How To Build A Productive Home Office – 10 Tips

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With the rise of flexible working, a lot more people are choosing to work from home. However, with the rise of remote working, comes a new issue – how do you motivate yourself to stay on task when you work remotely?

When you’re in a traditional office environment, it is generally a lot easier to slip into “work mode” and stay focused than it is at home. Your house can be full of distractions; children, gaming consoles, chores, television, people dropping by . . . sometimes just being able to get into the right mindset is a challenge. (Especially if you like to work from the comfort of your pyjamas!)

That being said, if you can overcome the challenges and distractions, you can actually end up being more productive working from home. Today, we’re sharing our top tips on building a home office that will actually allow you to get stuff done.

1. Make sure everyone in your house knows when you’re “at work”

One of the largest disruptions when you work from home can be the people that live with you. At first, your presence in the house may signal availability – and you might find yourself being walked in on and disturbed throughout the day.

However, if you make it clear that you are still in the office (just your own office) and that you’re working, usually people will learn that you’re off limits during working hours. A few polite ways to say this could be:

“My company uses monitoring software on remote workers, so I need to stick to my work – could you come back at lunchtime?”

“I have a really tight deadline and I’m working at home to avoid all the noise of the office and get some deep focus. I’ll get back to you in a few hours.”

You could also have set “breaks” during the day where everyone in your households knows you’re accessible for ten or twenty minutes every few hours. That way, if they want to speak to you, they won’t burst in and interrupt you mid-flow – but they’ll feel like you’re making time for them. Or a system wherein you signal how available you are to be contacted. A good example of this is the hotel room policy: if you’re happy for people to walk in for a chat, leave the door empty; but if you need deep concentration hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the doorknob.

The key is to set clear boundaries that everyone agrees with – and enforce them.

2. Get dressed every day

A large benefit of working from home is not having to wear uncomfortable work clothes . . . but, as tempting as it may be, make sure you aren’t working in your pyjamas either. The act of getting up and dressed helps your brain to wake up and focus, otherwise there’s no signal telling you “time to work!”.

3. Have a separate space for working

Having a separate space dedicated to working helps your brain distinguish between “home” and “work”. Not only that, much like having an assigned desk in the office, having a set area to work every day can help you build a consistent routine. You know where everything is – and you know that once you’ve sat down it’s time to get down to it!

4. Invest in high-quality furniture that will help you work

When it comes to office furniture, much like mattresses, it’s well worth the investment. Both of these things are worth spending a bit extra on for the same reason: you spend so much of your time using them that they have a profound effect on your comfort and overall health.

Consistently sleeping on a bad mattress can damage your back – and so can sitting in an office chair that promotes bad posture.

We highly recommend investing in ergonomic furniture because it’s designed to help keep you comfortable, which keeps you productive throughout the day – but also minimises the risk of long-term back problems.

Remember, you’re going to be sitting in this chair for at least 8 hours a day; if it isn’t supporting your body, it’s likely to be causing problems.

5. Have some personal touches that inspire you

Much like in the office at work, having personal touches in your home office can help you stay engaged during the workday. Be careful to ensure that you aren’t allowing household clutter to encroach on your working space, though!

6. Add some plants

Plants in the office have a large array of benefits, from making you more productive to improving your health. They’re a great way to improve your office’s air quality – plus, they just make a nice aesthetic addition.

We’ve written an in depth post about the benefits of adding plants to your office and some ideas for how to on this blog before; if you’d like to learn more, feel free to read this post.

7. Build up and add storage to the walls

When you work from home, often you won’t have the luxury of space. To make the most of the space you do have available, consider building up and using your walls to your advantage by adding shelves and storage to them.

8. Consider a sit-stand desk

In recent years, there’s been a lot of research around the health risks of the sedentary lifestyles that a lot of us lead. Sitting time for a significant amount everyday contributes to a number of harmful consequences such as:

Sit stand desks are a great way to combat the negative effects of sitting for too long. We provide a wide range of sit stand desks suitable for all needs and budgets, feel free to send us an enquiry!

Send Enquiry About Sit Stand Desks

If you’d like an in-depth explanation of the pros and cons of sit stand desks, why they’re supposedly good for your health and some of the research behind them, feel free to read our post about whether you should buy a sit-stand desk.

