contributed collaborative post // Have you ever felt unproductive in your work and life? That is most likely due to formed habits that are hindering your productivity. You need to ensure that every thing you do, supports how to produce optimal and productive performance.
In order to do that you need to know what are the things that can hinder your work productivity. Thus, you can avoid this and be more productive in the work field.
There are 8 main obstacles that often can be a hindrance to our work productivity. Keep on reading to know what those are!
1. Waking up in a rush
When you hear your alarm bell, will you wake up at the sound of it or turn it off and fall back asleep? If you choose the latter and end up waking up in a panic, this is what causes you to start the day on the wrong foot.
You will be in a rush and thus unable to have proper planning to go through the day. So, it is important to make sure that you prepare yourselves to wake up in the morning at the right time, and don’t delay getting up. That way, you can plan the day better and be more excited to do your work.
2. Checking email all the time
One of the barriers to work productivity is to drown yourself in replying to emails. Thus it is better to not check emails or incoming messages first thing in the morning.
Early in the morning is our most productive time. A time when our minds are still in a clear state to process everything, especially things that require great concentration. What you should do instead is, prioritize the most important and most difficult tasks first. That way, you won’t waste your precious time on the little things and work on something wrong.
3. Attending unnecessary meetings
Often a co-worker approaches you and invites you to brainstorm together. Truth to be told, doing this too often can make you unproductive. So, it is important to avoid unnecessary meetings. You must use your time as best as you can, and there is nothing wrong with saying ‘no’ to any discussion that is not needed. Productive people are so aware of where and how they spend their time, thus they are willing to reject other options to get what needs to be done.
4. Ignoring the most difficult tasks
One of the obstacles to work productivity is ignoring the most difficult tasks. Therefore, it is very important to make a to-do list and prioritize. Determine the most difficult and most urgent tasks to complete. Productive people will complete tasks according to the difficulty level and deadline. On the other hand, unproductive people will always find every excuse to neglect their most difficult tasks.
5. Having longer conversations
This does not mean we have to speak quickly and make it hard for other people to understand what we are talking about. But, it’s about having a comprehensive conversation of a reasonable length. Therefore, it never hurts to jot down the points you want to discuss before having a conversation with other people. This will keep you on the right track in the conversation.
6. Opening social media during work hours
If you are accustomed to checking out social media often, it will be very difficult to get out of this habit. Spending too much time on social media will hinder your work productivity. Instead of working on things that needed to be done, you end up scrolling social media with no end.
To avoid encountering this obstacle, it is good to put the cell phone away. Thus you can be more in control of how to utilize your time.
7. Choosing the wrong music
Music can be a tool that supports our productivity. However, if we choose the wrong type of music, it will be difficult for us to focus on our tasks. So, choose the right type of music that can help you calm down and concentrate better. Avoid music that is too loud and fast, because this will disrupt your concentration. The right type of music should encourage productivity, not distract you from your work.
8. Unclean work environment
An untidy meeting room, scattered piles of paper, and even dirty public spaces such as the pantry and bathroom, can be the ultimate thing that leads to massive unproductivity among the employees’.
This is because when you are working in an unclean and cluttered work environment, it can affect your brain and hinder its capability. Not to mention, in case, there are documents that you suddenly needed but it all lost in the piles of paper. Thus you need to spend lots of time locating it.
To avoid this, you can try to always maintain your workspaces. Ensure your work desk is free of cluttered things, thus it is easier for you to wipe all the dust on the desk with a disinfectant. For the maintenance of the public spaces, don’t hesitate to raise this issue with the manager or HR department.
Ask them to hire Singapore office cleaning to clean and tidy all of the public workspaces. This is important because neat and clean is the key to making the work area more comfortable.
These are the main obstacles to work productivity that we often have to face. By knowing these obstacles, you can anticipate yourself better and avoid doing this. Thus, you will be able to produce high work productivity and achieve maximum results!
Unnecessary meetings drive us crazy and really hinder our productivity. They also feel draining.
This is such an excellent list. There are so many ways to procrastinate…I do like the one about ‘ignoring your most difficult tasks’. Very good post! 🙂