Turn Your Office into a Productive Workspace

Staying productive at work for 8 straight hours is tough.

Your focus wanders throughout the day, making it easy to get distracted and to lose valuable productivity. There are some things you can do on your own to help keep your focus on track (make lists, organize your desk, but the actual design of a workspace can be critical when it comes to the efficiency of your business.

Here are some tips to help make businesses more efficient.

1. Collaboration

More and more companies are turning to workspaces that are conducive to collaboration. Instead of cubicles with walls that block you from your neighbor, these collaboration stations  are open spaces. An open workspace makes it easy to collaborate – which makes it easy to get work done faster, which makes your employees more productive. Examples of co-working offices include:

• Open spaces
• Low walls between desks
• Shared desks

Another reason collaboration desks lend themselves to productivity?  You don’t have to leave your desk to talk to a co-worker. Trips to someone else’s cube take up valuable time. In a co-working environment, you can take short breaks to talk to your neighbors without wasting time.

Having a relaxing place to hang out, like the rooftop terrace at the Draugiem Group, helps employees to de-stress. Employees spend a third of their day in the office – why not make it some place they like to work?

2. Flexibility

Even if you work in a creative, modern workspace, it can still be hard to centralize your focus. Having flexible work options can reduce stress and boost productivity. Flexible work options can include:

• Working from home once a week
• A 15-minute walk after lunch
• Coffee or tea breaks throughout the day
• Short meditation breaks to re-energize

3. Technology

Computers cause stress when they don’t work.  Having a secure Internet connection, whether it’s with a residential connection or a corporate network, needs to be reliable to reduce stress. When your employees have a great Internet connection and way get secure, consistent online access, they’re happier – which means they’re more productive.

It’s also important that corporations make it easy for employees to tap into their business’s network from anywhere. Having a VPN (virtual private network) that employees can access while at home, at a conference, or even on vacation ensures that workers can be productive from just about anywhere.

These few things can help make your office a place that your employees want to be. When you create a positive work environment, your employees are happier – and that’ll help them to do more work when they’re at work.

Rose Williams is a freelance technology writer with a focus on how the Internet improves our lives, from online education and mobile streaming to ‘stuff’ minimizing and beyond. She holds a B.A. in Technical Communications and is currently working toward an MBA. You can contact Rose directly via email.