Dubai Ranked 16th Most Competitive

Via Gulf News

By Suzanne Fenton, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Senior officials have said Dubai must focus more on capital-intensive business practices rather than depend on foreign labour in order to become more competitive in global markets.

Dubai was ranked 16th out of 65 global economies in the National Competitiveness Report for 2009 - the first time the emirate has featured in the eight-year-old report.

The report is published annually by the Institute for Industrial Policy Studies at Seoul National University.

Hani Al Hamli, secretary-general of the Dubai Economic Council, said that in a changing world, countries were competing in various sectors to benefit from globalised markets.

"From there arises the role of the Dubai Competitiveness Council & that aims to enhance Dubai's competitiveness in global markets through enhancing local economic growth.

Complete Article

An Orderly Office? That's Personal

Via The New York Times

By SARA RIMER

BY the time I started looking for someone to help me organize my home office, where I work when I’m not out reporting stories, it was not a pretty sight: notebooks, papers, bills, cellphone chargers, books, digital cameras and tape recorders, batteries, stamps, magazines, Sweet’n Low and Splenda packets (where did they come from?) were piling up on my desk, the floor and the filing cabinet.

I found a few professional organizers on the Web and made some calls, without much success. One woman charged a minimum of $250 an hour (because, she said, “I can get it”); another suggested I consider going paperless, putting everything on the computer (not an option, in my mind).

Then one day Liz, the daughter of my longtime boyfriend, Lou Ureneck, came to visit us in our small two-bedroom apartment in Brookline, Mass. Liz, a struggling actress in New York who pays the rent with odd jobs — waitress, party caterer, freelance cupcake baker — hadn’t spent much time with us before, but I quickly noticed her extreme tidiness.

When she went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, she never left the box of tea bags out for more than a minute; the used tea bag would disappear instantly into the garbage. And then, since she was already in there, she’d just clean everything, washing the dishes Lou and I had left in the sink, unloading the dishwasher, scrubbing down the counters for good measure.

I tried to thank her, but she shrugged it off. It was the just way she was.

I was awed, I was grateful. Liz was the one.

“Liz,” I said, leading her into my office, which was also the guest room in which she was staying, “do you think you might be able to help me with this?”

Within two days, she had waded through everything, consulting with me over what to toss and what to file under which category. We came up with dozens — Education Story Ideas, Bills, Manny Ramírez, Poems I Love, Expense Receipts, Letters from Mom and Dad — and she created a place for each, writing the headings onto manila folders that she dropped into hanging files in the double-wide, teak-finish filing cabinet I had bought at Ikea five years earlier, but had never made much use of.

Complete Article

Happy Workers' Productivity Shows Up On The Bottom Line

Via Ventura County Star

By Diane Stafford, McClatchy Newspapers

Does it matter if workers are happy? Only if an organization wants to do well.

One academic study found that managers with average salaries of about $65,000 cost their organizations roughly $75 a week per person in lost productivity if they are “psychologically distressed.”

Multiply that at large businesses, and the financial whammy is big.

Research shows that employee well-being is inextricably tied to higher performance, which is inextricably tied to the bottom line, said Thomas Wright, the Jon Wefald Leadership Chair in business administration at Kansas State University.

Complete Article

Boosting Employee Productivity

Via Business Week

How companies can deploy managers to fight waning employee productivity

By The Staff of the Corporate Executive Board

The magnitude of the economic downturn for mid-sized organizations has been significant. Profits are down, workforces are shrinking, and employee engagement levels are tanking. According to new research by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), there has been a substantial decline in employee engagement, resulting in as much as a 5% reduction in employee productivity.

In a survey of more than 140 organizations, the HR Leadership Council, a CEB program for HR professionals at mid-sized organizations, found that mid-sized companies are undertaking typical cost-cutting measures. However, while most organizations might concur that lay-offs, hiring freezes, and reduction in compensation are the right ways to manage costs in a down economy, they may also be underutilizing the very thing that can successfully combat the waning productivity and disengagement that typically accompanies the state of "survivor syndrome" among remaining employees: the actions and influence of managers.

