While exercise and work performance might seem unrelated, several studies have actually proved that physical activity can improve concentration and productivity. People who exercise on a constant basis work better with their co-workers and have fewer medical and health-related expenses. There’s no better way to refresh your thoughts and clear your mind than by exercising. By taking time out of your day you really do work more effectively and more efficiently.

Exercise helps not only the body, but the brain as well. It has a major impact on the nervous system, increasing the production of serotonin and dopamine. This means that exercise influences your mood and feelings, helping you perform better and think more clearly. Physical activities increase blood flow and improve concentration, making you feel better able to solve problems and make complex decisions.

Studies have shown that about $130 billion a year in health care costs are related to inactivity and weight problems. For this reason, increasingly companies are putting fitness facilities in their corporate headquarters, encouraging people to exercise. In addition to improving work performance, daily activity helps employees work better together and feel more motivated to accomplish their professional goals.

There are many ways to increase motivation and productivity in the workplace. Exercise is one of the best options because it affects not only your health condition, but also your mood and your efficiency at work. More than that, physical activity keeps your body strong and fit, regulates the circadian rhythm and endocrine function, increases quality of sleep and improves brain function. Exercising is also an excellent way to reduce stress and to feel better about yourself. If the company you work for offers onsite exercise facilities, start using them as soon as possible. Taking time to exercise could be the key to an accomplished professional and personal life.

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With the rise of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter it seems that, for many people, there is an ever present temptation waiting in their work place. It is not unusual for offices to deny access to these web pages in order to save the time that might otherwise be wasted on them.

Some studies have shown that social networking can be beneficial to the user. However, this is for those people who are disciplined enough to take a “short break” to surf the web. It is typically after completing a long assignment, and is usually for only 5 to 10 minutes. While it might be relaxing, most employees cannot limit themselves to this type of practice, and waste many valuable hours chatting and sending personal messages. Activities such as responding to messages, looking at photos and writing status updates are rarely relevant to work, however interesting they might seem. Behavior such as this is not acceptable in a business environment, and can be grounds for disciplinary action. In worst case scenarios, people are actually being terminated because they can’t break their fascination with social networking.

Many people using social networking convince themselves that they are simply taking a short break – even one that can last for one full hour. This is not the proper behavior for anybody employed by a reputable business. Furthermore, by switching from a productive task and then back again, the worker must approach each task afresh, breaking their concentration and their engagement with their work. Even in a social capacity, networking sites can be a waste of time. If you are adding people as friends who you will never communicate with or looking at events you will not attend, then you are wasting your own free time. This is even worse in a work context, and detracts from productivity. Companies need to monitor their employees’ working habits during the day, in order to deter negative behavior and to ensure that targets continue to be met.

Social networking can be an enjoyable use of leisure time, but if it is not business related, it should not be explored during the working day.

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The Pareto Principle posits that in many instances some 80% of the outcome is derived from 20% of the input (or more broadly, that the majority of output derives from a minority of the input). The Principle is also known as the 80/20 rule and can applied to a very broad range of situations. At a high level, the principle attempts to describe unevenly distributed relationships, in which a very large portion of something is accounted for by a disproportionately small percentage of something else. Pareto himself originally used the principle to highlight the fact that in the early 20th century, 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Since then, the 80/20 rule has been used as an effective tool by business managers and economic planners. Manufacturers for instance, can hone their quality assurance processes by focusing on the 20% of defects that cause 80% of the quality problems. Product distribution centers can be optimized by focusing on the 20% of the products that consume 80% of the space, while financial managers can apply the rule to maximize returns on stock investments.

The same 80/20 logic can also be applied to maximize returns on advertising dollars. If 80% of advertising profits are being derived from 20% of the clients who are advertising, then it makes sense for companies to focus more on that minority segment rather than the broader, less profitable majority. By focusing time and effort on clients who fit the same profile as those in the 20% of the most profitable advertisers, companies can generate a greater return on investment from their marketing dollars. By leveraging the 80/20 rule, companies can squeeze more profits from advertisers at a lower overall cost than if they were to spend more time and resources on the remaining 80 percent.

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Background noise can make it harder to work. At one time or another you’ve probably been driven to distraction by background noise, causing decreased productivity and a poorer quality of work than you are willing to accept. What can you do to become more efficient and productive when you are surrounded by it?

Scientists have identified a potential explanation as to why background noise is so disruptive. In a 2005 study, researchers discovered portions of a rat’s brain stem (consisting of “novelty detector neurons”) that apparently continually monitors the milieu of sounds in daily life, detecting potentially critical events, and alerting the brain. Think gazelle: an unexpected crunch of dry grass may mean that a cheetah is nearby. The novelty neurons pick out that sound and alert the gazelle to that possibility, allowing it to investigate and react.

In the jungle known as the office, however, each new telephone ring or closing door can trigger the novelty neuron’s response. Your brain is in a near-constant state of distraction as it decides to investigate or ignore each event. In order to overcome this pre-programmed function, your brain must either have a steady stream of predictable audio input or new background noises must be muted.

To produce a predictable audio environment, many choose some form of white-noise generator. The generator may be a low-tech desk fan or it may be a more advanced piece of equipment specifically designed to produce continual low-volume noise. In either case the effect is similar: your immediate surroundings are filled with a predictable, consistent hum and your brain spends less time on alert.

A high-octane variation on the white-noise generator, however, is as close as a classical radio station. Playing classical music in your work area not only creates a predictable audio environment but also acts as a sort of musical algorithm, stimulating both the logical and creative halves of your brain. Translation: classical music reduces distractions while giving your brain a subliminal workout, allowing you to work more quickly and creatively.

Those who prefer the sound of silence should research and purchase a set of noise-canceling headphones. Low-tech models simply suppress all ambient noise, but their high-tech cousins literally cancel out background noise through sound wave inversion. Distracting noises are eliminated, freeing your brain to devote itself to work.

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RSS feeds can be an excellent way to save time if you set them up properly. For people who need to stay informed on a particular subject matter, they are great because they organize all of the news that you need in one place. That said, RSS feeds can also become an incredible time sink if they are used in the wrong way. Here are some of the things that you should not do with RSS feeds.

First and foremost, if you are not an expert in a particular field who needs to stay informed on a particular subject matter to do your job effectively, then you should probably stay away from RSS feeds altogether in a work context. They will only eat up your time by diverting your attention from your job.

Secondly, if you do need to stay informed, you need to make sure that you only subscribe to sites that give you what you need in order to do your job. Sites that are often updated with information that is not relevant to your workload will only end up eating up your RSS reader space and make it more difficult to find the information that you are looking for. You should only sign up for news from sites that provide information that is relevant to you.

Finally, pay attention to how often a site is updated. Many sites are updated as much as a hundred times a day. This will overload your RSS reader and bury all the relevant information in a sea of useless knowledge. Don’t sign up for an RSS feed from a site if it provides you with more information than you can realistically read every day, and still be a productive worker. Only sign up for feeds that will consistently provide you with information that is useful to you.

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