Comparing the effect of machines on minds to warm butter melting on pancakes, Stack’s imagery is more about an appetite for profits than breakfast. According to Stack, machines melt minds, potentially sending profits into a death spiral.

“Productive workers know that blazing one’s eyeballs behind a monitor all day can fry brain cells,” Stack says. “Bill Gates and Steve Jobs may have given us the tools we need to get the job done, but unfortunately, if taken to excess, they’ve also given us frying pans for our brains.”’

The excess Stack refers to includes inordinate amounts of time spent on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. In the workplace, Stack calls online diversions like these “profit-sucking vampires.”

Stack is quick to say that social networking sites serve a marketing purpose and have value to most businesses, but making sure the company’s latest press release is properly posted to its Twitter site is not the problem.

“Let’s get real,” Stack says.  Most employees aren’t using Twitter and Facebook to boost annual earnings. To the contrary, they’re squandering annual earnings.”

Stack says that just 20 minutes spent on non-work related Twitter time adds up to serious loss of company productivity each week:

• Twenty minutes spent Tweeting five days a week equals 100 minutes of lost productivity each week.

• Fifty-two weeks in a year equals 5,200 minutes of lost productivity each year.

• Over a 10 year period,, that adds up to 52,000 minutes – more than 866 hours or just less than an entire year (22 weeks) of lost productivity.

These figures reflect the amount of time wasted with a mild social networking habit (20 minutes daily). Stack asks readers to consider the impact of the lost productivity time for a company employing 5,000 people with 20-minute daily Twitter habits.

“Granted, if you have a bottom-line impact such as an HR professional who is using the medium to recruit people to come work for the organization, a PR official whose job it is to hype the company’s image, or a salesperson reaching out to new prospects, it’s easier to justify the time spent in front of the screen,” Stack says. “But rare is the person who understands their goals and has the self-control to get in, take care of business, and get out.”

Stack suggests readers make a concerted effort to lighten the amount of time spent online.

“Pick up the phone and call a prospect, go to lunch and get to know someone while breaking bread together, or get out of the building on your lunch break and take a walk in the sunshine,” she says.

“It will give your eyeballs and your brain a much needed fresh breath of air.”

For more information on decision dilemmas that affect productivity, visit http://www.TheProductivityPro.com, Email Laura@TheProductivityPro.com, or call 303-471-7401.

About Laura Stack:

Laura Stack is a time management and productivity expert who has been speaking and writing about human potential and peak performance since 1992. She has implemented employee productivity improvement programs at Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, UBS, Aramark, and Bank of America. Stack presents keynotes and seminars internationally for leaders, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and professional services firms on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in the workplace.

The president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management firm specializing in high-stress environments, Stack is the bestselling author of five books:  “What to do When There’s Too Much to do” (2012); “SuperCompetent” (2010); “The Exhaustion Cure” (2008); “Find More Time” (2006); “Leave the Office Earlier” (2004). The 2011-2012 President of the National Speakers Association and recipient of the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, Stack has served as a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, Xerox, and Office Depot and is the creator of The Productivity Pro® planner by Day-Timer. Widely regarded as one of the leading experts in the field of employee productivity and workplace issues, Stack has been featured nationally on the CBS Early Show and CNN, and in USA Today and the New York Times.