Improvement in productivity--Dieting perspective

Recently, I participated in a certain event. It's hard to keep the audience awake when you are doing a seminar right after lunch.

Let's put this in the office situation. We all become sleepy after lunch. We need to fight the urge to fall asleep. There is a big problem in this. It's that the productivity instantly drops when you are sleepy. Let's say that you are dozing off for 30 minutes. When your working hour is 8 hours, the actual time spent working becomes 7 hours and 30 minutes. When you are working 22 days a month, it's 30 min x 22 = 11 hours. You lost 11 hours of productivity. If there are 10 staff, 100 hours is lost. It's hard to ignore this as a management.

Before suggesting how not to become sleepy during the day, let's think about how humans feel sleepy. It's because of rapid increase in blood sugar level. When the blood sugar level rapidly increases, humans feel sleepy.

That is, in order for us not to get sleepy, we need to eat food that does not rapidly increase blood sugar level for lunch. Let's avoid rice bowls. Ramen is also not a good choice. Stop eating food with high carbohydrate. Eat vegetables first, suppress blood sugar level from increasing and then eat meat. By doing so, we won't get sleepy after lunch (if you're still sleepy, it's possible to get rid of sleepiness by daringly sleeping with your head down on the desk for 15 minutes).

To improve productivity, we often think of using various tools. However, it is possible to improve productivity just by changing the content of (the order of) your diet.

www.機械翻訳.com

Above is translation of an article "食事から見る生産性向上" dated December 01, 2017
Translation by Hiroko Matsuda

What if you find out that smokers have high productivity?

Smokers tend to receive harsh treatment. They claim that smokers take a smoke break about once every hour even if the company doesn't approve. Considering that they take 10 min break every hour, this amounts to 60 extra minutes per day. Non-smokers will say "unacceptable!" (I am a non-smoker myself).

However, considering productivity, actually, smokers may sometimes have higher efficiency. That is, smokers are taking a 10 minute-break in an hour, so their minds are clear after the break. Reading any books on productivity will say taking about 10 minute-break in an hour will improve productivity. Taking breaks this frequent will cause less load on the back, so it may be good for postures as well.

Non-smokers who don't take any breaks besides lunch break will accumulate fatigue, leading to lower productivity instead.

Instructing smokers to actively take smoking breaks once every hour may lead to increased productivity in the company as a whole.

www.機械翻訳.com

Above is translation of an article "喫煙者の方が生産効率が高いと知ったら？" dated December 14, 2017
Translation by Hiroko Matsuda

The chatroom is down

The business chatroom that I was experimentally using among some staff has been down since this morning. This can't be helped. There's no way to communicate without the chatroom so this is not a pleasant situation. This was a trial use, so there's no serious problem. I'll just wait patiently.

If the chatroom is down, we can always use emails.
Worst comes to worst, we can make phone calls.



Above is translation of an article "チャットが落ちてしまった・・・。" dated November 1, 2017
Translation by Hiroko Matsuda

The cause of slowing your job down: E-mail

The other day, a friend of mine who is the head of human resources came to Osaka to participate in a seminar about "remote work" held in Osaka. I had lunch with him after the seminar. His company is listed on the Japanese stock exchange (to make my point that the company has lots of employee). Apparently, he receives about 200 to 300 emails in one day. He said it has gotten better now that his workers process them to a certain level.

From what I hear, it seems that the number of emails pile up with so many unnecessary CCs being attached. There's CC attached on emails that just say "okay". It seems that most people tend to attach unnecessary CCs to disperse responsibility.

I suggested discontinuing emails and using chat rooms instead. He is thinking about implementing telecommute system as well, so using chat rooms would be easier. On top of that, you can almost completely prevent virus problems and reduce unnecessary emails, which would lead to work efficiency.

In his company, they're only starting to consider remote work. It's a big company, so it seems that maintaining balance is the issue. Employees tend to complain by saying "why them and not me?". Everyone would agree that women with small children and staff who takes care of their parents would be the first to be accepted.

We understand a lot about remote work. Productivity would increase and the job separation rate would decrease. However, self-management skill is required. It's not fit for everyone.

Something that a small business can do might not be possible in a big company. Indeed, the bigger the scale is, the harder it is to implement new ideas.

Above is translation of an article "仕事を中断させる原因：メール" dated November 18, 2017
Translation by Hiroko Matsuda