Modern life is drowning in a sea of verbiage

Brevity and clarity have given way to a deluge of text from corporate 'word salads' to prolix presentations.

- FINANCIAL TIMES

At this time of year, many of us look back at the past 12 months, castigate ourselves for not having achieved more and resolve to become more productive. I'm beginning to wonder, though, if individuals are really the biggest obstacles to our own efficiency. It feels as though more and more time is being soaked up by things beyond our control: compliance, "computer says no" systems and the forces of verbiage.

In 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that technological advances would enable his grandchildren to work a 15-hour week. Instead, we seem busier than ever. Keynes didn't reckon on computerised call centre menus telling us at length how our data will be handled, and urging us to try the website, which of course we have, otherwise why would we have picked up the phone to enter the sixth circle of hell?

Nor did he foresee the proliferation of words and jargon, which seems to be a 21st-century hallmark. In the UK, the average FTSE 100 annual report now contains more pages than a Charles Dickens novel. In the US, environmental, social and governance reports from the S&P 500 have grown a fifth longer in three years. Board packs have expanded, too: the average one is 226 pages long. Majorities of board directors in both the US and UK have told surveys that the packs have little impact or prove an obstacle to understanding the business.