Unplugging for productivity

Stepcase lifehack has a nice story on how to avoid the continuous electronic distractions: unplug your online life. The idea is generally to step away from the computer and stick to pen-and-paper tools. I don't go to those extremes, but here are some favorites of mine for increasing productivity when working morale is low:

• close your e-mail program
• close the office door
• close all applications you are not using on your computer
• do one thing offline: keep an offline to-do list and check each task when its done
• drink high-quality coffee while working
• do not use the computer mouse - the keyboard keeps your attention at work

Try it out the next time you are noticing that your are sliding away from where focus should be; it helps for me at least!

Time tracking - a surveillance tool?

Time tracking software can be quite useful, but it can also be very invasive. This blog hails it as a productivity increaser: http://blog.cyclope-series.com/2009/05/how-to-use-employee-time-tracking-to-create-a-plan-for-productivity/trackback/. I am not sure that using time tracking to track employees non-work-related activities at work is actually a good thing - I am very sceptical to surveillance. This is not a very good way of using a time tracker.

A good time tracker is a very simple app. It should be manual, and each employee should manually enter time spent on each task. And then, talking to the new intern for an hour by the coffee machine is still OK. It really is. For "manual" time tracking software, take a look at portablecommandline.blogspot.com .