Does Your Office Promote Productivity?
We’ve all parked ourselves in front of the computer, ready to attack the day. But as soon as you look up over your monitor, you see a load of laundry just sitting there, ready to be put away. Or you realize your desk is a mess. Or your phone beeps a notification at you…
October 4 is Improve Your Office Day, and there are office improvements that meld seamlessly with productivity improvement.
Whether your office is at home or not, you can upgrade your environment to get more goals achieved in less time – and leave early without guilt.
Clearing cognitive clutter to improve productivity
If you’ve been reading my stuff (thus proving what a cool and intelligent person you are, give yourself a pat on the back), you know that an interruption when you’re intently focused destroys your productivity. It can take up to 23 minutes to get back to where you were.
It doesn’t have to be a big interruption. It could be a buzz from your phone vibrating to tell you that you got a notification on LinkedIn. It could be your gaze snagging on the clutter on your desk.
Telling you to clear off your space, coming from me, is a little ironic considering I got reprimanded for having a messy desk at one job. I had my Journal of Financial Planning magazines on my desk, which apparently made it messy. I have never been a neat freak.
Having said that, it is so much easier to focus on one thing when you don’t have a whole bunch of things within your field of vision competing for your attention. If all you have on your desk is your computer and associated peripherals, it’s much easier to focus on what’s on your computer.
Unless you have a billion tabs open on your browser, of course. Just close out of everything; in the time it takes you to hunt for the tab you want you could have just opened up a new one. Work on one tab open at any given time, unless your work requires comparisons between two documents or something.
Similarly, keep your computer’s desktop relatively clean as well. Have a filing system that’s clearly labeled so you know where things are. I use categories instead of dates, since I can’t remember when things happened but I know what content I’m looking for.
If you’re at home and undone chores are in your office, get them out of there. I’m not necessarily saying you have to do them yourself, just physically get them out of the room. And if your spouse was supposed to take care of the laundry and didn’t, and you just dump the laundry basket on their head, well, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Productivity improvement for humans, not computers
Now stay with me here. WHAT IF…since we are human beings and not computers, our productivity needs might be different from computers. I know, I know, mind blown.
A computer can just sit on a desk, but humans need a little more structure for work to make sure they can focus. It’s helpful to have an ergonomic setup, so you’re not distracted by pain. You need the monitor where your eyes are when you sit without straining your neck.
Your feet should be flat on the floor. If you’re somewhat undertall like me, you might need a footrest if your shoulders and wrists are positioned correctly but your feet dangle or just barely graze the floor.
Computers only need a power supply. Because you are incredibly wise and fortunate-looking enough to read my stuff regularly, however, you know that 7-8 hours of sleep a night is required for brains at peak performance.
And also that mini breaks are needed during the day. Human brains can focus intensely, but then they need a 10-15 minute break. That means no scrolling, no email reading. Maybe a quick walk around the building, a bathroom break, a hydration break, or even staring out the window will do.
So do you have a window you can look out of? Maybe you might like to stretch a bit during your break – great if you've been sitting at the desk all day. Maybe take a minute to foam roll your legs and feet or wrists or whatever. (I have plantar fasciitis and consistent foam rolling has kept the cortisol shot away!)
Guard your focus to be more productive
Everyone’s worried about having the attention spans of goldfish these days. One way you can fight back is to stop relying on your phone to entertain you all day (or even wake you up in the morning.) You probably don’t need “social” media on your phone at all, and you likely don’t need notifications on during your workday.
If you can’t bring yourself to turn off all notifications (yes, including email) all day, at least turn them off during your focus time. Which you have intelligently chosen because it is during the time that your brain is best able to handle deep focus work.
That means that time block can’t roam all over the calendar. It has a spot and it must stay there. You’re your own best client, so treat focus time as an important appointment. No other meetings are allowed to preempt it, by you or anyone else.
In fact, putting your phone away entirely during focus sessions will help you maximize the value of it. Studies have shown that people are distracted if they can even see their phone, even if it’s on its face and they can’t see the screen. You can put your phone in a desk drawer or face down on the credenza behind your desk.
Recap (tl;dr):
Improving your office can result in more effectiveness. Prioritize your focus and what needs to be arranged so distractions aren’t in your face the whole time..
If you are stuck and unable to get your time blocking to work, call me for your complimentary Laser Focus Accelerator Session and we’ll work through it together.