Maximize Manager Impact While in Cost-Cutting Mode:

#1: Communicate compensation changes through managers, not HR
#2: Task managers with spearheading low-cost reward and recognition programs
#3: Don't hold on to dead wood—trade up on talent
#4: Fight declining productivity with performance management compliance

The Corporate Executive Board (EXBD) drives faster, more effective decision-making among the world's leading executives and business professionals. Powered by a member network that spans over 50 countries and represents more than 80% of the world's Fortune 500 companies, the Corporate Executive Board offers the unique research insights along with an integrated suite of members-only tools and resources that enable the world's most successful organizations to deliver superior business outcomes.

Complete Article

Productivity Madness

Can you imagine if this is happening in America with just one sports tournament and if this is indeed true, what the costs would be if you added costs from Soccer, Rugby, Australian Rules Football, and so on and so forth. The cots are astronomical!!! ... Bob Jacobson

Via Slate

by Jack Shafer

The NCAA Tournament gets under way on Thursday, and it's reportedly luring diligent workers away from their desks to manage office pools and watch their favorite teams—to the great detriment of the U.S. economy. In a 2006 "Press Box," reprinted below, Jack Shafer revealed that speculation about how much the productivity of the U.S. economy suffers during March Madness amounts to nothing more than fuzzy math and hype. Also, in a 2006 "Dismal Science," Jeff Merron explained how those workplace-interruptions calculations are taken out of context.

If you believe what you read in the press, fan devotion to March Madness could cost employers $3.8 billion or more in lost productivity as workers slip away to check NCAA Tournament scores, participate in office pools, read stories about the contests, or avail themselves to CBS' free streaming videocasts of the games on their office computers.

Complete Article

Utah is Most Economically Competitive State in U.S.

Via Workers Independent News

Economic Report:

When it comes to economic competitiveness Utah ranks number one out of all fifty states. In an index created by the American Legislative Exchange Council Colorado, Arizona, Virginia, and South Dakota all join their fellow Western state in the top five. At the bottom are the northeastern states of New Jersey, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont and New York. Utah closed a $1 billion budget gap without raising taxes.

Productivity Should Entail Investing in Tomorrow

via The Kansas City Star

By DIANE STAFFORD

Nancy Hart Kline, counselor at Leawood Middle School, sent letters to 63 companies and professional associations, asking them to participate in an educational career fair at the school.

She heard back with a “yes” from two. One of them was her own Blue Valley School District.

Deborah Goodall, interim president of the Metropolitan Community College-Business & Technology Campus, hoped to have a hundred employers attend a career exploration event at the school.

Fifteen signed up.

It’s not too hard to understand why companies and nonprofits aren’t leaping to send representatives to educational career fairs. These are hard days in many cost-cutting, do-more-with-less businesses. Anything that isn’t revenue-producing or productivity-enhancing isn’t a high priority.

But let’s talk about that productivity part.

“In a global economy, where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity — it is a prerequisite.”

Can you identify the speaker?

That was President Barack Obama prefacing his remarks to Congress on the education component of his stimulus plan.

He didn’t sugarcoat the need for America to do better — far better — in preparing students for the workplace. We are falling behind other countries which “out-teach us today” and will “out-compete us tomorrow,” he said.

From her vantage point in the middle school, Kline is afraid that the business community is missing that point. In her own words:

“This is an opportunity for them to let students know what they want in future workers. One company said they would not come since they are currently not hiring! These are students that will not be in the work force for another six to 10 years, depending on post-secondary schooling. …

“I’m a little discouraged, as I’ve read for years that employers are wanting young people to have a better understanding of both the work ethic and the skills needed to contribute to the work force, but given the opportunity, I’m not seeing much employer follow-through.”

