Prioritize your day. Before checking e-mail or phone messages, start working on your more important tasks first. This ensures that your priority projects are accomplished while you are fresh and focused.  Only check your voice mail or e-mail once or twice a day, and keep your own messages short and direct. Don’t let low priority tasks interrupt you constantly throughout the day.

Use white noise. Today’s sound masking technology is very precise and floods the background with “white” noise that focused on the spectrum of human speech. Office-wide sound masking can lower distractions by up to 51 percent by covering the excess conversations and noise in an open floor plan. You can also try a personal sound machine, if you don’t have control over the sound quality in the office.

Limit distractions and interruptions. The average worker is interrupted more than 70 times each day. And most people suffer almost equally from self-distraction. Try establishing a “no-interruption” time of about an hour to focus on important tasks. Start by turning off all your self-distractions, like your phone and e-mail. Spend this time in focused concentration. Turn on a white noise machine to cover office noise. And post a sign indicating that you currently cannot be interrupted, and a time when you will next be available. You can repeat this focused time throughout the day to make the most of your time.

Improve your posture. Most people do not realize how much energy is wasted with poor posture. Good posture can boost productivity and energy. Start with a good, ergonomic chair and adjust it to properly fit you. First, adjust the height of the seat so that your feet are flat on the floor. Next, move the backrest on your chair to fit the curve of your spine. You should also add portable lumbar support if your chair does not fully support your lower back. Finally, move your arm rests low enough or out of the way while typing to allow free arm movement.

Making changes to your daily habits can increase your productivity and efficiency. Make an effort to maintaining good posture while sitting with a good, ergonomic chair that is well-adjusted to support your body. Also, upgrade your office space with sound masking technology, or try using a white noise machine block out the distracting conversations and office noise that interrupt your concentration. Better focus and productivity at work help you feel better about your work and enjoy less stress at the end of the day.

How to control sound

Sound issues in any space can be treated in three main ways:  absorbing, blocking and covering sound. These are known as the ABC’s of noise control. These three, used in combination, provide the best solution to noise issues in an office environment. Sound is best absorbed through the use of appropriate ceiling tiles, and it is blocked by proper office panels between cubicles and offices.  However, very few offices utilize the third treatment, covering or masking sound.

What is Sound Masking?

Most offices already utilize the first two treatments, but sound masking, the most effective of the three, is often overlooked. Sound masking is the technique of adding barely noticeable background sounds to cover the intrusive noises all around us. Today’s sound masking technology floods the background with specific “white” noise focused on the spectrum of human speech. This precision of white noise will effectively cover conversations in an office setting, returning privacy to the open floor. Proper sound masking, or covering, has been shown to lower distractions by up to 51% and reduce stress by 27%, both of which contribute to employee satisfaction and productivity.

Does it really Work?

Yes. The correct use of white noise really does mask conversations and other noises that interrupt you throughout the day. This technology is used in government offices, medical facilities and many other businesses because of its effectiveness. The result is that private conversations are not overheard, and office noise is not longer a huge distraction for workers. And the best part is that this technology is now affordable to smaller businesses as well.

Most employees are interrupted several times a day by conversations and noise that does not directly involve them. In addition to sound-absorbent, ceiling tiles and sound-blocking cubicle panels, sound masking is an effective and affordable way to control sound in the work place. It covers distracting noise increasing concentrate, lowers stress levels, and returns a level of speech privacy to the open office plan.

What is sound masking?

Sound masking seeks to “mask” unnecessary sounds with the use of white noise. White noise is sound, or noise, created from all the frequencies in the audible spectrum; it is named after white light which is created from all the colors in the visible spectrum. With today’s technology, white noise is specifically focused on the specifically on the frequency range of human speech.

The first question that comes to mind is how adding noise helps people concentrate better. A great illustration is a flash light in a dark room. Imagine you are in a dark room and someone across the room is randomly blinking a flashlight at you. The flashlight is very distracting and even irritating. But what happens if you turn on the overhead lights? Now you hardly notice the flashlight; the overhead lights have covered, or masked, the smaller light of the flashlight.

Sound masking works on a similar principle. By adding general white noise, similar to the gentle “whooshing” sound of a fan or an AC unit, you hardly notice the distracting sounds around you.

Why use sound masking?

