I Done This Blog

The Biology Behind Productivity

August 15, 2017 by Jonas Fischer Leave a Comment

Superb time-management skills are worthless when you’re feeling unmotivated, distracted or tired at work. Until robots take over our day-to-day workloads, our productivity is directly linked to our mental and physical well-being.

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The expectation at work to remain competent, motivated and attentive for the entire workday puts a huge strain on our biological resources. Thankfully modern science has given us a better understanding of how our bodies work, which can help us leverage our physiology to work smarter.

By implementing a few biological disciplines, you’ll be able to work with your body and avoid unproductive behaviors like impulsivity, sleep deprivation, and stress.

Here are some hacks based on the biology of productivity that can help you and your team perform at their best:

7 Unconventional Co-Working Spaces That Are Raising Eyebrows

August 8, 2017 by Jonas Fischer Leave a Comment

If you thought it was too early for the co-working industry to experience disruption, think again.

A new breed of co-working spaces is emerging focusing first and foremost on the tenants’ interests, needs, and values. Each space is built around one core idea, and it’s meant to attract tenants who align with its single-minded purpose, creating a work environment where everyone in the building shares a common bond.

For example, if your startup cares about sustainability, you can find co-working spaces that are certified green and all of the tenants have a similar desire to help the environment.

This personalization enables you to integrate your lifestyle with your work style and plug into a like-minded community. When you work alongside people that share a similar passion, it creates an instant camaraderie and support system that is hard to find in the traditional co-working spaces due to their size and diverse priorities.

Here are seven unconventional co-working spaces pioneering a work movement that focuses on people first:

Managing a Remote Team – A Leader’s 7-Step To-Do List

August 1, 2017 by Jonas Fischer Leave a Comment

Managing a remote team is about employee empowerment, not oversight.

Remote employees that excel are self-motivated, reliable and results-driven. As a manager, your job is to create a supportive environment that encourages employees to manage their own projects so you can focus on building a culture of trust and communication.

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Here are seven things a remote leader must have to set their team up for success:

How to Make the Most of Your Summer Intern

July 25, 2017 by Loni Klara 1 Comment

Every year, a slew of young college students swarm your office looking completely clueless. Though they’re meant to help you and your colleagues out for a season, sometimes it feels like it’s more work to train them than it’s worth.

With proper procedures in place, training interns can be smooth and save you time. They’re in the office to make your job easier, not harder. But because most interns have zero work experience, it’s up to you to show them how things work.

Productivity increases when everyone knows the optimal way to complete their tasks. Train your summer interns the right way so you can relieve some of your workload and reap additional benefits down the road when you bring some of them back as pre-trained employees.

Why good interns make good companies

Companies generally hire interns once the workload becomes overwhelming. But a good internship program serves more purposes than the immediate relief of pressure for current employees.

A coveted internship program is the first step in attracting the best job candidates. Successful interns return as full-time employees down the road, giving the companies a direct ROI and a win-win situation for both students and employers.

A Universum survey including over 65,000 undergraduates found that 51% of respondents considered full-time employment opportunities to be the most important value of an internship. Furthermore, the study found that employees who started out as interns had higher retention rates.

Work From Home: How to Create a Home Office That Works for You

July 18, 2017 by Loni Klara Leave a Comment

If you’re one of the lucky software engineers working at Google, you get to design your own workspace. And since everything the company does is done to increase productivity, you can bet this freedom to dictate how and where you work isn’t all just for fun.

You may not be a Googler, but if you’re lucky enough to work from home, you have the ability to customize your office and then some. Everything is in your hands, and you can set things up for maximum personal productivity.

While this degree of freedom can be empowering, it can also be overwhelming, especially when you consider that your performance depends on it. So here are some steps to help you out when customizing your home office to suit your style.

Use Your Home’s Limitations to Your Advantage

Unless you’re in the market for a new house, you’ll be limited by the square meters and style of your home. However, working within certain confinements can lead to surprising results.

Can Gaming at Work Increase Productivity?

July 11, 2017 by Kathryn Vandervalk Leave a Comment

I Done This helps you and your team increase productivity

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Games tap into our inner desire to challenge ourselves. We love the thrill of scoring points and getting to the next level.

But games don’t always have to be a distraction from our everyday lives—they can actually make us more productive when used properly. Using a gamification strategy, you can help your employees get more done at work.