That’s where my point about productivity comes in. Taking three hours out of a busy workday to attend a school career fair may be the most productive thing a business or professional organization can do in the month.

That small amount of time may be what plants the seed to nurture future engineers, gerontologists, teachers or computer programmers.

The president acknowledged that it’s one thing to channel funds, design programs and set policies to “open the doors of opportunity for our children. But it is up to us to ensure they walk through them.”

The doors may be stuck on economic thresholds, but it’s no less crucial to shove them open for workers of tomorrow.

Productivity Up - But Not Enough

Via Radio New Zealand News

New Zealand's productivity record is showing signs of turning around, but experts say more needs to be done to bridge the gap with other countries.

New figures show productivity - a measure of a country's resource utilisation - improved by 0.9% in the year to last March.

The Council of Trade Unions says big improvements are needed to bridge the wage gap with Australia. It says more investment in skills and infrastructure is needed to make workers more productive.

However, the Business Roundtable says New Zealand's investment record has been good. It says businesses need a freer economic environment to recapture the good productivity performance of the 1990s.

Canada Labor Productivity Falls in Q4, 2008

Via Reuters

Reporting by Louise Egan; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio

OTTAWA - The labor productivity of Canadian businesses slid a sharper-than-expected 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, leading to the first annual decline in productivity since 1996, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday.

The gross domestic product of the business sector shrank 1.3 percent in the quarter while the number of hours worked dipped just 0.8 percent, Statscan said.

"Wholesale trade, manufacturing and finance, insurance and real estate accounted for much of the decline," Statscan said in a report.

Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a 0.2 percent decline in the quarter. Productivity rose 0.1 percent in the third quarter, according to Statscan's revised figures.

In all of 2008, Canadian productivity fell 1.1 percent, the first annual decline since 1996.

The performance compares unfavorably to that of the United States, where productivity fell 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter and grew 2.7 percent in the year.

Complete Article

Labour Productivity

Via The Economist



Growth in global productivity, measured as output per person in work, fell to 2.2% in 2008, according to the Conference Board, a business-research firm. It expects labour-productivity growth to drop to just 1.4% this year. The most dramatic declines are likely to be in rich countries. Labour productivity is expected to stagnate in America, following growth of 1.6% last year. Productivity in Japan is set to decline by 1.8%. It is likely to fall in “old Europe” (the EU excluding its newest members) as well. The outlook for the biggest emerging economies is more encouraging. Chinese labour productivity is expected to rise to 9.1% in 2009, up from 7.7% last year. Brazil’s productivity growth is forecast to pick up to 4.4%.

Complete Article

The Secret for People Who Don't Believe in VooDoo

THE UN-COMFORT ZONE with Robert Wilson

The latest fad in motivation is the Law of Attraction or more popularly The Secret after the motion picture and book by Rhonda Byrne. The idea being that if you use the power of The Secret you will attract health, wealth and friends to you in abundance.

The Secret takes an old idea and repackages it for our today’s society. The core idea is that your thoughts control the world around you. If you have positive thoughts, good things come your way. If you have negative thoughts then bad things come your way. In other words, if you wish hard enough for the things you want -- you will get them. Simple. Or is it? If it were simple, then countless people throughout history would have figured it out over and over, and it would not be much of a secret. Perhaps it takes a little more effort than suggested – or perhaps it is just a pipe dream.

We, as modern educated people, need more proof. In order to make it palatable to the skeptic in us, The Secret adds an element of science. We are told that quantum physics has identified that all things at the sub-atomic level exist as both particles and as waves – constantly shifting between being solid matter and being pure energy. It is then proposed that our thoughts create brain waves which in turn influence the sub-atomic waves of the entire universe. The Secret claims that the more intent you are in your wish the faster the universe will act upon it. Is it real, or is it VooDoo.science?

If real, it sounds wonderful! Now, if I understand correctly, if I wish real hard I can become a concert pianist and play to a sold out audience in Carnegie Hall? I only see one hitch: I’ve never had a piano lesson in my life.