This technology is used all over the U.S. to improve privacy and productivity – at government agencies, medical facilities and standard office buildings. Sound masking has incredible advantages for any office setting, and especially in open floor plans with cubicles. Here are some of the top benefits:

• Less distraction at work: By masking conversations and excess noise, the average worker can be up to 25% more productive with their work hours. Sound masking installed in the entire office space will benefit the entire office.
• Improved privacy and confidentiality: Many office situations need confidentiality – human resources, government services, medical facilities, counseling, and many more. Sound masking significantly improves privacy and confidentiality throughout an entire office. It uses white noise to make human speech unintelligible to those beyond the immediate conversation.
• Decreased stress for workers: Most of us are not aware of the stress we experience from trying to block excess noise around us. Think about trying to write an important email, or work through a complicated problem, all the while there is a noise, maybe a conversation or a horn honking, that is trying to gain your attention.  According to a study by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), even a small acoustic treatment can reduce worker stress by more than 25%.

The appropriate use of white noise in a work place, even on an individual scale, can lower stress and increase concentration by masking background conversations and noise. Quality office-wide, sound masking provides effective privacy and confidentiality, while decreasing office distractions.

As a manager, you know that distractions have a cost.  Usually it’s loss of focus/productivity, and therefore money.  A distracted worker is a disengaged worker.  Disengaged workers lose their sense of ownership in a project or task and also make more mistakes.  They usually suffer more stress and even miss work more frequently.  Sadly, disengaged workers also turn over faster, and training their replacements  is costly.  Add it all up and it’s a rather large price tag: $600 billion.  That’s right, distractions cost businesses hundreds of billion of dollars every year.

2 Tips for Avoiding Distraction at Work

To regain your workers’ attention and focus, it’s smart to enable them to have distraction-free solo work.  For many, time blocking allows for this.

1. Time Block.  The basic idea is to cut away from all the turmoil in your office and devote a specific block of time to working on a project.  You set a start and stop time and during that period you focus on your work.  This means you shut down any unnecessary electronics and anything that rings.  You can do it, I promise.  With fewer (or no) distractions, you should be able to make some progress.

However, not all offices offer conference rooms for regular work, nor do they have enough rooms to house every distracted worker.  Another effective time-saver and productivity-booster is the use of a white noise machine.

1. White noise machines.  By using white noise, you cover office distractions.  With a simple desktop generator, you can block out office noise and get to work because your mind is more focused.  You can hold a thought long enough to process it, and you aren’t drawn into unnecessary chatter.

Half the battle of reclaiming lost time at work is having a game plan.  By time blocking and covering noise, you allow your workers’ brains much needed-time to process and recalibrate.

"Efficient" is defined as working without waste or using a minimum of time, effort and expense. But, the definition is silent about the goals of the operation. A person can be very efficient at what they are doing but still not get to where they want to be because they aren’t doing the right things. That’s where "effective" comes in. "Effective" means "having the desired result". Once the desired overall result is defined, the tasks leading to the result can be isolated and these tasks can then be completed efficiently….

So, while your business’s specific goals will determine how to be effective, being efficient is a little more universal.  In fact, the average worker wastes 2 or more hours  a day because he is distracted by conversations, ringing and/or buzzing phones, and who knows what else…A loss of 2 hours per employee is not exactly efficient.  One option might be sound masking.  Most people can’t work in ceaseless clamor, but at the same time, they can’t be productive in silence either.  Sound masking is like white noise in that it provides a low-level "hum" that can help workers to tune out irritating distractions that keep them from being productive. Many companies and small businesses have found that plugging the leak of conversational distractions is more than worth the initial investment.

If you’re like many managers, you’ve had to cut your staff this year.  It’s easy to assume that you can’t maintain, much less increase, productivity with the staff you have left after lay offs.  So, if time is money, then you need more time.  Sound impossible?  What if you could reclaim hours of lost time? 

• The average employee is distracted more than 2 hours every day
• That same employee is interrupted more than 70 times per day
• 80% of surveyed employees said that these distractions limited their ability to focus

It’s no wonder that being distracted that often curbs productivity.  What is shocking is that only 20% of managers were aware of the reported distractions and their effects. 

How can you increase your productivity?

