Does Instant Messaging Hurt or Help Productivity?

Atlanta Professional Organizer, Allison Carter, recently alerted me to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution entitled "Biz (off)beat: Instant Messaging Among Co-Workers Hikes Productivity" written by Bill Hendrick.

The article describes the results of a research study of 912 people conducted by professor Kelly Garrett of Ohio State and James Danziger of the University of California-Irvine in which they found that instant messaging (IMing) led to fewer interruptions of workers and increased productivity. "The key takeaway is that instant messaging has some benefits where many people had feared it might be harmful," Garrett said. Those in the study who used instant messaging reported being "interrupted less frequently" than colleagues who didn't.

I wonder what each study participant's definition of "interruption" is. Are they referring to the frequency that they received and read emails, answered phone calls, or spoke to a co-worker who stopped by to ask a question? Do they consider each instant message an interruption?

This article reminded me of another that I read called "The Multitasking Generation" in the March, 2006 edition of Time magazine. The piece described the results from studies done by David E. Meyer, director of the Brain, Cognitive, and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan. He found that "when people try to perform two or more related tasks either at the same time or alternating rapidly between them, errors go way up, and it takes far longer--often double the time or more--to get the jobs done than if they were done sequentially. " Seems to me that answering instant messages while performing other job duties would qualify as "trying to perform two or more related tasks."

As we often see, two different research studies can show two very different results. IMing may reduce the total amount of time a single communication may take, but I question whether it reduces the total quantity of interruptions. Also, the number of in-person interruptions may be decreased by IMing, but does this reduce the number of times per day one's attention is pulled away from the task at hand?

I rarely participate in IMing because I personally enjoy getting absorbed in a task, and I find it a bit difficult to get back into the zone once I'm interrupted. What about you? Do you find IMing helps or hurts your productivity?

Recycle Your Computer at Staples

In recognition of April's Earth Day, we close out the month with another recycling option for you. The office supply store Staples has developed a program to make it easier for its customers to recycle their e-waste. Here's how it works:

Bring your old computers, monitors, laptops, printers, faxes and all-in-ones to any Staples U.S. store and drop them off at the customer service desk. All brands are accepted for secure recycling regardless of where they were purchased.

A recycling fee of $10 per piece for large equipment is charged to cover handling, transport, product disassembly and recycling. Smaller computer peripherals, such as keyboards, mice, speakers, and modems can be recycled at no charge.

You can use the Staples Easy Tech service on-site in all stores to transfer data from an old computer to a new one. Here are some FAQs about the Staples recycling program:

What products are not accepted?

• Staples does not accept televisions, floor-model copiers/multi-function devices or appliances.

How does Staples keep hard drives secure?

• Items are bagged and sealed after they are dropped off and our recycling partner uses established industry-leading standards for secure data destruction.
• For a list of software programs available to erase your data and protect your personal information, see Staples Security.

How does the recycling process work?

• Equipment is bagged and sealed after drop-off. The equipment is picked up and delivered to their recycling partner, Eco International, who disassembles the equipment into its component parts in the U.S. for environmentally responsible recycling.

What else can you recycle at Staples?

• You'll receive $3 in Staples Rewards to spend on a future ink purchase for every HP, Dell, or Lexmark cartridge you recycle. Just bring them to any register at the Staples store.

• Customers can recycle cell phones, PDAs, and rechargeable batteries at Staples every day for free. Simply drop these items off at the customer service desk.

Electronics Recycling Day

Twice a year in my hometown of Decatur, the city hosts their Electronics Recycling Day. If you live nearby, dig out your old electronic items and take them to the Decatur High School Parking Lot (corner of N. McDonough Street and Howard Avenue) this Saturday, March 29 from 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Here's just a sample of what you can recycle: desktop or laptop computers, telephones and telephone equipment, mini-towers, monitors, typewriters, label makers (it's so sad when these old friends die), copiers, mice (not the kind that like cheese, please), fax machines, joystick game controllers, answering machines, printers and cartridges, digital cameras, zip drives, speakers, PDAs, pagers, VCRs, DVD players, routers, scanners, cable converter boxes, CD players, portable game players, cables, GPS receivers, radios, and stereo equipment. (I am SO asking my husband to get rid of some of those turntables in the attic!)

