8 New Year’s Resolutions That Will Boost Workplace Productivity

5 minute read

Upland Admin

Post Updated: 01/05/18 10:04 AM

Time spent at work is a good portion of daily life, so why not turn the clean slate of a new year into an opportunity to improve workplace productivity?

New resolutions can help you cut clutter, save time, align teams, create common goals, and bring a more social element to work while boosting work-life quality and personal health.

Change doesn’t need to be drastic to be effective. Little tweaks and shifts in perspective can help refocus a team and individual employees onto something positive in order to enhance workplace productivity naturally.

Efforts inspired by a healthy work-life balance can also help people create habits that improve mood and reduce work-related stress on a daily basis.

The one magic ingredient? Make it easy for teams to get on board.

Fresh New Year, Fresh New Perspective on Healthy Ways to Enhance Productivity

Taking advantage of the energy of a new year is a perfect kick-off platform, especially if you engage people in sharing ideas on how to participate in the process of workplace transformation.

Open up a dialogue about workplace productivity within the organization and share suggestions company-wide. Then, have people vote on top choices. Employee buy-in is the first step to inspiring natural engagement and commitment.

If your B2B organization is a little stumped on good starter ideas, here are simple resolution suggestions to reduce stress, increase collaboration, and help your team kick serious butt when it comes to workplace productivity in 2016.

1. Commit to breathing new life into the physical workspace.

How is the feng shui in the office? Are things cluttered or in a constant state of disarray? Is the workflow awkward? Are deskmates situated to maximize overlapping of work tasks? The space you occupy all day has the biggest impact on health, mood, and workplace productivity, so think of ways to refresh it. Better yet, bring in an organizational expert to help with suggestions.

2. Create an acknowledgement board.

Sharing the workplace love is more than a morale booster; it’s a health booster. Create a decorative common space to feature client accolades, recognition for team members, and gratitude for team successes and efforts. Make it colorful and fun, and allow people to showcase their personalities outside of work-related tasks.

3. Offer scheduled yoga, meditation, or exercise opportunities during or after work.

On busy days, it’s not always easy to slip away and grab some fresh air or a workout. Offering a group time where people can join in as they wish provides motivation and social opportunities for cross-team relationship building, and also makes it easy to add self-care to the workday without thinking too hard about how to do it.

4. Establish a shared weight-loss or fitness goal and track progress as a team or organization while fostering social connections.

Having a buddy to hold you accountable while you strive toward new health goals can make all the difference. Build small teams who want to focus on specific goals, or make one overarching weight-loss or fitness goal as an organization. For extra fun, build in a little good-natured competition by offering prizes for key milestones. When employees can focus on health throughout the day in small ways, they feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally, while also naturally becoming more productive and focused.

5. Maximize commute time with public transit, or carpool to get to know coworkers better.

Commuting can be a time and energy drain, so why not turn it into an advantage? Public transportation, including trains and buses, often offer Wi-Fi access, giving you a chance to get a head start on email. Or, focus on offline work like organizing tasks or content outlines. Take turns carpooling with coworkers to save on gas and create a little extra chat time over coffee on the morning drive. Who knows, commute time may even spark cool new work innovations.

6. Schedule a walking meeting to stay committed to work needs and get some fresh air.

It’s time for teams to explore ways to use the outdoors as a workspace. Taking a walk gets the blood pumping, helps ground nervous energy, and can be a simple solution for when there’s no common space available for a meeting. A change in scenery also does wonders for sparking creativity.

7. Provide a safe way and place to air workplace frustrations.

Staying focused on the positive can only go so far: there are times when people need to know their voice is being heard and honored. Offer a simple way for people to express themselves, and begin a conversation about what they would like to see change. This takes focus off blame and put it onto solutions for improving workplace productivity.

8. Kickstart a new workplace tradition.

Schedule a monthly potluck, cutest pet photo of the quarter, or joke of the day.

These simple ideas can make a big difference in workplace productivity by focusing energy on people and relationships. There will always be tasks to finish and goals to meet, but all those efforts become much easier when team rapport is strong and personal satisfaction at work is the rule, not the exception.

Looking to add to your resolutions? Join us on Tuesday, January 16 at 12:00 EST for our webinar, The Future of Marketing: Five Megatrends of 2018.

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