In the quest to achieve our goals, whether individually or as a company, we often think that it is our decisions that determine our success. You’d be surprised to know that habits, not decisions per se, influence success and failure. You get to your workspace, check your email, check memos, follow a specific order of events daily; these are not really decisions but habits you have formed. Therefore, if habits are this important in determining success, why do we form lousy work habits?
Many a time, bad work habits start as one seemingly harmless decision. We do these things either because the environment necessitated it or certain circumstances called for it, and before you know it, they become a habit. For example, when starting your workspace, you could use a dining chair, a beanbag, or an old office chair due to budget constraints. Long after the budget stops being an issue, you’re still sitting on your makeshift office chair. You do this despite knowing that sitting in the wrong position is terrible for your health.
Bad habits are the easiest way to lower productivity in the workplace because you don’t even realize the massive impact that certain actions have on efficiency. Poor habits become a part of the work environment and systemically affect productivity levels among employees. Here are a few bad habits you need to quit immediately.
Poor Organization and Procrastination
What are your goals? Do you have a plan to achieve them, or is it more like "go with the flow"? However, lack of planning leads only to laziness - cluttered desks and mental disorganization being indicators for poor decision-making skills. Employees who exhibit such behavior always rush around once deadlines come close; they don't take time out to strategize their moves properly because they're too busy juggling other priorities at work (poor time management). They never reach their full potential either because this sort of sloppiness leads to an inability in performance aptitude.
Lack of Proper Communication
When employees are unclear about the instructions they're given, it leads to wasted time and resources. Communication hierarchies that require rigid channels can lead employees not to take action on their own accord. This is because of a lack of understanding or trust in other coworkers who might do something different from what was initially communicated. Furthermore, this type of communication hierarchy also means that people wait around for others rather than taking the initiative themselves. Ultimately, this reduces efficiency at work since everyone is working slower due to lost momentum and fewer collaborative actions between workers.
Poor Office Workspace Setup
Ergonomics has been the buzzword in office setup for a long time now. With more and more employees staying seated on their computers throughout the day, it’s essential to keep them safe from physical injuries caused by poor sitting postures or stressful work environments.
Poorly set-up workspaces are also associated with negative mood swings that severely impact productivity levels. Some offices lack proper lighting arrangements or ventilation systems, while others have bad ergonomic setups in relation to office furniture. As a result, employees may experience physical discomfort such as neck pain, backaches, and headaches, among other problems like carpal tunnel syndrome experienced by people using keyboards incorrectly! Eventually, these kinds of spaces heighten the stress levels in the office, which culminates in decreased productivity.
Poor Management
Despite what many managers may think, there is a fine line between being an effective leader and having the employees look at you as if they're your slave. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for people in management positions to believe that treating their staff members like slaves leads to increased productivity levels and respect among them. Well, this couldn't be further from reality.
Have you ever tried cooking with someone who corrected every single decision? They would dictate which spices should go into each dish even though they don't know how to cook themselves- it sounds ridiculous! The same applies at work: Employees need some sense of trust so that no matter how many mistakes are made, or confusion arises during the course of employment, these can be addressed with honesty and transparency rather than fearfulness.
Failure to Integrate Technology
It's interesting to note that even after years of technology infiltrating almost every aspect of our lives, some businesses are still apprehensive about utilizing it. Today there are software programs and apps that can perform just about any task from syncing calendars, setting to-do lists, managing time-off requests - you name it! With the advent of the Covid19 pandemic, this couldn’t be more evident. Technology has been adopted for sustained business operations, increased productivity, gaining a competitive edge, etc. But, companies who lag behind this curve end up denying themselves these opportunities because they're too afraid to change or unwilling to try new things out. However, the only risk is being left behind with outdated methods when other competitors embrace them instead.
How Can You Be More Productive?
Get organized
Do you know the saying that a disorganized workspace translates to disorganized work? Nothing could be truer. Disorganization is not just bad for your mental health; it’s also terrible for productivity levels. You show up at your office desk, and you have files all over the place, numerous unread emails and no clear plan on how to accomplish daily tasks.
A clean and organized workspace gives you an instant calming effect, which boosts thinking power- something critical when faced with challenges in their day job! An organized space helps people avoid procrastination, too; they can create a list of set tasks that guide them through approaching each project without getting sidetracked or bored by other things first.
Get a good workstation setup for your office today!
The environment that you work in can be easily overlooked, but the physical setup of your workspace has a significant effect on how productive and healthy you are. Whether it's an office or home-based job, ergonomics go a long way to improving both productivity and health! Here are a few suggestions
Ergonomic office chair
You might think chairs are just chairs - but after sitting in the wrong one for too long, you realize that they're not made equal. The unfortunate thing about physical problems arising from using the wrong office chair is that they may take some time to show themselves. But, soon enough, lower back pains will start manifesting, strained neck muscles, and aches in your arm joints as well! Sometimes people get so used to living with discomfort at their workplace desk that it's hard even realizing something is really going on until someone points out how much more tired and irritable than usual you seem lately.
