I bet it wouldn't surprise most of the readers of this blog to learn that they were working 31 hour days. You'll all be glad to know that the Sunday Times confirmed it this weekend.

Researchers have found that typical middle-class city dwellers now have so many timesaving gadgets that they can cram into 24 hours the same quantity of tasks that a decade ago would have taken 31 hours to complete.

For many, the frenzy starts over breakfast, reading e-mails on a hand-held BlackBerry while making toast. It carries on in the car where the driver with a Blue-tooth earpiece holds a conference call while keeping an ear on the radio and checking the sat nav.

Work is then a blizzard of e-mails, phone calls and meetings, often happening simultaneously. The most intense period of multitasking, however, is in the evening, according to OTX, an American think tank.

Just days before, comScore reported that Internet use is now outstripping TV viewing throughout most of the day, and much of "primetime." comScore also suggests that online advertising is more effective at delivering exposures than television advertising. Whether you believe this contention or not -- and I'm not sure that I do as yet -- it's yet more evidence that the usefulness of advertising is on a sharp decline, while the importance of conversation and relationships continues to grow. At the same time, If consumers are multitasking -- and thereby squeezing 31 hours of activity into their day -- then they are spending far less time focused on advertising.

Viewed from that perspective, it's time for business to start radically reevaluating their aggregate communications spend. Just days ago, GM announced that it would re-calibrate its ad spend to direct 15 percent of its budget -- some $1.5 billion -- to online ads. That's huge, and a good start. Of course, then the question turns to how they spend it. $1.5 billion of banners won't change much. But $1.5 billion spent on building real relationships with customers would be a real game changer, and its impact could have a tremendous impact on the brand and its sales.