The Secret also presents the Law of Attraction as if it had been intentionally kept hidden for centuries. That it was suppressed and held by a few conspirators so that they could control all the wealth of the world. Unfortunately, that notion is nothing other than a marketing ploy to generate interest in the book. It also contradicts the concept of Law of Attraction. The idea that a select group of people have kept it away from the masses intentionally preys on the destructively negative emotion of envy.

To the contrary, people who have understood the Law of Attraction have made numerous attempts at sharing it with the world at large. The best example is Andrew Carnegie, who was one of the most successful so-called “Robber Barons” of the Industrial Age. Carnegie hired Napoleon Hill to research the most successful people in the world, how they got that way, and then record his findings in a book. The book is Think and Grow Rich and was published in 1937.

The best thing about Think and Grow Rich is that it takes the mysticism out of the Law of Attraction. So, for those of you who find wishing on a star a bit difficult to swallow as a method for acquiring wealth, here is the real secret:

Identify your goal. Make a written plan to acquire that goal. Work your plan persistently. Give it your time, attention and energy. The more time and effort you give, the quicker you will achieve it. Visualize it coming to fruition. Draw it, illustrate it, photograph it, then keep it in front of you. Revise your plan as your knowledge grows. Be open-minded to opportunities that arise that may deviate from your plan, but still move you toward your goal.

The world’s most successful people were extremely focused on achieving one goal. They focused to the exclusion of everything else including family, friends, lovers, recreation, entertainment, vacations and hobbies.

Next, tell everyone you know about your goal. Spread the word, so that people who can assist you are aware of your intentions. I truly believe that positive minded people attract more opportunities to themselves because they are so pleasant to deal with.

The formula is simple, but most of us compromise our goals because we want to enjoy a full balanced life. A life filled with friends, family and good times. We focus on our goals when time allows, and in turn, our goals take much longer to achieve. The true secret is staying focused on your goal.

Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. is a motivational speaker and humorist. He works with companies that want to be more competitive and with people who want to think like innovators. For more information on Robert's programs please visit www.jumpstartyourmeeting.com.

German Factory Orders Plummeted in January

Via The Wall Street Journal

By ANDREA THOMAS

BERLIN -- German manufacturing orders fell for the fifth straight month in January as demand crumbled, especially in countries outside the euro zone, data released by the economics ministry showed.

Orders dropped a seasonally adjusted 8% from December, turning the slump, which began in September, into "the deepest five-month fall since Germany's reunification," a ministry spokeswoman said.

Compared with a year earlier, orders were down 37.9% in January, following a downwardly revised annual drop of 28.2% in December. "That was the biggest annual drop since 1991," the ministry spokeswoman said, referring to the January data. Germany started compiling joint data in 1991 following the reunification of the country.

The data bode ill for industrial production in coming months, with the ministry saying the outlook "remains very depressed."

Analysts echoed the warning. "These data are truly terrible. They imply continued sharp falls in output," said Dominic Bryant, economist with BNP Paribas. "Even before today's release, output was likely to fall for the next two or three months. Now those falls will probably be sharper and extend further into 2009."

Alexander Koch, economist with UniCredit Research, called the short-term outlook for Europe biggest economy "absolutely ugly."

German manufacturing orders have been falling since December 2007, with the exception of a rise in August, according to the economic ministry. In December, orders fell a downwardly revised 7.6%, compared with a previously reported 6.9% decrease. January's manufacturing-order data would have been even worse if they hadn't been boosted by an unusually high level of big-ticket orders.

Foreign orders in January dropped 11.4%, while domestic orders fell 4.3% from December, the ministry said. Orders from countries that share the euro currency fell just 1.2%, while demand from states outside the euro zone plummeted 18.2% on the month.

Orders for investment goods showed the strongest decline, down 9.1% from December as orders from countries outside the euro zone tumbled by 24.1% on the month, while demand from euro-zone countries was up 7.8%.

