Modern day work environments are filled with all sorts of noise that usually has a negative impact on our productivity by distracting us from focusing on important work tasks. It is because if this that we need to be more proactive in our approach towards our workspace arrangements which will help us focus on our tasks with a clear mind.
Below are some tips on how to successfully eliminate distractions:
Don’t open your email
Having your email open all the time is very tempting. The pining of the notifications from your email can be very distracting even if you are not one of those who responds straight away. Notifications break your focus easily, so that is why it is advised to designate email for specific times of your workday. You can have email time at the end of your work day for example, after you have completed tasks which require more energy. Moreover, disabling notifications on both your laptop and mobile phone will allow you to look at emails only when you are ready to take action for each message.
Do not multitask
Some people feel like they get more done when they multitask, but numerous studies have shown that productivity negatively affected in all cases when people engage in multitasking. It has also been proven that multitasking causes people to make more mistakes and makes it more difficult to remember details which are important. That is why it is highly recommended that you work on only one activity at a time,
Adjust noise levels
Finding the right noise levels is key to ensuring that you do not lack focus on your work tasks. While some people need complete silence to work, others need white noise which blocks out sounds from the environment which are distracting. This is a personal choice and depends on what works best for you. Some people like to have music turned on while they work and find that it helps them in being more productive. You can stream music from the web from a wide variety of apps, search for the best deal on the web to find one which suits you.
Minimize inefficient behavior
It is important to separate tasks which need to be done from those which don’t as well as being able to define which tasks need to be minimized from our routines. For example, housewives might think that they need to vacuum their home daily, when in fact doing vacuuming once a week is more than enough. Other cases could be that a task can be delegated – for example; the mother might delegate her child to help her with vacuuming giving her more time to focus on more important tasks.This is important advice for business owners who should focus on tasks which only they can do and delegate the rest to their employees.
Learn to how to say no
Learning how to say no is a valuable life lesson which is primarily important for work-related situations. We are all often subject to saying yes instead of no and we do this for many reasons, Most often we do not wish to disappoint someone who asked us for help or assistance. Saying yes to everything really does affect your productivity in a negative way, and if you do this very often it will most definitely kill your productivity.
No matter what your situation is and how demanding your tasks are, by using these strategies you will be able to improve your productivity with a little creativity and careful planning.