Declining productivity in Singapore: Are you too busy being busy?

Sounds like an odd statement, doesn't it? Surely we're all busy and that's a good thing, isn't it? Well, maybe not. Despite the considerable efforts of the government, labour productivity in Singapore is declining rather than improving. Official figures show a contraction of 0.8% in 2014 and a further 0.6% in Q1 2015.

Although much of the official focus has been on specific industries such as construction and manufacturing, the need for productivity improvement amongst knowledge workers is just as important, and is sometimes overlooked.

A survey of 1500 senior executives by McKinsey reported that 91% of the respondents were not ''very satisfied'' with how they spent their time at work.

One of the greatest challenges facing knowledge workers in the 21st century workplace is how to ensure that we are doing the right things at the right time. This is all too often not the same as being 'busy'.

But it is understandable. The way we work today makes it increasingly hard to filter what's genuinely important from what is not. The sheer volume of electronic communication and information that we have to manage, filter, read, and action plays havoc with our ability to prioritise effectively.

This environment has made us reactive in how we work rather than proactive. We feel compelled to respond to new information as it is received, often impulsively dealing with new emails immediately they arrive rather than assessing their relative importance/urgency versus the other important and urgent things we need to do.

Our addiction to mobile devices doesn't help either. A Google survey recently reported that Singapore is now the world's top smartphone market per capita. According to information collected by Android App maker Locket, the average person checks their phone 110 times per day. During peak times the frequency averages every 6 or 7 seconds.

And this is before we factor in email on our computer, instant messaging, and social media. This continuous checking of electronic data not only takes considerable time in itself, but serves to continually distract and interrupt us to the great detriment of our productivity.

These frequent interruptions have a significant effect on our ability to be productive and get things done. Research by Michigan State University published earlier this year showed that short interruptions, such as those caused by buzzing/beeping smartphones, doubled the error rate for 300 people performing a sequencing task on a computer.

A lack of uninterrupted time means that not only does work take longer, but the quality goes down.

And multi-tasking doesn't help either. That myth's been well and truly busted. We live in a world of continuous partial attention and this has a very negative effect on our ability to be effective. Constant switching of the brain's attention from one task to another means that we lose focus and productivity every time.

We were told that technology would make us more productive and yet for many knowledge workers this is not necessarily the case. According to an article by Bain & Co, published in the Harvard Business Review last year, increasing amounts of time are being wasted in the workplace.

So what's missing? Well, if we are to control 'busyness', regain wasted time, manage our inbox, and maximise our effectiveness, we need to address two key elements of the way we work: process and discipline.

We need to ensure that our time is spent on high value tasks that are most closely aligned to our key goals and objectives, and this means improving our prioritising skills, maximising periods of focussed, uninterrupted time, learning best practices to control and manage email, and improving the effectiveness of our electronic communication.

Although most organisations would see the value in addressing these issues, the practical challenge is how companies can best help employees to improve their workplace productivity, taking into consideration cost, time, and logistical constraints.

Face-to-face training programmes can provide great value and benefit – however they come with an associated cost and investment of time which can be difficult for companies to provide on a large scale.

Fortunately, Singapore's love of technology is a great advantage in this case; it is increasingly possible to address these challenges through asynchronous learning programmes that allow for very cost-effective, large-scale deployment.

In this way organisations can obtain an immediate up-lift in knowledge worker productivity in a short span of time, whilst allowing employees to fit the learning around their available time though bite-sized availability.

According to a report from learning management system provider Docebo, Asia now has the highest growth rate for self-paced learning in the world at more than 17%. The geographically dispersed workforce combined with a focus on cost control and value for money in the learning space makes online learning a very useful solution for corporations and governments in the region.

The increasing use of technology in training provision in Singapore will not only allow organisations to provide their staff with practical, cost-effective help to escape the busy-ness trap and increase productivity, but also plays extremely well to the tech-savvy strengths of the Singapore workforce.