Your workplace productivity is the primary asset that'll help you stand out and get noticed. The more productive you are, the better-quality results you'll produce in less time. However, being productive doesn't mean getting things off your desk without worrying about errors. You'll be considered productive if you deliver error-free work on time.
If you're struggling with completing your work on time or feel like your productivity isn't as high as it should be, you might be under a lot of stress. Stress won't do you any good. In fact, it would only worsen things for you. If your productivity has decreased, stressing about it won't help.
What will help you is identifying what's affecting your productivity and then putting in an active, conscious effort to enhance your workplace productivity.
This blog post will help you understand the many factors that may affect your productivity and tips that’ll help you become more productive at work.
What Factors Influence Workplace Productivity?
Poor productivity isn't always because you're distracted due to personal reasons, or you're overly stressed. In all honesty, you are not always to blame for poor workplace productivity. There are plenty of factors that can influence your productivity.
Let's look at what these factors are:
Poor Understanding with Managers
One of the biggest factors that often influence employee productivity is poor understanding with managers. Not many acknowledge this as a problem, but in reality, it can become a roadblock to professional growth. If you don't share an understanding with your manager and aren't vocal about the challenges and problems you're facing at your workplace, your productivity will go downhill.
Your manager won't know your struggles unless you're vocal about them. Your manager will only see the results, which won't be great in this case.
Unhealthy Work Environment
An unhealthy work environment is one that doesn't promote employee wellness. One of the factors that can make the work environment unhealthy for employees is unhealthy competition between employees. Competition between employees is great, but only when it doesn't have any negative impact on the employees.
It's when employees start working for their independent growth and want to shine. As a result, they start working against each other instead of working with each other. This creates divisions between employees and affects overall productivity.
Uncomfortable Working Conditions
If your workplace isn't comfortable, you'll experience a decrease in your productivity and overall morale and motivation. Uncomfortable work conditions distract employees and put them at risk of various work-related injuries and health conditions. Not many employers work towards making their offices comfortable and improving their employees' ergonomics, resulting in poor employee productivity.
Excessive Work Stress
If you're overworked and stressed at work, you'll fail to focus on your work. You'll be constantly distracted and on edge. Now, when you're stressed and overworked, and you don't communicate the same to your manager, you'll only get buried deeper into stress, and there will come the point when your stress gets the better of you, and your productivity will go downhill.
Staying Productive at Work – Tips You'll Be Thankful for
If you keep stressing yourself about your poor productivity and don't know how to deal with it and get your productivity back on track, you first need to stop stressing, take a deep breath, and identify what's coming in the way. You'll only be able to find a solution when you know where the problem lies.
We've listed some tips for you below to help you stay productive at work:
1. Avoid Multitasking
One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to do various things at once. While you can get multiple things off your day in a day when you multitask, the chances of you making mistakes are high in this case. You should avoid multitasking and focus on doing one task at a time. This would enable you to focus on one task and ensure it's one without errors. It'll also keep you motivated for the next tasks as you'll know one full task is completed.
2. Take Breaks Every Few Hours
Most people don't take breaks between work, especially when they've got a lot of work to do. You may think that not taking any breaks and working continuously is actually helping you when it's doing the opposite. If you don't take breaks, you'll be burnt out sooner.
You'll get fatigued physically and mentally, and when that point comes, you won't be able to work at all. To sustain your maximum productivity, you should take 5 to 10-minute breaks every few hours. This will help you relax and re-energize.
3. Start with the Most Time-Consuming Tasks
When you're about to start work for the day, make a to-do list of all the tasks you need to complete that day. Once that's done, start with the tasks you think will take you the longest. This will enable you to give the tasks the due attention they need. If you start with smaller tasks, by the time you start with the time-consuming task, you'll be left with little time, resulting in stress and panic.
To avoid the state of panic and stress, you should make it a practice to start with the most time-consuming tasks.
4. Follow the 2-Minute Rule
Most of the time, we focus on the bigger tasks so much that the little things get overlooked, like an email you had to send or a document you had to print and file. While these tasks look insignificant, they're a small part of a process flow, and the process won't be complete till these little things are done. They can add up to give a direct hit on your productivity.
If you're struggling to track these small, not-so-insignificant tasks, start following the 2-minute rule. Take 2 minutes for any tasks that can be completed in 2 minutes or less. You only need to take 2 minutes between bigger tasks and get smaller things off your to-do list.
5. Improve the Ergonomics of Your Workstation
Discomfort is one of the biggest distracting factors that can really affect your productivity. You won't realize that the uncomfortable chair you're sitting on is doing much more than just hurting you. If your workstation isn't comfortable and ergonomic, you'll be uncomfortable and distracted throughout the day and fail to focus on your work.
Improving the ergonomics of your workstation will enhance your comfort and help you stay focused on work. Start with replacing your work desk and chair with an ergonomic chair like Ergonomic Chair Pro (OC14) and a standing desk. Ergonomic office equipment will help you correct your posture, enhance comfort, and improve your focus.
6. Divide Your Schedule into Time Blocks
Instead of listing tasks on your day's schedule, divide your schedule into time blocks like 60 or 90-minute time blocks. Set an objective to work on specific projects or tasks during these time blocks. For example, if you've got to make a presentation, put this task into the 90-minute time block and dedicate these 90 minutes to your presentation only.
This will enhance your focus and ensure you're only working on one thing at a time with your full focus and dedication. This will also ensure that you don't waste any time. Without a time block, you may spend time doing unnecessary things like scrolling through your Instagram or chatting with your co-worker. But when the clock's ticking, you'll know you've only got this time to finish the task! This practice will give a significant boost to your workplace productivity.
7. Implement the Pomodoro Strategy
Has it ever happened to you that you spend various hours working on a task and then experience a complete block where you just fail to process anything? Well, that's a sign of burnout. When this happens, your productivity can really take a hit. Implementing the Pomodoro strategy can help you. Set timers for 20, 30, or 45 minutes and work uninterrupted, without breaks for this time.
Stop working when the timer goes off, take a 5-minute break, and resume work. This will ensure that you give yourself uninterrupted time to work and stop working before you reach a state of mental burnout. Taking breaks before resuming work will help you keep your head clear, which means all the good things for workplace productivity.
8. Keep Communication Channels with Your Managers Open and Clear
As we said in the beginning, not working on building a strong relationship with your manager can lead to lost productivity at work. For this reason, you should actively keep communication channels with your manager open and clear so that you can discuss your concerns or challenges with them openly. This would open doors to brainstorming sessions where the two of you can work together to develop solutions that'll help you and the business.
Final Word
Staying productive doesn't have to be stressful. You can ensure maximum workplace productivity without stressing yourself out. Start with figuring out what's causing productivity loss, and then work on finding practical solutions.