9. Have set working hours – and stick to them

When you work from home, it’s easy to get distracted and not work enough or get carried away and work too much. If you set hours for work and stick to them, you’ll get into a consistent routine and find your body automatically switching to “work mode” during these hours.

10. Experiment with different working hours

If you work remotely and aren’t bound by needing to interact with your colleagues during the workday, you may want to try working different hours. Instead of 9 to 5, you may find you work better early in the morning or late at night. If you’re more productive at a certain time of day, why not take advantage?

Hopefully, you found these 10 tips helpful! If you are trying to build your perfect home office, Quills Group provides a wide range of high-quality office furniture suited for every budget, so don’t hesitate to contact us.

 

A Day In The Life Of Quills Customer Service

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It’s now been three months since we welcomed the William West additions into our office! Today we’re interviewing our latest customer service addition, André, to see what a typical day in the life of our customer service department is like.

Typical day

This ranges from starting the day going through customer’s back-orders, queries, shortages and orders moving onto sourcing any ‘special’ items that someone has requested or dealing with returns. All of this but I still find some time at lunch to squeeze in a few games of pool with my colleagues in our rest room!

Best part of the role

The best part has to be the fact that no days are the same so you are not working through a routine every day, although every day provides it’s own challenge, it is refreshing that those challenges are never repetitive ones.

Worst part of the role

I don’t really think there is a worst part but if I had to choose one it would probably be having to let the customer down when we cannot obtain stock on particular items from our wholesalers, that’s a disappointment.

Funniest request

I was asked to ring Coca Cola as the customer said it was taking her longer to unpack her cans of coke as the pack size had changed.

Hardest request

Producing rubber stamps in Chinese

Nicest feedback received

“You are a legend!! Thank you so much!!! This girl at work has been stressing me out all morning! I really appreciate this!”

“Wow! What a good price & excellent service from you as always.”

“Thanks André for everything“

Where you see yourself in 5 years

Lisbon, if not then I will still be beating everyone at pool downstairs!

Football team the you support

Greatest club in the world, FC Porto J

Hobbies

Being a passionate supporter, travelling around Europe with friends following my football team is my favourite, not only for the football but you have the opportunity to meet and see different people/cultures some of which I still keep in contact today.

Trips to the cinema are always good, having studied film studies at A Level grade films is another passion of mine.

Add to that the normal things people enjoy, time with family, friends, holidays, late nights here and there!

Countdown To Oz . . .

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The time has nearly come for us to say goodbye to Mia who is our Digital Marketing Assistant.  Sadly for Quills she will be heading off to explore Australia for a trip of a lifetime from the beginning of September.

Mia joined us at the beginning of the year and has been working on web design, social media, blogs and much more!

As part of the countdown to Mia leaving we felt it would be fun to bring in an Australian item each day! Colin the crocodile, Kevin the Koala, an Aussie cork hat (a must have for any Brit travelling to Oz!) an Australian flag, Ozzie phrase book and some factor 50 sun screen!

Mia departs at the end of August and will be sadly missed but we wish her a safe and fun experience during her travels to Australia and beyond!

Mia was asked the following…

Favourite memory of Quills:

I don’t know, there have been a lot of them! We’ve worked on loads of challenging but rewarding projects, like the new website development and designing new brochures. And everyone in the office has a great sense of humour, so there have been a lot of laughs 🙂

What she’s looking forward to most when she goes to Oz:

Ziplining through the rainforest! And kangaroos. Oh – and parties on the beach.

Can’t travel without item/s:

Earphones, my phone and comfy clothes. Skinny jeans on flights are sacrilegious.

Funniest phrase in the Oz phrase book:

 

What she’ll miss about the UK:

The people in it. And knowing where everything is.

What will you do for 24 hours on the plane!!:

Pray that all the parents dosed their kids up on Calpol before the flight, listen to music and read some last-minute-airport-buy books.

List of Must See places in Oz:

There’s too many, we’d be here all day! The top places I absolutely have to go are Melbourne, Byron’s Bay and Fraser Island.

