5 Proven Productivity Practices

One of the hardest things about working from home is keeping yourself productive and motivated. When the fridge is only three strides away from your desk, or the remote is within arm’s reach, it’s hard to keep focused on the task at hand. Distractions are everywhere, and that doesn’t stop when you get back to the office!

Luckily for us, thought leaders, psychologists and behavioural scientists have tried and tested techniques to keep us on task, in a state of flow and keep our productivity peaking. Here are a few great methods to manage your time and output effectively (without burning out!)

Pomodoro Technique

This productivity practice and renowned time management technique is one of the most recognisable out there. Earning its name through the founder’s use of a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato, the Pomodoro Technique was created by Francesco Cirillo after he found himself feeling overwhelmed and distracted while trying to complete study and assignments.

By breaking down study or focus time into small chunks that are rewarded by short breaks, Cirillo stumbled upon a productivity hack that is now used by professionals worldwide to make the most of their time.

It works like this – set a timer (don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be a tomato) for 25 minutes. You must commit to focused work with no distractions for this time period, and at the end, you get a 5-minute break! This cycle is simply called “the Pomodoro” and after every four pomodoros, you get a longer break of 15-30 minutes.

Here’s what a Pomodoro day might look like:

A day broken down into “pomodoro” time beats

This technique is effective because it uses the reward system in our brain, while also gamifying our tasks in a “time trial” style. It’s also a fantastic way to see where your time is being spent during the day and how you can improve upon your overall time management.

Pareto Principle (80/20)

One of my favourite things about time management techniques is their alleged origin stories and Pareto’s Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, has a variety of myths to how it was discovered.

An article I read said Pareto, who was an Italian economist in the late 19th century, came up with the theory that people in society were divided into the “vital few” (the top 20% wealthiest and most powerful) or the “trivial many” (all the other poor souls). Another article says he worked it out because he got good peas out of 20% of his pods and average peas out of the other 80%. The second theory wins my vote.

Basically, when it comes to productivity, the principle suggests that if you have ten tasks on your to-do list, two of those will provide more value than the other eight overall. The best thing to do is start by identifying what you think the most important task is on your list. Once you have that, think about the second most important and only focus on those two. If you have time, complete the rest, but make sure to tackle the two most important first.

A system called “Eat the Frog” piggy backs off the Pareto Principle by asking people to picture the most challenging, important task of the day as a frog. There are two rules for frog-eating in this system: firstly, if you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first, and secondly, if you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.

Actioning your two most important tasks will see your productivity peak, and if you have to picture that snarky email as a frog to get it done, then so be it. You do you.

168 hours

Developed by writer Laura Vanderkam, the 168 Hours Time Tracking Challenge is a great way to quantify where you’re spending your time and how you can put it to better use.

The challenge asks you to look at an entire week or 168 hours of your life in small increments. Starting the challenge at the beginning of the week, you are required to track plots of your time at either fifteen-minute or thirty-minute intervals to identify where your time is being spent.

I did this one recently and was mortified at how much time I spent looking at food posts on Pinterest and doom-scrolling the ABC’s COVID blog. It’s hard to keep it going but when you commit to doing the challenge for just one week, you’ll be far better placed to make the best use of your time.

Eisenhower Matrix

Named after (but not invented by) President Eisenhower, who was known for his immensely high output and strict organisation, the Eisenhower or Urgent-Important Matrix is a square divided into four quadrants that help you prioritise tasks in your day.  

The quadrants are organised like so:

The Eisenhower Matrix

Do you have a task that (despite what your procrastination brain tells you) needs your immediate attention? Think things with a tight deadline, or a critical fix that needs to be actioned to continue operations. This goes into your “Do” quadrant and should be actioned as quickly as possible.

If there’s something that doesn’t have a pressing deadline but is still important to your work or goal, this goes into the “Schedule” quadrant and can be reassessed once your big, all-encompassing, important, do-or-die task is finished (eat that frog!)

The third quadrant can be a little hard to fill – these are urgent, but not important tasks and often are tasks that help others meet their goals. Tests using this matrix have shown that majority of people spend the greatest amount of time working on tasks that fit the criteria of this quadrant when instead, these tasks should be “Delegated”.

The final quadrant is the place where I personally spend the most time. The unimportant, not even remotely urgent tasks that keep me from eating the frog tend to grab my attention. Should I spend my time reorganising my Trello board for the sixth time this week? Absolutely. Don’t be like me – tasks that go into this quadrant should be “Deleted” from your schedule.

The Caffeine Nap

While many swear by this, I have to say I remain sceptical (which might have something to do with the fact I can’t nap at all). The believers, however, assure me that it works, and it’s backed by science.

The reason caffeine naps or “coffee kips” work, all boils down to a little chemical called adenosine. When you’re sleepy, that’s adenosine latching on to its receptors and causing your nerve cells to slow down and when you’re asleep, the level of adenosine in your system depletes. You know what else can attach itself to adenosine receptors? Caffeine.

Therefore, coffee naps work by pumping your system with caffeine and lowering your levels of adenosine by sleeping to allow for more receptors to be bound with caffeine instead.

To get the most out of your caffeine nap, try and doze off just after you’ve had your coffee and limit your nap to a maximum of twenty minutes. This is roughly the amount of time it takes for you to begin feeling the effects of caffeine in your system.

If you haven’t tried out any of these – be sure to give them a go when you’re next pressed for time and let us know which works for you.

Creative Connection - Surviving Lockdown 6.0 Virtually

The clock strikes 2pm and Slack notifies me that it’s time for the Our Community quiz. The perfect early afternoon breather, the crew at Our Community take it in turns to be the “Quiz Master” for a quick-fire, fifteen questions of trivia every day. While I love a good trivia session, I find myself often sitting back and enjoying the banter and sheer genius of most of the team.

Although it was started back in 2016 before coronavirus was even a blip on people’s radars, the daily ritual of digital connection has endured, and remains a source of joy while the team are physically apart.

With Melbourne recently surpassing 200 days of lockdown (and many more days with heavy restrictions) since the beginning of the pandemic, city-dwellers have experienced countless phases of lockdown experiences; from obsessing over Netflix’s Tiger King to weekly virtual trivia nights with family and friends. However, hitting the 18-month mark has brought with it a new brand of fatigue, making this latest lockdown one of the hardest yet.

Despite the constant extensions, some of our OC House member organisations have still got that spark of creativity that is keeping their teams connected and their morale afloat. One of our newest members, Conciliation Resources, are committed to keeping fresh ideas alive through regular Zoom catch ups.

“Since the beginning of lockdown, we have weekly social lunches,” Annalies Veldmeijer, Conciliation Resource’s Programme Support and Gender Officer, told me. “We take turns to choose a game, quiz or activity for us to do as a team, with strictly no work talk.”

Following the beginning of the pandemic when videoconferencing was a novel idea, people around the globe were beginning to feel exhausted after video meetings which prompted countless studies into the phenomenon now known as “Zoom fatigue”. One of the studies found that a strong method for combatting Zoom fatigue was to foster a sense of belonging with your team.

Dr Andrew Bennett who conducted the study for Old Dominion University in Canada was quoted as saying “…feeling part of the group really matters. When these employees had a high sense of belongingness with others on the meeting, they were much less fatigued afterwards.”

What better way to form a sense of community than through each member of a team contributing an idea, topic or theme that resonates with them.

“Last week, my colleague led us in 'campfire talks', with the noise of a fire playing, and everyone sharing a story from their lives,” Annalies said.

While Conciliation Resources are in one corner having Zoom D&Ms by a virtual campfire, data-driven organisation Neighbourlytics have a strict Wednesday ritual involving a dedicated two hours of board game time thanks to inventive team member, Alan Wright.

Using the website, BoardGameArena, the team jumps on every Wednesday afternoon to play classics like Uno and Yahtzee all from the safety of their own homes. The website has countless games and is free to access. “My only regret,” Alan said in relation to the team’s new weekly ritual, “is that I didn’t get it up and running sooner.”

Standard workplace operations have taken a hit too, with in-person meetings being replaced by tedious Zoom sessions. Neighbourlytics, however, have found that there hasn’t been a big impact to their productivity because of their Agile business model, which was designed to facilitate remote work and foster communication using daily stand-ups (quick meetings) and three-weekly retrospectives (team checkups).

When I spoke to Lively’s Paul de Freitas about maintaining productive interactions with his team, he’s found that “spicing up” his mediums of communication has kept him (and his colleagues) on their toes. “I've personally been rotating between different mediums when contacting teammates, to keep things spicy. Sometimes a video call, sometimes a classic phone call, sometimes an email, sometimes a chat message; and because it is harder to communicate with body language, been trying out a few more metaphors and analogies, even singing to express a point as clearly as possible.”

Aside from Paul’s foray in musical theatre, Lively, a not-for-profit organisation that employs young people to offer support and connection for older community members, has been setting up older community members with video conferencing so they can stay in touch during lockdown.

“We're doing a project at the moment where we are helping people who are usually taking part in social support groups to access the group virtually via Google Duo from tablets they've been given,” said Paul. “It keeps our younger people (Lively Helpers) busy with work helping older community members build resilience to lockdown isolation by picking up some tech skills.”

Aspergers Victoria has also shifted many of their programs online, offering special lockdown virtual events such as their Aspieland Moderated Minecraft sessions for teenagers, which employs older teens from the Aspergers community to help guide and support participants to build their Minecraft worlds, remind them about the sort of behaviour that is appropriate (if needed) and, most importantly, have fun using the online server.

Despite the ongoing barriers presented by perpetual lockdown extensions in Victoria, our members continue to build and maintain their communities through any medium possible. As organisations operating in the social sector, they’re still managing against all odds to keep the key aspects of “social” going strong regardless of physical distance.

Refugee Week 2021: An Interview with Louna Ghawi

Over the last week, Australians and the global community have joined together to celebrate the diversity of cultures and reflect on the experiences of refugees. From its humble beginnings in Sydney in 1986, Refugee Week grew to be a national event from 1988 and has grown to be a globally celebrated cultural recognition event.

Two Our Community House members act as nation-wide and world-wide leaders in recruitment and technology solutions to raise the visibility of refugees and other minority groups and connect them with employers to gain meaningful employment.

Refugee Talent (RT) is behind Australia’s first national refugee employment platform connecting over 30,000 refugees globally with over 600 employers nationally. The team works in close partnership with another of our members, Talent Beyond Boundaries which is a global organisation using technology to provide employment pathways for refugees currently based in Lebanon and Jordan. This was a world first program enabling direct employer lead pathways for refugees to settle and be employed in Australia. With a database of more than 30,000 refugees, it is a talent source for companies facing key skills shortages.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Louna Ghawi, Recruitment Manager for Refugee Talent about her experiences as a refugee in Australia.

Louna arrived in Australia as a refugee from Syria, where she and her husband lived in the City of Homs. “We both had outstanding careers, beautiful homes, family and friends on our sides and lots of dreams to work towards.”

She told me that prior to 2010, Syria was considered one of the safest countries in the world and had a completely different identity compared to how it is perceived now. Following an uprising against the president of Syria eleven years ago, a large-scale and enduring civil war broke out leaving devastated cities and millions of people displaced.

“Tourists flocked to the country for its culture, its rich history and to explore some of the oldest cities in the world.” People were not only itching for sightseeing and heritage experiences, but also craved a taste of the simple, yet abundant lifestyle of the generous and social Syrian people.

“Life importance in Syria is placed on family, religion, education, self-discipline and respect. Family is in the heart of Syrian social life,” Louna explained, “[the] lifestyle there was so diverse… and everyone lived together side by side.”

The Syrian refugee crisis is the world’s largest refugee crisis of our time. According to World Vision, about 6.6 million Syrians are refugees, and another 6.2 million people are displaced within Syria.

When Louna came to Australia, she had already learned about our rich cultural diversity before she arrived. “We knew how advanced Australia is, that Australia is a welcoming country and had already welcomed so many diverse communities.”

Despite her existing knowledge and the hope that Australia provided, the upheaval naturally turned her and her family’s lives upside down. She described the complete shift of focus that comes with being on the other side of the world; day becomes night, summer becomes winter and cars start driving on the opposite side of the road. “The weather especially in Melbourne, it was very unexpected to have four seasons in one day.”

“What was so helpful [though], is that a lot of settlement services were available, and we had access to Medicare and free education for the children. There are a lot of free activities available [like] school holiday programs at the libraries, nice parks, and very affordable access to swimming pools. These helped mostly the kids to settle with the very low budget the family needs to live with before finding employment.”

Refugees face significant challenges in Australia and around the world when it comes to finding meaningful employment. Regardless of their qualifications and career in their home country, recognition of their experience often goes unnoticed and creates significant barriers for refugees entering the Australian labour force – particularly in their trained professions.

Louna and her husband, a mechanical engineer currently working on the Metro Tunnel project, were both able to find meaningful employment in professional fields, but it wasn’t without challenges. “When the refugee applies for jobs without having references, the application gets rejected straight away. No employer will take a risk and hire someone who no one knows and didn’t have any local work experience before.”

It was through volunteering with Talent Beyond Boundaries, who is in partnership with Refugee Talent, that Louna found her current role as Recruitment Manager. She is also a member of the Victorian Divisional Advisory Board of Australian Red Cross and is very passionate about the work she, along with Refugee Talent, does to assist skilled migrants and developing Australia’s rich cultural diversity and skilled workforce.

You can find out more about the incredible work of Refugee Talent and their close partner, Talent Beyond Boundaries on their websites: https://refugeetalent.com/ & https://www.talentbeyondboundaries.org/

Green Your Space - Why Office Plants Make Life Better

Gone are the days of blank cubicles in drab office spaces. One thing that scientists, interior designers, and Zen masters tend to agree on, is that bringing nature inside with us is the solution to a lot of our workplace woes. But how and why does plant life have such a positive effect on both our physical and mental wellbeing while we’re indoors? 

 Let’s start with a gloomy statistic: even before the pandemic, Australians spend more than 90% of their life indoors. Most of us move from our homes, to our car, to our desks, to the shops and back home again; many people even favour the treadmill over a stroll in the park! This goes against a key evolutionary tendency engrained in all of us that is known as “biophilia”. 

 Biophilia is defined as the ‘innate human instinct to connect with nature and other living beings’. Our need for the natural world has been proven time and time again and many of us would feel it the moment we reach the outskirts of the city and are bathed in trees and fields. While we can’t go gallivanting to the countryside on a day-to-day basis, we can bring the outside in. Countless scientific and social studies have focused on the way plants can increase our productivity, reduce our stress levels and make us less prone to illness, all while filling and beautifying our space. One such study even found that just gazing at a plant for 3 minutes noticeably reduced stress in office workers!

 So, grab your desk cacti, gaze at it for a few minutes and get ready to feel some new-found gratitude towards your prickly pal. 

No more feeling Yucca

Indoor air quality is a real problem in office environments and can contribute to the spread of the workplace flu or even “sick building syndrome”, which occurs when workers experience poor health symptoms linked to spending too much time inside. This happens due to a build-up of various toxins and pollutants in the air from things like mould, cleaning chemicals, and even our office furniture. 

 Scientists have determined that as an alternative to expensive air purifiers, indoor plants can remarkably improve office air quality. That’s because they do the same awesome work inside as  they do outside! By absorbing those nasty air particles and even stabilising humidity levels, plants have the ability to boost our immune system and keep us away from unwanted sick leave. 

 Hey, stress – Begonia useless thing! 

 Does the number next to your inbox make you see red? Evidence has been found that compounding emails increase our cortisol levels, heart rate and our blood pressure. The good news is plants are here to save the day. Not only does better air quality have the effect of reducing your blood pressure, the very sight and smell of plants can help you feel calm and relaxed as well. 

 In colour psychology, green is used to soothe the mind and the soul. Green is most commonly seen in nature and is closely associated with life, meaning the very act of looking at something green has the ability to help people regain their emotional balance (remember that plant gazing study we mentioned earlier?) 

 On top of that, plants are their very own essential oil burner. The fresh, and often floral scent of plants has the same effect on us as using aromatherapy solutions. Take lavender for example, this scent has been used over centuries to induce a sense of calm and has recently been proven to reduce the stress of MRI procedure patients by 20%!

 Say Aloe to more productivity 

 Numerous studies have shown that our memory, reaction-time, and concentration, increases just by being in the presence of plants. While one study showed that an amount of plants equivalent to a small greenhouse at your desk will likely distract you, another report proved that a nice array of greenery will not only boost your creativity but also help you learn better. 

 On top of that, plant leaves also reflect and absorb noise. Those incessant keyboard taps and frustrated sighs from the desk across from you could be quieter with the help of a plant or two. 

In the spirit of World Environment Day (June 5), go out and grab yourself a fauna friend and celebrate the natural gifts that plants provide us with every day. 

Do we still need offices?

Where and when we work had to change, dramatically, last year. Regardless of how much of our pre-2020 work life returns in 2021, the possibilities of a new work-life routine have opened up to us.  As the community manager of Our Community House, a co-working space capable of hosting over 350 staff from the social and non-profit sector, I wasn’t sure if anyone would walk into the building when restrictions were lifted. They did. Why? I wanted to offer a short reflection on what I’ve come to appreciate about our co-working space, and how we might face the joys and challenges of our more flexible working lives.

1. Other people help us to feel human

Focused work is important. Meeting deadlines and completing to-do lists is, for the most part, the very definition of working productively. Most people I’ve spoken to on the WFH question have told me they feel more productive at home. No commute, less distraction, comfortable clothes. In surveying a range of studies, however, it appears that working from home is either drastically more productive, a little more productive, a little less productive or drastically less productive than working in an office. In other words, the jury is very much out on this question.  

One clear difference, however, is the sense of connection that comes from working in an office with other people. One study suggests that 81% of Australians consider their work relationships to be as important, or more important (11%), than the job itself. I believe it’s because other people help us to feel human and being around other people, more often than not, feels good and productive in and of itself.

During lockdown I received a call from a member of the space who wanted to check in and acknowledge that we hadn’t had one of our corridor chats in half a year. We don’t work together, we’re not from the same organisation, but sharing a space meant our bump-in conversations had a sense of serendipity and wonderful aimlessness that can only come from not planning to talk. Our chats didn’t revolve around work per se and felt un-rushed and undirected, where the conversation was joyful for its own sake, not its outcome. Returning to our community of people here has reminded me that there is a part of ourselves living in all the relationships we have, even the ones that happen in passing, in the corridor or without a purpose.  

2. I benefit from a change in scenery

I love working at home… sometimes. The dress code suits me, the kitchen is nearby, and the commute is incredibly easy – one morning I did actually walk out the front door, got into my car and then walked back inside to experience my so-called “commute”. Having become quite comfortable with a new working life, when restrictions lifted I wasn’t sure that I wanted them to. As you’ve just read, I was either more productive or less productive at home (honestly, flip a coin for any given day). Coming back into the space when I did, I noticed my mood change and my energy increase as I walked in. I don’t have 20-foot ceilings at home, a wide range of incredible art, plants (no, I don’t have indoor plants, would you believe) or huge amounts of light and space. Beyond the clear difference in amenity, it was obvious to me just how important a change of scenery is for me to feel happy and healthy. Studies suggest that we are happier and more productive when we have regular variety in our physical environment. For anyone working a mixed routine that includes work and home, you’re probably nodding your head in agreement. On many measures of happiness and productivity, change beats just home or just office.

3. Teams with different work schedules aren’t alone in a co-working space

At the time of writing this, restrictions were set at 75% of staff able to return to the office. For big teams, if about half the staff return, there is a comfortable number of people to experience some sense of team and social connection. For mid-sized and small teams, it felt different. For companies transitioning to some form of mixed home-office working arrangement, it can be hard to coordinate staff needs, organisational needs and the complex set of staff schedules. In speaking to our members, our co-working space offered them an office space they could essentially abandon or fill up as they needed, without having an office manager to keep the lights on, so to speak. Staff who came in by themselves for the day were not alone and if the printer wasn’t working (our printer always works) we were there to help. Our co-working space provides an ever-present level of office care that can put managers and directors at ease in times like these. 

In Summary…

I love working in a co-working space more than ever. In whatever way our working lives change, co-working spaces provide a flexible and social space to accommodate this new working life. Having other people around is important for our social and mental wellbeing. Changing scenery helps us to feel happy and productive and co-working spaces reduce the stress of managing an office with an ever-changing set of schedules. If you’d like to take a tour of Our Community House to see if it works for you, let us know!

Daniel Teitelbaum
Community Manager

Welcoming in a new year!

Welcome!

The clock has finally struck February 1st and 50% of staff are now allowed to return to their workplaces. After the year that was 2020, the team at Our Community House weren’t sure if anyone would actually come back. With the trepidation that came before my sixth birthday, we waited by the front door in metaphorical party hats. And you showed up! It has been a truly wonderful week welcoming over 100 people back into the space. I’m glad all returning members remembered where the coffee machine is and I’m excited to introduce you to the new members that have joined us this year.

So many new faces!

It is a great pleasure to welcome a number of new faces into the building. We are very proud of the member organisations that work here and so we have to tell you who they are.

The Centre for Public Impact supports citizens, public servants, and other changemakers that are shaping a new future for government – one where power is shared and government is effective and trusted to work for everyone. We’re very pleased to welcome Thea & David into the space.

With collaboration at their core, Nick, Paul and Sally at Everyhow create the conditions for people to think critically and creatively, together. 

Food Frontier is the independent think tank and expert advisor on alternative proteins in Australia & New Zealand. Make sure to welcome Thomas, Sam, Hannah, Jennifer, Karen and Klara when you see them around. 

The Satellite Foundation seeks to contribute to futures of hope and possibility for children and young people where a parent has a mental illness or mental health challenge. Welcome Rose and the team at Satellite.

Suicide Prevention Australia is the national peak body for the suicide prevention sector. We are very excited to have Verity, Michaela and Ingrid here!

Volunteering Victoria is the state peak body for volunteering, focusing on advocacy, sector development and the promotion of volunteering. