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Don’t Be A Stinker and Other Office Productivity Tips

We’re all about making the most of our time at the office and so is Zen Habits! The always-calming blog has a slammin’ list of 16 ways to keep a razor-sharp focus at work. Some highlights:

2. Take more breaks. More breaks = More productivity. It may sound wrong, but it’s true. Breaks allow us to re-group our thoughts and focus for the task at hand. They also keep us fresh so that we don’t end up burning out after only a few hours work.

So maybe curling into a fetal position under my desk for an afternoon snooze isn’t so weird after all. Sweet.

10. Turn off extra inputs. These are IM and email for me, but we all have our Achilles heel. Completely turn off any distracting piece of technology that you own. Every one of these inputs tries to steal bits of your focus. And they won’t rest until they do.

Let’s expand this - know what your timesucks are. For me, it’s silly blogs and puppies. More common ones include YouTube, Facebook and SuperArcade. If you’re going to lollygag online, at least alleviate your guilt and switch to the Free Rice Game.

We’re particularly big fans of suggestion #16.

16. Clean yourself up. It’s why my track coach in high school made us dress up for big races: you perform the way you feel. And if you feel polished, groomed and ready, you’ll be more likely to be productive. For me this is just taking a shower, brushing my teeth and putting on casual clothing. I used to work all day without taking a shower in my PJ’s, but I never got much stuff done. Let’s be honest here… if you’re dressed really casually, odds are you’ll be working really casually. Just taking the time to clean up a bit before you buckle down for the day is never a bad idea.

Because the only thing worse than being unproductive is being unproductive and smelly.

Read the whole list here.

-Mary Pilon

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