8 Ways To Add Some Fun To Your Office!

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With the World Cup over and summer coming to a close, a lot of our office cheer is taking a dive. No more pizza and beer on evenings that England are playing, no more flag decorations hanging from the ceiling, no more ice cream days . . . the summer months can often massively improve the atmosphere of the office and we’re sure that, like us, you’ll be sad to see them go.

However, while the sunny weather might leave, who says the office fun has to? Today, we’re sharing 10 ways that you can add some fun to your office even without the good weather.

1. After work drinks

One of the biggest ways you can encourage fun in the workplace is to make sure that you’re having fun out of it. After work drinks are a great way for your workforce to bond on a personal level instead of surface level, “work appropriate” chit chat.

Many studies have proven that employees with friends at work are more engaged, more productive and happier at work – so it’s worth encouraging your workforce to build relationships with one another.

2. Order food in

Nothing bonds people like food! Once a month, why not order in a pizza and have a long lunch break eating together and having a friendly chat? This is a great opportunity to get to know your coworkers better and is an effective ice-breaker for bosses and employees to sit down and have a casual chat.

NOTE: You probably want to avoid the work talk here, unless you want to use this as a way to hold informal meetings. Nobody wants to be nagged during their lunch break.

3. Friday early finish

A great way to boost morale is to let your employees go a little early on one Friday out of the month. It builds excitement for the weekend – plus, there’s a lot of research behind the fact that working shorter hours can make us more productive.

4. Bring in a fruit platter (or sweets!)

We’ve already mentioned food on this list, but it’s worth a second idea – after all, eating the same kind of food together can build relationships and boost feelings of trust, all great things for people working in a team! Not to mention the other benefits:

  • If you have a strategically placed snack table, it can encourage employees to stand up and walk to get snacks. This not only encourages people to walk a bit more – which is beneficial for their health – but this can also act as a quick break from their work. We’ve already spoken about the numerous benefits of taking breaks, but the take-home is that break that makes employees more productive and they produce higher quality work.
  • Having communal eating / breakout area can give employees a place to congregate and interact with each other away from their desk. 
  • If you’re trying to encourage a healthier workforce, providing snacks allows you to control what snacks people are eating. People snack throughout the workday; it’s inevitable. In fact, being in the office makes you snack a lot more. However, people tend to snack on unhealthy food – not only can this lead to lower productivity, it can cause health problems that can result in absence. When you provide snacks, you can to a certain extent control what’s people eat – so you can make sure your employees are eating the right thing.

5. Try some FUN team building exercises

“Team building activities” is a phrase that can send a shiver of dread down your employees’ backs. Things like ‘trust falls’ or circles where people say one fact about themselves . . . to be blunt, they’re boring and people tend to dislike them (or worse, feel patronised by them.) However, there are a large range of fun team building activities that are actually worth a try. Here’s a few:

Team building exercises don’t have to be awful; they can actually be used to help your employees get to know each other and break the ice. It’s all about picking the right activity!

6. Let dogs come in once a week!

There are a whole host of benefits to having dogs in the office – most notably: increased employee satisfaction, decreased stress and improvements in productivity – but we acknowledge that dogs are not going to be the right fit for every workplace. Issues with allergies, insurance and potential damage can all arise, not to mention the fact that some people just don’t like dogs!

A great compromise that allows you to reap the benefits of pets in the workplace, while still keeping it a treat, is to allow dogs in once a week – maybe as a Friday celebration or a Monday mood boost.

7. Get a pool table

If you follow us on LinkedIn, you’ll probably be familiar with our pool table and how much our office loves it – and, if you don’t, why not give our LinkedIn a follow? Pool tables can be a great addition to a meeting room, especially as a way to break the ice with potential clients, and they’re a fun workplace activity for all the team to get involved in.  Our pool table doubles up as a meeting room table too as it has a removable top to create the table…genious!

8. Have a silly dress up day

Casual Fridays are the norm – in fact, a lot of offices don’t have a strict dress code to start off with – so you want to do something that stands out. Why not try a dress up day? This is a great way for people to show off their personality and a great conversation starter.

Image result for office fancy dress

We hope that this list inspired you to try introducing some fun into your office!

