The fact is that no one can be productive every minute of their shift. So, the sooner you come to peace with this information the easier it will be for you. And it’s good to have a bit of rest from work – employees take breaks so they can come back to work rested and more productive.
But, there are always those employees who just waste too much of their time. Whether it’s on office gossip, making coffee, snacking, etc. Too much wasted time can cause you major losses, therefore you must find ways to minimize distractions and low productivity levels.
Luckily, employee time tracking combined with some tips can help you out tremendously. Let’s see how.
Don’t Forget About Deadlines
Deadlines help workers stay on tasks. However, you must find a balance between deadlines that are too tight and lose. If a deadline is tight for no reason, employees will be stressed out, thinking how they can’t achieve what is expected of them. On the other hand, lengthy deadlines are one of the main causes of procrastination.
By using a time tracker, you can see how long on average every type of task takes, so you can set deadlines according to that data.
Break Projects Into Daily Tasks
The point of this isn’t for you to micromanage every step of the project – it’s to provide your employees with daily work, so they don’t waste time. Tasks which take a few days or weeks usually just wait for the last minute to be completed.
Use your employee time tracking tool to create tasks for every employee, on each project. Or you can let them do that themselves. The important thing is that there’s continuity in their workflow.
Additionally, every time an employee finishes a task they’ll feel a sense of accomplishment, and they’ll be motivated to move forward.
Could Remote Work Be the Way to Go?
Well, you can’t know if you don’t try it. You’re probably already aware of the popularity this type of work gained in the past few years, and maybe even some of your employees suggested it earlier.
If you’re using an employee time tracking app, you can still keep an eye on your employees while they’re working from home. At the end of the experiment you can compare the data from when they were working in office, to the remote data and see if remote work really is good for your team’s productivity.
You Really Don’t Need to Ask so Many Questions
You might not be aware of this, but you could be one of the main distractions at work. When you keep asking your workers how the tasks are progressing, how long till the end, etc. you’re making your employees drop what they’re doing, and it takes them about 20 minutes to go back to the task afterwards.
So, use your tracking software to check progress, and check in with your employees only if you notice they’re struggling with work.
Wrap Up
As you can see, combining time trackers with some actionable tips can get you a long way when it comes to limiting workplace distractions and lowering the amount of wasted time in the office.