If your employees are distracted hours on end, then might be time to consider un-distracting them.  You probably can’t ban cell phones or loud shoes, but you can reduce the effect these annoying distractions have on your workers.  One option is sound masking.  It’s like "white noise" in that it adds low-level background sound to reduce the intelligibility of surrounding noises.  The result is that most workers are able to tune out distractions and focus on work.

Times are tough.  There’s no question about that.  The problem is that a struggling economy simply does not allow for less productivity.  Your clients still expect your very best- and if you can’t give them your best, they’ll go to someone who can. 

In one study of 11 surveyed buildings, 80% of workers felt that the noise levels distracted them to the point of not being able to get their work done.  Thus, it comes as no surprise that the average worker is distracted more than 2 hours every day, thus making him a disengaged employee.  A study by the Towers-Perrin Group found a 52% gap in one-year operating income, when comparing companies with highly engaged employees versus companies with disengaged employees. High engagement companies improved 19.2% while low engagement companies declined 32.7% in operating income over the study period.  Furthermore, according to an American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) study, workers in offices with even small acoustic treatments:

• Were 48% more focused on their work
• 51% less distracted, resulting in
• 10% fewer errors and a
• 27% decrease in worker stress

While it’s understandable that office distractions drastically reduce a worker’s ability to concentrate and work attentively, it’s your job to find a way around them.  By implementing sound masking technology, you have the ability to override those noisy distractions in order to enable each worker to realize his or her potential every hour of every day. 

Distractions at work are an all-too-familiar occurrence.  In fact, our beloved best friend and infamous distractor, the Internet, provides many helpful tips for dealing with distractions, most of which are based on the fact that distractions are inevitable.  One wesbite did suggest that there are 3 options for dealing with distractions:

·         Running

·         Hiding

·         Fighting

While distractions may indeed be an inevitable part of an open office, your employees do not have to accept them as timewasters.  Let’s take a look at that thrid option: fighting.  The best way to fight distraction is to tune it out with sound masking.  With the gentle swoosh like that of an HVAC system, sound masking allows your workers to do just that- work- instead of getting caught up in distractions more than 2 hours every day.  The best thing about sound masking is that it covers noise, yet is barely perceptible itself.

If you’d like to improve your bottom line, give sound masking a chance.

How do improve your bottom line, but with fewer resources than ever?

Unfortunately, that’s what this economy has done this Christmas season- except you don’t even get jelly out of it.  You have to maximize the resources you do have: your employees.  The heart of your productivity lies with your workers.  Whether you have a staff of 1 or 100, each of your workers could be more productive.  They say that the average worker is not working due to distractions for more than 2 hours a day, which resulted in an estimated loss of $600 billion last year.  That’s a lot of money to lose over an easily-resolved, but obviously all too common problem.

Takin’ care of business

You can reclaim your chunk of the $600 billion with a simple solution: sound masking.  Not unlike white noise, sound masking is the addition of low-level background noise to enable your employees to do what they came for- work.  You might be surprised how much more focused workers are with fewer distractions, not to mention less stressed. 

If more productive and less stressed workers sound good this Christmas season, sound masking might be the best option for your company.

Sustainability is the word of the day.  Even shows like Top Chef show a concern for sustainability when they ask competing chefs to cook with "sustainable" products- those that are environmentally-friendly, as well as renewable. 

In the business world, you might not think sustainability applies to you.  You’re not exactly cutting down trees or catching salmon.  However, you do have to put forth a product that meets you current and future needs without depleting the resources you already have.  For you, sustainability is using what you have without squandering it. 

So, what do you have?

Your resources are your employees and their time spent working.  And, if you’re like most companies these days, you have already lost quite a few of your workers to a cut-throat economy.  That means your second resource- their work time- is even more crucial.  Thus, it might be horrifying to discover that Average Worker loses more than 2 hours of work day to distractions, namely conversational ones.

Sound masking

Rather than throwing your employees’ cell phones out the window (they’re not exactly biodegradable) or banning personal conversations, you might consider sound masking.  Similar to white noise, sound masking provides low level background noise to render intruding speech and noises less intelligible.  It’s not that your workers need silence (in fact, most complain that silence is even more distracting!), they just need an environment that doesn’t lend itself to unintentional eavesdropping.  Let’s be honest- it’s hard to focus on work when the latest gossip is right inside your grasp. 

In this economy, every minute counts.  Don’t lose another to an easily-resolved problem.