Ep 12 - Is Slack Ruining Your Teams Productivity - Workology

Ep 12 - Is Slack Ruining Your Team’s Productivity - Workology Ep 12 Is Slack Ruining Your Team’s Productivity? Welcome to the new Workology Go Podcast. In just under five minutes, we get you the HR and workplace news you need before you start your day. Get ready, get set and go with the Workology Go Podcast. Here are today’s HR and workplace news headlines from Workology Go Podcast. I’m Jessica Miller-Merrell. The Workology Go Podcast is sponsored by HSA Bank. Ep 12 Is Slack Ruining Your Team’s Productivity? I’ve been really focused on how to squeeze more out of my work day, and I will say that I have tried so many different online tools and to do lists that are supposed to help me get more things done. I had a client I worked with last year that really overwhelmed me. We used no less than 5 different project management, communications, and productivity tools all at the same time including Facebook at Work, Slack, Asana, Google Drive, Zoom, and email. At the time, I was also using several productivity tools on my own, and I was going insane. As I was wrapping up with this client who uses all the things, I talked with productivity expert, Maura Nevel Thomas who had this to say. It is a huge problem and I see attention management as I mean its sort of self-explanatory right. We understand we understand what the two words mean together managing your attention but really what specifically is it. And to me its really a collection of behaviors. Its   not just one thing. Its a little attention management is   sort of the same concept as healthy living right. There are a whole bunch of things that go into healthy living and some days you do some of them but not all of them and some days youre really good at it. Other days you sort of really bad at it but you try. Its a focus. You decide that you know what I really want to be healthy I want to do things that are good for me. And so you make it a focus and so you try every day and some days youre good and other days youre not so good and I see attention management as the same thing. Its sort of a collection of behaviors things like focusing and building up your ability to focus and the ability to effectively manage your distractions controlling your environment and controlling your technology. Its the ability to be present in your moments to engage your flow to get so engrossed in something. The time just passes in your highest and best self comes out. All of these things give you the ability to sort of unleash your full brainpower   on your own life youre your full consideration your attention your full presence you know all of the results. If if its a personal thing or if its a professional thing its all of the benefits of your wisdom skill and abilities to bear on the issue at hand instead of this sort of half way Im sort of listening. Kind of. But I have so much else going on right now and oh look theres an email that came in and Im sorry what did you say and you know its its funny I. Theres a part in my trainings where I talk about Okay Im gonna Im gonna show you this thing and I want you to I want you to answer these two questions. So the first question is X and the second question is X you ready. Here we go. And I and I show them this image for three seconds and then I say now what do you think and they go what were the questions again. This is sort of how we appr oach our lives. And its really just diminishing the quality of our lives. Today’s featured story comes from Vox and is titled, The Productivity Pit: How Slack is Ruining Work. The article mentions that the average worker spends an estimated 28 percent of the workweek managing email and nearly 20 percent looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues who can help with specific tasks, but when you add in a whole host of platforms as I mentioned above, it’s hard to juggle which ones you should be connecting on not to mention the feeling that you need to always be on as well as cross-posting the same message or information on multiple platforms. While I’m no longer working with this particular client any longer, I’ve also paired down intentionally the productivity tools that I use. My team and I now rely on Slack and email as our mail communication. I have scheduled weekly meetings to touch base and I have committed to using a daily paper planner called a Panda Planner to help create a process and system to keep me more organized. The crazy thing is that it’s working. I’m feeling less stressed and seeing things more clearly because I’m creating boundaries in my personal and professional life. What is Workology Go Podcast? And that’s this episode of the Workology Go Podcast. We’re your go to for HR and workplace news.  To learn more about the Workology Go Podcast, subscribe to us on Apple, Google, and Stitcher. Our podcast is also available on Alexa and Google Home. Learn more at workology.com/gopodcast and access this episodes resources, links and reports for more information. Featured Story The Productivity Pit: How Slack is Ruining Work More Great Resource Everything You Need to Know About Slack IPO Ep 152 â€" The Bigger Strategy Behind Workplace Productivity Finding Inspiration: 19 Affirmations for HR and Workplace Leaders How to Subscribe to the Workology Podcast Stitcher |  PocketCast |  iTunes |  Podcast RSS |  Google Play |  YouTube |  TuneIn You can also click here to find out how to be a guest on the Workology Podcast(s).