PRODUCTIVITY! A tough beast that is constantly wrestled with in every area of working. Distractions like the internet and the outside world are massive in the 21st Century and they are the nemesis of productivity. If you have found your productivity levels at an all-time low, below are three ways in which you can turn things around.
The Right Space
In this bizarre year of 2020, people have been working in all sorts of environments. Whether that’s in a bedroom, kitchen or, in the nicer parts of the year, a garden. Even though it’s easier to pick up your laptop in bed and get started, it’s not always the best option. Unless you have a dedicated workplace, it becomes difficult to resist procrastination and menial distractions. If you want to up your productivity, it would be highly beneficial to mark out your territory. Creating an association of working to an area means your brain will assume that mindset. If you want to take it that one step further and hire some office space, then look no further than Stelmain.com. Providing a variety of office spaces in Glasgow, Stelmain assures that they will have the right option for you. From contemporary builds to refurbishments, renting one of these will get you out of the house and into your very own luxury office.
Music/Ambience
Some people like to stay in silence when working. You may benefit from background noise when working, however. Putting your headphones on and playing some thrash metal might not be the ultimate cure for a slow work rate but soundtracks and ambient environments might be. Going to YouTube or Spotify, finding a piece of classical music, ambience of a forest or some Lo-fi beats has been found to boost the user’s work productivity. One such experiment revealed that listening to music at work can improve productivity by up to 15%. That’s huge when looked at on a monthly or even annual scale! Using songs without words is usually preferable, as your brain can get pushed off course and therefore your concentration can lapse.
Scheduling and Deadlines
Time management is a hugely difficult thing. Working without a schedule means an uneven amount of time given to each project, deadlines potentially not being met and overworking at crunch times. However, if you were to construct a schedule for yourself and potentially the team around you, not only can you keep track of progress, but you can also make sure you’re balancing work life and home life well. To create a good schedule, you first need to know how much time you have to distribute. Utilising Excel or a personal planner, you can break down the tasks at hand into scheduled time slots and deadlines. The importance of deadlines is huge. Giving yourself an end date means working towards something. Sprinkling some time pressures onto your schedule is all good as long as you don’t overdo it.
It is important to note one last thing – look after yourself. If you’re not having a great day, make sure to take some time to yourself. If your head isn’t in a great place, then that should take precedence as you can’t sustain productivity when you’re battling your own brain.
