Whether you’re a working on a desk job or a field job, it can still get to a point when work will become routinary. Doing the same set of tasks, interacting with the same group of people, and seeing the same old tracks going to and from work—this can slowly make work uninteresting. Sounds scary? Yes it is.
Read: Fun Exercises to Impart the Benefits of Change
Monotony is one of the biggest enemy of productivity. For one, it takes away an employee’s perseverance to finish his tasks. No matter how fired up a person is at the start of his career, when it gets boring, it’s hard to keep interest in doing a job well. Second, it can cause creative block. Monotony strengthens old mental connections rather than allowing our minds to respond to external stimuli. Because of this, our ability to come up with new, creative, and better ideas deteriorate.
It all just boils down to how monotony can hamper your team’s journey towards a sustainable success. And certainly, we don’t want this. That’s why we need to shake things up a little bit to break the cycle! Now the main question is, how do you prevent monotony from taking over your team?
Read: 6 Tips to a Happy Work Environment
1. Redesign your workplace.
Play around with your office decors. It doesn’t require you to make such huge changes and spend an awful lot of money. Simple cut out designs can already go a long way to make your workplace a little more fancy and a lot less serious.
To give you an idea, you can change your theme every month, so your employees have something to look forward to when they go to the office.
2. Give them breaks.
This pertains to break times apart from the usual lunch break. Allow your employees to have a few minutes to rest their minds by giving them small breaks throughout the office hours—5-10 mins. of coffee break in the morning and another one in the afternoon. Using this to take their minds away from daily tasks even for just a short couple of minutes can already go a long way in refreshing one’s mind.
3. Consider rotations.
Another way to break monotony is by diversifying the way things work in the office. Consider rotating responsibilities of your employees, even just the small ones. See if your employees are willing to take on tasks that are beyond their comfort zones. Challenges like this are a great way to keep the fire inside a person burning. And who knows, you might even discover a hidden talent in them!
4. Encourage your employees to socialise.
Encourage your team to befriend other employees beyond their usual set of lunch break buddies. Mingling with other people can give them a breath of fresh air. Imagine getting to know other people like how it used to when they are just starting out with the company—that can be exciting!
5. Organise team-building activities.
Team building activities are a good ice breaker as well. Organise it outside the four corners of your office to make sure that your team’s mind are completely away from anything related to work. This will allow them to reinvigorate their minds completely, so that when they go back to work, they will have a renewed sense of motivation.
Look for unique team bondings that you’ve never tried before. For example, us here in Team Music offers a different kind of music-themed activities such as brazillian percussion and corporate jamming. Who would have thought music can make a good team bonding?
While routine is inevitable in any workplace, there are ways which you can use to break the wheel. Don’t let monotony to cause unhappiness, deteriorate creativity and hamper productivity of your employees. Try these tips and let us know how it worked for you!