Originally published on investorideas.com
Distractions can be disastrous to productivity. Ferrari Energy knows that to be as productive and successful as possible, businesses need to reduce distractions.
Follow these eight helpful tips if you want to reduce distractions in your business and achieve greater efficiency and productivity.
1. Create Quiet Spaces
Noise can be one of the most significant factors that contribute to distraction. As a result, employees will sometimes need a quiet place to work to concentrate on the tasks at hand.
You can counteract this by providing quiet spaces in the office where people can go to work. Then, when employees need time and space to concentrate, they can retreat to these spaces away from the floor and get to work.
2. Eliminate Unnecessary Meetings
Meetings are a great way to get a team on the same page and communicate a message efficiently. Many companies fall into the trap of holding too many meetings, though, and many of them are simply unnecessary.
Only hold essential meetings and designate certain days of the week where no meetings are scheduled. This will reduce distractions and interruptions in workflow.
3. Provide Training on Time Management
Employees who are good at managing their time are often the most productive. As a leader at your company, you can help them by providing time management training. In addition, simple tips and tricks on how employees can create to-do lists and prioritize their work, for example, will go a long way in helping them reduce distractions.
4. Provide Regular Breaks
There can be some downfalls of too much structure in employee schedules, such as set times for breaks and lunch. So, while you may not want to micromanage all your employees' schedules, it's still a good idea to set expectations that employees can, and should, take designated breaks throughout the day.
When employees feel comfortable taking breaks, they'll do so -- and have the non-work conversations then instead of doing so while others are trying to get work done. This will streamline the workflow for everyone and allow people to clear their minds at the same time.
5. Improve Communication Skills
One of the most significant time-sucks at any company is inefficient communication. Instead of collaborating with other workers or gathering appropriate data and information, employees spend loads of time simply responding to emails.
You can reduce this distraction by improving your employees' communication skills and providing them with better communication tools. Email works for some communication, but not for all.
6. Provide Time Off
We all need to step away at times and clear our minds. If we don't, we're likely to be distracted at work while our minds are on other things.
Ferrari Energy suggests that companies recognize this fact and provide all employees with a solid paid time off plan. Managers should also encourage their employees to use the time off rather than discourage them from doing so.
7. Ask Employees to Turn Off Personal Notifications
Social media, text messages, and personal email all create big distractions for employees at work. As company leaders, you may want to simply ban all personal communication. That may not be feasible, though, and it could actually anger your employees.
Instead, encourage them to turn off their notifications for everything not related to work. And also, provide a time throughout the day when employees are encouraged to check up on their personal email and social media accounts.
8. Be Flexible
If the pandemic has taught businesses one thing, it's the importance of being flexible. The flexible work schedule is likely here to stay, and that's a good thing.
Allowing flexibility with employee schedules and workspace for the long term can help companies reduce distractions.