As many of you know, a favorite topic of mine is the price that the business world -- and society in general -- is paying to keep up with the participatory economy. Web Worker Daily points to a survey on employee work habits.
This survey puts numbers on what you probably already know: though we think of the web as a massive productivity enhancer, for some people it’s also a great time sink. This can leave some web workers caught in a contradiction: if you invest effort in the perfect system for getting things done and saving time, only to use up that time again in endless tours of blogs and chats and social sites, have you really gained anything?
There's a personal price, too: depleted energy. Businesses would be smart to find ways that leverage 2.0 tools for productivity while guarding against the professional and personal perils of time-sucking activities. Based on my observations of current work environments, I believe that the best place to start is with role definition. There are too many knowledge workers who feel that they need to cover the waterfront of general domain expertise. Focus is both liberating and effective. Of course, that's easier said than done. As a society, we need to make a commitment to each other to get offline, and get offline more often.
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