Pet peeves are so annoying. Chewing with your mouth open. People listening to loud music on the train. Littering. And the absolute worst? Notifications: they feel like a million small zaps in my brain. Once I became mindful of how easy it is for me to get distracted, I started to think seriously about productivity. How can I manage my time better? What’s preventing me from staying focused? See the original post at https://blog.sanebox.com/2016/10/12/6-steps-productive-self-team-focus/

1. H O W O U R T E A M S TAY S
F O C U S E D
6 S T E P S T O B E Y O U R M O S T P R O D U C T I V E S E L F

2. “Once I became mindful of how easy it is for me to
get distracted, I started to think seriously about
productivity. How can I manage my time better?”

3. C O N T R O L Y O U R S U R R O U N D I N G S
S T E P 1

4. C O N T R O L Y O U R S U R R O U N D I N G S
Designing the perfect workspace is important. And feeling
comfortable plays a big part. But your environment affects
you directly as well. Pay attention to:
• Ergonomic furniture: Choose a chair that prevents you
from slouching.
• Lighting: Exposure to natural light has been proven to
enhance productivity.
• Sound: Get in the zone with noise cancelling headphones.

5. C R E AT E R I T U A L S
S T E P 2

6. C R E AT E R I T U A L S
Whether it’s a cup of coffee before work or sharing breakfast with your
team, creating everyday rituals is a major key to staying productive.
• Try the 2-minute rule: If something takes you <2 minutes to get
done, get it out of the way.
• Set aside time for emails: Check email in the morning and don’t go
back until the afternoon. This way, you get the most important
messages out of the way. And if you’re feeling courageous, achieving
inbox zero is a great task to mark “done” on your list each day.
• Work remotely (if you can): Our editorial team takes their remote
writing day very seriously. Every Wednesday (our company’s ‘no
meeting day’) the team writes from a quiet place like home or a cafe.

7. R E M O V E A L L D I S T R A C T I O N S
S T E P 3

8. R E M O V E A L L D I S T R A C T I O N S
The other day I sat down to write this. I had everything ready to go
when suddenly, a group message on Slack needed my attention.
What happened? I only started writing a few hours later. Exactly what
I needed. Not.
So, how can you avoid this from happening in the future?
• Create tunnel vision focus: Sign off of all chats (Slack, HipChat,
Hangouts), or at least turn off notifications.
• Use noise cancelling headphones.
• Leave your phone inside your backpack/bag or on airplane mode.

9. V I S U A L I Z E Y O U R W O R K
S T E P 4

10. V I S U A L I Z E Y O U R W O R K
• Having a lot to do can be overwhelming, even stressful.
Give yourself enough time to prepare each task in
advance. Create a high-level overview of your work
when planning your day/week. How can you do this?
Write everything down.
• Forgetting an idea can be a worst nightmare and
remembering it in the shower a few weeks later might
be too late. Trust in the notepad, make checklists that
move your tasks to “done,” and go home on Friday
guilt-free with a better sense of achievement.

11. D I V I D E Y O U R TA S K S
S T E P 5

12. D I V I D E Y O U R TA S K S
• Use agile methodologies. Work in 1-week sprints, which
break down goals into smaller manageable tasks.
Complete several projects by the end of the week
running all sprints in this way.
• Set 3 specific goals for yourself. If you don’t achieve
them, go back and try to understand why it didn’t work.
Maybe a goal was too big. Perhaps you didn’t allocate
enough time to tackle things. If either is true, then
divide tasks into smaller ones that you can manage. How
do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

13. G I V E Y O U R S E L F H E A D S PA C E
S T E P 6

14. G I V E Y O U R S E L F H E A D S PA C E
• Make sure you don’t push yourself too hard. Don’t
work on something for more than two hours unless
you’re in a flow state or “in the zone.” Take walks.
Leave enough space to process and assess the work
you’ve done. Burnout does more damage than you
think.

15. T H E M A I N
TA K E A WAY
When it comes to personal
productivity habits, you never
know what works until you
test it. Experiment, find out
what works for you, and stick
with it. If you’re not sure
where to start, ask others for
suggestions. You might be
surprised by how
knowledgeable your
colleagues can be!

16. About the author
Joanne Torres is an online & outreach marketer at
Typeform. Compared to the industry average,
Typeform has 4x higher completion rates due to their
human-first design approach—keeping people’s
attention from start to submit.
Follow Joanne on Twitter @possiblyjoanne and
connect with her on LinkedIn.

17. SILENCE ONE OF THE WORST DISTRACTIONS: EMAIL