Returning to the office? 4 ways to minimise distractions

We all know how hard it can sometimes be to remain productive in the office environment – whether you’re a solo entrepreneur, are surrounded by others at your hot desking space or have a small team around you, all too often productivity can be derailed by everyday distractions. The key to staying on course and ticking off those important items on your to-do list is to have a strategy in place to minimise those things that take your attention off what you should be doing and eat up the working day.

Try these four ways to keep your productivity levels high by minimising the things that drag your attention away from key tasks such as making sales calls or drafting up proposals:

1.   Record everything that distracts you

Before you can get down to minimising the interruptions that sap your energy and threaten your ability to meet your goals, you need to know exactly what you are most prone to being distracted by. To do this, commit to recording every instance where you’re distracted for a period of two weeks. Whether it’s the noise brainstorming of your co-workers, the temptation to reply to messages or scroll social media or a constant influx of emails and visitors to your office, make a note each time your concentration is pulled away from your work. With that knowledge, you can create a plan to minimise the presence of those productivity killers.

2.   Create a schedule with tasks timetabled

Use an online calendar (or the calendar on your Outlook account) to plan out your day, with key tasks assigned to specific timeslots. Share this calendar with your team so that they know you’ll be unavailable during those periods of time. This can help to reduce the number of people popping in to ask questions or say hello, helping you to stay focused and remain on task.

3.   Have a no phone policy

If it’s not just your own but your team’s productivity and tendency to be easily distracted that is bothering you, it may be worth implementing a no phone policy. This might sound draconian but, with stats showing that the average adults spends almost four hours a day scrolling on their phone – the equivalent of 50 days per year – this simple action could drastically reduce distractions.

4.   Identify what interest you and delegate our outsource the rest

You’re much more likely to be easily distracted when trying to get though a task that you don’t find interesting or challenging. Spending hours on something you don’t like because you’re continually finding other things to do is a waste of time and resources. Identify which tasks you most dread and what you enjoy. The tasks that you dislike could be costing you money, because you’re spending too long on them and wasting time on distractions such as social media. Delegate those tasks or outsource them to someone who does enjoy them and is capable of doing them, freeing you up to focus on jobs you can get your teeth stuck into.