The Case for Finally Cleaning Your Desk
The physical environment of the workplace has a significant effect on the way that we work. When our space is a mess, so are we.
^ADJ: I am a great believer in this, so much so, that I was going to only have this one article in this edition of Partner Update to make a point!
How your office job is affecting your metabolism
Scientists have discovered a remarkable method for making your body immune to the metabolic benefits of exercise: It’s called working an office job. The idea that long bouts of uninterrupted sitting might be bad for your health has gotten lots of attention over the past decade. The reason may seem obvious: If you’re sitting all the time, you’re not exercising. But emerging evidence suggests that there’s a deeper connection between sedentary time and lack of exercise, with the combination of both worse than either one on its own. In a new study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers at the University of Texas show that four days of prolonged sitting induces a state that they call “exercise resistance.”
What Makes Some People More Productive Than Others...
Would you rate yourself as highly productive?
We’ve learned a lot about personal productivity and what makes some people more productive than others. Last year we published a survey to help professionals assess their own personal productivity — defined as the habits closely associated with accomplishing more each day. The survey focused on seven habits: developing daily routines, planning your schedule, coping with messages, getting a lot done, running effective meetings, honing communication skills, and delegating tasks to others.
Rethinking the Rule of Two
Anyone who has ever done a home renovation, built a restaurant, an office, or managed any construction project from scratch is likely familiar with the Rule of Two. “Cost, speed, and quality,” say the architects and contractors: “Pick any two.”
What will the world of work look like in 2035?
Most of us have heard the stories: the Oxford University study that claims that 35% of jobs will be lost to automation, or the wild-eyed hyper-utopians who claim that a new era of bio-communism will inexorably emerge from the age of machine learning. Such visions, at times, alarm and may even excite. But they are shallow visions; invariably either focussed through the narrow lens of job losses to automation, or else speculating wildly based on precious little evidence, they offer little that is useful to the debate on the human and cultural phenomenon that is the future of work.
Technology: From Copycats to Innovators
In 1787, in his capacity as secretary of the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts, [Tench] Coxe had provided support for a British emigrant, Andrew Mitchell, to return to Britain and pirate textile technology [then one of the world’s preeminent industries], a scheme that failed when Mitchell was discovered and forced to flee to Copenhagen ...