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Tips and Tools to Boost Productivity

September 30, 2011 By

How much time do you lose each day as a result of your office space? Most people find they lose two hours or even more each day due to lack of focus, distractions, and interruptions at work. Here are some practical tips and tools to help reduce distractions and boost your productivity at work.

Block out distractions. Try covering the office noises and distractions with white noise. Today’s sound masking technology is specially focused on the frequency of human speech, so it effectively covers unrelated converations, lowering your distractions by up to 51 percent. Even if you have no control over the sound quality or co-workers around you, a personal sound machine can create a distraction-free zone at your desk.

Set your priorities. Always start your day with your high-priority work; don’t even open email or pick up your phone until you complete at least one important task. For better productivity, you can’t allow lesser tasks like e-mail or phone calls take up more time than they warrant. Accomplishing something at the very start of the day can help boost your confidence and improve your attitude about your work day.

Improve your posture. Poor posture can actually drain your energy and limit your ability to focus. The goal should be to maintain a neutral typing posture in order to minimize the work load for your muscles and stop you from wasting valuable energy. Start with a well-adjusted ergonomic chair to help you maintain good posture; this will give you better concentration and will also lower your stress levels. Next, make sure your feet rest firmly on the ground and that your armrests are out of the way. Also, if your chair is somewhat lacking in back support, try adding portable lumbar support.

Limit your interruptions. The average worker is interrupted more than 70 times each day, and half of those distractions are self-inflicted. Set up a “no-interruption” time to focus on your work for 30 to 60 minutes at a time. Turn off all your self-distractions, like your phone and e-mail, and turn on a white noise machine to block office noise around you. Find an alternate place to work, such as an empty conference room, or consider hanging a sign at desk requesting that you be interrupted, but will be available in 30 minutes.

You can learn to accomplish more during a work day by eliminating distractions. Start by maintaining good posture with a supportive ergonomic chair. Next, decrease the time-consuming distractions with a white noise machine. At the end of the day you will feel less stressed, more productive and ready to enjoy a relaxing evening.

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Sound Masking Can Improve Productivity

June 29, 2011 By

How much time do you lose each day as a result of your office space? Most people are overwhelmed with distractions and interruptions at work, especially in an open office plan. These distractions make it hard to concentrate, waste time and energy and create feelings of stress at work. Here are some practical ideas to help reduce distractions and increase productivity.

Prioritize your day. Always start immediately on a high-priority task, before checking e-mail or phone messages. This ensures that your priority projects are accomplished while you are fresh and focused, no matter what fires or interruptions come later in the day.

Use white noise. Today’s sound masking technology is very precise and uses “white” noise that is specially focused on the frequency of human speech. Office-wide sound masking can lower distractions by up to 51 percent; it effectively covers excess conversations and office noise that are always present in an open floor plan. If you have no control over the office space around you, you can still use a personal sound machine to create a distraction-free zone at your desk.

Sit up Straight! Most people do not realized how much energy they waste with poor posture/. Try to maintain a neutral typing posture while sitting at your computer. In this position your muscles are almost completely relaxed. Consider upgrading to an ergonomic chair that encourages good posture, and is correctly adjusted specifically for you. In any chair, your feet sit firmly on the ground to support your back; you can also add portable lumbar support if your backrest is not sufficient.

Limit distractions and interruptions. The average worker is interrupted more than 70 times each day, and half of those distractions are self-inflicted. Set up a “no-interruption” time to focus on one important task for 30 to 60 minutes at a time. Turn off all your self-distractions, like your phone and e-mail, and turn on a white noise machine to block office noise around you. Consider hanging a sign indicating that you currently cannot be interrupted, and a time when you will next be available.

Increasing your productivity and efficiency can lower your stress and help you complete your work by the end of the day. Start by maintaining good posture with a supportive ergonomic chair. Next, decrease the time-consuming distractions with a white noise machine. Or even better, upgrade your office space with sound masking technology to benefit the entire office. Better focus and productivity at work help you feel better about your work and enjoy less stress at the end of the day.

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Reduce Stress and Boost Productivity with Sound Masking

February 7, 2011 By

Did you know that the average worker loses two hours of productive work each day due to distractions in the office? There are constant conversations buzzing around them – the person in the next cubical is on the phone; the water cooler talk is almost always present; and the discussion between two co-workers in the hall is louder than they realize. Even at their most productive times, they are wasting energy and time trying not to hear all the noise around them. Businesses around the country are installing office-wide sound masking systems to increase privacy and productivity among their employees.

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.

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How Environment Affects Work

October 23, 2010 By

As an office manager or person in charge, you want your workers to be at their best and to be productive through out the day. If you were able to make a few changes to increase productivity and worker satisfaction would you do it? Of course you would. The following are a few ways to tweak the work environment to make it more conducive to working for everyone.

While all the windows are great, these workers proximity to each other can make working a challenge.

