Introduction to Office Productivity
Office Productivity has many benefits, from helping you stand out in the crowd to effectively managing your time. In other words, productivity is the one thing that can spell success or failure for an organization. This means that an organization home to non-productive employees may be headed to failure in the shortest possible manner.
Understanding the importance of productivity in your organization can go a long way. It can help you improve your productivity and encourage your colleagues to do the same, improving the company’s overall working environment and resulting in better growth and development. Productivity can impact essential aspects of the organization and affect them in multiple ways.
Office Productivity Tips
1. Low office Productivity can Directly Impact the Profit levels of a Company
Poor or low productivity can have disastrous consequences on a company’s growth. Low office productivity will automatically result in low profits. In a world where success is counted in terms of financial gains, almost no company can afford the financial implications caused by slacking. Employees who cannot effectively contribute to an organization’s growth will soon become a burden rather than a resource. Also, if employees do not effectively perform their tasks, they quickly affect the company’s overall financial gains negatively. On the other hand, if employees are productive and hard-working, they can help take your business to the next level of growth and development. Therefore, the best way a company can boost its growth is by removing unproductive workers and hiring productive and industrious workers.
2. Low Productivity affects the overall morale of the Company
Without a doubt, low office productivity affects the company’s overall morale. For example, if some employees are productive and hard-working, seeing others who do not reflect the same enthusiasm might also lower their morale. This affects your company’s overall morale and mood, distracting even the most productive employees. Low morale affects the company’s overall productivity, creating a cycle that would be difficult to break. That is why companies must help employees improve their office productivity, as this can contribute to better growth and lower employee stress levels.
3. Good Productivity helps Companies to Meet their Goals in an Effective Manner
Productive employees can effectively meet their goals and deadlines. This, in turn, helps companies to meet their goals and smoothly run things. When office productivity is affected, companies may lose important deals and fail to meet contractual obligations, which can even affect the company’s prestige in the eyes of clients and customers. The importance of public image is crucial, especially for companies in customer relationships, such as retail outlets and banks. When companies meet their deadlines, they win the favor of their customers and clients and get an opportunity to reap bonuses and profits.
4. Good Productivity can help you Meet and Increase Brand Loyalty in a Successful Fashion
Customers are the basis for brands’ growth and development to the next stage. Meeting the customers’ expectations regularly will help you empower and strengthen your brand loyalty. Bad publicity, especially by existing customers, mainly due to bad employee management, can affect your company and even collapse. Employees must realize that they are the face of their company, and their relationships with the customers/clients affect the company’s overall image. Companies that fail to meet customers’ expectations will look at other brands to fulfill their needs and desires. Only a good production team can help brands meet the consumers’ expectations and even surpass them.
All this means that companies and brands must focus a lot of their attention and resources on employing a productive team and ensuring that this productivity is maintained at all times. In addition, office productivity is directly dependent on how employees manage their time. There are two ways in which employees can improve productivity: either increase the number of hours they work or work smarter. Employees need not work for longer hours; they can work smarter to remain productive without putting in the extra hours. Here are some strategies that can help you maintain a high level of office productivity at your workplace:
5. Learn to Track the Amount of Time you are Spending on Various Tasks
When you go to your workplace, there will be several tasks that you will be expected to do within a period of seven to eight hours. Many people feel that they are very good at gauging the amount of time that they would require for specific tasks. But much research suggests that only 17 percent of people can effectively estimate the time needed for a particular task. It is a good idea to list tasks and use apps that can tell you how much time each task, like social media, email, word processing, etc., effectively manages time. Some apps that can help include Toggl, ManicTime, and Rescue Time.
6. Take Regular Breaks During your Work Hours
While this might seem counterintuitive, regular breaks enhance creativity and improve concentration. According to research, taking short breaks while performing long and complicated tasks can help you achieve your goals faster and more effectively. So take regular breaks to help you effectively maintain optimum production levels. Exercises are an excellent way to take a break from your hectic work schedule, and even a lot of research says that an exercise break is good for your body and spirit. Take time out for walks from your workplace if possible, as this will help you clear your head and boost your creative cells.
