Technology is an enabler. It can power efficiency in the work place and increase productivity. It can also increase speed and generally make operations seamless. Flip the coin, technology becomes a major challenge when employees get distracted by it – and really no one is exempted.
CareerBuilder released a survey in June which showed that 1 in 5 employers (19 percent) think that employees are productive fewer than 5 hours a day. More than half of employers (55 percent) said that workers’ mobile phones and texting were the major culprits.
A breakdown of the big distracters from the employers’ point of view showed cell phone and texting at 55 percent; the internet, 41 percent; office gossip, 39 percent; social media, 37 percent; and email, 26 percent among others.
While office gossip constituted a significant distraction in the workplace, tech devices like your smartphone took the largest blame making you less productive.
According to the survey, more than 80 percent of workers own smartphones and most keep it within reach in the office. While checking email or social media accounts is possibly part of accomplishing the tasks you are assigned, activities such as clearing your inbox or keeping your number of unread emails down to zero might not amount to actual meaningful work.
To maximize your productivity, consider setting a time to checking emails. Avoid checking it any other time of the day.
Jocelyn Glei, author of “Unsubscribe: How to kill email anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Down” shared some advice on distractions. “Block time off for yourself to do some of the work that really is meaningful for you.” In essence, schedule your me-time on the work. Glei says you should “honor that time like you would a meeting; it is just a meeting with yourself.”
If you are the type that easily get distracted when everyone is there and your office is an open-floor plan that allows anyone come to your table at any time, the way out could be coming to work earlier than you do and starting some of your most important tasks early.
A good habit to form is itemizing your tasks on a paper. It could be your daily to-do-list. There are a range of apps aiming to help you reduce the distraction and get on top of your to-do-list every day. Some of the apps you can download include Google Keep (runs on Android and it is free), Todoist (Android/iOS/Windows Phone and free), Any.do (Android/iOS and free), Remember the milk (Android/iOS and free), Clear (iOS and cost a token), and Habitica (Android/iOS and free).
“If one wants to be healthy and happy and satisfied at work and have a sense of accomplishment, you have to be incredibly proactive about how you manage your time at work,” Glei said.