The Soutien ergonomic office chair is an excellent ergonomic addition to your work setup. It comes with lumbar support, 135° lounge tilt, and 4D adjustable armrests. Naturally, we tend to lean forward while sitting in the office. Lumbar support is important because it promotes good posture by bridging the space between the seat and your lumbar spine, thus preventing lower back pains. Additionally, regardless of your height, a comfortable ergonomic office chair should offer different height adjustment levels so that you can easily have both feet on the ground and bend your knees and hips at a 90° angle to prevent joint pains.
The Soutien ergonomic office chair is also made of mesh that’s easy to maintain, and it doesn’t ruin your fabrics. An ergonomic office chair helps you increase your productivity because you can adopt the proper sitting posture and it puts your mind to ease while performing office tasks.
Ergonomic adjustable standing desk
For maximum productivity, your office chair should be complemented with an ergonomic desk such as the adjustable standing desk Pro Series. This electric standing desk comes with a dual-motor lifting system and a higher loading capacity- you can have several monitors on your desk at the same time. So, if your job requires large screen real estate, you don’t have to struggle with crowded icons or have several desks for your workspace.
Another common bad work habit is sitting for long periods of time. Some standing desks come with an advanced control panel that helps you set sit/stand reminders. You don’t have to worry about losing track of time while seated doing your work since it has a programmable sit/stand reminder system. In fact, this is one of the best features of the adjustable standing desk Pro Series. The control panel on the adjustable standing desk Pro Series also allows you to preset three heights that remain in the desk’s memory.
For those who are tired of feeling constrained by one position, the sit-stand desk is the perfect solution. The adjustable height and standing option will keep you from losing momentum when jumping between tasks! Results have shown that employees working with these desks experience 45% more productivity than their colleagues seated at regular workstations.
Remain connected with the team
Working together is a key to success. Disconnecting from your team is a bad work habit that negatively affects productivity. You can enhance teamwork through both physical and intangible ways. In a workspace, the design of the office should facilitate teamwork.
The flow of the workspace should ensure easy communication between colleagues so that any queries occurring can easily be resolved. Alternatively, technology plays a big role in helping people remain connected. There are numerous apps like Slack, Zoom, Teams, Meet, and even emails, which make it easy to collaborate with others to increase efficiency at the workplace.
Get Better Management
While hiring employees, every company has a set of requirements they believe will help them attain the best workers. However, recruiting top talent doesn’t always translate to maximum productivity. It’s tempting to always blame employees, but you might find those same employees performing optimally in other companies. The reason could be in the management. Poor management leads to disgruntled and stressed employees who lack a sense of belonging and lack the motivation to give their best.
Approximately 80% of workers have suffered from poor management. Bad management could be in the form of excessive micromanagement, lack of recognition, illogical expectations, or a hostile work environment. Imagine being a designer and having someone breathing down your shoulder at every step of the design process. Or, better yet, dictating your creative process. This level of scrutiny in itself stifles creativity, not to mention ruins the designer’s mood. If you hire the best talent, you ought to trust in their abilities.
Create an environment that fosters respect among the entire team. Once everybody understands the goal; the workplace becomes a less stressful environment for everybody including the management. Employees voluntarily work harder and more efficiently without having someone hover over them.
Adopt Technology
The internet has tons of resources to help you be more productive at work. Regardless of the size of your company, there are plenty of apps and software programs available that will increase your efficiency in the office. Whether it's finding new ways to communicate with customers or breaking down tasks into manageable segments, take time today to explore what technology can do for you!
Be More Productive
Bad work habits silently chip at overall efficiency in the workplace. Most of these habits look harmless thus don’t receive much effort while making organizational changes, but they have a tremendous impact on reducing productivity. While getting rid of these pesky habits may require some time, it starts with small manageable steps. Adopting an ergonomic workspace is a good place to start because this is where employees spend the most time in the workplace. Using an ergonomic office chair and sit-stand desk is important for the health of employees and fosters a conducive environment for work efficiency.
It is important to note that bad work habits have a chain effect as they are interconnected. Good management can ensure employees are more organized, remain connected as a team, and integrate technology. The adoption of one good habit facilitates the enforcement of another one. Companies need to make the conscious decision to foster better habits, as this is paramount in enhancing productivity. The competition knows the impact that bad work habits have on the overall performance of a business, and they are doing something about it. Choose to remain ahead of the curve today by increasing productivity in your workplace.
