How to create a better office environment with furniture, supplies, and products

One good productivity tip for the office is to know how much time you're actually spending on tasks. You do have to work at this though. Basically, you'll need a timer, pad of paper, and a writing utensil. All things you should have around. If you don't have a timer, you can snag a simple kitchen timer cheap. (Usually for under $10). Or, you could go fancy and get this cool timer: Polder 212-00 Digital Timer with Vibrating Alarm, Audible Alarm, and Alarm Light. (Ah, nice).

Hopefully you have a list of daily office tasks already. As you start each task set your timer. Each time you stop working you have to stop the time though.

So, say you start a report at 9am. You get interrupted for 15 minutes when Bob comes by to talk. You stop working and go get a snack at 10:30. You take two phone calls. Get the picture. You need to jot down all your interruptions on that pad of paper.

This will give you a more realistic view of how long a typical task takes you.

The point? Well, once you know how long that report takes (3 hours plus 40 minutes of interruptions) you can start to try and shave time off. Figure out how you can write that report in the two hours it should have taken. If you don’t know how long your office tasks take you to complete, you’ll never be able to work at the pace you want. If you can’t work at the pace you want, you’re not being very productive.