Here are some fun facts about communication that might surprise (or horrify) you:

All stereotypes aside, men and women speak approximately the same number of words per day – around 10,000, give or take a few. 

Many of us spend 70 to 80% of our waking hours in some form of communication. 

Of our daily communication time, we spend about 9% writing, 16% reading, 30% speaking, and 45% listening (Yikes!). 

91% of people in the workplace report daydreaming during meetings. 73% do other work, and another 39% sleep. (Obviously very few are listening!)

The average person checks their email 36 times per hour. Yet it takes 16 minutes to refocus after opening email.

We spend approximately 15 million person hours per day viewing presentations in the U.S. alone.

These data points come from a variety of (reliable) sources and all point to one thing – communication is constant. And critical. Per the SmartMouth motto, communication is the currency of success … we cannot and do not succeed alone, we have to communicate in order to get things done and achieve goals. The above list of fun facts simply reminds us to make it count!

Beth Levine

Beth Levine

Communications Coach at SmartMouth Communications
SmartMouth Founder and Principal Beth Noymer Levine is a Communications Coach who is emerging as one of the country’s leading voices on how to prepare and deliver speeches and presentations that actually work for both the audience and the speaker.
Beth Levine