Workplace productivity is a major concern due to distractions. They make it more difficult to pay attention. And take you away from familiar and everyday life. Workplace productivity in business is something that can be improved with a proactive attitude and better habits.
Let’s look at some distractions that impact workplace productivity:
Meetings
Social Media/Technology
Doing too many things at once
According to Team Stage up to 31 hours a month was spent in ineffective meetings further decreasing workplace productivity. And around 50% of employees are getting distracted by their phones at work.
Monitoring employees is becoming ‘the norm’ to ensure that staff are being productive.
Meetings
Do you find yourself spending a lot of time in face-to-face or zoom meetings? There are many effective ways to ensure your meetings run smooth. Develop an efficient agenda, be clear about the start and end time and remember when you are on or not on mute.
Creating an agenda is great, but it might be more useful if you (as a leader) can prepare a few brief points in advance:
Ideas to bring up in the meeting.
- Challenges – do I or we, need help with something.
- Staff or department mentions.
- Questions the group should discuss or consider.
- Present these points at the meeting to reach solutions or paths to solutions. Also be aware of time constraints.
Social media/technology
We are busy at work and decide to take a coffee break or take a stroll around the office. Taking a break is a good thing it clears your head, and you get away from your desk and computer screen. I don’t know about you but when I start scrolling, sometimes I lose time. I find something in social media that is cool and forget about the time.
One way around this is to establish times that it is okay to look at social media. Another method could be to reward yourself with some social media time. This is once you have completed X number of tasks on your ‘to do list’.
Doing too many things at once
I get it, you want to stay on top of everything. But if you only spend a percentage of your time on a certain task you may not finish it or worse of all you may make a mistake. Break it down into bite-sized pieces according to priority.
So, what’s the solution? Let’s look at some ways to change and develop effective habits.
Develop effective habits
We all develop habits that allow us to get us through the day. Instead of having a coffee first thing in the morning (which I love to do). I make myself go for a walk and when I come back – my reward is a cup of coffee. By walking every morning, it gets me going and I can be more productive with work projects. I also have something to look forward to.
Be proactive – don’t wait for things to happen take the initiative to improve your situation.
Focus – on what is important and try not to get caught up doing unimportant things.
Don’t make the habit impossible to achieve – start small.
Create an ideal environment
Let’s say you have a big project on, and you feel that you are getting distracted. Think of an ideal environment that would work for you to improve workplace productivity and get the project done.
Break down your project into small chunks. Block out a specific amount of time in your calendar to complete a goal from your project.
Work on the hard stuff first
Sometimes getting started is hard and most of us will generally put it on the to-do-list as the last thing to do. I hear you, you’re busy, you don’t have time. But if you want to progress with a project you will need to make time at the top of your to-do-list or at least to start.
I also find that if it is at the bottom of the list that it’s too easy to say, “I’ll do it tomorrow”.
Figure out why you are getting distracted
Is it that the project is too time-consuming, or it might be something you don’t feel comfortable doing? By arranging your project into small phases, it helps you to feel like you are getting somewhere. By the end of the day, you can tick off that part of the project. Move to the next phase on another day (depending on the deadline).
The small phases approach allows you to manage the project timeline better. We all used to cram for exams in school, and sometimes it was worth it. But in everyday life there may be some consequences with not delivering. Aim to ‘under promise and over deliver’.
Get back on track
It can be difficult when you get distracted and need to get back to the task at hand. Think of what clicks you back into the right mode to improve workplace productivity.
Take a quick walk around the office to clear your head. Grab a quick beverage, have a 5-minute power nap (if possible), or splash some cold water on your face. Whatever it is, take the time to do this so that you can immerse yourself into your project task.
Action Tip: Remember to reward yourself at the end of the task as it gives you something to look forward to.
Set your own deadline a few days out from the actual deadline. I like to do this because it means I will be able to meet the real deadline. It doesn’t work for everything, but it does mean that I can planning better. If I am crunched for time, I have a few hours/days ‘up my sleeve’.
Conclusion
Take the time to think about what you are being distracted by and why.
- Develop effective habits.
- Create an ideal environment.
- Work on the hard stuff first
- Figure out why you are getting distracted.
- Get back on track.
Once you figure that out you can then come up solutions on how to approach similar projects in the future. You never know it might become a great habit.
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