The Benefits Of Having Friends At Work – Why Your Business Should Encourage Coworker Friendships & How

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When you think about the factors that make your employees good workers, a lot of key things are often overlooked. Happiness, fulfilment, workplace design . . . all of these tend to fall to the back-burner. In fact, the emphasis seems to be on much more numerical things. How much holiday time employees take; the qualifications they hold; the number of hours they work. But what do employees think?

70% of employees say that having friends at work is the most crucial element to a happy working life. – Source

Today, we’re going to be talking about one of the unsung heroes of a successful office – workplace friendships – and how your business can encourage them.

The benefits of having friends in the workplace

In all likelihood, friendship is not one of the things that springs to mind when you think of productivity – but that attitude might be entirely wrong. Instead of touching on the obvious benefits to having a friendly workforce, like efficient teamwork and a better office environment, we’re going to take a look at some of the lesser-known benefits.

People with workplace friendships are nearly 3 times more likely to say that they love their companies and 2 times less likely to be poached by another company. – Source

1. Friends at work make you more productive and motivated

Work can be many things. It can be exciting, fun and fulfilling . . . however, it can also be boring, stressful, difficult and demotivating. When you’re working in the positives, you’re likely to be engaged and focused on your work. Producing high quality results and going the extra mile!

People with a best friend at work are 7 times more likely to be motivated and productive. – Source

When you’re working in the negatives,  you’re not going to be working to the best of your ability. You’ll be uninspired, possibly making mistakes – even worse, you might just not care. When you are not happy at work, your quality of work suffers.

Having a friend at work means having support; having someone to cheer you up when you’re down, let you vent when you’re stressed and have a chat when you’re bored. It means having something to look forward to when you go into the office. This can massively improve how much you enjoy your time at work – something that reflects in the work you produce. In fact, employees with a friend have a 35% higher dedication to quality than their counterparts.

2. Friends at work boost job satisfaction

 Studies have found that close friendships at work increase employee satisfaction by 50 percent – Source

As you can imagine from our previous point, the result of all of these benefits of having workplace friends is a higher level of workplace satisfaction among employees with friends at work. A lot of businesses overlook the importance of workplace satisfaction, but it is absolutely critical to maintaining a strong workforce and retaining your top talent – plus, having a workplace that’s well-known to be good to work for (think Google or Apple) is great for attracting new hires.

Why is employee satisfaction important?

50% of employees with a best friend at work reported that they felt a strong connection with their company. – Source

58% of men said they would refuse a higher paying job role if it meant not getting along with coworkers; 74% of women said the same. – Source

3. Friends at work just make people plain happier

Again, you may not see the immediate importance of this from a business perspective, but your employees’ mental health can be just as important as their physical. In fact, it can affect their physical health – recent studies have shown a link between high levels of mental distress and an increased risk of dying from cancer. Happy employees take less time off (12.7% of all sickness absence days in the UK can be attributed to mental health conditions), are healthier and generally produce better work.

People with strong interpersonal relationships are less likely to suffer from depression and anxiety. – Source

How to encourage employee friendships

Now that we’ve convinced you that workplace friends are a critical component to workplace success, let’s have a look at how your business can encourage employees to build them.

1. Use a buddy system to welcome in new hires

When people first join your business, it can be a daunting experience – they’re thrown into a completely new environment with people who already have strong pre-established bonds with one another and often just left to get on with it.

A great way to encourage friendships between new and existing employees is to implement a buddy system. Each new hire has an assigned “buddy” to help them integrate with the team and introduce them to everyone. This can be help new people feel like part of the team quicker and gives them a chance to develop a friendship with someone off the bat . . . which we’ve already discovered makes them a lot more likely to stay with you.

2. Have a weekly lunch together

Sometimes within the confines of the traditional office, it can be difficult to breach hierarchies and build relationships with people more senior to you, or in different departments. A weekly lunch can be a good chance to get to know your workforce in an informal setting without eating into outside hours or personal time (which people may not be keen on).

Plus, studies have shown that eating the same kind of food together can build relationships and boost feelings of trust – what better way to bring the office closer together?  You may end up finding out that your colleague needs support on a more personal level and confide in you once that trust begins to grow.

