We’ve all got them. Distractions in the office are a dime a dozen, and can sometimes feel unavoidable. With the internet, smartphones, music, conversations, passersby, ringing phones, and our own personal goings-on, how can anybody get anything done? Alas, getting distracted is not a sufficient enough reason to skip out on your work-related duties, but the good news is there are some truly effective ways to cancel out noise – both literal and metaphorical – when trying to get stuff done in the workplace. Whether you work from home or in a more traditional environment, here are 5 workplace distractions and how to avoid them.
- Co-workers: We don’t mean to be harsh, but sometimes co-workers can be the ones actually making it hard for us to get work done. Now, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t engage with them at all, but if you know some of your colleagues are inclined to chat, gossip, and socialize while you’re trying to get something done, you have several options. First, if you don’t mind being looked at like the “goody two-shoes” of the office, you could politely ask them to take their socializing elsewhere, or to keep it down while you’re busy. You could also find out if you could move your workspace to another location within the office, if that’s an option. Another option would be to sport some headphones, but as we’ll see shortly, these can prove to be a distraction, too.
- E-mail: That’s right. If you get a ton of e-mail each day, audible and/or visible notifications can be a persistent distraction, and even though each notification only takes up a millisecond of time to pop up, just seeing a subject line or hearing the dreaded “ping” can be enough to send your mind into a tangent that is not at all related to what you’re working on at the time. Turn off your notifications, especially on your personal e-mail. Many e-mail providers allow for special filtering, which makes it possible for you to only receive notifications related to a particular thread, person, or project. Do some research and find out if this option is available to you, and if it’s not, suggest it to your supervisor. You may just implement something in the office that makes everyone more efficient!
- Music: If you work in a traditional office, chances are there isn’t music playing, but many of today’s more relaxed work environments allow for tunes to be played for everyone to enjoy. If you’re one of those people who can’t focus if there’s anything playing in the background, some ear plugs or noise-cancelling headphones can be your best friend. On the flip side, if you love to play music to make your day go by faster and make it feel less tedious, you could actually be distracting yourself more than you think, and it could negatively affect your output. For a happy medium, try listening to some less uptempo music, or something tranquil like ocean or rainforest sounds.
- Outside Distractions: This applies mostly to those who have windows in their workspaces or those who work from home or other non-traditional environments like coffee shops. People walking by, traffic, and even weather can be enough to catch our eye and lead us into a state of daydreaming, and even something like hypnosis. If you sit facing a window, your options are pretty straightforward: put up curtains or blinds or, even more simply, turn around! If you’re easily distracted by people watching, you may have to reconsider your work environment, and find a place that comes with as little foot traffic as possible.
- Social Media/Text Messages: Alright, let’s be honest. These kinds of distractions likely make up the lion’s share of distractions today. The good news is, they’re also some of the easiest to control! Outside of just turning off your smartphone and just not logging on from your work computer, there are other options. Similar to the e-mail capabilities mentioned above, some phones are so handy they come with similar filtering capabilities, allowing you to silence each app individually, and even making it possible to ignore texts from specific people. We’d suggest just leaving your phones in your bag/briefcase, but we’re millennials! We can juggle everything without letting our work suffer, right? Right!
For more distractions & how to deal, visit this insightful slideshow at Forbes.