Tag Archive for: Improving employee productivity

How Music Boosts Productivity

In both your personal and professional life, productivity is an important factor. When most people think of productivity, they think of commonplace productivity hacks such as limiting phone usage and having a designated time to check emails. But did you know that listening to music while you’re working can increase your productivity as well? Depending on the type of music among just a few other factors, music is something that fills ones environment with substance. When working in an office that is completely silent or working at a site where you hear nothing but machinery, it can make for a very dull day- leading to boredom, therefore decreasing productivity. Here is a list of ways listening to music can benefit you while you’re working.

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”Friedrich Nietzsche

1. Improves Mood

Particularly when you’re listening to music you like, music releases the feel-good chemical dopamine. It can also help reduce stress and anxiety, which we all have at times when in the workplace. If the music you’re listening to is upbeat, it can also serve as a motivator on days when you’re dragging. (We all have those days).

2. Narrows Focus

Music, especially classical music, is known to help your brain both absorb information and ease your mind. When you feel less consumed with all of the information your brain tries to process daily, you can zoom in on the tasks you’re doing which allows you to produce your best work.

3. Helps with Problem Solving

Music improves cognition and enhances both memory and learning. This leads to ideas and innovative solutions to problems. It also gives you the fluidity to see problems from multiple perspectives instead of having rigid thinking.

4. Makes Tasks More Pleasurable

All of us have components of work that we are not particularly thrilled about. Depending on the position, some of us may have tasks that are repetitive and monotonous. Music will give you a rhythm to what you’re doing, making it feel faster instead of dragging. It also slightly divides your attention so you’re not solely thinking about how badly you don’t want to do a task.

5. Improves Creative Process

Music is known to promote divergent thinking. This is when you have many thoughts and ideas flowing to you at once. This is often when you come up with your best ideas because your stream of consciousness is open and you begin to make unexpected connections.

6. Blocks Out Other Distractions

If you’re listening to music while working, it will block out other sounds around you, such as: conversations of co-workers, constantly ringing phones, or people walking by. Hearing multiple noises happening all at once burns energy as your brain sees it as data that needs to be processed. Instead of involving yourself in those conversations or turning around to see what the noise is, you are honed in on what you’re doing and are able to keep at it.

7.Immersion

Because music helps you elevate your mood, it can help get you moving faster and more “in the zone”. When you feel happy, you are less likely to make errors.  Also, when you are in a good mood, you have better interactions with colleagues, clients, and customers.

 

Things to Consider:

1. Are you an introvert or extrovert?

Just like all things, music affects introverts and extroverts, as well as different personalities differently. Listening to tracks during work may not be the best option for everyone. Some introverts may do better working in silence. It is entirely dependent on the person.

2. Lyrics

Music with lyrics can be distracting, especially if you choose to listen to songs that you know all of the words to. Before you jump straight to your favorite tracks, try listening to non-lyrical or karaoke versions of the songs you like.

3. Listening Habits

If you are someone who listens to music all the time and with every task that you do, adding it to your work day will feel only natural. If you are someone who only listens to music occasionally, it may take some getting used to.

4. Difficulty of Tasks

If you are doing a task that requires all of your focus, like crunching numbers or writing documents, music is not something you will want to add to the mix. Instead, listen to it on your lunch or take a few short breaks during the day and play a few minutes of upbeat or calming music then.

If you or someone you know is looking for a new job, we at Award Staffing are here to help. We update our job listings daily, check out our latest opportunities here.

Improve Employee Productivity For Your MN Business

If you own a business that has multiple interactions with clients or customers, you know how important it is for your employees to be productive. If an employee isn’t productive for a day, it can really hurt your sales, workflow, and even your other employees. If one or more of your employees has been lagging in the productivity department, you need to step in and do something. Here’s how to improve the productivity of your employees:

Be Concise

Some of your employees may not be entirely productive because they’re confused or unclear about your instructions. In order to remedy this, try to be as concise as possible when speaking with your employees. Instead of adding anecdotes or tangents to your instructions, give your employees one or two clearly-defined tasks and make sure they understand before moving on to the next subject.

Encourage Open Communication

If an employee is confused about a particular task in a closed-communication environment, he or she will waste more time trying to figure it out alone than if they asked for your advice. For this reason, you should always encourage open communication with your employees. Ensure that they free to talk to you should a question or problem arise.

Hold Regular Meetings

Some employees can veer off-task over time because they are used to doing something a certain way or forget the importance of a certain task. If you hold regular meetings about your company’s goals, it will be much easier for your employees to be productive. They will be reminded of the goals and tasks on a regular basis and much more likely to adhere to them than if they are expected to remember lofty goals from infrequent meetings.

Allow For Different Work Styles

If you truly want to improve the productivity of your employees as much as possible, allow for different work styles. This could mean allowing employees work at their preferred hours – when appropriate and/or develop their own processes for getting work done. Whatever you decide, make sure to let your employees know that they are free to do the work in whichever way they choose as long as the result is consistent with your goals. Sometimes, the real culprit is understaffing.

Contact Award Staffing and we can help match you up with employees who are receptive to feedback and who can work quickly without compromising on their work’s integrity.

 

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