Answering email is addictive, it gives some team members a false sense of productivity when they have more important tasks.
Social Media, YouTube, Facebook, and Gaming are eating up thousands of hours and are happening in your company now!
QUESTION: How do we get the team to focus on activities that move goals, while setting aside non-productive activities?
ANSWER: Determine the non-productive issues: Email, Social Media, YouTube and Quora (they are addictive; more to come on this later). These are sucking the productivity out of the company.
Answering emails makes you think you are getting things done (and yes some are important), but answering emails before the tasks you must do is not productive.
a) Set a protocol of checking emails at 8:30,12:00 and 4:30. You can use an auto-responder to share this with those who email you, or add it to your signature line.
b) Make a company policy regarding use of personal social media, YouTube, etc. during company time.
c) There is software that will help show where the team is spending their time online. Determine where this is taking place and block those sites: Social Media, YouTube, Quora, Gaming, etc. Here is one called Time Doctor.
Additional Tools:
- Determine what is the most important task for every person to accomplish within their job description.
- Break it down to daily/weekly goals with activities that are measurable and achievable.
- Set up daily Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to measure, put them in writing and revisit them every week or so.
- Manage personal cell phones at work and meetings. Ask that cell phones be set aside, and checked only on breaks or at lunch. Of course, have an exclusion for actual emergencies.
- Daily huddles should last no longer than 5-10 minutes… we don’t want death by meeting. A huddle is designed as a check-in to see if everyone is meeting their daily goals, and who is having problems or stuck. Here is an Inc article on daily huddles.
If this was helpful, my previous article on Bethlehem Steel’s Productivity Tools might be of interest to you.
Link to Article: Priorities: A Simple Tool For Getting Things Done!