Focus time is a specific part of an employee’s day or week dedicated to uninterrupted work.
Unlike traditional office hours, focus time is generally not structured around formal meetings or other scheduled events. It’s meant to allow employees to set aside time to concentrate on their work without distraction.
Even when focus time is scheduled by individual workers, it’s almost always designed for use on individual tasks rather than collaborative projects. When people schedule focus time, they are typically communicating a desire not to be disturbed.
During this period, employees don’t take meetings or make phone calls (unless it’s an emergency). They also don’t go back and forth over email or Slack. In fact, you turn off Slack entirely during focus time.
Why Can’t Employees Focus at Work?
People need energy, focus, and motivation to produce quality work. But if your employee is feeling lethargic, distracted, or not able to concentrate at work, it is hard for them to be productive.
There are many reasons why employees can’t focus during the day — from physical issues (hunger or sleepiness) to emotional ones (being overwhelmed, unmotivated or unhappy).
Whether your team is still remote or back in the office, your employees have to deal with numerous distractions throughout the workday.
Common distractions include:
- Jumping in and out of meetings
- Checking social media apps
- Sorting through relevant and irrelevant emails
- Checking news websites
- Answering personal calls or messages
Constant communication with colleagues is another surefire way to interrupt an employee’s flow. In fact, Slack notes that the average Slack user spends 90 minutes a day actively communicating using the platform.
Bouncing from one task to the next makes it difficult for employees to focus and concentrate on one project, resulting in less productivity and costing the company money.
What Are The Benefits of Focus Time?
If your team is struggling to meet deadlines or has a hard time focusing on work, make focus time a standard part of their daily routine. By blocking off time to focus solely on work, your employees can benefit from:
Improved Concentration
Encourage your employees to set a period of time where they’re not expected to interact with colleagues. This will help them get into a rhythm and concentrate better on the task at hand.
Better Time Management
Some employees get easily distracted. Focusing on one thing at a time can help them get through their tasks faster. If an employee spends a couple of hours on email each day, for example, it might only take an hour if they know that is all the time they have to respond to emails that morning.
Increased Productivity
Employees can get more done in less time. Some people get more done in these blocks of dedicated action than they would in an entire hour or half-day with distractions. Work increases and decreases based on the amount of time available to do it.
When you give your employees more time on a project, they tend to take it and stretch the project out over more days or weeks than necessary. With focus time, they’re encouraged to finish what needs to be done.
Higher Quality of Work
By eliminating distractions, employees are able to enter into a state of flow. Flow is when employees’ attention is directed towards one task, and they become completely immersed in what they’re doing. With distractions out of their mind, employees can enter into a peak state of creativity and deliver better results.
Can Team Building Help Employees Stay Focused and Productive at Work?
Although there are tons of benefits to team building, such as improved workplace culture and increased workplace happiness, one of the most significant benefits is an increase in productivity.
When employees feel more connected to their coworkers and develop a sense of trust with others, productivity spikes.
One way to do this is through strategic team building activities. These events can help employees reconnect with the company’s goals and give them new perspectives on how their important tasks fit into the bigger picture.
TeamBonding is an expert at bringing teams together, and we have several activities that can drive focus.
If you want to test your team’s focus and productivity, try out Squad Game. A spin on the ever-popular Squid Game, each team member must focus and respond in a way that helps them build on each other’s strengths.
Many of us work in fast-paced environments that are filled with constant interruptions. Being able to focus and make progress is essential for improving the quality of work produced.
There are steps employers can take to ensure that time spent during the workday is spent being focused and creative.
One of those steps is to encourage employees to utilize focus time. You may also consider organizing team building activities that can help your team members strengthen their time management skills.
Expand your team’s potential with TeamBonding’s carefully planned team building activities that focus on employee professional development.
