Distractions at work are everywhere and sometimes are inevitable such as noise coming from the outside, phone ringing, nearby group meetings, and more. When it catches your attention, it may result in low productivity in the workplace.
Low productivity can delay career progress, cause health issues, and restrain work-life balance because you are always beating the deadline and you have no time to recharge.
However, there are also distractions that only you can control. Controlling these common bad habits can help you to get back on track.
Attending Personal Calls, Messages, and Chats
Instead of constantly checking and replying to family or friends’ messages, specify a time when to attend them unless it’s an emergency. If you still find it hard to do that, leave your phone inside the locker or somewhere away from you.
Browsing Unrelated Sites
Googling on something work-related is totally fine. But reading the news or watching funny videos while doing your tasks is absolutely not! To keep yourself from browsing irrelevant sites, install a website blocker.
Checking on Personal Social Media Accounts
You only want to check the number of likes in your post on Facebook and Instagram. But someone left a comment so you replied. Then, you scrolled down a bit and found something interesting. Until you realize that you’ve already spent 20 minutes of your time.
See how a simple act of opening the app can distract you? Better turn off the notifications during work hours.
Messy Space
A cluttered desk can clutter a mind. It can impact an employee’s mood and attention, limiting their capacity to process information. When your focus is disrupted, you will be confused, stressed, and anxious.
To combat distractions due to clutter, remove unnecessary items on your table and install space-saving storage organizers.
This also applies when you’re conducting training. Ensure that the training room rental space is clean and orderly. As much as possible, make your training paperless by having all the records and data grouped in folders to avoid clutters.
Gossiping or Chit-Chatting with Co-Workers
Your workmate suddenly brought up the news about a friend. Then there you are, instead of preparing for the presentation, got hooked on the culprit.
To avoid that, work alongside people who are focused and propelled by productivity. You can also suggest to the management to rent seminar room and conduct lectures on how to reach the maximum potential of every employee.
Daydreaming or Thinking of Personal Matters
Rather than pondering on things that you would like to buy or places you’d like to go, learn to set aside those matters when you are working. Inhale, exhale, and clear your thoughts.
Failure to Breakdown Tasks and Specify Schedules
A large workload can be overwhelming which makes you get interrupted easily. Categorizing your priorities and sorting them into smaller tasks can help you finish as scheduled.
Abusing Your Health
Poor health can be bothersome. How can you work properly when you’re experiencing pain such as headache, stomachache, and poor eyesight? Let’s face the reality that our body is deteriorating. Hence, we need to eat healthy food, take enough rest, and do regular exercise.
Summary
It will only take a few seconds of interruption to totally lose your focus yet it will take several minutes to regain it. Therefore, keep the things that can steal your attention away from you; otherwise, it will drag down your productivity.
If you like this article, you might want to read this article about You Ought to Read This If You Can’t Decide Which Type of Training Is Best for You.