How to Deal With Some of the Most Common Distractions at Work

Workspace is almost the second home for adults as they spend nearly five days and eleven to ten hours of a day's time there. There might be many obstacles which need to be overcome daily, and distractions are one of them. To go to places and achieve one's goal, one has to break and rise above all the distractions. Below are a few examples of workplace distractions to keep in mind and the way to deal with them on a daily basis. 

1. Social media

Social media is one of the most notable distractions in work. It takes a toll on time and health at the same time. Some popular social media sites are Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Due to work pressure, people scroll through their Instagram for a minute's distraction but even before they realise they would have spent nearly half an hour over the app. Similarly, many people who work share and tag themselves in memes on Facebook. Just one sound of the notification can grab the worker's attention to dive deep into the application. Scrolling through Facebook feed also is a great time-eater. As far as Snapchat is concerned, people send pictures for every second reporting to their friends what they are doing. These are just a few instances of how social media eats away time. 

Prevention: To prevent yourself from wasting time in social media at work, few tactics can help you. They are as follows:

1.  Keep your mobile phone either in vibration more or in silent mode so that the notification bell sound doesn't distract you.
2.  Use apps that restrict the usage of social media apps or certain apps do notify you after using a certain amount of time like 5 minutes to 10 minutes.
3.  Cultivate the habit of self-control so that you don't use the mobile much.
4.  Inform your close circle like friends and family not to tag you or contact you through social media during your working hours. 
5.  Lock the apps and use them when it is the most necessary.

2. Games 

With smartphones always glued to our hands, there are so many ways to be distracted. When we feel like we need a break or need some time to relax and take our mind off something, we tend to use games. Some of the popular games are Subway Surfers, Temple Run. PUBG, Talking Tom etc. These games are very distracting and time-consuming. 

Prevention: Few of the ways to control it are as follows: 

1. App locking applications can be utilised in this case too. 
2. Self-control is very essential when it comes to curbing distractions. 
3. Try uninstalling all games on smartphones or any other electronic gadgets near you at work.

3. Emails 

The time spent on email statistics are very shocking to look into as an average time to read and respond to an email is almost 15 seconds roughly calculated. An average time spent reading an email by a professional worker consumes almost 28% of their entire day. To curb this in both the workplace and at home, the concept of email productivity is introduced. 

Prevention: 

1. Email Productivity is a set of rules like emptying inbox regularly, stop sending Carbon Copies of mail to all of your colleagues, limiting words in emails, turning off the notifications etc.   
2. Always set an allotted time to reply to the emails. 
3. Unsubscribe from unwanted advertising emails. 

4. Growling stomach and breaks

Hunger pangs are very common when we work hard for morning to evening. When our stomach growls out of starvation, we immediately look for something to eat. We might even take a food break to put something into our system. These tea or snacks breaks can be very distracting as we may meet colleagues or friends from the other department who might ask to spend some time with them. Before you even notice, thirty minutes could have passed. 

Prevention: 

1. Stock up eatables in your cabin so that you can munch on them when you are hungry. 
2. Replace junk foods with healthy snacks like fresh fruits, protein bars etc, which will keep you full for some time. 
3. Always remember to say no to things when there is a time restriction.

5. Noisy environment

The workplace is a common area where people from different strata of life come together in union and work hard. Some may prefer to blast music while working; some may prefer a quieter atmosphere. Apart from this, there might be interruptions like mobile notifications, ringtones, dropping things etc. 

Prevention: 

1. Try relocating to a new place like a park, cafe to escape the noise pollution. Opt for working from home if there is a choice. 
2. Use applications or noise cancellation headphones to cancel out the noise pollution around you. 
3.  Try requesting others to mute their mobile phones and use headphones if they want to listen to music. 

6. Gossiping

The workplace is a very dry environment with pressure, deadlines, and someone always expects something out of you, gossiping is the best way to get out of a stressful situation. It is one of the most top distraction in an official sphere as one gossip can lead to another, and before one realises it would have turned into a full-on conversation. 

Prevention: 

1. Never pass the gossip you hear to another person. Try to break the cycle by keeping it to yourself. 
2. Ignore the gossipers as paying attention to them is equal to fueling a car to run. 
3. Inspirit spreading positive gossip which might be encouraging for others. 

7. Tiredness

Tiredness is one of the most needed distractions which must be given importance too. Staring at a screen for long continuous hours can tire one's eyes out. Sitting in a cubicle can also tire hands, legs and body. It can make you feel drowsy, and the blood circulation can be restricted too. Taking a break can become a distraction when co-workers interrupt and waste your time with small talks.

Prevention:

1. Take short-timed breaks to go and stretch yourself. Walk for a short time but return to your work as soon as possible.
2. Make sure you get proper 7 hours or more sleep to be active in the office. 
3. Stay hydrated and eat healthy food which will make sure you have enough energy within yourselves. 

8. Clutter

Everyone will have their own space called a cabin where they work. Making sure that space is clutter-free is crucial as it acts as a great distractor. Imagine finding a random paper or thing on your desk. You might spend time on finding where it came from and what to do with it. 

Prevention:

1. Always organise what you want and what you don't require must be in the trash. 
2. It is essential to have properly labelled files and paper which will be easy to locate when needed. 
3. Put your maximum paperwork into Google drive or Cloud, which will make things easier and organised. 

Conclusion

As far as the workplace is concerned, "Either you run the day or the day runs you". Therefore it is very vital to be as productive as one can. Being productive will help a person to go places, and it puts them a step above than their peers. I hope this article will help you to curb the most common distractions in the workplace and to rise above all! 

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Co-author:  Akshaya Saravana Kumar

Akshaya is currently pursuing Masters in English Literature. She is an avid reader, an animal lover and a movie freak. She loves to spend her past time travelling to strange places in different time zones with her imagination and fall in love with fictional characters.