Supercharge Your Office’s Productivity With These 10 Tips
Productivity is defined by Dictionary.com as “the state or quality of producing something.” If your office isn’t productive, work isn’t getting done. Plain and simple.
But, boosting productivity isn’t as easy as it might seem. It’s not enough to tell someone to do more. Your employees need motivation to want to produce, and focus to be able to produce. That’s where your office environment comes into play.
Here are 10 ways you can mix up your office environment and supercharge your productivity:
1. Change up your space
The trend of having an open office space might be on the decline but, that doesn’t mean you can’t add some productivity flow to your work space. Create “work zones” where teams can meet to collaborate, or have peace and quiet, or get creative in a brainstorming session. By mixing up environments, your team can rejuvenate their focus, making them more productive.
2. Make having a clutter-free environment a requirement
Clutter is more distracting than most people realize. Surrounding yourself with items that only serve to gather dust sets the tone for your mindset. By making clutter elimination mandatory in your office, you instantly clear away the cobwebs from people’s minds and get them more focused on the tasks at hand.
3. Bring the fresh air in
The weather might not permit you having the doors and windows open but that doesn’t mean your team has to breathe processed air 40 hours a week. Bring the fresh air inside by adding plants to your office. Workers who are exposed to plants feel less stressed, more productive and more focused, according to a study by Washington State University. Bring on the greenery.
4. Turn off notifications
Notifications from social media, email, or apps are distracting, to say the least. Ask your team to turn off notifications for non-work related apps (or put their phones aside completely) while at work to keep them focused and boost productivity.
5. Make ’em move
Movement isn’t just healthy for your physical body, it’s also healthy for your mind. Still, some businesses base productivity on the number of hours a person spends at his desk.
Get your employees out of their chairs and encourage them to move around the office. The more you encourage movement, the more focused and productive your team will be when they are seated at their desks.
6. Allow earbuds
Music can help people focus by weeding out external distractions and getting the brain in the work zone. Allow your team members to wear their earbuds when their noses are to the grindstone and they’re approaching a tight deadline.
7. Set deadlines
If you schedule a task, it’ll get done--or, at least it’ll increase the likelihood of the task getting done. By imposing strict deadlines on your team, you set the expectation up front so each team member can sprint to his deadline without forcing others to wait on him to finish his portion of a project.
8. Pull out individual strong suits
When your employee loves what he does, he’s more likely to do it. To keep your team on task, assign jobs that fall in line with each person’s strong suit. This will make it easier for your team members to get excited about their jobs, which in turn will make each person accomplish more in each workday.
9. Set flexible work hours
There are early birds and night owls; each person is productive at different times of the day. The more you can afford to be flexible with your team, the more likely your employees will pack more productivity into each hour they work.
10. Hire a chef
Meals take an extraordinary amount of time. From planning what to eat to preparing the food, meals eat up a good chunk of the workday. If you are able to have a chef on site to meal plan and prep, you check a big (and important) item off your employees’ to do list so they can focus on work instead.
What makes you productive?
There’s no shortage of ways to get productive in the working world. The key is finding ways that work best for your company to boost focus and increase output at work.
