How to create a better office environment with furniture, supplies, and products

The step: use new technology frequently; to an excess.

According to Business Week, researchers at Kings' College London University recently noted that an interesting study found that “Communication overload causes a professional's IQ to drop 10 percentage points.”

Yikes. I actually am not a firm believer in the value of the too general too over-dramatized IQ test yet I’ll admit that a drop does indicate a problem. You don’t want your mental capabilities to drop simply because you’re addicted to Blackberry, texting, and email.

Supposedly all types of workers are affected because the use of too much technology reduces mental sharpness but men had a larger IQ point drop than women.

The entire Business Week article is worth a heavy read (if you can tear yourself from your pda) but some especially notable tidbits include:

• A survey from the Center for Work Life Policy shows that 37% of emails received by upper-level business workers are redundant and or irrelevant and still consume much of the week. I’d argue that most emails received by most office workers are unnecessary. Seriously we did run companies before the advent of email. In one of my old office jobs I’d get emails from the guy who shared my office! No joke. He might have turned to me and said, “Hey Jennifer, blah blah…” but no, he’d email me.  
• "Continuous partial attention" has been shown to lower creativity, innovation, and decision making according to IT consultant Linda Stone. I know you can relate if you get heavy emails at work. I feel this way on my heavy email and phone call days. In my current line of work I HAVE to conduct business by email or phone but when I worked in an out-of-home business setting I much preferred a walk over to my co-workers desk or office than a constant stream of back and fourth emails (Tip: better for our bodies to move as well.).
• Lastly, and this was not mentioned in the article; but work cell phones in the car (while driving) are a great example of how our concentration is shot while using technology. I know people who claim to be able to drive and talk on their phones at the same time and one, not crash and two make sense of the call. That’s not my experience and since so many auto crashes are caused by distracted drivers (80%) I’d say some of us are kidding ourselves. My least favorite co-worker ever used to call me up and just talk and talk about lame work stuff that could wait while I was driving. I’d hang up on him.

Next up today, some tips on how to cut down on the technology in your office so that you can stay nice and sharp.