Any business knows that productivity is key to growth, let alone staying afloat. Whether you are talking about a production line, a traveling salesperson, and yes even your office space; productivity is going to be the main driving factor which will allow your business to not only stay in business, but also experience growth year over year, month over month.

Here we are going to describe 23 ways to improve office productivity which will in turn allow you to realize higher profits, more output, and less money being wasted to lost productivity.

First on the list? Improving office productivity through computer applications:

Science proves that taking more breaks allows us to be more productive.

How does that work if we technically will have less “work time” by taking all these breaks?

It gives us time to collect our thoughts, time to let our mind roam, and even some time to talk and bounce ideas off of others.

So, instead of making employees hate working because you limit them to one break a day; let them take a short one every hour or two and watch the ideas and productivity outputs increase!

Not only should you be organizing your desk, but also the entire office.

A cleared out area allows for a clear mind to work at much higher levels of clarity. Whether you have a cubical office design or a more open concept; requiring all areas of the office to be clear on either a weekly or daily basis should be a must.

Sure, not everyone likes to clear. But, if you give employees 10-15 minutes to clean their area at the end of every day I’m sure most people will be happy to do so (especially if you explain it is part of your initiative to improve productivity in the office)!

Some people have a habit of checking their email every 10 minutes while they are waiting for someone important to get back to them.

In reality, the likelihood of them replying back right away even if you get back to them quick is slim. On top of that, it seems down right desperate.

By implementing 2-3 time periods (again, depending on the department) that people should check their email; you will end the constant refreshing of email pages by a lot of your work force. This allows people to get back to work and pay much more attention to their work at hand.

There can be multiple things wrong with your lighting system that might be throwing off people in the office.

First of all, if you have fluorescent lights then you might just have a few (or a lot) of lights in your office that flicker or even worse, buzz. This can cause eye stress, annoyance, and a general distraction.

On top of that, you may have either an under-lit or over-lit office. Both are bad, and it’s up to you to find the optimal light output for your office. This can be done by surveying employees on your lighting system and going from there.

Lastly, low quality light can be an issue. An easy way to not only improve the quality of light but also get rid of flickering and buzzing light issues is by upgrading your reduce your energy usage by up to 30% or so. Sounds like a win-win situation here!

Not only will they help with productivity, but they will also clean the air of toxins which will keep the air fresh and not-so-stuffy.

Stop making it so difficult to get around. Make it easy to get to the bathroom, to the trash, or even to an outlet.

Time is money, and if people are having to spend time just to get to the most basic things you aren’t setting up your office for success (literally).

Using office design to increase productivity can be difficult, sure. But it doesn’t have to be all that complex. You could even get some people together to brainstorm what could be done to best optimize the space you have to best serve efficiency in the office. So while there will never be the “best office design for productivity” hack or tip (due to all offices being different), you can always use some general guidelines and common sense to help you out.

Wherever the noise may be coming from, while it may not effect everyone it may be effecting some people.

Now, this can be an easy fix if the noise is coming from within the office. To solve this issue, all you need to do is address the area of concern and fix it. But, what if the noise is coming externally on a frequent basis?

Well, you can do either of two things. Firstly, you can try to address or confront the external noise producer and see if there is anyway for it to stop at least during your time of work. If that doesn’t work, then you might need to install sound proofing technology into your walls. This can get pricey sure, but you’ve got to weight the benefits of having less noise in the office versus the cost it is going to be to make the upgrade.

Although you might think that you won’t be able to get everything in if you shorten meetings, you would be mistaken!

In fact, having shorter meetings make them much more focused and thus; more productive. Even if you have two meetings over one a week because they are shorter, it is much better to have two 10 minute meetings over one 30 minute one that lacks purpose.

On top of that, do you really need to have a meeting? Or, are you just holding meetings to “have a meeting?” If it is the latter, try scheduling meetings only when they are needed, rather just out of habit.

Looking for ways to motivate the office into getting stuff done? 43Folders.com and it’s a simple concept: work for ten minutes, break for 2, then repeat this 5 times (or an hour).

