Improve Focus In Shared Office Space In The Philippines With These Easy Work Hacks

By Dlx Admin | Office | 0 Comments

The old-school concept of the one-person cubicle is fast losing its appeal even in office spaces in Cebu; now, even our creativity and productivity are no longer enclosed in our personal spaces. These days, we can collaborate and work side by side with our peers in open spaces. The collaborative economy has changed the way we view the office in different ways. Now the trend goes towards shared tables and floors we can move around with shared facilities.

The co-working strategy aims to build collaboration, however this setup of open spaces is very much prone to distract the employees working in it. In fact, a few hours of uninterrupted work may be challenging to get if you wish to focus when there are people brainstorming around you.

Steps to be taken by the management and the organization

One important step to take to improve conduciveness is to change some key managerial and organizational strategies and make it apply to the shared work space format. Management should facilitate changes that lead to productive interaction while helping their employees focus. Here are some office rules that managers may want to apply:

• Assign areas meant for quiet work. Even if there is only a small space available, designating a quiet area with available resources may help boost creativity and concentration especially in tasks that need to be done immediately. Even a free conference room where staff can work alone at times helps in improving focus.
• Organize quiet work moments for your staff. Including quiet times in an employee’s shift may help assist people to do their work in a more focused way. Each week, schedule a few quiet hours when staff can work individually at peace with themselves. Focus on building a schedule at least two to three hours twice or thrice each week. Staff may only collaborate when needed to.
• Make your staff respect busy individuals. Staff focused on individual tasks may have “busy signals” that indicate that they wish to focus on a task undisturbed.
• Never bombard your staff with emails and requests for updates. Instead, schedule communication where it is most convenient for them to answer while the rest of the shift will be focused on the tasks they are trying to accomplish.

Personal steps to increase focus

On a level that’s more personal, there are a number of steps you can take to boost your concentration at work. You may try headphones and enter your own zone. However there are other ways you can use than just listening to music.

• You can do shielding by taking your laptop to an enclosed location just like what we do when we get phone calls. You can also do this psychologically by building a psychological wall and enclosing yourself with your own thoughts.
• You may also go to a secluded room such as an empty conference room to focus on a particular task.
• Being anonymous is a good tactic that is often used by people that often lets them become focused in the middle of a group of strangers. By choosing to be anonymous, they can choose their own strategy on how they can concentrate.

Strategies you can do with your team

As a process involved in creating a strategy, collaboration needs the contribution of both the individual as well as the team. Private time to concentrate on concepts is very essential to create ideas, learn and draft strategies. Afterwards, staff may then work together to further create a shared vision, collaboratively. Next, private time is needed once more for the individuals to do the tasks needed to execute the plan. The more demanding a project is, the more “me time” should be allocated to the members of the team.

How to organize concentration

Total concentration needs focus to be accomplished as well. The good thing is that in co-working spaces, staff can move to different places if they feel distracted. Anyway, at the end of the day it all boils down to us knowing which tasks need our solitary focus or those which need team effort.