Improve Your Office For Productivity

When I’m on Zoom calls, everybody loves the blue wall behind me (that I painted myself!) Despite this talent (ha ha), I would never consider myself an interior designer. But you don’t need an interior designer when you focus on improvements for the sake of productivity.

This past weekend was Improve Your Office Day, but if you missed it, don’t worry! I’ve got some ideas you can use. And no, you don’t have to paint your walls blue if you don’t want to.

Whether your office is at home or not, you can upgrade your environment to get more done 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. 

And 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 leftover work from last week, or the laundry that hasn’t been folded and put away. 

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 the 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. (Or you might just take care of the laundry.)

It’s also handy to keep a notebook and something to write with on your desk. Many people find it hard to focus when their head is full of ideas and things that need to be completed. So before you engage in a deep focus session, write down everything that comes to mind. 

You don’t have to write paragraphs, just enough of a note that if you looked at the list later you’d know what the entry is about. If you like, you can also jot down who should handle the task. Unless you’re a solopreneur, there’s probably a lot to delegate out. 

This process is known as cognitive offloading. (You can do this at night before bed too for better sleep.) It does not work if you type it. When you write by hand, your brain gets a sense that the issue is handled because you’ve written it down. Now it knows it doesn’t have to keep reminding you about that task. So when you’re ready to focus, you won’t have as many intrusive thoughts.

Room for rest – for productivity improvement

Now we’re getting into the crazy idea that since we are human beings and not computers, that our productivity needs might be different from computers. Again, because you are incredibly wise and fortunate-looking enough to read my stuff regularly, 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!)

It’s also helpful to have an ergonomic setup, so you’re not distracted by pain. Sometimes when the going gets rough, it’s helpful to change positions. If you’ve been sitting, stand instead, and vice versa. (Hint: if you are a towering five feet tall like I am, you’ll need to special order a standing desk. The standard ones won’t go down low enough when you’re sitting.)

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.

Recap (tl;dr):

Improving your office can result in more effectiveness. Prioritize your focus.

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.

Photo by Yibei Geng on Unsplash