Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Email addiction

Are you addicted to email? How much time do you spend checking your inbox? I was fascinated by this report from Media Post on that very subject. Some people are addicted to love, but most of us are addicted to e-mail. According to a new survey conducted by America Online, the average e-mail user checks e-mail nearly five times a day. Yes, that's right. AOL's E-mail Addiction survey examines our e-mail behavior and frankly, it's a little obsessive. The survey found that e-mail users rely on e-mail as much as the phone for communication, spend nearly an hour a day on e-mail, and that 77 percent of e-mail users have more than one mail account. Here are a few of the survey's more interesting findings: --Forty-one percent of e-mail users check e-mail first thing in the morning, before they've brushed their teeth or trudged to the kitchen to make coffee. --Forty percent of e-mail users report checking their e-mail in the middle of the night. (Downright obsessive, yes?) --More than one in four (26 percent) of e-mail users say they haven't gone more than two to three days without checking their e-mail. --Most e-mail users have two or three e-mail accounts (56 percent). The average user has 2.8 accounts. --E-mail users check for mail anywhere: In bed in their pajamas (23 percent); in school (12 percent); in business meetings (8 percent); at Wi-Fi hotspots, like Starbuck's or McDonald's (6 percent); at the beach or pool (6 percent); in the bathroom (4 percent); while driving (4 percent); and in church (1 percent). "Last time I checked God didn't have a Blackberry," says Chamath Palihapitiya, general manager and vice president for AOL's AIM. The survey results, he says, speak "to the fact that e-mail has become such a fundamental way that people communicate. People thought that e-mail was just a business behavior, but it is a social and commonplace behavior." Palihapitiya says it's the first time AOL has conducted a survey of this kind, probing the actual behaviors and habits of e-mail users. AOL recently launched its e-mail service Web-wide. "One of the things we took away from this is that people need accessibility everywhere. They may be at home, at a friend's house, at the office, in the street... one of the things we did with our e-mail product is we made sure it was accessible all over the Web," Palihapitiya says, adding "But just as important, we make sure that it works with your work e-mail. We allow you to use Outlook to get your AIM mail." That's important because the survey finds that 61 percent of all e-mail users check their personal e-mail at work at least three times a day. By syncing with Outlook, AOL mail becomes part of a user's normal work e-mail application. AOL plans to offer mobile e-mail access via Blackberry, mobile phones, and other handheld devices by the fall. AOL says its mail service supports advertising in the body of e-mails. "Our competitors don't do that," Palihapitiya says. It means that embedded ads won't be stripped out when e-mail is delivered in Outlook. The survey's results, Palihapitiya says, will help AOL develop e-mail features and applications that users may find useful. "One of the things that jumped out of us is that e-mail users are really interested in un-sending a message and knowing when a message has been forwarded." He says in AOL e-mail, a user can un-send right away and check the status of whether mail has been opened. AOL is working on a feature that would notify users as to whether a piece of mail has been forwarded to them. More survey findings: --Sixty-one percent of e-mail users check personal e-mail on the job an average of three times a day. About half of those who check personal e-mail at work (47 percent) check it sporadically throughout the day, while about one in four (25 percent) check it first thing when they arrive, 18 percent check it at lunchtime, 8 percent during an afternoon break, and 2 percent right before they head home. --Women are more likely than men to check their personal e-mail at work throughout the day (50 percent versus 44 percent), while men are more likely than women to check their personal e-mail first thing when they arrive in the morning (28 percent versus 21 percent). --Six in 10 of all e-mail users (60 percent) check their e-mail while on vacation, mostly for pleasure (47 percent) rather than business (13 percent). Of those who access e-mail while on vacation, 57 percent say it's very (21 percent) or somewhat important (36 percent) that they have access to e-mail. Get this, AOL has provided a quiz to determine your level of e-mail addiction. The survey was conducted with Opinion Research Corp., which conducted online surveys with 4,012 respondents 18 and older in the top 20 cities around the country to measure e-mail usage. Tobi Elkin is Executive Editor, MediaPost. Just An Online Minute http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=30603

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Teams debating - a natural high

Debating is exciting. It's challenging. And it's a great opportunity to work with other people in sharing the excitement, the challenge and the creativity. And team debating offers all of those. I love it. The adrenalin's a natural high and the achievement keep it high. But it also holds its own challenges - of following rules and of working with others far more closely. Loved our chance at it at Communicators Logan City recently, and it was great to watch those new to the whole deal, learning huge amounts.

Monday, August 22, 2005

How much time do you spend internet surfing at work?

