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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 for Conversational Distractions

May 3, 2011 By

Distracted

Did you know that the vast majority of your employees are distracted more than two hours every day?  Actually, 2 hours is the average.  It’s no wonder that they lose one-fourth of their work day when there’s time sucks out there like email, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, Skype, texting, etc.  While it’s easy to point your finger at your workers, or even technology itself, it’s important to realize that these distarctions are only a small piece of the pie.  In fact, it’s due to technology like this that your company can function the way it can.  That’s not to say that all your employees’ use of time online is noble and for the sake of business, but on the other hand, cutting them off from this technology cuts your business, as well.

Conversational Distractions

If online distraction is only a part of the huge distraction level employees experience, what accounts for the larger part?  Interestingly, conversational distraction is what takes a huge bite out of productivity.  Co-worker chatter, water cooler gossip, loud sales guys, and the like dominate employee distraction.  It’s hard to tune out colleagues’ conversations and especially their conflicts.  Furthermore, most employees engage in quite a bit of their own distraction, but they are also victims to co-worker chatter even when they don’t want to be.  That’s what has led to workers reporting that all they want is distraction-free solo work time.  Time to be free of office noise and to get work done.  Far from being unreasonable, distraction-free solo work time seems like a pretty valid request.

How do you facilitate distraction-free solo work time?

Companies have gotten pretty creative, offering conference room time blocking slots even for individual work time or mandating “quiet” time in which all noise-producing tech stuff gets shut off.  In addition to corporate mandates, sound masking has risen as a viable option for noise reduction in general.  Like its name suggests, sound masking is white noise through office speakers in the ceiling tiles that is low-level but just structured enough to cover, or mask, unwanted, intrusive noise.  Workers with sound masked offices report less stress, fewer errors, better focus, and more productivity.

Thus, if office noise and its resulting distraction are a problem for your business, consider sound masking for more productivity.

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Who Can Use Sound Masking?

April 21, 2011 By

The Need for Sound Masking

Last time we talked about office noise pollution and the need for sound masking.  Just by way of review, here is the bottom line of why office noise is such a serious problem.

There are a few answers, but they all come back to distraction.  We can all agree that noise is a distracting thing, whether it’s good or bad noise.  There’s a reason we don’t talk on the phone right outside baby’s room- noise is intrusive and can interrupt the natural flow of things.  Thus, on a very base level, noise is distracting.  Take that distraction to an office, especially an open office format, and you get distracted workers.  Distracted workers are prone to more errors and stress than focused workers.  That’s a fairly obvious conclusion because it’s not hard to imagine making mistakes when one ear is tuned in to the office soundtrack on stereo speakers.  They’re more stressed because, contrary to managerial belief, workers do not prefer to lose hours of productivity a day to distraction- in fact, many complain that regardless of the 9-5 clock, they still have projects and deadlines and therefore wind up taking work home evenings and weekends.  All of this contributes to what is called a disengaged worker, or a worker who has lost connection with his job.  Disengaged workers costs businesses (like yours!) billions of dollars a year due to 1) loss of productivity, 2) errors, 3) work-related stress/injuries, 4) sick days, and 5) turn-over.

Summing It Up

That’s quite a lot to process, but the upshot is that distraction costs…and it costs not only workers time, but also companies money.  As a result, distraction is a time- and a profit-suck.  And just when it seems that there is no solution other than to play the quiet game, sound masking enters on a white steed.  A little exaggerated maybe, but sound masking really is our knight in shining armor.  Compared to the cost of distraction, sound masking is a very inexpensive counter-measure against distraction, plus it’s virtually invisible because the speakers are mounted within the ceiling tiles themselves and have no maintenance requirements either.

Who Can Use Sound Masking?

All that sounds great, but you may be wondering where sound masking is actually effective?  Great question- sound masking systems, like the VoiceArrest, are highly effective for larger office areas, such as:

  • Office buildings
  • Medical facilities (doctor’s offices and hospitals)
  • Conference Rooms
  • Government & Military agencies
  • Real estate offices

For smaller areas, such as individual offices or even cubicles, sound masking can come in the form of a sound machine, too.  There are a variety of options, each designed to fit specific needs.

Sound masking comes in several forms, both larger systems like the VoiceArrest and sound machines for smaller areas.  Either way, sound masking is the most effective means of covering noise and distraction.

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What’s All the Fuss About Sound Masking?