3. Play office games together

Office games can be a great way to relieve tension, have a bit of fun and just get to know each other better. They don’t have to be fancy or disruptive – plus, a lot of them are quick!

A few ideas for some fun office games:

  • Have a word of the day calendar and see who can naturally work the word into conversation throughout the day
  • Office prank competition
  • Photoshop tennis (a game where an image is sent round the whole office and people add an edit or drawing to it, then the final result is printed out)

We love this list of inoffensive, silly little office games you can play throughout the day.

4. Introduce some (real!) team-building activities

Team building admittedly has a rough reputation – and it’s not entirely undeserved. After all, in all likelihood your employees don’t actually want to have to do “trust falls” into your arms all morning! However, if you take the time to invest in some real, fun team building activities the payoff can be great!

5. Allow a dog in the office

We’ve spoken at length about the benefits of allowing dogs in the office, but one big benefit that applies here? The social aspect. Most people love dogs – and nothing starts a conversation like a friendly, cute puppy running round the office.

We hope that this post has helped you to understand the value of friendship in the workplace and gave you some inspiration for ways that your business could try to encourage it.

Why Your Business Should Embrace Employee Breaks

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Here’s a statistic that will probably surprise you:

The most productive workers actually take a 17-minute break for every 52 minutes they work. – Source

Most office workers will be familiar with the pressure to always look busy. Especially in open office plans where your coworkers (and your boss!) can see your screen, nobody wants to look like they’re slacking.

If you’re familiar with this style of working, however, you’re probably also familiar with the pitfalls of it. Brain fog, lack of concentration – and, possibly worst of all, boredom. It’s an ineffective way to work. Worse, it means that the work you’re producing is likely to be error ridden and of such low quality that you’ll end up spending more time redoing it.

Today, we’re going to be explaining all the benefits of taking breaks to you so that you can start to introduce them into your workday.

Benefits Of Taking Breaks During The Work Day

Breaks increase productivity

One of the largest benefits of taking breaks from work is that they help you to be productive while you’re working. The idea of taking breaks being negative is usually because of a misconception employers have; they assume that breaks are time taken out of time that would otherwise be spent working.

By this logic, you can’t blame your boss for not encouraging breaks. If you could get 7 hours of work out of an employee for the same cost, why settle for 6?

Why is this logic flawed? Because it assumes that all time spent “working” is time spent producing quality work, when the opposite is usually true. We all have energy spikes and dips; times when we’re tired or unfocused and we start to work slowly – when we start to make mistakes.

All that happens when you don’t take breaks is that when you hit one of these dips . . . you keep working at that low output.

Image result for productivity drop

Let’s look at an example:

When you’re working at 100%, you may be able to log 100 orders in an hour. You’re energised and refreshed – fast and clear-headed. You’re in your zone. 

When you’re working at 50%, you may be logging 35. You’re slower, firstly, but you’re also unfocused and making mistakes that you then need to go back and correct.

If you work 3 hours at 100%, you will start to feel yourself burning out – it’s inevitable. From here there are a few options:

Firstly, you could recognise you’re burning out, take a break and give yourself time to recharge your mental batteries; after which you can return to working full throttle.

The option most people take, however, is to push through. While you may think you’re making yourself look like a dedicated employee, what is actually happening is that your productivity levels are just going to sink lower and lower. If you’re burnt out already, think of what the effect of working extra hours on top of that is going to have on your mental resources.

Breaks help to increase creativity – and your brain needs to switch between “focus” and “diffuse” mode to problem solve

The brain has two modes; focused and diffuse. Focus mode is the setting your brain slips into while concentrating – when you’re forcing yourself to hone in on one particular activity. Things like learning and reading activate focus mode.

Diffuse mode is your brain’s relax mode, when it’s free to wander and drift. Day-dreaming is a prime example of diffuse mode at work.

Initially, you probably think that focus mode is what you need to hone in on to be productive – but that’s not entirely true. While focus mode is what most of your time at work will be spent in, diffuse mode plays an integral role in creativity and problem solving too.

