Ways to Stay Productive in a Loud Office: Studies show that a person works for about 60% of the time when he/she is in an office environment with about 90% productivity or less which gets most of their tasks done. But their productivity is even lesser when the noise levels in the office are so high that one cannot concentrate resulting in piled up work, not meeting deadlines, frustration at work, having no work-life balance as the time spent in the office increases when one cannot finish their work, a negative impact on mental health and many more. Hence, a low-noise environment is always desirable to work in.
But we don’t always get what we want, do we? Especially with open-floor plan offices, a no-doors policy, no hierarchical structures, and open-to-communication policies that work-places have introduced. So, the last option is to adapt and learn to work in a loud office and stay productive in order to get the work done.
So, if you find yourself in a loud noise place, maybe one of the following tips can help you get things ticked off your to-do list:
1. Keep a pair of Noise cancellation earphones/headphones handy
Technology is doing wonders and has been helping us since it was introduced and it has come up with another solution to a noisy background problem. Want peace in chaos, this is the solution. It not only helps you get secluded in a room full of people by drowning out their voices but also helps you concentrate better and keep your productivity up.
Bonus: you can also play some music that doesn’t distract you.
2. Check the meeting room schedules
If you need an empty room to get some important work done, or your team needs an area to sit other than your cubicles, check-in with the meeting room schedules and keep a tab on when it’s free and for how long. In this way, you can use those rooms when they are empty and use them to get individual, as well as team projects, are done.
3. Come early or leave late
If you have a deadline, either come earlier than others or leave later than all. People aren’t really chatty in the mornings so doing the work which requires more concentration can be done better in the mornings. And during the evenings, people want to finish their work and leave so all of them want to get their work done resulting in another productive hour.
4. Know your office’s routine
Some meetings in the office are regular, keep their timing in your mind and make your schedule around them. It will help you to keep your productivity level up and keep you mentally sane as it will give you time to relax and have fun during chatty hours of the office.
5. Make different task lists
Make task lists on the basis of the level of concentration needed for them. It will make you schedule your tasks on the basis of the level of noise in the office. Keep higher concentration tasks for the productive hours of the office like mornings or evenings. Keep tasks like meetings when other people have their meetings. And the tasks that require less concentration like emails, replies, etc. for times when you feel lethargic like the post-lunch hour and everyone wants to just get through the hour.
6. Bring up the issue
If nothing of such works, point out the issue to your manager or someone from HR so that it can be addressed in the next staff meeting. This will make everyone aware of the issue and act accordingly. When there is mutual respect among employees, the solution to the problem is easily achieved. And maybe bringing this topic up in a meeting, may give you more solutions than you thought of like creating a library zone in the office, getting sound-absorbing material installed, etc.
7. Make official signs
If the issue is brought up in a meeting, you can suggest some official signs to be used throughout the office to respect one another’s privacy like if someone is wearing headphones, not to disturb them during that time being and leaving notes or emails or texts for the things to be communicated to that person if they don’t require urgent attention. Or using a server to communicate throughout the office so that everyone is not roaming around always or talking about day-to-day tasks.
8. Adapt
Adapting to noise is another way to train your mind with some noise always in the background so that normal office noises like the printing machine, phones ringing, people coming and going don’t disturb your level your concentration and bring down your productivity.
Another way is to distinguish your tasks to determine which can be done in-office and which are not required to be done in the office and ask for work from the office for those tasks and stay productive.