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Develop a routine
When I was in sixth grade, my parents made a decision that forever changed the course of my life. They took me out of school. While the reason for the switch to home-schooling was academic (clearly a good decision two B.S. degrees, an MBA, and a Ph.D. later), there was a huge side effect that perhaps had a bigger influence on my life. When my parents announced this change, I was pretty sure I had it made-I was going to sleep late, work fewer hours, play more tennis and basketball (at the time two of my favorite activities),etc. So, on the first day, you can imagine my surprise when I was awakened at 5:30 and was enrolled in what my family now laughingly refers to as Danner military academy. It was tough. When I say tough I mean like grad-school tough. It wasn’t really the material (although I was woefully behind where I should have been), but rather, the routine. At my old school, I worked for about 5-20 minutes of every hour and goofed off the rest of the time-because I could. That whole system really didn’t roll for my mom, who viewed my schooling as my 11 year old job. After a while, my mom eased up a little and I fell into a comfortable routine of work that I have continued to this day. When you come in every morning not knowing what your day entails, it is a lot easier to waste time than if you come in knowing what you need to get done and you already have a system in place to accomplish those goals. Research has shown that when you operate under a routine, you eat better, you sleep more (which is absolutely essential for productivity), and you exercise more-all things that greatly increase your productivity. Just sleeping alone can drastically change the productivity of your employee. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania found that those who slept four to six hours a night for fourteen consecutive nights showed the deficiencies in cognitive performance equivalent to those that went without sleep for up to three days in a row! However, the subjects reported that they felt only slightly sleepy and were completely unaware of how impaired they were. While you obviously cannot mandate that your employee get more sleep or keep a routine, keeping the office running in a routine greatly increases the chances that they will continue the pattern once at home.
2. Be a Sprinter Not a Marathon Runner
I worked from home for about 4 years. Anyone who has ever tried to do this knows that being productive at home is extremely difficult. Something always seems more important than your work (even if it is just reruns or chores). In order to curb my home-ineffectiveness, I developed a system for myself. Actually, I didn’t develop it-it has been used for decades in the school system. It is the 50 min work hour. Let me explain. Every hour, I work as hard as I possibly can for 50 min. I do not get up, I do not talk to colleagues (unless, of course, they speak to me directly), I do not play around on the internet or check my email-I just work. During my 10 min breaks, I visit the restroom, refill my coffee cup, and check my personal phone and email. Creating these intense periods of working dramatically raised my productivity. It was shocking, actually. Taking purposeful breaks helped me buckle down and focus during the work time. I actually go to the extent that if I think of something that I need to email or speak with someone about, I jot it down until my next break. This concept of increasing productivity is nothing new. In 1926, Henry Ford famously adopted the 40-hr work week. He was widely criticized by his fellow members of the National Association of Manufacturers. His theory (which turned out to be completely accurate) was that cutting the work week from 6 to 5 days and cutting down the work day from 10 to 8 hours increased total work output and decreased production costs. Sometimes increasing productivity (and sanity) means developing a system that is workable for you and your employees. My system probably would not work for everyone-there are tons of variations on it. The idea is to break up your work into smaller chucks-your brain simply cannot work at a high pace when you over-exhaust it. Helping your employees find an effective system for their work schedule can dramatically increase their productivity.
Hope this helps as we roll into Friday!
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