Playing Ping Pong and 6 Other Ways to Be More Productive at Work

Playing ping pong can increase office productivity. It’s science, people.

A recent article from Enviable Workplace references research from Dr. Daniel Amen, member of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, that shows ping pong increases concentration and stimulates brain function. It may sound unconventional, but a quick ping pong break in the middle of the day could be just what it takes to get you and your co-workers into a more productive mindset.

Strategies to Be More Productive at Work

Don’t have a ping pong table in your office? Fortunately, table tennis isn’t the only way to boost office productivity. Here are six other ways to be more productive at work.

1. Block distractions and quit multi-tasking.

At any given time, we have three to four different distractors sitting right in front of us – email alerts, IM chats, cell phones, desk phones, etc. Sometimes being connected is part of your job, but to truly turn up your productivity, it’s important to focus on completing the task at hand.

That may mean blocking off chunks of time to turn off your phone and close the laptop tab with your email inbox. If you’re worried about holding yourself accountable, you could try an app like FocusMe or SelfControl that blocks your access to distracting websites for a predefined amount of time.

2. Pretend like you’re leaving for vacation tomorrow.

Do you ever notice that when you’re leaving for vacation, you get a ton of work wrapped up, you communicate detailed status updates to your team, and you organize your files so anyone can find them while you’re out? What if we finished each day with this mentality?

Don’t forget to actually schedule vacation for yourself when you’re able. Studies have shown that vacations help to reduce our anxiety and promote our creativity so that we come back to work recharged and armed with big ideas.

3. Use a social knowledge base to share information across the company.

Avoid duplicate work and redundant answers by putting a social knowledge base in place to share answers, ideas, and content. Companies and individuals have saved hours each week by providing more efficient access to shared information.

4. Eat that frog.

Mark Twain said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” The idea behind the saying is to tackle your ugliest, most daunting task first so that the rest of your tasks seem easy by comparison.

5. Have a morning routine.

What’s one thing successful CEOs, world leaders, and creative thinkers have in common? They get up early because they understand that your brain is at its peak and productivity is highest in the morning. Your morning routine should be personalized but can include things like: journaling, meditating, exercising, brainstorming, or planning your day.

6. Schedule working sessions on your calendar.

Do you ever look at your day and just see a calendar with wall-to-wall meetings? It’s important to regularly carve out time for your tasks. Throughout your week, schedule personal working sessions and disconnect (see item #1 above). You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done.

These are just a few ideas to help you be more productive at work. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to play some ping pong.