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Did anyone see the Steve Martin film ‘Cheaper by the Dozen' over the last week? Aside from it being very funny (as is anything with Steve Martin in it), it was about a family with 12 children struggling to juggle careers and childcare. Nothing new there really, but it was loosely based on a 1946 book by Frank Gilbreth that tells the story of how the father employed time and motion studies (with the help of a stop-watch) to fine-tune all their daily activities.
Suggesting that you time everything that you do during the course of your work-day is probably neither practical nor advisable, but adopting different ways of working can help to increase productivity.
Workwise UK is a not-for-profit initiative from the IT Forum Foundation supporting smarter working practices. Their message is that the wider adoption of smarter working practices, such as flexible working (including compressed working hours and nine-day fortnights), working from home, and mobile and remote working, will improve business productivity and competitiveness, reduce transport congestion and pollution, improve health, assist disadvantaged groups, and harmonise work and family commitments. You can't really argue with that!
A week-long programme of activities and media events will mark Work Wise Week 2008, which also sees the launch of National Work from Home Day on Thursday 15 May.