My job excites me too much to spend time on personal internet surfing or reading emails, but I can imagine that if ever it got too boring, I would certainly be tempted, and I know some people who work hard and are dedicated to their jobs who nevertheless feel that they should use their company time to go online. What about you? I found this study from Media Post very revealing. Enjoyed it too!! Personal Internet Surfing at Work Costs Companies Over $300 Billion a Year According to a new survey by America Online and Salary.com, summarized by Dan Malachowski, the average worker admits to wasting 2.09 hours per 8-hour workday, not including lunch and scheduled break-time. The survey indicates that employees are wasting about twice as much time as their employers expect. Salary.com calculated that employers spend $759 billion per year on salaries for which real work was expected, but not actually performed. The biggest distraction is personal Internet use by 44.7% of the more than 10,000 people polled. Socializing with co-workers came in second at 23.4%. Conducting personal business, "spacing out," running errands, and making personal phone calls were the other popular time-wasting activities in the workplace. Top Time-Wasting Activities % of Respondents 1 Surfing Internet (personal use) 44.7% 2 Socializing with co-workers 23.4% 3 Conducting personal business 6.8% 4 Spacing out 3.9% 5 Running errands off-premises 3.1% 6 Making personal phone calls 2.3% 7 Applying for other jobs 1.3% 8 Planning personal events 1.0% 9 Arriving late / Leaving early 1.0% 10 Other 12.5% Source: AOL/Salary.com, June 2005 Employees say they're not always to blame for this wasted time, however. 33.2% of respondents cited lack of work as their biggest reason for wasting time. 23.4% said they wasted time at work because they feel as if they are underpaid (if this applies to you, click on the Salary Wizard to find out what you are worth). Top Time-Wasting Excuses % of Respondents 1 Don't have enough work to do 33.2% 2 Underpaid for amount of work 23.4% 3 Co-workers distract me 14.7% 4 Not enough after-work time 12.0% 5 Other 16.7% Source: AOL/Salary.com, June 2005 According to a Salary.com follow-up survey of Human Resource managers, companies assume employees waste 0.94 hours per day, managers suspect that employees waste 1.6 hours per day, but employees admit to wasting 2.09 hours per day. Salary.com's Senior Vice President Bill Coleman, says "To some bosses, that's a startling figure. Others, though, will view this extra wasted time that may well have a positive impact on the company's culture, work environment, and even business results." The Older People Are, The Less Time They Waste At Work: Year of Birth Time Wasted Per Day 1930-1949 0.50 hrs. 1950-1959 0.68 hrs. 1960-1969 1.19 hrs. 1970-1979 1.61 hrs. 1980-1985 1.95 hrs. Source: AOL/Salary.com, June 2005 The report concludes with The average yearly American salary is $39,795 per year - or $19.13 per hour. If the average worker wastes 1.15 hours more than employers suspect, per 8-hour work day, that adds up to $5,720 per year, per worker in wasted salary dollars. So with the American workforce 132 million (non-farm) employees strong, the total in lost salary dollars adds up to $759 billion per year.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

The Power of Humour in communication

Humour makes an audience more responsive, and this applies as much to making presentations, as to conducting a conversation. Humour can win an argument or lessen the tension. Make sure, though, that it is used to support your main message, or it will be wasted.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Proofreading Tips

The traps and pitfalls of proofreading are legion. And if they weren't so annoying theyd be incredibly comical. How is it posible that I read through a document with excrutiating thoroughness, and, being satisfied there are no mistakes, send it off to do its job, only to discover six months later, a glaringly obvious mistake?? So this list of tips offers me, and other sufferers like me, some hope. It was compiled by Diana Huff, the Marcom writer. 12 Tips for Avoiding Embarrassing (and Expensive) Typos plus Proofreading Checklist By Dianna Huff 1. Don’t proof your own work. . 2. Don’t rely on spell-check. 3. Don’t proofread on the computer screen. 4. Shut your door. Don’t answer your phone. 5. Proofread each word s-l-o-w-l-y. 6. Proofread finish to start. 7. Test all phone and fax numbers, URLs, and email addresses. 8. Pay special attention to people’s names and titles. 9. Ensure images are the correct images. 10. Proofread the ENTIRE document. 11. Use these special tips for PowerPoint presentations. 12. Call the folks at Proofreadnow.com. PROOFREADING CHECKLIST ___ Carefully read all headlines and sub-heads. ___ Read the entire document from back to front ___ Consult your corporate style guide. ___ Pay careful attention to formatting. ___ Double-check proper names, scientific notation, and images This is just the skeleton of the article, Diana produced. She fleshes out each one, and includes embarassingly familiar examples of the mistakes we can make without following the tips. You can read the whole article in pdf.