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Office Productivity Tips: How to Setup a Desk to Create Better Focus
Throw distractions away
Do not put your smartphone on your work desk.
Even though turning off all notifications and turning the device to silent mode might eliminate distraction, having it physically there would give your mind a subconscious signal that someone might be looking for you.
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Throw distractions away
Do not put your smartphone on your work desk.
Even though turning off all notifications and turning the device to silent mode might eliminate distraction, having it physically there would give your mind a subconscious signal that someone might be looking for you.
Keep your desk setting simple
You'll find yourself more focused and motivated. The key here is having lots of desk space where you could draw and write things on.
It takes discipline to keep the work desk as clean and simple as possible, but it is certainly worth the effort and is a great habit to have.
What symbolizes the current focus
Ask yourself: “How can I alter and create a work environment to work towards my productivity?”
Put things that you currently focus on in front of you.
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Increase your focus by setting goals
Whenever you have issues focusing, try setting goals. The most important tip anybody could give you at this point is that the smaller the goal, the better the result. Therefore, try focusing on one...
Organize your tasks for a better focus
Organizing your tasks according to their difficulty level has only positive effects on your work. You will not only keep track of what has been done and what remains to be done, but you will also make sure that both difficult and easy tasks are being performed.
Scheduling improves your focus
Carefully scheduling your daily program enables you to reach a better focus. As you plan your day, you should take care of dividing your tasks according to the available time. This way you will know from the beginning of the day what and when needs to be done, which will reduce considerably the time to make decisions, which is one of the main distractions when thinking to start a new task. Furthermore, including breaks in your schedule is almost essential, as these allow you to recharge your batteries and, therefore, work more efficiently afterwards.
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Our inability to focus
Two significant challenges are destroying our ability to focus.
- We are increasingly overwhelmed with distractions from various connected devices.
- We...
Practice mindfulness
Our biggest mistake is how we start the day. Instead of checking email on your phone, try a simple mindfulness practice when you wake up.
It can be quietly taking a few deep breaths or meditating for 20 to 30 minutes.
Organize tasks
A common mistake is to fill your calendar with the wrong tasks.
A meeting can break your day into two pieces, each too small to do anything hard in.
Instead, take advantage of your body's natural rhythms. Focus on complex, creative tasks in the morning and schedule your meetings for the afternoon.
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Take a Nap
Dreaming is a source of inspiration because your brain is working even when you’re asleep.
If you can’t seem to break through your brainstorming session, take a nap.
Drink
People who are concentrating too hard will sometimes block the creative processes necessary for problem-solving.
A drink or two might just help calm your brain.
Listen to Music
Music can put you into a “mind-wandering” state that’s perfectly conducive to coming up with new and creative ideas.
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Organize your office
- Start with a purge to create an office that is free of clutter.
- Create a catch-it space for incoming junk to sort through.
Keep your desktop clear of c...
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Organize Your Home Office
- Invest in comfort for the sake of productivity.
- Update your network and devices.
- Eliminate clutter and too much intrusion from y...
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Stay Near Organized People
They’re really helpful resources.
Maybe your super organized co-worker will share the rules she sets up in her inbox. Or maybe try setting up a calendar with a neat co-worker that you ...
Everything You Own Has its Place
Every single item that you own should have a place, wether is a business card, a snack or an email.
This will reduce significantly the clutter of your life.
Turn it Into a Challenge
If you turn cleaning up into a game, you can make the process fun.
It may sound ridiculous, but this strategy really works, especially if you're a competitive person.
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Default choices
90% of your daily decisions happen automatically, many shaped by your environment. Thus, most decisions are a habit, not a deliberate choice.
To make smarter choices, design smarter...
Designing your life
Design your life like a choice architect:
- Encourage smarter decisions you want to do by making them more accessible.
- Add friction to habits you want to quit, making them less accessible, or remove the option to perform them completely.
Richard Thaler
“First, never underestimate the power of inertia. Second, that power can be harnessed.”
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Remote-first Mindset
Accept that you have to put in place remote work systems, even if more than half of your employees ultimately revert to office-based work.
- If done right, a remote-first infrastructu...
Build a socially-connected culture
Intentionally design for the same interactions that would otherwise happen if people were in the office.
- Culture is what naturally happens when a group of people gets together for any period.
- A great culture happens with intentional design and influence. It's the reason you should make your company's mission, vision, values, operating principles, standards, and agreements visible.
- Culture is experienced through emotions, including how your employees feel about the company, you, other leaders, and peers. That feeling is developed through human interaction at the water cooler, kitchen, or hallway conversations.
Your leadership presence
Your people need to feel your presence as a leader as they will have fewer opportunities to see you face to face when they work remotely.
- Regularly show up in a variety of forms that can include weekly video meetings, periodic company-wide emails, or presence in public channels.
- Err on the side of more communication rather than less.
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The "frog"
It is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don't do something about it.
It is also the one task that can have the greatest positiv...
Brian Tracy
"One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all".
The ABCDE prioritization approach
- A items : Things you must do, which will have a serious positive or negative consequence.
- B items : Things you should do, that have minor consequences.
- C items : Things that are nice to do but don’t have any real consequences when they’re done.
- D items : Things to delegate so you can free up more time to do A tasks.
- E items : Things to eliminate. Generally stuff you do out of habit.
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The way our mind works
Our brains are wired to work on tasks serially, and not in parallel. This means that we are not wired for multitasking - we are good at focusing on one thing at a time.
The problem is, there are so many distractions these days that we've unconsciously trained our brains to not be good at focusing.
Doing one thing at a time
Commit to what you want to study on a particular day, or for a few hours. Limit the number of tasks/distractions/subjects so that you keep your intense focus and actually complete the tasks you started.
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