I won’t bore you to tears about my mistakes over the 30 plus years in the corporate world! Too boring.
However, I will mention that in my early days in business, I worked my keister off, volunteered for everything, and wore myself out.
What did I get for all this effort? Moderate success. Not a failure but not the smashing success I thought would happen.
Now that I am looking back at on those working days, a glaring error is staring back at me:
I would have achieved the same results with less work!
Lest you think I am losing my mind (some of my friends admit I am losing it!), it comes down to a simple issue of focus.
For years, I fooled myself into thinking that I could spread myself across many projects and activities and be very successful.
Actually, I could have made much more progress by taking on one project at a time, knocking that out and then moving on to the next one. Easier on the nerves also.
Impact In The Office
The office environment in most offices these days makes it hard for people like me to focus. I don’t think I have full Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) but my mind is distracted with what is going on around me. I just have to look!
I (and most people) get easily distracted and we need to make sure we have office environments where the best work can be done.
Some offices are implementing focus rooms, pit areas with couches, and other methods of setting the right environment.
Each of us need to look at our styles and methods to figure out what works best for each of us.
I talked with some folks that don’t want to work remote but prefer to be in an office with their team. They like the definite timeframes of a start and end time for the day. They like going into an office and sitting down at a desk.
Others, need to be blocked off into a corner by themselves. People have their own methods of concentrating and companies need to offer all options to their employees.
Working At Home
This is very controversial as some managers believe that people will be home goofing off and not getting any work done. My conversations with many managers makes it clear that they don’t trust their people! Unbelievable!
It is saying “…you are going to work on huge projects that cost thousands or millions of dollars but I cannot trust you to work away from the office.”!!
So…let me make a startling statement…
I have worked many thousands of hours both in offices and at home. Yes, there will be goofing off by employees working at home!
But…productivity is so much higher by people working at home that they can goof off and still get it all done!
It does not matter how much time was spent “goofing off”. It matters how much work is done each day!
I found the opposite problem. I get buried in the work and sometimes I will not even stand up for 2-3 hours while focusing on a problem! That is not good as I should get up and get some movement at least once an hour.
Try different programs with your team and find the best option that works for you!