April 19, 2011 By

Indoor Noise Pollution

Noise pollution is becoming more and more of a problem, and not just in traffic jams surrounded by construction.  No, even offices are suffering from the stress and distraction of noise pollution.  The problem in the office is that there’s no relief in that you can’t just drive away.  On the contrary, you are constantly surrounded by it, from ringing phones to fax machines to water cooler gossip to nails on keyboards to heels on hard floors to co-worker conversation to slamming doors….The noise may not be as loud as construction crews, but being held captive by your work environment for 9 hours a day, 5 times a week can be just as debilitating.

Why?

There are a few answers, but they all come back to distraction.  We can all agree that noise is a distracting thing, whether it’s good or bad noise.  There’s a reason we don’t talk on the phone right outside baby’s room- noise is intrusive and can interrupt the natural flow of things.  Thus, on a very base level, noise is distracting.  Take that distraction to an office, especially an open office format, and you get distracted workers.  Distracted workers are prone to more errors and stress than focused workers.  That’s a fairly obvious conclusion because it’s not hard to imagine making mistakes when one ear is tuned in to the office soundtrack on stereo speakers.  They’re more stressed because, contrary to managerial belief, workers do not prefer to lose hours of productivity a day to distraction- in fact, many complain that regardless of the 9-5 clock, they still have projects and deadlines and therefore wind up taking work home evenings and weekends.  All of this contributes to what is called a disengaged worker, or a worker who has lost connection with his job.  Disengaged workers costs businesses (like yours!) billions of dollars a year due to 1) loss of productivity, 2) errors, 3) work-related stress/injuries, 4) sick days, and 5) turn-over.

The Value of Sound Masking

As a result, sound masking is an easy, virtually invisible way to enable workers to tune out most of the distraction around them by surrounding them with low-level background noise instead.  It’s kind of like being mid-flight and realizing that you can’t hear the conversations going on around you because of the engine noise.  The engine noise (quite a bit louder than the white noise sound masking would employ) is not a nuisance in and of itself, it’s just noisy enough to block other sounds around you.  So, too, sound masking covers, or masks, office noise so that it doesn’t become a billion-dollar distraction.

Distractions cost businesses billions of dollars every year.  Sound masking can redeem both the time and money lost as a result of disengaged, distracted workers.

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Common Office Noise Problems

April 5, 2011 By

Office Space

If you’ve ever seen Office Space, you are well aware that they typical office has a host of problems ranging from unmotivated workers to redundant work to irritating co-workers.  Even though it seems far-fetched at times, there’s a reason we all laugh when we see that movie- it’s a little too familiar for most of us.  Maybe you don’t have to count your pieces of flare or fill out 8 TPS reports, but you are familiar with co-worker rants, mal-functioning equipment, and annoying office gossip and conversations.

Office Distractions

In fact, office noise is a real problem, from both the worker’s perspective, as well as from the manager’s.  Workers find it irritating, distracting, and attention-sucking, while managers realize just how much the bottom line can be affected.  An estimated $500-$600 billion are lost every year as a result of distraction, a large contributor being conversational distractions.  Interestingly, workers admit that they are less distracted by equipment noise (typing,machines running, cell phones buzzing) than they are by unexpected chatter.  It’s a logical finding- whirring machinery and clickety-clackety typing is a function of the typical office and is therefore predictable.  Predictable sounds are easier to tune out or ignore all together.  On the other hand, sporadic voices, exotic cell phone ring tones, and intermittent conversations are unpredictable and thus much harder to ignore.

Sound Masking

This is where sound masking comes in.  An alternative to your employees missing work {and not really “missing it”}, sound masking is the use of low-level background noise through speakers in the ceiling tiles so that workers can treat conversational distractions like equipment distractions- easy to tune out and ignore.  Again, this would be beneficial for both sides, workers and managers alike.  Workers would experience a happier, less stressful work environment, while managers can look forward to more productivity and fewer dollars lost to distraction.

It’s a fact that workers are distracted at work.  Sound masking to reduce the effects of conversational distractions is a happy solution for workers and managers alike.

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Taking Advantage of Technology with Sound Masking

March 15, 2011 By

How can we harness technology's advantages without suffering its toll?

Average Distraction Levels

Most workers clock in at 9 and out at 5, which should add up to 8 hours, minus lunch.  However, most studies are showing that nowhere near 7-8 hours of work are being done in any work place.  Why?

Well, let’s break down the typical day at work:

  • Workers are interrupted as many as 11 times an hour, with managers at about 6 times/hour and cubicle workers as much as 70 times a day!
  • It takes most workers 5 minutes to get back on track
  • This usually adds up to 2 hours per worker every day

Two hours per worker per day costs businesses around $600 billion a year.  That’s a staggering number, especially so since your business is not immune.  Now, it’s only fair to say that many interruptions are self-imposed or simply part of the job, such as having an open door for your employees when they need you.  However, these types of interruptions do not cover the entirety of those 2 hours per worker per day.  In fact, many polled workers state that office noise is just as much to blame.  Most are frustrated, and all but a few are less productive as a result of it.  From office gossip to personal calls to texts zinging in, office noise is at an all-time high.  And staying plugged in seems to be the name of the game.

What can you do to help your workers stay more focused on work-related tasks?

Since shutting off all distracting electronics would pretty much shut down business for the day, is there anything you can do?  Yes. Sound masking.  Truly a simple approach, sound masking is the use of white noise to cover the distracting/intrusive sounds in the typical office.  Workers can still take care of their own business, but not feel captive to others’ conversations and noise.  Basically, the white noise is run through speakers mounted directly in the ceiling tiles- many systems have paging and music systems, as well.  So, all in all, sound masking is a quick, non-invasive solution for recovering all those lost hours.

Rather than blame technology for distraction and loss of productivity, take advantage of it with sound masking!

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Office Noise & Masking It {Part 2}

March 10, 2011 By

Office Noise

Last time we discussed the woes of office noise.  In a nutshell, all employees in a certain study viewed office noise as problematic for productivity, as well as for morale.  In fact, workers lower on the totem pole viewed the resulting distraction and loss of speech privacy as particularly frustrating because it made them feel that their position was “less than” managerial workers.

As we said, this is not all that surprising.  While a noisy office may cater to a “fun” environment, it certainly does not go hand-in-hand with a great work ethic.  The study mentioned that workers felt frustrated, and I would venture to guess that a noisy office enables workers to slack off intentionally, too.  After all, if no one can hear you make a bunch of personal calls, why not?  It beats spreadsheets and project reports.

This begs the question, what can we do????  Is office noise a perennial problem that simply cannot be avoided?  Of course not.  Modern technology, like sound masking, has evolved for this very problem.  Let’s see what the study has to say about masking the aforementioned office noise:

To test the effects of masked and unmasked office noise on arousal, stress and cognitive performance, each of three groups of 15 student volunteers was exposed to one of the following conditions: taped office noise (54 dbA with bursts to 60-66 dbA), the same noise masked by white noise at 59 dbA, and no extraneous noise. Findings confirmed predictions based on theories of arousal and disruptive stress. The no noise group performed best on a measure of cognitive complexity and felt the least disturbed and stressed by the environment. Masked noise subjects performed better than those in the unmasked condition on both complexity and a simple attention task; they felt more aroused but less disturbed or stressed by the environment. The findings are relevant to both theoretical and applied aspects of ambient noise.

Again, not that surprising: workers with blasts of pretty loud sound had the worst productivity, workers with no sound had the best, and workers with masked sound were in the middle.  Now, with our blog name being what it is, you may be surprised that I included this tidbit.  However, truth is truth.  Almost everyone would prefer to work uninterrupted, with no sound at all.  The problem is that this is only achievable in a study with a controlled environment.  That being said, the next best solution is sound masking.  Plus, sound masking also aides in speech privacy.  It’s important to note that even if a perfectly silent office were possible, speech privacy would go out the window completely.

What Is Sound Masking?

Plain and simple, sound masking is the use of white noise to cover (ie mask) unwanted sound.  Because workers find their productivity so hindered, the installation of a virtually unnoticeable sound masking system is an easy and immediate solution to get workers focused and back on track.  It’s a lot less expensive than adding walls, too.

In summary, office noise is a real problem for workers’ productivity, as well as their sense of value.  Sound masking is the best solution to reduce distractions and even boost speech privacy.

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Office Noise & Masking It {Part 1}

March 8, 2011 By

The Woes of Office Noise

An interesting study was performed on the effects of office noise and distractions.  To save you the time of reading the entire study, here is the abstract which effectively summarizes the results:

A total of 649 employees at all job levels working in open-plan offices on each of the five floors of an office building completed an extensive questionnaire on their work and the office environment. The results showed that a variety of ambient environmental problems were present in these offices. Also, a clear relationship between job characteristics and attitudes toward the office was demonstrated. Employees who enjoyed performing managerial and technical tasks reacted more unfavorably to office conditions than did clerical staff, who generally viewed their work as undemanding. Loss of privacy and increased disturbances were consistently at the source of these negative reactions, and the interrelationship of these problems also emerged from factor analysis of the data. Although the office did create a favorable social climate, this did not offset employees’ negative reactions to work conditions but rather appeared to exacerbate the problems. Consequently, no evidence was found to support the claim for improved productivity in open-plan…

Cubicles are an acoustic nightmare.

Essentially office noise in an open office (ie an office with few walls and probably many cubicles) was a problem for many workers.  And while it created a semi-fun social environment, most workers viewed the excessive noise adversely.  In addition, those workers who saw themselves as less important than managerial staff had even harsher views of office noise and the inevitable distractions that follow.  Lastly, employees did not like the loss of privacy that accompanied open office plans.

None of this is all that surprising.  Office noise is a real problem on two levels:

Feeling held captive by office noise is frustrating and debilitating because it makes workers feel less valuable and therefore de-motivates them to give their best work, even if they could work through the noise.  Fortunately, office noise does not have to rule your office.  Be sure to check back to see what the findings are for masking office noise as a solution.

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Distracted at Work {Help!}

February 15, 2011 By

Distracted at Work

I’m supposed to be working.  I have been sitting here, thinking about how I should be working for about an hour and a half.  I’m not kidding.  Let me lay it out there for you- I’m on a computer, so there’s endless distractions there: email, Facebook, add a few status updates myself, fix a blog post I wrote for today, go ahead and link it up to Facebook and a few other sites, peruse those sites to see who else is on, check email again, open link my sister-in-law sent me for what to get my kids for their birthdays, get absorbed in that site because, let’s be honest, shopping for re-usable, laminate, retro snack bags is a whole lot more fun than working, remember that I should be working, try to focus, stare out window instead due to passery-by who are fairly loud and break my minute of concentration, shake off street noise, only to hear my son wake prematurely from his nap, restrategize about his sleeping situation, remember I am supposed to be working, try to focus again….

I’m Not the Only One!

You probably deduced that I work from home.  And it’s easy to assume that being at home is the culprit here.  And I suppose in many ways you’re right.  I wouldn’t bring my 2 year old son to the office with me, but everything else would be the same, wouldn’t it?  Internet distractions and outside noise?  And, though my kid may not be with me, you can bet my cell phone is and that I would be checking for messages about him constantly.

No, the main culprit is distraction itself.  We’re all distracted- no matter where we work.  We’re all distracted because we live in a tech-driven, busy, not to mention, loud world.  So, just how distracted are we?  Well, studies show that the average worker is distracted more than 2 hours every day….and that’s just at work.  Since we’re supposed to be working from 9-5, 2 hours is a pretty big chunk of time to lose, don’t you think?

How Can Anyone Avoid Distraction?

You may be thinking that it’s impossible to avoid this level of distraction since it must be internet issues, and no work palce can function without it.  Interestingly, it’s not the internet, etc. that is reported as the main distraction- in fact, it’s usually conversational distraction that plays the largest role.  Whether intentionally partaking in work place conversations or just being privy to them, most workers are victims of the toll it takes.

This is where sound masking comes in.  Our knight in shining armor, sound masking is the use of white noise to cover the unwanted noise of a busy work place.  Hardly noticeable itself, sound masking is an easy solution that is pretty affordable and makes no aesthetic or architectural change to the office.

Just remember, distraction costs you time and money.  Plug the leak with sound masking.

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Using Technology to Mask Technology’s Noise

February 3, 2011 By

Tech Drives All

It’s a tech-driven world these days.  You can take your computer with you wherever you go, you can navigate a route with the touch of a finger, you can stand on the opposite side of the room and present a proposal wirelessly.  And with all this innovation comes an equally diverse and revolutionary influx of apps and accessories, such as monitoring your baby with an iPhone or a mouse hand warmer pouch.

The Old Ball & Chain

As incredibly freeing as all this technology is, it can be equally trapping as well.  It’s almost as if there’s a ball and chain linking you to your computer, phones, and fax machine, as well as all the ringing, buzzing, and vibrating they make every few minutes.  Besides mental stress, this amount of distraction leads to an incredible lack of productivity.  And why wouldn’t it?  Not only are you held captive by your own gadgets and their noises, but you also fall prey to everyone else’s, especially if you’re in a cubicle.  Or if you manage a whole lot of cubicles.  Just visit the floor and you can see how distracted workers are.

Using Technology to mask Technology

This is where sound masking comes in.  By piping in white noise via speakers mounted in ceiling tiles, you allow your workers to focus more on their work and less on their gadgets.  The white noise itself is quite effective in covering unnecessary and unwanted sounds without proving to be a distraction itself.  Most surveyed employees reported that the only thing they noticed was the ability to work, not the sound masking itself.  And since most workers also report that all they want is distraction-free solo work time, it pays to give them a distraction-free environment.

As essential as modern technology seems to be, so is masking it at times.  Technology is only as good as it serves us.

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