In addition to electronics, they will also be accepting clean Styrofoam (peanuts, packing boxes, plates, cups, trays), batteries of any type, and mercury thermometers and thermostats. They will not be accepting televisions and microwaves, however.

Electronics dropped off during the event will be sorted to be re-used or disassembled into their raw materials. It is recommended that computers be erased of all personal information prior to disposal at the event.

Last fall, 66 tons of electronics were diverted from the landfill! Note that you don't have to live or work in the city of Decatur to participate. So if you've been meaning to get rid of some of those old electronics from your home and office, this Saturday is the time! I can think of a few clients of mine that could still benefit from this purging opportunity....Come on, you can do it!

And if you'd like to volunteer for the event, please contact Chris Carroll at (404) 388-0023, Scott Thompson at scott.thompson@mindspring.com or the City of Decatur Public Works at (404) 377-5571. Please forward this to anyone who think may have electronics to be recycled.

Managing Email Folders

Later this week, I will be speaking to a large cancer practice about managing their email, along with other productivity tips. Like many companies, this group has been struggling with huge quantities of emails hitting their inboxes each day. Here are a few suggestions for folders you can create in your email program to help store and manage incoming email:

* ACTION: I use this folder to house those emails that I personally need to act upon. Then, after I've sorted through my inbox, I go back to ACTION and begin to prioritize the tasks I want to tackle first. A cool trick I use to make the ACTION folder pop up to the top of my folder list is to include the number 1 in front of the word ACTION.

* WAITING FOR: This folder is used for those emails where I have delegated a task to someone, am waiting for a response back, or am waiting to receive something in snail mail. For example, if I order an item off the internet, I put the confirmation email into WAITING FOR. Because I check WAITING FOR at least weekly, I use the same trick of adding a 1 in front of the folder name in order to make it pop to the top of my alphabetized email folder list.

* READ: I put those emails that are info-only and not time sensitive into a READ file. Then I spend a couple of minutes at the end of each day (during my low-energy times) perusing these emails. Or if I know I am going to be out running errands where I may get caught waiting, I print a few of my read-only emails to take with me. I love it when I can multi-task!

* PROJECT-SPECIFIC FOLDERS: For projects that are going to generate lots of emails that are save-worthy, create a project-specific folder. You may find that, as the project progresses, you need to break the project file into sub-folders to help you better manage the information. For example, as the Director of Communication and Technology for the GA chapter of NAPO, I oversee the chapter's web site, email list, and newsletter. To keep track of all of the info that I have to save for these different areas, I created a NAPO-Web, NAPO-Email List, and a NAPO-Newsletter folder. Then when I need to retrieve an email, all of my NAPO folders are close together alphabetically but separated into sub-categories by folder name.

* CLIENT-SPECIFIC FOLDERS: I create client-specific folders for on-going clients so that I can easily keep all of our save-worthy interactions in one place. I encourage you to use the same folder names for email files that you may also have in My Documents on your computer and/or your paper filing system.

* OTHER FOLDERS: Clients will often ask me, "How should I name my folders?" Whether it's an email folder, a paper folder, or a folder in My Documents on your computer, I always encourage you to pick the first name that pops into their head. More than likely, the name that first occurs to you is the same name that is going to occur to you the next time you need to find the information again.

And I would be falling down on the job as a professional organizer if I didn't STRONGLY encourage you to delete as many emails as possible, as often as possible. You've seen me use the phrase "save-worthy" in this post. Make sure that the emails you choose to keep are valuable enough to take up the mental energy and disk space it will take to store them.