The German economy fell into recession in the fourth quarter, contracting 2.1% from the previous quarter. The economy will shrink at least 3% in 2009, the Bundesbank warned Tuesday.

Balancing Productivity With Quality

Via Multichannel Merchant

by Kathryn E. Jackson Ph.D.

Many people speak of quality measurement and excellence in the contact center. But few attack the topic of productivity measurement. Even fewer people want to discuss how to measure an agent’s productivity. I’ll admit, it can be a dangerous road to travel – a road full of potholes. But maneuvering this road with excellence is simply a matter of balance and optimization.

I’ve heard agents say, “If you want me to provide higher quality, I’ll have to talk longer with my customers.” But did you know that quality does not necessarily get any better with longer talk time? In all of our research, we’ve never been able to prove any significant correlation between talk time and quality.

Complete Article

Boosting Productivity and Reducing Costs In Tough Economic Times

Via Industry Week

By Gregg Gordon

Unprecedented economic challenges are driving manufacturers to find new ways to cut costs and boost productivity. Many have already taken steps to identify inefficiencies and improve supply chain, design and production processes. Unfortunately these changes are not always enough.

Because labor often represents a manufacturer's most significant controllable expense, a big opportunity for reducing operating costs and increasing productivity lies in more effective workforce management that help achieve quick bottom-line results.

The following six tips offer ways to manage your workforce more effectively for higher productivity and lower costs -- even in these tough economic times.

1. Put Systematic Controls in Place to Ensure Fair, Accurate Employee Pay

Without sufficient timekeeping controls, you may be paying your workers too much -- or too little. Overpayment eats into profits and underpayment puts you at risk for legal penalties, union grievances and employee dissatisfaction. Manual timekeeping processes require managers to remember complex pay rules -- overtime, government regulations, union agreements, and more -- an approach that too often results in payroll errors.

An advanced time and attendance system eliminates costly guesswork by capturing company, union, and regulatory rules up front and automatically applies the rule for consistently accurate pay calculations.

Complete Article

How Will AG find New Productivity Gains?

Via FARMONLINE

by Matt Cawood

It was hard to find a speaker at Outlook 2009 who didn’t mention productivity.

Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke opened the batting, observing that productivity improvements will be a crucial factor in agriculture's response to the three great global crises: the financial meltdown, food shortages and climate change.

ABARE director Philip Glyde agreed, arguing for more effective research and development supporting a more efficient farming sector.

They didn't get any argument from graingrower David Brownhill, who with his brother Gordon and their families, farms 4700 hectares across five properties on the Liverpool Plains of northern NSW.

At an Outlook session, Mr. Brownhill outlined an approach to productivity that didn't aim for a single big hit, but the cumulative effect of many small gains.

"We've tried to take the best ideas we've seen and incorporate them into a family farming business," Mr. Brownhill said.

Complete Article

Europe Signals Steeper Slump

Via The Wall Street Journal

by Ilona Billington & Emese Bartha

Europe’s three biggest economies started the year with early signs of a steepening slump.

Industrial production crumbled during the first month of the year in France and the U.K. But many economists focused on the sharp drop in Germany’s exports as spelling trouble for the region’s biggest economy.

With Europe’s big manufacturers and exporters starting the year badly, hopes that receding economies will find a bottom are being pushed back to the summer at the earliest.

The services sector is faring little better, with a February survey released last week hitting a new low as firms across the currency bloc slashed more jobs than at any time in the survey’s 12-year history.

The European Central Bank, which expects a 2.75% fall in gross domestic product in the 16 countries sharing the euro currency this year, already is signaling another cut in interest rates to rekindle demand.

