The Big 3 Work Distractions That Kill Employee Productivity

Office distractions are everywhere—you’re in and out of meetings, your coworkers around you won’t stop talking, and others are messaging you on Slack. (We won’t even mention your social media notifications.)

All these distractions are taking their toll on productivity. In fact, according to Forbes, employees lose 720 hours of productivity a year due to distractions. All that wasted time translates to an eye-watering $650 billion in lost profits due to workplace distractions.

But the picture is more nuanced than simply “too many meetings,” or “too much social media.” And it often comes back to an inescapable fact that the modern life—with its anxiety-inducing, pervasive news cycle and the flashing, frazzling cognitive effect of digital tech—is extremely distracting.

We’ve gathered our best tips to help you minimize distractions and boost productivity, whether you’re managing a remote team or have gone full RTO (return to office).

What Is Employee Productivity, and Why Does It Matter?

Essentially, employee productivity is how efficiently and effectively your employees, whether individually or as a group, contribute to achieving organizational goals.

Improving productivity helps you achieve these goals faster and more efficiently, which can lead to good things like cost savings, increased profitability, and job satisfaction for your staff.

But pushing your staff too hard to be productive can be counter-productive. Overwork isn’t the same as efficient work.

And remember, we’re all different: some staff prefer a traditional eight-hour, 9–5 day, while others work better on a different schedule, or even after typical work hours.

So what, or who, are the culprits setting productivity back?

Office Distraction #1: Meetings

In 2024, Atlassian identified meetings as the primary barrier to productivity and overloaded calendars result in overloaded brains.

• Meetings are ineffective 72% of the time.
• Most (78%) find it difficult to get all their work done when they also have to attend meetings.
• A majority (80%) said they’d be more productive if they spent less time in meetings, and nearly as many (75%) felt drained on meeting-heavy days.

When calendars ‌are too full, the meetings themselves become less effective. Most employees admit to having daydreamed during meetings.

This problem doesn’t just affect the regular worker; in fact, 80% of execs are looking to change up meeting structures and cadences to make them more effective.

How to Make Meetings Meet Your Needs

There’s a reason “this could’ve been an email” became a viral meme during the pandemic. No one wants to sit through a meeting that doesn’t require their participation (or presence). But be cautious—if the information you need to share is open to interpretation, or may require a wider dialogue, then you might be better off with face-to-face interactions.

The key, then, is to know how to make meetings work better. Here are a few tips:

Set fewer meetings.

According to a study from Reading University and MIT, reducing the number of meetings by 40% can make your business up to 70% more productive. A good way to do this could be to test out no-meeting days, whereby certain days in the week are used for focused work. In this study, a 40% reduction in meetings came out to two meeting-free days per five-day workweek.

Know if it’s meeting material.

If you’re still not sure whether you need to set a meeting or send an email, consider what you’re hoping to get out of a meeting. Team catchups, HR issues, creative sessions, and one-on-one check-ins are all great examples of when the human touch might be necessary—whether in person or on a video call.

Know your audience.

Ensuring the right people are included helps keep your meeting from being a time-suck on everyone’s calendar. If it’s a situation where some might want to stay in the know, but don’t have to be there, you could take things a step further and set “optional” and “required” attendees. The bottom line: having a clear idea of which attendees will find your meeting useful is important. If you choose the right people, you won’t waste anyone’s time.

Set a goal in advance.

A goal in the subject line or invite helps people know the purpose of the meeting in advance, so they’re primed for action when they arrive.

Have a clear agenda (and stick to it).

Now that you’ve set a clear goal, follow it up with a comprehensive agenda—and be confident in following it to its end objective. Sharing this in advance is a good way to help people get their ducks in a row before they join. A clear agenda leads to better outcomes.

Don’t let anyone dominate.

In meetings, the squeaky wheel should not get the grease. A good moderator should ensure that the conversion isn’t derailed, and that everyone—introvert, extrovert, senior, junior—has a chance to contribute.

Go short.

Before you schedule your meeting, take stock of what needs to be said. Give yourself a little breathing room in case questions come up, but practice setting a shorter time. Reducing the 30-minute default to 15 minutes is a good way to give your staff time back and keep meetings to the point. But be careful not to set your meetings so short you consistently run over time.

