The Pinged Hobbit

Unfortunately for most of us the chances of getting to work from home all the time are pretty slim. As much as we might not like it we are going to have to spend time in the office, personally I find office time to be my least productive time of the day. Working at home I find it much easier to concentrate on a task then I do in the office. I’m sure that I am not the only one that suffers from this. From looking around our office I would say I am not the only person who struggles with this issue. Here are some of the biggest productivity killers as seen in our office:

Other Employees

This is by far the biggest distraction in our office. I guess it’s probably the same no matter where you work. I tend to find that other employees have no grasp of the fact that you might be dealing with something just as important as what they need you to deal with right away. You could be working away on something that requires your full attention, maybe some piece of code or those all important figures that needed to be out yesterday. Someone will still come to disturb you and try to interact with you on something else, quite often it might even be irrelevant.

The solution: There’s not a right lot you can do prevent this distraction. Short of being down right ignorant and telling them to get lost when they come to see you (effective but sure to get you a reputation as an ass) there isn’t a lot you can do about it. Sometimes the rude approach might work but it’s not one that is advisable for constant use, instead try the nicer option of explaining to them that you will be sure to come see them as soon as you are finished with what ever it is that you are doing.

The Phone

The phone, as with most of the other annoyances in the office, is still related to other employees as a rule. The difference is it’s very hard to avoid being distracted by a phone call. When some one comes to you while you are working it’s only a short break to remove the distraction. If the phone rings it’s got the whole annoying noise of the ringer which can really throw you off. Also on the phone people cant see your body language, they cant see you longingly turning back towards your computer screen to continue working.

The solution: Set the phone to do not disturbe, busy or what ever option it gives for making sure it does not accept calls. If there isn’t an option for this, turn the ringer volume right down as low as it will go. Obviously you’re probably not going to be able to ignore the phone constantly by making out you are seriously busy. Sometimes you are going to have to deal with you colleagues but at least this way you can dilute the disturbance to your work.

Instant Messaging

This one can be a distraction without the interference from other employees. I know plenty of people who have MSN or something similar on while in the office, using it to talk to friends and family. IM can be very useful in the office, at work we using skype to pass messages around the office, it saves on pieces of paper going missing with phone numbers on and it also means people. The problem is that people cant confine it to only this, they add none work related people to their contacts list and things go down hill from there.

The solution: IM’s are a less intrusive way for your colleagues to contact you than phone calls or coming to see you. But sometimes you need to learn to ignore them. Unfortunately you cant just turn them off as this just means they will try calling you instead. I use skype on my Mac book pro and the best approach I have found is to set it to be open up on a different space (virtual desktop) to the one I am using as my main work screen, that way I only have to look at an incoming IM during a lull in my concentration cycle.

Email

Email is a very useful tool in a working environment. It can be an easy way to keep in contact with people. Getting people to contact you through email can also be a lot less disturbing and distracting. The problem is, email in it’s self can be distracting especially if you have access to your personal email account. The other issue is, quite often a person can get to be pressing send and receive every two seconds, or being desperate to respond straight away when an email comes in.

The solution: Set yourself a strict schedule for checking your emails. Look at them maybe once in the morning, once at dinner time and then once in the afternoon. People don’t usually expect instant answers to the emails they send you. Doing things this way will at least cut down the amount of time you spend looking at spam