While my clever tag of Marketing Monday may not seem to cover productivity, I’m just going to be liberal with the term. Productivity is something that’s very important to any organization. Actually it’s important for all areas of your life, from housework to business learning to be productive is important.
Who wants to waste time? Goofing off, slacking, and shirking responsibilities has always been seen as negative, right? Many studies show that taking breaks, and not just running to the washroom, but taking serious mental breaks, can make you more productive.
The Atlantic posted an article about this saying better than I can how taking these mental breaks are a huge help, it “heightens our focus” and “improves our motor function on the computer”, as is being comfortable in your work environment.
So when you feel guilty for checking out LOLcats or playing a quick game of snood in the middle of the day, don’t feel bad, it’s helping your brain! The trick is to time your breaks well and to not get lost in them. It’s very easy to check your facebook and realize you just spent a half hour there. Also, if you have friends who are political on facebook it may not be the mental break you need. Instead of being frustrated by work you get frustrated by annoying ideas. When you take this break, make sure it’s fun, make sure you note the time so you don’t get too lost. Try it out, see how it feels. May I recommend cuteoverload.com or zooborns.com? Or perhaps you belong to a fun facebook group that is easy to check and get a good light laugh from. If you’re playing a game, I recommend one that is timed so you don’t have to get to the next level, but can say, “OK five plays on Bejeweled Blitz is a good break time for me” is likely a better option than say a game like minecraft.
You will notice even at home, if you take frequent breaks when cleaning the house that you will get your task done faster than if you try to work straight through. There is a growing movement online called UfYH, it’s like the GTD movement, but for your home. You can hover over the link to see what that means, it uses a swear word but it works. It’s all about tackling big jobs in small pieces and creating habits and methods to get your habitat to a livable level and to keep it that way. Most of these tricks you can use at work too. There are even apps that can help you out.
Different work styles matter too. We’ve heard how people have different learning styles, well this also is the case for working style. I know that for me working with music can help me work better, instrumental or the lyrics must not be in english if I am doing anything with text (like writing a blog post), if I’m doing data entry of recreating a logo, or something where I don’t want to be reading, I like to listen to spoken word podcasts or audio books. Not everyone works this way. Some people need complete silence, which is why when working in an office if you need sound, use some headphones. Some people like me need the room to be bright enough to see everything (but not too too bright). While others need darkness. My husband works best with the lights off and just the computer monitor on, it cuts out visual distractions for him. For me that creates too much glare so I need the light on, we are lucky we have enough room for separate offices. Years back sharing an office made it tricky, but with special lamps and angling of desks we got it to work. The same can be done in an office or cubicle space.
What about being comfortable at work? I once worked for a fellow who taught me more about business than anyone, he was relaxed and confidant in is methods and a great boss to work for. He also was fantastically successful, a self made man, and someone who took over someone’s hobby business and turned it into a really great business that was profitable and good for everyone who worked there. I didn’t agree with everything and that’s ok, you’re never going to agree with everything a person says or believes, but he taught me a lot. In that office he encouraged us all to wear whatever made us most comfortable. He felt people who were comfortable were more productive, and they were happier, so their moral was up and again, more productive. Some people in that office were comfortable wearing full suits and couldn’t be comfortable wearing jeans to work, some liked wearing the company shirt and slacks, many felt comfortable in jeans and tee shirt, and a few even came in to work in leggings and pajama pants. The one I remember who wore pajamas most often only started that when she was pregnant, and when she returned to work so did the pj pants. As time went on the jeans came back, but she knew she could come to work and not worry about her c-section scar hurting her and no one would judge her or give her a hard time. She was also one of the best workers in her department. They had to hustle when she was out on maternity leave to cover her absence. All of these different attires working together worked really well. He had some other ideas that helped with that, he looked for certain personalities so each department meshed well with each other, around our busiest week, Christmas, he catered lunch every day for everyone. It made working the week before Christmas happy, not grueling.
In another article I will talk about having the right gear and space for your office and other things that make you comfortable.
What slacker things do you do that you think make you efficient?
