7 simple tips to improve your productivity at the office
Office Manager, sometimes you tackle 2 weeks of work in a day, at times you don’t do anything throughout the day…It’s natural, you’re not machines. But to help you hold the line during those days where productivity is missing, here are a few simple tips that you can implement right away.
Stop checking your inbox every 5 minutes
Emails are surely the worst enemy of our productivity. Firstly, disable notifications which show the new mails in the corner of your screen. Even if you don’t handle them at once, your subconscious is already handling them and you’ll lose focus. Try to consult your inbox 3 or 4 times a day tops, by devoting a well-defined time. Respond to all your mails in one shot, by considering it to be a full-fledged task.
Get rid of the notifications
While we are talking about email notifications, let’s also consider the ones of your telephone. Most of the time, they are absolutely useless, for example Facebook has just reminded you the birthday of a guy, you had forgotten even existed. Once again, these notifications come in the way of your focus: get rid of them.
Download StayFocusd
You’re a workaholic and we have no doubts about that; however, you check out the Facebook profiles of your exes every day, or the Trending Topics on Twitter, not to mention, fulfill your curiosity by consulting the Wikipedia file of a country, which you didn’t know, existed until today. StayFocusd is a Google Chrome application, which allows you to block some websites for a given period of time. Identify the websites which make you lose time and block them for 1,2,4 hours or more. And don’t block Magic Office while you’re at it, firstly because it’ll break our heart but mostly because we explain how to be more productive.
Clean your inbox
You’ll receive a bunch of mails which you don’t read, like promotional offers of this website, where you once bought a phone case, which you can also use as a bottle opener and this was 6 years ago? Perhaps, it’s time to clean your inbox. To do so, we recommend CleanFox, a free tool, which also helps you buy an eco-conscience, as the company fights against deforestation in Zambia by planting trees.
Clean Fox is available here: https://www.cleanfox.io/
Take a nap
We had spoken about this a few weeks ago, napping goes hand in hand with productivity. Winston Churchill, Napoleon or even Albert Einstein, knew this already. So, after the meal, one can nap for 20 minutes (and not one hour, come on we see you coming there). How about putting a napping spot in your company? Your employees will thank you (in fact we have several other tips to make your collaborators happy).
Listen to music
Several surveys (PRS, J.G. Fox & E.D. Embrey) have proven the positive effects of music in terms of productivity. When you listen to music, several areas of your brains are called upon, these zones are related to training, memorization for example. Intellectual tasks seem less tiring. And then, there is no point in lying, it’s quite pleasant working with music. With your headphones, you can’t hear Vicky cribbing throughout the day. However, choose your music well: ideally without any lyrics, so let’s avoid Elvis Presley and Jailhouse Rock. Several playlists to work while listening to music are available on Youtube or streaming platforms.
Stop doing everything at the same time
Office Managers multi-task and your sphere of operation is quite large. But wanting to handle everything at the same time, it won’t lead you anywhere. According to the American Association of Psychology (yes, it’s classy quoting sources like these), employees who handle several things at the same time, see their actual working time, pull back by 40%. The tips stated a little higher in the article (getting rid of notifications, stop checking your inbox every 5 minutes…) will help you focus on one task at a time. Define these time slots for your various tasks and stick to them.
