Productivity hacks help us have sanity in the office, which is more difficult to obtain than ever before.
Americans work longer hours than ever, dual-income households are increasingly common, and the number of hours worked continues to skyrocket.
One study even reports that Americans are the most overworked and stressed demographic in the entire world.
However, contrary to popular opinion, productivity doesn’t always coincide with being overworked and stressed.
The good news is that there are more tips, tricks, and productivity hacks available today than ever before, and the internet has given us all access to these gems of truth. So, keep reading to see if you can add these to your sanity-producing repertoire
3. The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique hit the scene in the 1980s. Developed by Francesco Cirillo, the system involves working in brief, 25-minute intervals, and taking a 5-minute break at the end of every 25-minute interval.
This 30-minute cycle may seem counter-intuitive for those who like to fall in to deep think, but this method of working has been proven effective, as ridiculous as it may seem.
If you haven’t recently had any of these 5 conversations with your boss, you should be able to let them convince you to practice the Pomodoro Technique at the office without any problems.
Don’t Confuse It with Laziness
Some bosses can make the mistake of confusing frequent breaks with laziness. If you’re going to make a case for the Pomodoro Technique at your office, you’ll want to bring it to your manager’s attention first.
The good news is you can rely on the Pomodoro to get you out of an immensely boring meeting if need be, which is crucial: most studies suggest that meetings are a waste of time, and businesses should scale back on meetings whenever possible.
2. Turn Off Your Email Each Day for a Predetermined Interval of Time
Similar to turning off alerts, email can impinge productivity, even though it was designed to do the exact opposite. This is one of our riskiest selected productivity hacks.
Although many of us believe we are “super taskers” and can pay attention to multiple tasks at once, only a very small percentage of the population can do this (think less than 1% of all people).
So, relying on our own overrated ability to multitask between email items and projects we have at work can be futile—especially our professions demand us to spend time on the phone, too.
Don’t Forget to Tell Your Coworkers About It
If you are going to shut off your email to get work done during the day, be sure to let your coworkers know about your plan. Otherwise, a lack of response to an urgent request sent via email could breed distrust or hostility among coworkers, and that is never a good way to become an expert productivity hacker.
1. Embracing a Minimalist Work space
This is one of the most enduring trends of 2017. Although minimalism originated in the home environment and acquired popularity from the Netflix documentary, Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, it’s a lifestyle also seriously discussed in publications like the Huffington Post.
Applying minimalism to the office space has numerous benefits: It creates an orderly environment without inducing stress, it makes information manageable, and if your business involves having clients meeting you in your office space, a clean and clear studio or small business environment will do wonders for making them feel ‘right at home.’ This is one of those productivity hacks that we foresee doing well in the future with the millennial demographic.
Remember the Tools to Make Minimalism Happen
To bring minimalism into your office environment, you’ll need to rely on the right technology to make it a reality, especially if you own, run, or participate in operating a small business with 1 to 5 employees.
There are numerous technologies out there to make this a reality. For instance, cloud-based document management solutions not only let companies eliminate all the paper in their office environments (which helps in facilitating minimalism), they have extraordinary organizational power and reduce the amount of manual labor you’ll have to do while at work and on the clock.
Who wouldn’t want to be a minimalist in light of these facts?