The Top 10 Technology Distractions—and How to Be Productive Anyway

Yesterday’s Advisor provided four techniques for mindfully expanding productivity and creativity at work. Today, we examine how technology has the potential to hurt productivity, along with tips for boosting productivity in the face of these distractions.

Technology creates many efficiencies, but it can also lead to wasted time. In fact, half of the top 10 productivity killers at work involve technology, CareerBuilder found in a survey.
The top 10 list includes:

1. Cell phone/texting (cited by 50 percent of employers),
2. Gossip (42 percent),
3. The Internet (39 percent),
4. Social media (38 percent),
5. Snack breaks or smoke breaks (27 percent),
6. Noisy coworkers (24 percent),
7. Meetings (23 percent),
8. E-mail (23 percent),
9. Coworkers stopping by (23 percent), and
10. Calls on speaker phone (10 percent).

 
Here are some tips from CareerBuilder that you might want to incorporate into training to help boost productivity:

• Organize and prioritize projects.
• Limit interruptions (e.g., reserve a conference room to work on a project, read e-mail at set times during the day, etc).
• Avoid unnecessary meetings.
• Attend to personal tasks during breaks or after work.
• Talk to colleagues in person if they are close by or call them instead of writing a lengthy e-mail.
• Do not waste time on other tasks when you have a less preferred—but more important—project to complete.

Train employees to follow these techniques to ensure that technology is a productivity booster and not a productivity killer.