Top Productivity Suckers at Work and How to Beat Them

Life in an office cubicle can be a constant battle between being productive and fighting urges to zone out and think about things unrelated to work.  Those who are able to combat those moments of unproductiveness more effectively, tend to find themselves at the top of the corporate ladder (though I know there are a number of individuals who have made it despite their productivity levels). Let’s take a look at some of the top time suckers and see if your guilty of one, or many, of these productivity suckers.

Social Media

It’s pretty obvious that social media may be one of, if not the, biggest time suckers there is. Whether you are on your phone (because your company blocks the websites) or quickly switching between tabs on a browser as people pass by, social media can be a time killer. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, the list goes on, can quickly chew up hours of your day if you aren’t careful. Try and put aside 5 minutes or so every few hours to get your fix in, but don’t always look to browse your newsfeed every 10 minutes. Trust me, in those ten minutes something monumental isn’t going to happen, Justin Beiber may have gotten arrested again, but that isn’t important to your employer.

Chatting It Up

Everyone has that coworker who literally seems to only fraternize with fellow employees throughout the day. If you engage said person, say goodbye to the next 15 minutes of your life. Try to avoid this person. My recommendation is headphones, even if you aren’t listening to music. Couple headphones with intensely staring at the screen and you can potentially avoid the chatty Cathy. All else fails, just pick up your phone and act like you are talking to someone.

Meetings

Let’s face it, 9 out of 10 meetings are completely useless. “Hey Matt, put 10 minutes on your calendar to talk about this” translates to “Hey Matt, I hope you didn’t have anything planned for the next hour because I am taking it over”. Unfortunately if it’s your boss you just have to suffer through it, but if it’s a coworker one way to skip out on time is to declare you have a hard stop of whatever time. At said time, look at your watch and declare you must leave.