The document discusses ways to improve work efficiency. It explains that multitasking reduces focus and productivity and increases stress. It recommends taking predictable time off from technology to disconnect and setting boundaries. Exercising, getting enough sleep, writing by hand, and volunteering are presented as ways to boost efficiency by reducing stress and increasing mental and physical well-being.

1. Improving Your
Efficiency
Bob Baylor
Associate Dean
Cincinnati State

2. Improving Your Efficiency
 What is Efficiency?

3. Engineering
 Theratio of output to input. Efficiency is
usually expressed as a percent.

4. Business
 Thecomparison of what is actually
produced or performed with what can be
achieved with the same consumption of
resources (money, time, labor, etc.). It is
an important factor in determination of
productivity.

5. Aerodynamics

6. Is this efficient?

7. Is this efficient?

8. Multitasking
 Loss of Focus
 Loss of Productivity
 Increase Stress

9. Loss of Focus
 According to the study of David Meyer, a
psychologist at the University of Michigan
founded that, constantly switching task
makes difficult for brain to concentrate.
As a result of loss of focus and
attention, tasks are less efficiently
performed.

10. Loss of Productivity
 Researchers at the University of Michigan
found a process called executive
control, which the brain uses to switch
between tasks but due to constant
switching and loss of focus, the brain loses
speed and accuracy to do the task.

11. Increase Stress
 Multitasking can lead to high workload
and increase your stress levels, inviting
host of health issues.
 Our body release hormone called Cortisol
during stress.
 Increased cortisol results in high blood
pressure, sleep problems, weakening of
immune system, imbalances in blood
sugar levels etc.

12. The Enablers

13. Social Media
 The spread of social media in the workplace is
occurring faster than any rules designed to
manage it.
 Mixing personal and professional connections
through social media can cause problems in
the workplace.
 The use of Twitter and other social networking
sites is costing UK firms £1.38 billion
(approximately 2.25 billion dollars) every year.
Source: Mashable.com

14. Smartphones
 Allowsemails to be received even during
vacations
 Creates a condition of always being “on”
 Work day is lengthened to the point of
never ending
 Expectation of a speedy response

15. Email
 The central communications channel for
all modern organizations
 Is it dysfunctional?
 Email distracts employees from doing
“real” work
 Generates guilt feelings if they go
unanswered

16. What is causing this?
Leslie Perlow, PhD, Harvard Business School

17. Cycle of Responsiveness
 Leslie Perlow, Harvard professor coined
the term referring to professionals who
felt, “the pressure to be on”
 COR began when workers adjusted daily
schedules to meet requests from clients or
teammates in different time zones

18. Cycle of Responsiveness
 Once colleagues experience this
increased responsiveness, their own
requests expand
 Most just accept these additional
demands (whether urgent or not)
 Those who don’t risk being branded as
less committed to their work

19. Predictable Time Off (PTO)
 Disconnect from technology for a few
predetermined hours every week
 They felt more motivated
 Increased job satisfaction
 More satisfied with their work-life balance

20. Predictable Time Off (PTO)
 They reported becoming more;
 Efficient
 Effective
 Collaborative as a team

21. What can you do?
 Stop the dysfunctionality of “always-on”
 It can be tamed by collective action

22. But what if I can’t?

23. The Basics
 Get more sleep
 Exercise
 Keep a notebook in longhand
 Volunteer

24. Sleep!

25. Get More Sleep!
 In 2001, the National Sleep Foundation
(NSF) found the majority (63%) don’t get
enough sleep
 Many adults say they now spend more
time at work and less time sleeping (40%
vs. 38%)

26. National Commission on Sleep
Disorders
 Decreased productivity and accidents in
the workplace cost the nation $150 billion
a year.
 Rotating shifts and sleep deprivation lead
to mistakes, dips in attention, delayed
reactions, accidents in the
workplace, crashes on the
roadways, reduced productivity and 2
difficulties in communication

27. National Commission on Sleep
Disorders
 In addition to numerous health problems
there is a substantial cost to the economy
in terms of decreased efficiency and
productivity

28. Exercise!

29. Exercise!
 Improved physical health reduces the risk
of work-related injury
 Reduce feelings of anxiety and
depression
 Reduce the likelihood of certain types of
disease and illnesses

30. Writing increases neural
activity

31. Writing by hand can get ideas
out faster

32. Writing by hand can get ideas
out faster
 University of Wisconsin psychologist Virginia
Berninger tested students in grades 2, 4, and
6, and found that they not only wrote faster
by hand than by keyboard — but also
generated more ideas when composing
essays in longhand.
 In other research, Berninger shows that the
sequential finger movements required to write
by hand activate brain regions involved with
thought, language, and short-term memory.

33. Writing increases neural
activity
 A recent Indiana University study had one
group of children practice printing letters by
hand while a second group just looked at
examples of A's, B's, and C's.
 Then, both groups of kids entered a functional
MRI (disguised as a "spaceship") that scanned
their brains as the researchers showed them
letters. The neural activity in the first group was
far more advanced and "adult-like,"
researchers found.

34. Volunteer!

35. Volunteer!
 Improves performance
 Increases job satisfaction, attitude and
morale
 Encourages teamwork
 Promotes leadership and skill
development
 Improves communication between
employees and their supervisors, and
across departments

36. Volunteer!
 According to the eighth annual Deloitte
Volunteer IMPACT Survey, millennials who
frequently participate in workplace
volunteer activities are more likely to be
proud, loyal and satisfied employees, as
compared to those who rarely or never
volunteer.

37. Sources
 http://theweek.com/article/index/207846/how-writing-by-hand-makes-
kids-smarter
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/20/smartphone-
email-switch-off-productivity
 http://mashable.com/2009/10/26/social-media-productivity-cost/
 “The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Individual Productivity”, Sephra L.
Snyder, Marshall University Huntington, West Virginia May 2003
 http://www.livestrong.com/article/422836-how-does-exercise-improve-
work-productivity/
 http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-
UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_2011DeloitteVolunteerIMPA
CTSurvey_ExecutiveSummary_060311.pdf

38. Contact information
Bob Baylor
Cincinnati State
Health & Public Safety Division
3520 Central Parkway
Cincinnati, OH 45223
Tel: 513-569-4782
Email: robert.baylor@cincinnatistate.edu