7. Impose Deadlines for Yourself
Unwanted and unnecessary stress might not be suitable for your productivity levels, but small amounts of self-imposed stress might be good as it will help you concentrate and perform tasks better. Understanding the tasks you must perform and giving a deadline to achieve them is a good idea, as it will help you boost your productivity. When there is the added pressure of the clock, you will be able to perform tasks faster.
8. Follow the Two-minute Rule
According to Steve Olenski, implementing the two-minute rule can help employees perform many tasks in a limited time. So if employees can see tasks or actions that they can perform in two minutes or less, they should do that immediately as this will save them a lot of time later. Implementing such strategies can help employees remain productive at their workplace. In addition, when employees successfully perform the concerned tasks, it can relieve stress and worry.
9. Do not Waste your Time in Unwanted Meetings
Unimportant meetings can prove to be more unproductive than productive for employees. While some meetings are essential as it helps employees to gather and distribute the workloads, they must not affect the office productivity levels of a company. according to Atlassian, an average office-goer spends nearly 31 hours monthly in unproductive meetings. Therefore, a company’s management must learn to draw a line between needed meetings and meetings that waste time. If meeting goals can be achieved through email, phone, or web-based meetings, it is better to achieve them rather than invest in a physical meeting.
10. Quit Multitasking, as it can Decrease Productive Levels
Multitasking is not always a good idea, as it can waste both time and office productivity. When you commit to multiple tasks, it leads to a loss of focus and can also raise your stress levels. It is always better to focus on one task and perform that perfectly rather than do multiple tasks with average results. In addition, the side effects of multitasking can take on the life and livelihood of the employees. When their health is compromised, brands and businesses take a massive hit. According to a study by Basex, businesses lose $650 billion a year due to the lack of job performance and creativity due to distractions. Concentrating on a single task is much more essential and beneficial.
11. Take Advantage of your Time to Work
If you know how to manage your time, many things will automatically fall into place. For example, if you have a long commute to work, you can use that time to send emails, create daily lists and tasks, or brainstorm new ideas. This will help you effectively save time and improve your productivity at work; you will have made time to perform other tasks and duties.
12. Give up on your Illusion of Perfection
Achieving perfection in any manner is an odd notion. This is because when we talk about perfection, we are setting limits to human expectations and desires. Perfection means people have reached a limit and cannot do anything better. In this sense, the notion that a human being can achieve perfection is ridiculous. That is why individuals must try to perform tasks to the best of their ability rather than trying to make them perfect. Excellence in functions is what is going to take employees to the next stage of growth rather than a focus on perfection.
13. Learn to be Proactive Rather than Reactive
Sometimes smartphones can be more of a distraction than a source of help. While experts can’t tell us exactly how smartphones break our focus and concentration, new studies from Florida State University sheds more light on the matter. It says that mobile notifications can break our concentration even if we do not pick up our phones to respond to them immediately. When we hear that a text has come in, it breaks our attention flow, and until we have not seen the message, our minds are subconsciously thinking about it. Therefore, employees must learn to avoid such distractions and set aside time to reply to their emails and messages without affecting their productivity levels at work.
14. Work in a Cycle of 90 minutes
Breaks are an integral part of any work schedule. If the mind is continuously absorbed in words, it can damage both the mind and the soul. Taking a short break after 30-45 minutes will help you effectively regain your creativity. When you fail to take a break, it can result in unwanted stress and fatigue.
15. Listen to Music
Music is a great tool and can help you settle into a work routine. Low-volume music can also help drown the sounds in the office that can otherwise prove to distract. Create a playlist to help you improve your office productivity, and tune into it when your production levels are lowering. Try listening to classical music to boost your creativity and improve your IQ. Two birds with one stone, I say!
16. Leave your Desk for Lunch
Sitting in one place for more than seven hours can have adverse health risks. That is why it is essential to move around, and having your lunch away from your work desk is a good idea. This will help your mind relax, so have your lunch and return to your workstation with renewed enthusiasm.
There are many ways in which you can boost your office productivity. By following any of the strategies above or experimenting with such ideas, you can become highly productive and efficient at your work and take your career to the next stage.
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