In fact, your brain does a lot of its problem solving in diffuse mode. Have you ever had a “Eureka!” moment? A completely random moment of creative clarity? Well, what you’ll notice is that these moments usually happen in the middle of doing something completely unrelated to the problem at hand – like showering or driving. This is diffuse mode hard at work!

Taking breaks actually helps us to concentrate

Studies have shown that focusing on a task for too long is actually counterproductive and hinders performance. Taking a small break, however, allows your brain to refocus on the task at hand.

“We propose that deactivating and reactivating your goals allows you to stay focused,” Psych Professor Alejandro Lleras said. “From a practical standpoint, our research suggests that, when faced with long tasks (such as studying before a final exam or doing your taxes), it is best to impose brief breaks on yourself. Brief mental breaks will actually help you stay focused on your task!” – Source

As we’re sure you’ll agree, there are a multitude of benefits to taking a break every so often that your work and productivity can highly benefit from. Especially in this summer heat where it can be easy to get overwhelmed, don’t hesitate to take a ten minute break from the computer screen – your work will likely thank you!

How To Keep Your Office Productive and Engaged During Summer

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Summer has now hit the UK – and your office needs to be ready.

Warmer weather has a profound impact on Britain; our railways stop working and  our roads have the potential to literally melt. However, for the people of the United Kingdom, summer is a great thing! The warm weather has been proven to improve people’s moods and encourages them to get out and be more sociable.

Unfortunately, these benefits often don’t always transfer over to the office. A recent study found that productivity in the workplace decreases by 20% during summer. In addition to this, it was also found that attendance decreases by 19%, projects take 13% more time to complete and workers are 45% more distracted.

None of these statistics are ideal for your business, so today we’re going to be sharing our top tips for keeping your office engaged and productive, even in this summer heat.

1. Make sure you’re keeping the office temperature cool – but don’t overdo the air conditioning

Uncomfortable temperatures are one of the largest factors that prohibit productivity. Being too hot in summer can cause dehydration, light-headedness and headaches – not to mention, far more serious problems like heatstroke or heat-exhaustion.

Making sure that the temperature that your office workers are working in is neutral and comfortable is essential for them being able to actually work.

However, having the AC blasting too high can have the opposite effect. While working in heat can cause your employees to suffer, working in the cold is just as bad!

2. Encourage your employees to stay hydrated and, if you don’t already, provide free water

The effects of dehydration cannot be overstated – for health purposes, let alone productivity the workplace. The effects of dehydration include:

  • Dizziness or light-headedness
  • Headaches
  • Dry skin
  • Drowsiness

These symptoms of dehydration will all have a direct impact on productivity; if your employees are tired, dizzy and suffering from migraines, how will they be able to concentrate? How can they focus on their work? They can’t – and your business’s output will suffer for it.

Worse than this, dehydration can actually lead to worse, potential long-term health problems such as:

  • Heat injury.
  • Urinary and kidney problems.
  • Seizures.
  • Low blood volume shock (hypovolemic shock).

As you can see, making sure that your employees are hydrated throughout the day is essential. Not only should you encourage your employees to bring in their own water, you should provide free, accessible water for your office.

3. Flexible hours

Another possible avenue to consider is the introduction of flexible working hours. In summer, employees typically want to be in the sun, not cooped up in the office, so introducing more flexible hours can be the best of both worlds.

A lot of companies see success with this tactic. Employees are more engaged with the business as they appreciate the flexibility – and are more productive during their working hours. As we’ve already discussed in this blog, working more hours doesn’t amount to doing more work – it’s how productive your employees are during the time that they’re working that you need to focus on.

A few ideas for a flexible summer hours policy include:

  • “Early weekend” – on Fridays, allow employees to leave an hour early.
  • Start earlier, finish earlier – during summer, it can just get hotter and hotter as the day gets on, so some people may want to start early and spend less time in the heat.
  • Working from home (/remotely) options – we’ve covered the various benefits of working from home in detail on this blog already (as well as the drawbacks), but it can allow employees to work from the comfort of their own home – which is a big bonus in this often uncomfortable weather.

4. Encourage vacations

You may be slightly taken aback by this next tip – we are, after all, trying to keep your employees at work and fighting fit. However, as we’ve discussed in our post about taking breaks during the workday, one of the most beneficial things for your productivity happens to be not working!