We’ve used psychologist Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory to explain how games can help your employees perform better. The theory includes three variables—expectancy, instrumentality, and valence—that describe how motivated employees are to do their job.

We broke down these three variables to help you design a gamification strategy that helps motivate your employees—instead of distracting them.

When Is It Time to Move to a Co-Working Space

July 4, 2017 by Jonas Fischer Leave a Comment

Google, Mattel, Apple, Disney and Harley-Davidson all have something in common: they started in someone’s garage.

Today, technology disguises the fact that your startup is operating out of your house, which buys you time before you need to start thinking about office space. You can hire a virtual receptionist, employ a remote workforce and implement enterprise-powered tools to run your business like an established company.

This is an amazing time for startups to grow without worrying about burning through cash for rent and equipment. But for many, there comes a point when the work-from-home lifestyle begins to stunt progress. There is no formula based on headcount or revenue to determine when you should consider a change, but there are a few telltale signs.

Here are three indications that it’s time to consider moving your team into a co-working space.

When Notifications in the Workplace Can Increase Productivity

June 27, 2017 by James Marlow 2 Comments

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A few years ago you might have been scolded by your boss for goofing off at work. Nowadays smartphone usage seems to have become an accepted practice in the always-connected workplace. Whether it’s through two-factor authentication verification codes or JIRA SMS notifications, texts and push notifications have become a standard part of your workflow.

Even with the broadening acceptance of messaging and smartphone usage at work, the impact of this shift on one’s productivity is still unclear. Constant pings may offer essential info, or they can overwhelm you and reduce your efficiency. These outcomes surely differ by industry and personal preference, but it is up to you to figure out if this new notification paradigm is truly helping you get more done.

In this article we’ll examine how a notification-heavy workflow can impact and increase productivity, as well as learn about some of the most innovative implementations of text-improved workflows from platforms such as JIRA and RingCaptcha.

4 Subtle Signs Your Employee is Looking for a New Job

June 20, 2017 by Sasha Rezvina Leave a Comment

You come into work, thinking it’s going to be just another day in the office. You have a friendly chat about your weekend with the office manager while pouring yourself a hot cup of coffee. You make your way over to your desk, and just as you start looking through your email, a nervous employee pops their head in and asks for a minute of your time.

At this point, the next sentence comes as no surprise: “I’m giving my two-weeks notice.”

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Job-hopping has become the norm. While fifty years ago, people held positions for ten or more years, today, workers only average about four years at each job. And the stigma associated with switching jobs has also decreased. Employees that spent less than a few years at a job used to be considered flighty—now they’re considered ambitious and ahead of the curve.

The odds are stacked against you, but all hope isn’t lost when it comes to employee retention.

While some clues will tip you off right away—such as too many “doctor’s” appointments, or employees coming in dressed suspiciously well—most of the time, the signs that your employees are job-hunting are considerably more discreet. If you learn how to pick up on these subtle cues, you can nip this problem in the bud and retain some of your most valuable employees.

Here’s how to spot when employees are looking for a new job (and what you can do about it).

Humor in the Workplace: What’s Funny or Not?

June 12, 2017 by Kathryn Vandervalk Leave a Comment

Sending great gifs to your co-workers gives you more than just a laugh.

Humor in the workplace benefits:

Productivity. Humor replenishes your employees and makes them more productive.
Group Cohesion. Humor can increase a sense of belonging.
Stress Management. Humor is known for its “cathartic” emotional benefits that release stress.

Creating an office culture of humor can help you cultivate all these benefits. Keep in mind that humor can also go sideways fairly quickly, too. The wrong type of funny can lead to serious HR problems—there’s a thin line between goofy and unprofessional or between delightful and inappropriate.

Humor in the Workplace

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You want your company to be a fun place to work, but you also want to make sure that it’s fun for everyone.

Here’s our guide on how to improve office humor that makes everyone feel included and unified.

The Biology Behind Productivity

7 Unconventional Co-Working Spaces That Are Raising Eyebrows

Managing a Remote Team – A Leader’s 7-Step To-Do List

How to Make the Most of Your Summer Intern

Why good interns make good companies

Work From Home: How to Create a Home Office That Works for You

Use Your Home’s Limitations to Your Advantage

Can Gaming at Work Increase Productivity?

When Is It Time to Move to a Co-Working Space

When Notifications in the Workplace Can Increase Productivity

4 Subtle Signs Your Employee is Looking for a New Job

Humor in the Workplace: What’s Funny or Not?

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