Office Distraction #2: Tech and Social Media

You know the drill: one minute you’re deep into a task, the next you’ve been sucked into a group text, started responding to a “staff dog of the week” poll on Slack, and half-read a company-wide email from the CEO.

The above scenario will be pretty familiar for most people who work in an office. And while virtual interactions can be fun, constant digital distractions are not conducive to a productive day.

In fact, workers waste up to 2.5 hours on their smartphones every day, according to a study by the research group Screen Education. Elsewhere, the Digital Noise Impact Report found that one in three workers are distracted every 15 minutes by “digital noise,” creating stress and damaging productivity.

Perhaps most worrying of all is that while the cognitive effects of the thousands of notifications, updates, social media posts, email alerts, calendar updates, WhatsApps and TikTok videos we see every day are the subject of extensive ongoing research, they’re yet to be fully understood.

What we do know is that many of us work (and indeed live) in a state of perpetual distraction, or continuous partial attention, which affords us only a flimsy grasp of key information, and an inability to concentrate on any one task.

How to Create Healthier Tech Habits

The world’s tech and social media addiction is more than we can solve in this blog—but to coin a phrase, change starts in the office. Here are a few tips to minimize unhealthy tech habits and maximize productivity:

Look to productivity tools.

There are plenty of ways to help boost productivity. SHRM recommends the Pomodoro Method—a time management concept that blends 35-minute bursts of focused activity followed by breaks of non-focused tasks, or breaks.

During the work-focused period, it’s important to shut down apps, silence the phone, and remove all other distractions from your workspace. And don’t worry—after you’re done, you can have them all back for 10 minutes to catch up again.

Be software-smart.

It might sound obvious, but knowing how (and when) to mute your apps and software can go a long way. Using silent or “do not disturb” modes on your apps and devices can all help reduce the temptation to chat, respond, and interact.

Then, there are integrations to consider, too. Slack and Gmail, for example, can work together to block out chat if you add quiet time to your calendar. You can also use website blockers to help you block out news, social media, shopping, or any other platform you find a bit too compelling.

Organize your calendar.

It also pays to be disciplined in your calendar. Simply blocking out time in the day to check emails or focus on assignments can work wonders for your focus. Time-blocks keep you on track, and help others keep their distance, too. After all, your colleagues may think twice about pinging you if you have something like VERY QUIET, IMPORTANT FOCUS TIME (NO MESSAGES) blocked out in your calendar.

Office Distraction #3: Noise, Disruption, and Open Office Plans

According to the Gensler Workplace Survey 2024, a good workplace should support five work modes: working alone, working with others in-person, working with others virtually, learning, and socializing. In the same study, Gensler notes that top-performing workers have better workplaces, and more positive work experiences.

Open-plan offices, designed initially in the early 1900s by architects and planners to break down silos and hierarchies in workspaces, got a bump in popularity when Google’s groundbreaking 2005 HQ redesign launched a new wave of “boundaryless” office spaces.

But while they might look bright, modern, and appealing on paper, open-plan offices have their downsides—studies have linked open-plan offices to decreased job satisfaction, reduced privacy and reduced motivation.

Much of this comes down to noise and unpredictability. Most office work requires focus time, and open office plans can intensify stress employees already experience. What’s more, the hotdesk approach favored in post-Covid hybrid work models adds fuel to the fire and can lead to dissatisfaction.

So, barring drawing up blueprints for a full-scale redesign, how can you create an office that works for everyone?

How to Calm the Noise

Focus on outcomes, not attendance.

Return-to-office policies are on the up, with corporations like Amazon and Morgan Stanley announcing an old-school back-to-office mandate for its staff. ‌But it’s worth thinking carefully about the impact this might have on work before you fire off the all-staff email—physical attendance isn’t necessarily conducive to good quality work.

Think smart with seating plans.

Seating the headset-wielding, client-facing sales team next to the focused, back-end development team is a bad idea. Work with managers and staff to think about the individual needs of your teams, and where they’re best placed to do their work. If you offer hybrid work, you can designate certain teams for certain days.

Design considerately.

Whether you have a hot-desk approach or a set-in-stone seating plan, it’s important to let staff have a degree of freedom and flexibility in the office. Space to take confidential calls and meetings or to remove themselves from the aforementioned sales team to focus, is essential.