Let’s face it: your employees are all dreaming about taking full advantage of the summer months by going on holidays and escaping to the beach. Why not encourage them to take a trip so that they’re refreshed and ready to work when they get home?

5. Buy desk fans and/or office fans

A quick way to cool down the office? Try investing in some office fans!

Two of the issues that can arise when relying on air conditioning to keep your office cool are that air conditioning can be too harsh – and that someone will always want it on a different setting. Making use of desk fans is a perfect solution to this problem; employees can control how hot or cold their environment is to suit their individual needs.

6. Encourage employees to take short breaks

Short breaks during the workday can help employees to consistently work productively.

In 2008, a University of Illinois study found that the brain’s cognitive resources drop after a long period of focusing on a single task, decreasing our focus and hindering performance. Breaks act as a mental reset and allow us to come back more focused and productive. – Source

During summer, there are so many things waiting to distract your employees – the insufferable heat, the arguments over the air conditioning, the looking out the window and daydreaming about the beach – that it’s inevitable. Why not get ahead of it and encourage your employees to take the breaks that they need?

7. Prioritise communication and most important work in the morning

Our last tip is to take advantage of the most productive time of day – the morning. Mornings will generally be the coolest part of working hours, plus your employees haven’t been cooking in the heat all day; these are optimal working conditions.

If you can prioritise tasks and schedule the most important ones for this time of day, you’ll be getting the hard part out of the way straight off the bat.

We hope you found these tips helpful and will be able to implement some of them in your workplace this summer. If you found this post useful, don’t forget to share.

 

10 Ways To Improve Office Productivity

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When you work in an office, your workday is generally somewhat monotonous – stare at computer, read emails, type, scroll, repeat. Factor this in with the fact that most of us are now working in open offices (which are notoriously hard to focus in), and you can imagine that it’s easy for productivity in the office to drop-off sometimes.

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the ways you can improve productivity when working in the office.

1. Use ergonomic furniture and sit correctly

Sitting at a desk all day can wreak havoc on your posture. It’s common for office workers, who spend their days hunched over a computer, to suffer from back and neck pain at work – as well as when they get home.

Over time, these effects can develop into long-term chronic conditions. Not only is this bad for your employees, but this can also cause increases in employee absenteeism and lower productivity when people are at work. Meaning it has a negative impact on your bottom line too.

The best way to prevent this is to make sure that your employees are spending their time using comfortable furniture. Ergonomic furniture is designed to support the body’s natural posture; fully adaptable to the person using it, ergonomic furniture allows employees to customise their working experience to suit their needs.

Here at Quills, we provide a wide range of ergonomic furniture suitable for a variety of budgets. Feel free to get in touch to request a quote.

2. Track and limit how much time you’re spending on tasks

Did you know that only around 17% of people can accurately describe the passage of time?

Think about that for a moment. When you have a set amount of tasks to do in a day, how important is knowing how long each will take? Essential. If you think something will take 10 minutes, but it will actually take 30 . . . how many other tasks will get missed out?

The only way to effectively manage your time is to understand how much of it you actually have. Start tracking how much time each task takes you – and limit yourself to spending a set amount of time on certain things. This will help you get more out of your day.

3. Take regular breaks

Productivity for 8 hours straight sounds amazing – but it’s not a reality.

In 2008, a University of Illinois study found that the brain’s cognitive resources drop after a long period of focusing on a single task, decreasing our focus and hindering performance. Breaks act as a mental reset and allow us to come back more focused and productive.

The science behind this is that our brains have two functions; “focused” and “diffuse” mode. Focused is for things like reading, learning and concentrating; diffuse mode is for day-dreaming and relaxing. While on the surface focus mode may seem like the optimal setting . . . “some studies have shown that the mind solves its stickiest problems while daydreaming—something you may have experienced while driving or taking a shower.”

The most productive workers actually take a 17-minute break for every 52 minutes they work.

4. Personalise your office space

Personalising your office space can make your office a happier place to work. Adding some personal touches to your desk, like family photos, is a great way to add some warmth and personality to your workspace.

