4 of the top office distractions, and what you can do to tackle them

According to a study carried out by the University of California, the typical office worker is interrupted every 11 minutes, and it can take a further 25 minutes for an employee to return to their original task. That’s a lot of time spent being distracted, right? From chitter chatter to chaos and clutter, there are a number of things in your office that could be diverting the attention of you and your employees. In this blog, we take a look at four of the top workplace distractions and what you can do to tackle them. 1. Chitter chatter In the workplace, conversation among colleagues is unavoidable. It would be unreasonable to expect employees to work in complete silence, so a hubbub of chitter chatter is inevitable in a typical office space. However, these noise levels can be difficult to keep under control, and it can become a major distraction for workers. Too much talking can have a serious impact on the productivity and concentration levels of employees. You may also even find that some workers become increasingly annoyed by this, which can lead to feelings of frustration and an overall sense of unhappiness. So, it’s important that you’re aware of how you can keep the noise in your office to a minimum so as not to distract your personnel from getting on with their work. For example, if your office has an open plan design, you might find that rearranging the layout helps. One option is to seat employees who work in the same team together in clusters. This can help to compartmentalise noise, preventing workers from shouting across the room to speak to each other. Instead, they can simply chat among themselves without distracting the rest of the office. You could also give employees permission to use headphones. Allowing your staff to zone out to their favourite tunes will help keep chatter to a minimum and reduce their chances of becoming distracted by those around them. 2. Smartphones When you’re at work, it can be easy to give into temptation and look at your phone - even though it might be against your company’s policy to do so during work hours. Whether you’re keen to reply to a text or you fancy a quick scroll on Facebook, getting into the habit of ‘just checking’ your phone could land you in serious trouble - and it can be equally damaging to your productivity levels, preventing you from getting on with your work. Of course, the best way to avoid this temptation is to turn your phone off completely and limit your screen time to scheduled work breaks. However, this isn’t a practical option for everyone. If you need to, you could keep your phone on but out of sight, such as in a drawer, handbag or pocket. You might want to keep your device on silent with the vibrant function on so you’re aware if an important call or text comes through. You may want to review your app notification settings too. It’s a good idea to turn off notifications for any apps that you don’t use regularly. This will stop your phone from buzzing and flashing up unnecessarily, giving you less reason to check it throughout the day. 3. Meetings If you’re not careful, meetings can be a huge distraction to you and your workers. Although they’re sometimes unavoidable, these planned discussions have the potential to be unproductive, meaning you end up wasting time talking about work instead of actually doing it. The good news is, there are a few things you could do to make sure that your future meetings are worthwhile and effective. For example, you may want to appoint a leader to help keep the discussion on topic. This person could be responsible for ensuring that the conversation is relevant and that the group doesn’t go off on a tangent. Further to this, you might find it useful to give someone the job of keeping minutes of the meeting. This person could also oversee the agenda of the discussion to ensure that all points are mentioned and that nothing gets left out. You may want to set a time limit for the meeting too. Knowing that you only have a certain amount of time to cover all of your points during the meeting should help you and your colleagues to stay on topic and not waste time chatting about other things. It’s also worth thinking about the meetings you’re invited to and being more selective in which you say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to. If you’ve received a request to attend a meeting but you’re not sure it’s entirely relevant to you, it might be best for you to decline the invitation, allowing you to make better use of the time. 4. Clutter The truth is, clutter and mess can make a workspace look and feel chaotic. In turn, this could mean that you become easily distracted from your work and you may notice a significant dip in your productivity levels. As the saying goes, ‘a tidy desk makes for a tidy mind’, so unless your work area is neat, you might find that you struggle to focus on the task at hand. There’s only one real solution to this problem - and that’s to schedule a clean up session. When you’re tidying your work area, make sure you ditch anything you no longer need. For instance, you should recycle any scraps of paper and clear your desk of clutter such as dirty mugs and tatty notepads. For anything that you need to keep, make sure that you have somewhere suitable to store it. For example, try to avoid keeping stacks of paperwork on your desk surface and file them away instead. Storage solutions such as filing cabinets, cupboards and under-desk drawers are the ideal places to keep your important documents out of sight but within easy reach. If each person maintains a tidy, clean workspace, you should find that the whole office looks and feels less cluttered, providing everyone with a more productive and pleasant place to work. It’s impossible to completely rid your office of all distractions, but bearing these tips in mind should help you keep these interruptions to a minimum, allowing you and your employees to focus on the job at hand.