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Why do companies buy their employees BlackBerries? To increase efficiency and productivity. If you can work on the go, you can take in more information and work from anywhere. So most businesses have embraced the new PDA trend and see — or think they’ve seen — increased use of their employees’ time. However, a study by Basex Inc. puts a different spin on things. According to them, text messaging, email, and IMs cost us a collective $650 billion in 2006.

The idea is that we’re not working as efficiently as possible, because we’re constantly multitasking. While some tout the virtues of working on multiple things as once — some even wear it as a badge — the human brain is simply not wired to work in such a manner. This includes focusing on several things at once as well as being constantly interrupted by our emails, IMs, and text messages.

The solution is to ignore those expectations of instant gratification, according to Johnathan Spira, the lead researcher at Basex. Resist the urge to immediately follow up on every E-mail, phone call or IM, and learn to walk that fine line between getting things done and pestering your co-workers when hitting that reply all button.

This we agree with. We actually expect to see a number of books published on this topic this year. Focus on one thing at a time, and only check your email twice, maybe three times a day. Turn off IM (unless necessary in your office), and keep text messaging to a minimum. It seems completely counter to what the BlackBerry was created for, but this works for highly successful people, like Tim Ferriss.

[Switched]

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