Complaining Is Easier Than Fixing

Take this headline in a CNET report from Reuters

Tech makes working harder, not easier

And here is the opening claim.
Most U.S. workers say they feel rushed on the job, but they are getting less accomplished than a decade ago, according to newly released research.

This was research conducted for Day-Timers, a maker of organizational products. (By an odd coincidence, these products will help you schedule your days.) The cause, according to the article, is technology.

In case you are wondering how this claim squares with the annual increases in productivity regularly reported by econometrics, the explanation is that “less accomplished” does not really refer to objective productivity. It refers to accomplished as a fraction of what people expected to accomplish.

Part of the explanation:
Unlike a decade ago, U.S. workers are bombarded with e-mail, computer messages, cell phone calls, voice mails and the like, research showed.

People actually get paid to do research like this? People actually get paid to write news reports about such findings?

I will guess that Day-Timers saw this research as a contribution to their marketing effort. And they will probably offer a solution from their product line. That illustrates one of my favorite problem-solving lines:

Every problem is an opportunity being mismanaged.

Entrepreneurs like Day-Timer see problems and sell solutions. There is not much market for complaints (unless you are in the news business). The market is for solutions.

In case Day-Timer doesn’t solve all the problems, here are a few other (free) solutions.
Time control
Time Sucker Clipit
Joblets

Of course, complaining is easier than fixing. And lasts longer.