As office workers return to their desks after nearly two years of working remotely, many will be enjoying reconnecting with their colleagues face to face.
Shared workspaces can and should be sociable places, and the absence of offices during the pandemic emphasised how important they in fact are in contributing to a shared sense of belonging to your team or organisation.
But with so many opportunities for meetings, calls and cups of tea to be shared with colleagues during a normal day, offices are also notoriously distracting.
In its 2018 Workplace Distraction Report, the findings of a survey from online learning platform Udemy revealed that employees’ top workplace distractions included talkative co-workers (cited by 80% of respondents), general office noise (70%), meetings (60%) and social media (58%).
Despite smartphones purporting to be productivity tools, evidence suggests that they now represent one of the biggest distractions we’re facing at work. Just under two-thirds (62%) of the survey’s respondents said they spend about an hour per day looking at their phones, while 36% of younger workers (millennials and Gen Z-ers) said they spend two hours or more checking their phones each workday.
With more staff returning to their increasingly busy offices, it’s helpful to have some techniques in place for dealing with the distractions that will inevitably occur. Here are strategies to help you tackle some of the more common workplace distractions.
Have a polite word
Maintaining friendly relationships with your co-workers is important for morale and contributes to a positive company culture. However, if one of your colleagues is a big talker, it can be easy to get trapped in long chats that distract you from the work you came in to do.
In an article for Lifehack, business coach Mark Pettit suggests that having a polite but frank conversation with the employee in question about how their behaviour affects your ability to work is the best way to bring about change.
“If your door is always open, it’s very easy for someone to pop their head into the office to ask questions, which takes you away from productive work,” he adds. “Close your office door if you have one. Another method to use if you need to be focused and concentrate is to put on a pair of headphones (if your office allows).”
Limit email consumption
Email is fundamental to workplace communication, but it can also be very distracting. We’ve all experienced the frustration of being interrupted from an important task by an email notification, which then has nothing to do with what you’re working on when you stop to read it.
To release yourself from the grip of endless and distracting work emails, Adam Fridman, founder at the digital marketing agency Mabbly, advocates a strategy of time blocking, whereby you allocate short periods during the day for catching up and responding to emails.
“This may be in the morning, or it may be in the evening,” he writes in an article for Inc. “It’s entirely in your hands. Outside of these designated times you will switch off any alerts while you get on with your work.”
Instead of email, Fridman suggests exploring other ways of communicating with your co-workers that may be more effective and efficient. “If you need to tell a colleague something, tap them on the shoulder and tell them about it,” he says. “Not only will you prevent email distraction on your side, but you'll prevent email distraction on their side.”
Put down your phone
Even during our most busy times at work, it can be tempting to check our phones ‘just for a minute’. But there is mounting evidence to suggest we’re becoming increasingly addicted to our smartphones, and that checking them constantly is playing havoc with our ability to concentrate.
According to a recent study from the US by reviews.org, the average American checks their phone 344 times per day – or once every 4 minutes. As many as 71% of people check their phones within ten minutes of waking up in the morning, while 45% say that their phone is their most valuable possession, the study found.
To stay focused and lessen the distraction of smartphones, Pettit suggests first turning off all notifications that don’t need your immediate attention – including email and social media if necessary. “If some notifications really matter, make them silent and hide them from your lock screen,” he adds.
Second, make sure to put your phone somewhere out of reach, either in a drawer or in another room, so that you won’t be tempted to have a quick look when you get an urge to.
“Workplace distractions will never go away,” says Pettit. “To use our time effectively and to increase productivity and creativity, it’s essential we understand what’s distracting us and create the systems to stop it.”