Complete Article

Team Up to Improve Team Productivity

by Holly McCarthy

I love to play racquetball, and if I’m allowed to blow my own trumpet a little, I’m pretty good at it. But I don’t know how I would perform in a team sport, because it’s a different ball game altogether – if even one member does not pull their weight, it’s a losing proposition. It’s easy to improve productivity in an individual, but when it comes to a team, it demands a more cohesive effort. It’s not enough if just a few people are efficient; what matters is the output of the entire team. Here’s how you can improve your team’s productivity when you find it flagging:

> Root out the weeds: When I say weeds, I’m referring to those people who are a part of your garden, but who don’t contribute in any way to its usefulness. In fact, they’re more of a hindrance by just their presence. Most teams have at least one member like this; they’re usually ignored and the rest of the team makes up for their unproductiveness by doing a little extra. But when the cumulative burden gets too much to bear, the stress starts to show, and there’s friction within the team. This leads to a decrease in productivity. It may be hard to remove members who don’t perform, but when it’s in the larger interest of the team, that’s exactly what needs to be done.

> Less talk, more action: I know meetings are a part of every organization’s daily schedules, but don’t call meetings just for the sake of them. There’s more to be gained in actually getting down doing the project rather than just talking about it. Lay more emphasis on the act rather than how you’re going to do it.

> Outline responsibilities: Make sure that each member of the team knows what’s expected of them and that they’re aware of their responsibilities. They may be part of a team, but they have their own tasks to do. This makes it difficult to pass the buck when something does go wrong.

> Don’t micromanage: The best way to kill productivity is to peer over someone’s shoulders when they’re working. So don’t supervise and inspect every tiny detail of your team’s work and make the feel jittery and uncomfortable when you’re around. Let them work the way they’re used to, and as long as you get the desired results in the desired time, that’s all you need to concern yourself with.

> Encourage creativity: You may have tried and tested methods to complete certain tasks, but if a team member comes up with an innovative idea that takes care of the same in less time and more easily, don’t dismiss it without a second thought. Innovation is the lifeblood of an organization, and the more you stimulate an employee’s creativity, the more you gain for your company. Your employees are motivated to think differently and provide new ideas to enhance productivity.

This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject at http://www.matchacollege.com/ She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12@gmail.com

Recessions Are Self-Correcting

Via Forbes

by John Tamny

Banking giant JPMorgan Chase announced Feb. 23 that it would be cutting its quarterly dividend by 87% to a nickel per share. At face level, this sounds bad, but the savings will speed the process by which it repays TARP funds in order to avoid problematic government oversight; plus, the extra capital cushion puts the firm in a better position to make acquisitions of flagging competitors, should difficulties in the banking sector drag on.

The JPMorgan example is important for reminding us that both individuals and companies frequently respond to economic difficulty in ways that ensure recessions are short-lived. To put it simply, when left alone, recessions tend to correct themselves.

Broken down to the individual, there's a fear factor that is part and parcel of downturns. First off, whether employed or unemployed, we save more and our savings very often flow, through bank lending, to capital-starved businesses eager to grow. There are no profits without saving first, and recessions induce us to save.

Complete Article

U.S. Productivity Plummets, Mortgage Defaults Up

Via REUTERS

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. business productivity plunged at the end of last year despite massive job cuts, which show little sign of abating as the 14-month recession deepens, data showed on Thursday.

With job losses mounting, households came under increased pressure and one in eight homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments or slipped into foreclosure as the year drew to a close.

While the Labor Department said new claims for jobless benefits fell last week, they remained at levels consistent with a severe recession.

"The economy and the job markets are still in a free fall. Things will get better eventually in the second half of the year, but in the first half they will get much worse," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington Massachusetts.

The weak data, coupled with a warning of a potential bankruptcy at General Motors (GM.N), hammered U.S. stocks. The Nasdaq .IXIC ended down 54.15 points at 1,299.59, a six-year low. Government bond prices and the U.S. dollar rallied as investors dumped risky assets in search of a safe-haven.