5. Block out time to respond to emails

One of the largest productivity killers in the modern office? Emails. Everyone will be familiar with the scenario of having to answer so many emails that hours go by . . . but nothing really gets done. In fact, too many emails is the leading cause of lost productivity in the UK.

So the question becomes: how do you gain this time back? You can’t stop answering emails – what if you miss important things? Plus, your co-workers may perceive you as rude.

Give yourself set times to check and respond to emails. Don’t let your email inbox creep into the rest of your work.

6. Leave for lunch

We’ve already spoken about the benefits of taking breaks during the workday – but one essential break you should be taking? Your lunch hour. Eating at your desk has a whole host of unhealthy effects on you – and your productivity.

7. Stop multi-tasking

We are constantly bombarded with things fighting for our attention. On your average desk, think about how many things are sitting there waiting to distract you. Your email inbox, Facebook, Twitter, your phone, Candy Crush, that group chat on WhatsApp, your colleague chatting behind you, the phone ringing . . .

The modern office is not necessarily great for focusing. However, for optimal productivity, you need to resist the urge to flit between tasks and stop multi-tasking. Multi-tasking impairs cognitive function, short-term lowers your IQ – and can even permanently damage your brain.

8. Get enough sleep

This tip may sound obvious, but a surprising number of people don’t actually get enough sleep – something that we all know results in your body not functioning as well as it should be. To keep productive throughout the workday, you need to make sure that your body is rested up and fuelled.

9. Eat the right snacks

Snacking throughout the workday can help you keep your energy levels high and sustained throughout the day, but you need to ensure that you’re eating the right kind of food. It can be tempting to load up on sugar for the quick energy boost; however, sugary foods follow their high with a crash.

Make sure that you’re fuelling your body with the correct foods throughout the day. Here’s a list of healthy office snacks to keep your energy high all day.

10. Add plants to the office

To conclude this post, our last suggestion for improving productivity in the office is the introduction of office plants.

Plants in the office have a multitude of proven benefits. (And those are the best kind!) We’ve written an entire post explaining how plants can boost workplace health, happiness and satisfaction – but the purpose of this post is specifically productivity, so we’ll keep it brief.

Studies have shown that introducing plants to the workplace can improve productivity by as much as 17% – Source

Hopefully this post gave you some inspiration for ways to improve your productivity in the office!

The Stats You Need To Know When Designing Your Office (Infographic)

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Sources:

  • 97% of survey respondents stated that they regard their workplace as a symbol of whether or not they are valued by their employer. – HR in Asia
  • Pets in the workplace improve employee morale, productivity, and personal workplace satisfaction. – Banfield
  • Multiple computer screens were found to increase productivity up to 50% for employees. – CBI Office
  • 67% of employees with access to free food at work are “very” or “extremely” happy at work. – SnackNation
  • Offices see up to 11 per cent gains in productivity from improved ventilation, up to 23 per cent gains in productivity from improved lighting design and significant improvement in employee recruitment and retention as a result of green retrofits. – GreenBuildingPress
  • 25% of survey respondents would be willing to commute an extra 30 minutes to work in their perfect office. – What Workers Want
  • 76 percent of millennials, ages 18-34, feel somewhat or very strongly that that office design and aesthetic influences their impression of a company. – PR News Wire
  • Adding plants to the office caused a 37% fall in reported tension and anxiety; a 58% drop in depression or dejection; a 44% decrease in anger and hostility; and a 38% reduction in fatigue. – CIPHR
  • Only 24% of U.S. workers are in optimal workplace environments. – Allwork
  • In international surveys from Ipsos and the Workspace Futures Team of Steelcase,95% said working privately was important to them. However, less than half (41%) said they could work privately. Worse still, 31% of employees have to leave the office to complete their work. – Quills
  • Employers who can focus are 31% more satisfied, 14% higher performing, and see their companies as more innovative. – Allwork
  • Employees lose as much as 86 minutes a day due to noise distractions. – The Guardian
  • In environments with white noise, or sound masking, employees report improvements of up to 38 percent for the performance of simple tasks and 27 percent for complex tasks. – Hok
  • Studies have shown that in some offices the introduction of sit-stand desks increased productivity by 46%! – CNN