It may sound a little strange, but the way we communicate with our coworkers could have a huge impact on our productivity. In fact, research from Harvard University has found that 50% of what you’ll learn in a job depends on how you interact with your coworkers.
First, a word from our sponsor: the office. That buzzing hive of productivity and progress where professionals toil endlessly to reach loftier heights.
But what would happen if everyone was forced to work from home, so no one ever had to come into the office? Would they be as productive? Would they do as much work?
We don’t know, but it’s an interesting thought experiment! And there are a lot of reasons you might want to consider going remote at some point in your career.
Maybe your commute is one hour each way and you’re exhausted by the time you get home, or maybe your job requires a lot of physical exertion and traveling that would be impossible without leaving your house.
In this post, we’ll go over 4 easy-to-follow steps for designing better habits around workplace communication. Ilventofailsuogiro has some more steps to rethink your work communication habits.
These will help you feel less overwhelmed and give you a better balance between work and home life.
1) Realize that designing better habits around workplace communication is important
In order to make any improvement, it’s essential to accept the problem first – even if it feels uncomfortable or inconvenient. Once it becomes clear how your current habits are affecting you, you can make a plan to improve.
The workplace is constantly changing, and with it comes the need for employees to adapt quickly. Modern communication tools like Slack, Skype, calendar apps, and task management software are extremely useful for keeping up with meetings or projects while also staying connected with your co-workers.
However, these tools can also be hard to navigate in the moment when you’re trying to get an important message across.
If you’re wading through a difficult situation at work where you feel like your voice isn’t being heard (or worse yet you’re not getting an answer at all), these three steps are essential for creating better habits around workplace communication
2) Make note of when you struggle with communication in the office
Do you find yourself feeling frustrated by long emails? Do you avoid talking to certain coworkers? Or do you find that emails are the only way to communicate about certain things?
The inability to communicate effectively in the office can be frustrating, to say the least. When you cannot get your point across, it can lead to a lot of wasted time and headache.
Something that is inevitably aggravating in any work setting is when there are misunderstandings in communication, which leads us down this whole road of lost productivity and unnecessary tension. Unfortunately, that’s just how things go sometimes.
3) See if there’s one thing that sets off your frustration
Once you’ve analyzed your communication enough, it should become clear what causes frustration. Maybe a coworker talks too long during meetings or has a tendency to send long-winded emails. Maybe a system is inefficient or people don’t respond fast enough.
I’ve always been proud of my ability to shrug off the little things that bother other people. It was never hard for me to see the silver lining in any situation, and even though I made mistakes, they were quick to bounce back from them with a smile on my face.
But then something happened recently that changed everything. I’ve been feeling frustrated all the time now, and it’s just getting worse as time goes on.
I’m not sure what it is exactly, but something always sets me off. I can’t shake it. It bothers me more than I expected.
It started after work yesterday. The day had gone by normally, and I was sitting in my office thinking about what I had to do for the weekend. I had just finished a large project that wasn’t going well, but at least it was over quickly. It was my first big project in charge of it all, so if someone else didn’t try to fix it up now, I would have no one to blame but myself for this one way or another.
4) Experiment with change
Once you’ve narrowed down your problem, you can design a plan to tackle it. Do you want to shorten meetings or stop using email for certain things? Try simple experiments and only stick with them if they improve your life.
There are few constants in life. The sun will rise and set, the stars will come out at night, and the seasons will change. In time, we may get used to these things, but new changes will always bring an element of excitement that never fails to get us excited about living in a world where anything is possible.
The most exciting part about change is that we don’t know what will come of it. But we do know it won’t always be the same as before. We may not always appreciate things as much as we do now or be as driven to work towards goals as we once were, but whether big or small, every change is a chance for us to find out more about ourselves.
Change forces us to find new ways of thinking and doing things that have the potential to be the best versions of ourselves even without knowing exactly what those new versions will turn into.
Meta Description: First, a word from our sponsor: the office. That buzzing hive of productivity and progress where professionals toil endlessly to reach loftier heights. Luckily, the post is here to give you more steps to rethink your work communication habits.
