This week we were captured by two articles about what we’re doing right (and wrong) in the workplace. We learned about 8 key factors that decrease business productivity and why it pays off to be funny at work—usually.
Avoiding Mistakes That Keep US Unproductive
An ongoing theme here at DATABASICS is productivity, which you might remember from our first Fun Friday post. Since we’re also a provider of services that increase productivity, we’re interested in a recent blog spot at Born2Invest.
We weren’t surprised to hear that “not tracking your time” was one mistake that decreased productivity. After all, we’ve always known that our time tracking software was a true time saver since keeping track of which tasks are being accomplished is essential to ensuring that the focus is on what’s important (not just tiny urgent tasks that pop up as the day goes on).
We were surprised to learn that working without breaks can lead to decreased productivity. Burnout and lack of motivation are serious barriers to getting the work done. Of course, we like to take little coffee or tea breaks (or even the occasional ice cream break when a team member goes to a client site near a local dairy farm), but that’s because we like taking breaks. We’re happy to know that it’s also keeping us productive as a side effect. This really made sense since staying motivated with a sporadic treat was also a tip for avoiding procrastination that we were given last week.
Another barrier to productivity that we learned about this week was multitasking. In fact, the marketing team here at DATABASICS is known for all the windows we keep open at a time. We’ve got lots of ideas and it can be hard to work on just one at a time.
In the end, we also agreed with a major barrier to productivity: not automating. As the article says, “Just because you can get a lot done on your own doesn’t mean that’s an efficient way to do things.” Using tools like the ones we provide do the job of automating time and expense, two essential roles in any company that take a lot of time to do manually, taking you away from your real job.
Related Article: Fun Friday: What We Can Learn About Productivity Through A.I. & Learning About Learning
The productivity boost of humor
“Stop us if you’ve heard this one,” begins a recent post at The Wall Street Journal about the risks and payoff of being funny in the workplace. The article cites a 2014 American Psychological Association report about the connection between performance and humor in the workplace.
From the report we learned that we joke “to promote group cohesion” and as a “relationship maintenance tool.” Essentially, when we make jokes, we invite others to also partake in the joke, which acts as a sort of team-building activity. We all like to have fun in the workplace, but the issue also relates to a larger concern about productivity since the report did find a correlation between humor and performance.
The risk of using humor can mean being taken less seriously, not to mention a risk of being less productive overall, according to the report. In particular, studies show that when an attempt at humor falls flat, the would-be jokester is discouraged from future attempts. This gets back to our theme of productivity since findings suggest that a team that uses more humor is more productive and a more serious team can be more unproductive. This might be so because using the wrong kind of humor (the kind that’s inappropriate to the workplace) can lead to miscommunication, which also shuts down productivity.
But, if the risk of telling the occasional joke pays off, the article says that there’s also a positive connection between humor and creativity.
According to the article, “the researchers believe that sarcasm facilitates abstract thinking by making people leap from the literal meaning of sarcastic remarks to the intended meaning—which in turn boosts creativity.”
In other words, a little levity probably never hurt any workplace.
our Fun Friday takeaway
Based on what we learned this week, we’re going to close more windows (to focus on one task at a time) and open more doors with our colleagues through humor, staying productive as we continue to spread the word about the time & expense solution that keeps you productive too.
For more information on DATABASICS Time & Expense Tracking Software, contact us or call (800) 599-0434.
DATABASICS provides cloud-based, next generation Expense Reporting, P-Card Management, Timesheet & Leave Management Management, and Invoice Processing automation. Specializing in meeting the most rigorous requirements, DATABASICS offers the highest level of service to its customers around the world.
DATABASICS is relied upon by leading organizations representing all the major sectors of the global economy: financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, research, retail, engineering, non-profits/NGOs, technology, federal contractors, and other sectors.
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