You might say, “are you mad?! No way I’ll let my employees take a break every 10 minutes.” But here it out…

Maybe you shouldn’t implement this tactic specifically, but make a variation that works for your needs but still allows for productivity to be most optimal. And yes, there will be times when extreme concentration is required for more than 10-20 minutes, and obviously this doesn’t have to be a “set in stone” type deal. Instead, make it a generally accepted practice to partake in such method of break and work balancing.

(We already talked about more breaks in #3, but we thought this hack was worthy of its own).

Have you ever listed a job listing opportunity with one of the qualifications as “multitasking?” If so, you’ve got it all wrong. In fact, you should be listing a qualifications as “the ability to be laser focused on one thing at a time.”

Multitasking Parkinson’s law” in short says that we will fill whatever time is allotted to complete a given task.

Why do you think people with a 3 month deadline to get a presentation done still find themselves struggling to get it ready to go last minute? Because they will fill the entire time they are given to finish it. This goes with any task, and if you shorten the time allotted to finish tasks you will see more getting done because people will work to fill the allotted time given.

This of course can be used too far and not given enough time to get things done with all the proper due diligence required. Finding a good balance of long enough but not TOO long will be difficult, but start looking into deadlines and what exactly defines how far out they get set and start thinking about setting shorter (yet still doable) deadlines.

Studies show that standing will not only improve health, but it will also improve productivity. Focus goes up and thus more work can get done.

call center workers showed that pollution in the office reduced productivity levels. As you can imagine, pollution is a major issue in a lot of places, especially in bigger cities.

Motion sensor LED stair lights let you safely and effectively navigate your steps while eliminating the need for any action. And because they turn off automatically, they also save power! We’ve recently installed these handy little LED stair lights and wanted to share the process with you.

wire that will be needed. It is best to order more than you need so that there’s slack in the line and enough to extend to where your power supply will be mounted.

It’s important to choose the correct wire gauge for the length of wire you need and amount of current that will be flowing through it. The key is to avoid voltage drop, which happens when the supplied energy of a power source is reduced as electric current flows through wire (or any other pieces of equipment that do not supply voltage on a circuit). The longer the run of wire, the lower the gauge of wire needed.

*If you need help determining the correct wire gauge, don’t hesitate to call us toll free at 866-590-3533. Our customer service and technical support teams are available from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. CDT Monday-Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CDT on Friday.

3. Using wiring from the

4. Use a run of wire to join the PIR sensor at the top of your steps with the power supply. You can wire both PIR sensors to the power supply using electrical tape or with

5. Connect your main line to the PIR sensor at the bottom of your steps, and begin connecting each step light with

7. Finally, connect to power.

LED stair lights and

4. Connect your main line to the PIR sensor at the bottom of your steps, and begin connecting each step light with

6. Finally, plug the power supply into your wall outlet.

Decorative LED path lights are the perfect gift for dads who want to add an upscale look to their yard. Shade styles include mushroom, frosted glass, offset cone, or hammered cone, and offset linear light heads are also available to direct illumination exactly where it’s needed. These LED path lights can be used for numerous applications, such as garden lights, patio lights, driveway lights, walkway lights, or sidewalk lights. The long-lasting fixtures emit up to 155 lumens of warm white illumination. They’re constructed of powder coated bronze or black aluminum and are weatherproof as well as rust resistant. Each path light comes with a screw-on ground stake.

This easy-to-install, low-profile light mounts directly to a junction box or in a can light housing. It’s perfect for low ceilings, basement, garage, hallway, closet, bathroom, workshop, and shed lighting. The long-lasting LED ceiling light consumes eight times less power than incandescent bulbs with equivalent output. It emits up to 1,100 lumens of natural white or warm white illumination and has a high color-rendering index (CRI) to show the true colors of objects and surroundings. A removable E26/E27 Edison screw base is included along with hardware for mounting to a junction box or in a can light housing.

Help him enhance the look of his boat while increasing nighttime visibility! LED underwater boat lights can be used as transom lights for colorful wakes, attracting fish, or for nighttime swimming and diving. Single-, double-, and triple-lens versions are available, and the underwater lights produce powerful red, green, blue, white, or RGB color-changing illumination. RGB underwater lights are capable of nine dynamic color-changing and single-color modes with an RGB controller and RF remote (sold separately). The LED lights are designed to last 42 times longer than underwater lights with incandescent bulbs.