5 ways to improve your workplace

Studies have shown that our working habits - both good and bad - are often influenced by various external signalsDavid T. Neal, Wendy Wood, Jennifer S. Labrecque, Phillippa Lally.How do habits guide behavior? Perceived and actual triggers of habits in daily life. . We go to the same places, working for the same table, the same factors continuously affect us.

It would seem, what's wrong? Creating for themselves a good working environment, we will always be at the peak of productivity. Unfortunately, everything is much more complicated.

Signals around us at work, often act on the subconscious level. Here are some examples of researchMark Tyrrell.How your environment influences you. Confirming how much the environment influences our thoughts and actions:

• People are more inclined to compete, if they see a portfolio or even a picture on the wall.
• Communicating with a person who constantly uses in his speech, words such as "upset", "bad", "useless", "disappointment", you may feel worse.
• Even a faint smell of cleaning agent in many evokes a feeling of cleanliness and neatness.

So how do you create the best working conditions to our motivation, productivity and creativity have always been at a high level?

1. Get rid of clutter

If the mess on the desk is a mess in my head, then what is an empty table?

Albert Einstein

Many creative people and scientists at the mess table. However, the extra things can have a negative impact on our ability to concentrate and process information. That's what scientists have discovered, neuroscientists at Princeton University, where the occupants compared to the formal and informal working spacesMcMains S, Kastner S.Interactions of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms in human visual cortex. . The results showed that the disorder in the workplace diffuses our attention as a result of performance falls, and stress increases.

Get rid of this habit is not so simple. The disorder often occurs not by our laziness or lack of organization. We literally sick leave accumulated things.

Researchers from Yale University recently found that the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula brain responsible for pain, react to the need to throw away a thing to which you boundKelly McGonigal.Why It's Hard to Let Go of Clutter. . These brain regions are involved when we feel the pain of a small cut or too hot coffee.

How do we get rid of stress and confusion?

• Enter the limit. Set a rigid framework and not go beyond them. This is the best way to stop accumulating unnecessary. And no matter what is at stake: on the tabs in the browser, or magazines to subscribers in Twitter.
• Reduce your storage space. According to the law of Parkinson's work fills the time allotted to it. The same can be said about the mess. The smaller the space, the less clutter.
• Holds monthly revision. Every month Take time for cleaning and sorting the backlog of things.
• Cleaned every day. Disassemble the evenings all accumulated per day on the table. So you can start the next day with a clean slate.

2. Find a place that inspires you

We do not feel a rush of inspiration accidentally while in a beautiful building, or sitting by the window. Architecture can significantly affect our performance. Fresh air and natural light to work and stimulate the productivity of employees.

Of course, we can not always change the work environment, but the output is still there: Find a place with natural lighting, exit to the street, if you feel that the work has stalled completely, or just sit at the other table.

In the new location, you may have new ideas. In addition, studies have confirmed that the new locations easier to start new habitsOuellette, Judith A.; Wood, Wendy.Habit and intention in everyday life: The multiple processes by which past behavior predicts future behavior. .

3. Use different devices for different tasks

We know that the situation is different in many ways we are affected, so why not wrap it to their advantage? Our brain loves habits, and if we associate specific actions with certain places, it will be easier for us to be more productive. This is called the comparison of problems: brain knows that in a certain place, we perform a particular action.

This same method is also applicable to various devices. For example, you can develop a habit: the computer do all the work on the laptop to perform less serious task, and use the tablet for reading only.

The method so effective that it is used even in the treatment of insomniaMahendra P. Sharma, Chittaranjan Andrade.Behavioral interventions for insomnia: Theory and practice. . In this case, patients are asked to go to the bedroom, only when they are tired. If after some time did not manage to fall asleep, they have to go to another room and do something, until it again will not feel tired.

If you will allocate for a separate workstation or device to perform each problem, you can send your productivity on track, simply being in one way or another place.

4. Set up for success

It may seem that we have enough willpowerTo deal with difficult problems. But in fact, we all tend to be lazy. This is not entirely our fault. The brain is trying by all means to save energy and makes decisions for us at a subconscious level. In this case, it is based only on how hard or easy it will be to perform a particular task.
So, if you want to be more productive, make sure that all the most important to carry out was easy, and vice versa.

For example, turn off your phone and store it in a drawer. Now every time you want to check new messages, you have to get and to include it. Even such a simple trick will not be distracted.

More try at the end of the day to close all the tabs in your browser, and leave only the one that you need to perform the main task. The next day it will be easier to continue the work.

5. Monitor the surrounding sounds

In addition to the physical location and associations related to workplace productivity ambient sounds also affect us.

The researchers found that extracts others talk negatively affect our ability to concentrate. In their meta-analysisJames L. Szalma, Peter A. Hancock.Noise Effects on Human Performance: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis. Central Florida scientists from the University reviewed 242 studies on the impact of noise on productivity. They found that the mental activity (reading and working with text, numbers) on productivity have a much greater impact snippets of conversation, than, for example, continuous speech or other sounds. Not very good news for those who work in large offices.

But there is a solution. If you find a quiet place did not work, to silence and focus will help you with the noise canceling headphones or music.