Complete Article

Productivity Shrinking

Via The Chosun Ilbo

Korea's productivity grew more slowly in the 2000s. The Knowledge Economy Ministry and the Korea Productivity Center on Thursday said analysis of the productivity increase rates of major countries between 1981 and 2005 shows that Korea's total factor productivity increased by 0.12 percent between 2001 and 2005. That is a mere third of 0.39 percent in 1981-2000.

Total factor productivity is an index that accounts for effects in total per unit output as a result of all factors being used, such as capital, labor, energy, raw materials and services.

In the same period, the U.S. saw its productivity increase from 0.26 percent to 0.95 percent, while Japan saw almost no change from 0.27 percent to 0.25 percent. That means the Korean economy has grown not so much through increased productivity but chiefly through increased input of production factors such as capital, labor and energy.

A KPC official said, "We have to change growth structure by improving the quality of labor force, using capital efficiently, and enhancing quality of raw materials."

Complete Article

An Empty In-Box, or With Just A Few E-Mail Messages? Read On

Via The New York Times

By FARHAD MANJOO

SINCE e-mail became a fixture in our professional and personal lives, many academic researchers have investigated the complex mix of feelings brought on by the technology.

We feel guilty about being late in responding, about our in-boxes being disorganized, about the tens of thousands of unread messages that we’re sure we’ll never get to. What is it about e-mail that consumes us — that invades every corner of our personal space, demands ever more sophisticated methods of organization, and makes us wish for extra hours in the day to deal with the deluge? More important, how can we overcome it?

In the last few weeks, I set about finding a cure for e-mail anxiety. It was not the first time I’d done so; I’ve been looking for better ways to handle my mail since shortly after logging in to my first in-box.

Complete Article

How to Use Effective Time Management To Increase Productivity

Via The Complete Lawyer

By Diane Costigan

With the downturn in the economy, many lawyers have some extra time on their hands. What a perfect opportunity to work on establishing stellar time management practices that will help increase productivity when it is back to business as usual.

Although the suggestions in this article are simple, they are not always easy to implement. In fact, many are challenging because they often require a change in mindset—or even more difficult, a change in behavior.

When it comes to effective time management, you need to plan, plan and then plan some more. Not planning your time is like going food shopping without a list—you end up wasting time and money by buying things you do not need and forgetting things that you do.

Work As You Shop

Super-organized shoppers create a strategy that minimizes their time while maximizing their output. Based on previous experience and exact knowledge of what they need, they sort their coupons, know the best times to shop, and can locate the items on their list. By bringing a laser-like focus to their task, they’re in and out of the store in record time. Their approach is similar to that of a heat-seeking missile—they are unstoppable in zoning in on their target.

The same strategizing can be done with respect to our day-to-day lives. How? By becoming an “efficiency expert” in training. The operative word here is “training”—an ongoing process of committing to be more efficient with your time. This can be difficult since it requires a generous helping of the “D” word—discipline.

Complete Article

Snow Job: How Much Does A Snow Day Cost?

Via Daily Finance

by Bruce Watson

As millions of Americans stay home from work today, analysts are already trying to calculate the overall economic cost of a few inches of snow. The trouble is, even the most apparently straightforward calculations use assumptions that can be hard to justify.

The most common method for calculating the economic cost of snow day is to divide the predicted productivity of that day by the number of workers who will be unproductive. However, while this appears pretty simple, there are numerous immeasurable factors that render even the best calculations laughably inaccurate. In the end, the best that one can do is take a good look at the variables involved and sigh meaningfully while imagining the economy taking yet another hit.

In the United States, when analysts talk about the cost of a snow day, the conversation usually starts with the price of snow removal. Unfortunately, even that relatively straightforward calculation is fraught with peril.

Complete Article

Sign of the Times

IF ONLY ALL COMPANIES AROUND THE WORLD WERE AS FAR THINKING AS THIS ONE, PERHAPS WE WOULD NOT BE IN THE FISCAL CRISIS WE ARE AROUND THE WORLD.
Bob Jacobson, APS Chairman