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Productivity is a fragile thing, especially in the work place. Most people have trouble making the most out of their working hours because their environment is full of all sorts of different distractions.

Social media, texts, phone calls, noisy surroundings, long and boring meetings, long commutes, always incoming corporate emails, being forced to constantly report on what your working and how much time you’ll need to finish your assignment – these are just some of the things that steal your attention from your actual work.

A decrease in productivity is a red flag for every business.

It’s a sign that clearly states that you have some sort of trouble with your workers, colleagues or equipment which you’ll need to fix ASAP if you don’t want to see your business go down in flames.

These last couple of years, I have worked in both big and small companies. I have also done my fair share of freelancing and working from home.

You can say, I’ve experienced a large number of different working scenarios in a really short time.

Every of these surroundings and job positions came with a whole new spectre of productivity killers.

The ones that I have found to be the most common among them are the following:

Dullness

Over the course of time, people tend to display signs of laziness if they’re not invested in what they do.

Sure, every working position has its boring side, but if you generally don’t like your position, sooner or later, you’ll start to display signs that you’re diverting your attention somewhere else.

In this case, it is important to keep high morale at your work station.

You need to motivate yourself and your fellow workers and provide them (or, again, yourself) with assignments that are at the same time, challenging and rewarding, on some sort of a new level.

You don’t want to be in a position where you just sit and do mindless operations over and over again.

No one wants to live the same boring day over and over again. You need to add some excitement to your work and set a goal that you want to reach.

To avoid this, it is highly advisable that you try to make your work day as “colorful” as possible.

You need to do different tasks, ones that you’re familiar with, and ones that you have never tried before.

This kind of rhythm will keep your mind constantly stimulated and challenged, you’ll never ever have a dull work day again.



Awful Workload Management

Learning how to make the maximum out of your time is no easy task. Time management is a special skill of its own, and it needs to be mastered if you want to see your employees producing more over the course of day and week.

I don’t know about you, but I used to have this habit of delaying tasks I don’t necessarily enjoy doing for later. I used to constantly push them back, even if I knew that I’ll eventually have to deal with them anyway.

This created chaos in my schedule. I used to stay late, in order to do the things that I tried to avoid during the day.

When I finally get around and sit down to finish this awful tasks, my attention starts to fly all over the place.

Almost everything around me instantly turns into a distraction.

The key to overcoming this obstacle is to be honest with yourself and just do the thing that you need to do at that exact time.

The more you postpone your assignments, they tend to get harder and harder for you to do.

Once you accept the thought that it needs to be done,you tend to deviate less.

Saying things to yourself like “I can do it”,”let’s go”, and such tends to helps a lot.

Whenever you feel demotivated just say some affirmative statements and thinks that there is no avoiding this tasks, it needs to be done, and only you can do it.

Try to focus more on the end result. Think about what you’re achieving, instead of what you’re doing at that specific time.

Example:

I’m not finishing some boring paperwork, I’m helping my team have a more detailed look on how we did this month, and on what we need to focus more in the future in order to show better results and make our boss feel even more satisfied with our work.

If this doesn’t work, try to implement a reward system where you treat yourself to a specific treat when you finish something that you initially hate doing.



General Work Environment and Atmosphere

Next to the job itself, one of the more important things that surely has impact on your employee performances is the environment in which they work in.

By work environment, I mean everything that forms part of employees’ involvement with the work itself, such as the relationship with co-workers and supervisors, organizational culture, room for personal development, and other similar things.

If the atmosphere isn’t positive at work, that means that employees won’t really feel motivated about the work itself, and that tends to cause problems.

Let’s be honest, no one wants to have an employee that literally drags himself to work every morning and, upon arrival, immediately starts staring at the clock.

No. We all want to work with people who feel passionate about their job, and everyday try their best to give and learn more.

To create a great atmosphere at work, one must implement an open and transparent two-way communication system.

One must offer its employees a great work-life balance that makes them feel that you value them more than just workers.

It is of crucial importance to flexible, recognize and reward hard work, and offer your people and yourself a never-ending opportunity to grow, learn and do more.

If you add all this thing into the foundation of your business, I promise you that you’ll have a company where people would kill to work.

Work on yourself, try to implement these advises in your everyday life, and come back to us with the results.

If you found this post useful, please share it your friends. Maybe some of them will benefit from the above mentioned tips and tricks.