  • The temperature – Too hot and you have people falling asleep and getting cranky (not to mention smelly!). Too cold and it gets difficult to move your fingers properly when typing and can make it hard to focus. Finding a happy medium might be difficult, but as long as the temps are not one extreme or another, people can adapt by bringing a sweater to work or wearing a short sleeved shirt.
  • The quality of light — Is the office dim? Is there adequate task lighting at each desk so people are not struggling to read?
  • Proximity to others — It is easier to concentrate if each person has their own space to work in. However, its not usually possible to give everyone their own individual office. Is is possible to arrange the desks so that people are not too close to each other? Perhaps line the desks up around the room so their backs are to each other while working or install some partitions to divide up the space.
  • Noise level — Its hard to concentrate in a noisy environment. It can also affect customer service because of it being difficult to hear people on the phone. Not to mention that if everyone is talking to each other, that probably means that not a whole lot of work is getting done. Sound masking is an effective solution to this problem. The white noise allows the brain to tune out all of the other conversational distractions and thus makes one less likely to join in a conversation that they can’t clearly hear.
  • Air quality — If the quality of the air is poor in the building you are in for some reason it can actually make people sick, which means loss of productivity. Ask someone to check the building’s air filter and then go from there to figure out the reason for the air pollution.
  • The environment of the work place — This category includes the color of the office, how furniture is arranged, how many windows there are, etc. While you may not be able to tear down walls and add windows, you can think about how things are being used and then adjust accordingly. For instance, if most of the people needing the copy machine are on one side of the building and the copy machine is on the opposite side, it might be a better use of space to move the copy machine closer to where it is needed. Another consideration is the color of the walls — cool colors (blues and greens) tend to be calming and soothing colors and warmer colors (oranges and reds) tend to be exciting colors. Perhaps you could check with a professional decorator for some tips on the color of the office environment.

Are there any changes that you can think of that might help your workforce?

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You Don’t Know if You Don’t Ask

August 16, 2010 By

Any boss that is even halfway decent wants their workers to be able to work to their full potential and desires to help them reach that potential through any available means. Not only is that good for the people in the company, its also good for the company’s bottom line. People working to their full potential are not only more productive, but also happier and less likely to look elsewhere for work. Have you ever wondered how to help your employees in this area? What is keeping your workers from being more productive? Have you ever asked them? You won’t know if you don’t ask.

Instead of hiring a company masseuse, a few effective ergonomic adjustments could be made. (Although a masseuse would be nice....)

Some common reasons for lack of productivity are  distractions. In fact, studies have shown that distractions cause up to 2 hours a day of lost productivity which costs  companies $759 billion a year. So, one of the ways that would (hopefully) make a noticeable difference is to cut down on those distractions.

Ask your workers what is distracting them and then think of ways to help them overcome those. Is office noise and conversations constantly breaking their train of thought? Installing sound masking could help with that. Are constant emails and new email notifications a problem? Some software that minimizes that would help. Perhaps by the end of the day your employees shoulders and wrists are aching from sitting in front of the computer all day. A few ergonomic adjustments could go a long way in solving that and allowing them to focus on their working instead of tight muscles.

You won’t know how to implement effective solutions unless you know what the problem is. So, go ahead, ask your employees how you can help them work better and with less stress.

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Let Them Work In Peace

March 29, 2010 By

In 2004, Justin Mardex,  who at the time was a Masters student at Cornell University in the department of Design and Environmental Analysis, wrote a paper about “Auditory, Visual, and Physical Distractions in the Workplace” and has graciously published it online. (What a guy.)  In this paper, he quotes some eye opening statistics and I would like to highlight a couple of them. We are focusing on auditory distractions, but the entire paper is worth a read should you have spare time this afternoon.

‘Ability to do distraction free solo work’

The first startling statistic he quotes is from a study done in 2002. “In a survey of 13000 office employees, the workplace attribute found to be most effective was the ‘ability to do distraction free solo work‘ followed by ‘support for impromptu interactions (both in one’s workspace and elsewhere.)” These employees just want a place where they can think and work by themselves, unless they need help or need to bounce some ideas off of someone else.

Improved Productivity
Mardex also quotes some findings by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). This group did a national survey and found that “more than 70 percent of respondents indicated that their productivity would improve if their workspace was less noisy. A similar ASID survey of corporate executives indicated that only 19 percent were conscious of any sort of noise problem.”  In other words, the workers say they would just like a quiet place to work ,and their management is unaware of the problem.

You are aware of a problem if you are reading this site. Your workers would like a quiet place to work, but still have the (much needed) freedom to share ideas and provide important feedback on work that is being done. They also feel that if they are given a quiet place to work, their productivity will go up. We think the best way to facilitate this is sound masking.  It is loud enough to drown out conversational distractions, but unlike headphones or strict rules about noise, still allows for discussions. According to these studies, your workers will thank you for it.

Next Monday, we will highlight some other points that Mr. Mardex made in his very helpful paper. See you then!

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Being Proactive

March 15, 2010 By

In today’s difficult economy it is important that you take a proactive approach to your company’s profit margin. Not only are there fewer dollars to go around these days, but it is increasingly competitive to obtain those dollars. You have to continually be proactive and think of new ways to shrink your bottom line and to make a profit.

This is definitely NOT what you want to see in your office!

One way is to better utilize the resources you already have—your workers. The average American worker is distracted more than 2 hours a day, with conversational distraction ranking right after internet usage. That is 2 wasted hours that you are paying for that you are not getting anything in return. Instead of starting an office task force to nag your workers into what they are supposed to be doing, why not take a proactive, but less invasive approach–sound masking.

By masking the source of the distractions, you enable your workers to be more productive without adding unnecessary stress to their work environment. Studies have shown that sound masking increased a worker’s ability to focus on tasks by up to 48% and eliminated distractions (especially conversational distractions) by up to 51%.  With even minor adjustments in the office sound environment a substantial increase in performance and productivity can be seen. 

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Budget Cuts

December 15, 2009 By


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. 

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