Unless you are living in cave (which is unlikely because if you are, you will not be able to read this post at all), you know very well that facebook has already been contributing so much to the human race in terms of connecting with each other. On the other hand, facebook has already been impacting the workplace that so much work hours has been lost by people who are helplessly indulging into it. The word “discipline”, though relatively long, is so much easier to spell than put into action. So here are some tips on how to improve productivity at work even with the most advanced distraction known to the working world.
The most effective way of dealing with facebook is to delete your facebook account. Okay, I'm just kidding. :) See tips below:
1. Do not open your facebook account during the first 2 hours at work.
The most obvious explanation for this is that you do not make facebook a part of your priority activities in the office. When you open facebook at the start of work, you will become prone to overindulgence. Anyway, there wont be much difference on the updates that you get whether you check your account now or 2 hours later.
Actually, the 2-hour self-imposed delay on checking your facebook account is just to allow some time to set your mindset into work-mode. Depending on the nature of work, you might want to reduce this to 1 hour or some might even expand this to as much as 4 hours.
2. Make realistic goals on a daily basis.
You will be more focused if you know the specific tasks that you need to accomplish for that day. Of course, things do not always go as planned. Sometimes more important and urgent tasks come up and need to be inserted into your schedule so make sure to leave some space for flexibility. Some tasks might need to be postponed the next day. Your day may not always go as planned but having no plan at all will make failure almost a certainty.
By the way, do not forget to include in your daily goal the amount of time that you would like to spend facebook. Remember that the goal here is not necessarily to totally get rid of facebook but to improve productivity at work.
3. Monitor your work hours.
Many employees would consider work monitoring as counterproductive to their main work as it also takes some time. However, if you make it a habit, it will go easily and as smoothly as water flows from a higher to lower places. Anyway, it is only for your own purpose. In other line of work, some companies require to monitor their employee’s work hours since they would need it as computation basis in billing their clients. At the end of the day, either you will be delighted to see your own progress; or displeased to see the amount of time that you have lost to facebook.
Excel is great tool to create a table for monitoring your own work hours. Your table may include columns like date, day, project name, task description, time started, time ended, actual hours spent, and notes. You might want to modify this depending on the nature of your work.
4. Listen to music.
Some times, long and repetitive tasks gets too boring along the way. This is one of the reasons people will leave it and find something else more interesting to do, just to rid the boredom a bit. If they can not find work-related matters that is more interesting, people usually turn to facebook or some other interesting websites. This often result to long hours lost at work and they do not even realize it until they just notice a decline in output quality or unnecessary delays in task completion.
Music that appeals to your taste helps you become more alert and even towards getting more focused at the task at hand. Other people gets distracted so this might not work for everyone. Also, make sure you use your headset or earphones when listening to music and keep it low enough not to distract the other person next to you. Your music could be noise to others.
5. Talk to your workmates in person.
With today’s instant messaging and e-mail systems, it is not uncommon to see workmates talk to a team mate in the other office without leaving their work stations.
Go to your teammates’ work station or have a meeting at the conference room. This will make your life more real and remind you that there is a working office world more real than the world you know in cyberspace. Stand up and walk around. It is good for the heart too. :)
6. Allocate a day without facebook or internet
This may not be directly related to work but this would help you deal with the possible addiction or at least prevent it. You live in a real world. Allot one day for your family only, spend time with your friends, or even with yourself alone for some spiritual reflections.
Do not worry about missing wall updates for one day. Everything will still be available on your wall the next time you log in.
7. Forgive yourself
We are not perfect and are susceptible to human weaknesses. Do not be too harsh to your self. In case you find yourself giving in to the addiction and guilty of lost work hours again, forgive yourself and do not hesitate to start again from wherever you left off the track. If needed, start all over again.
You do not even have to reward yourself. Seeing your improved productivity and real interaction with real people in the real world will already make you feel great enough.
If you have some other tips related to this post, kindly just put them in the comments section below. You may also want to read another facebook related post on this blog: Are you a facebook addict?
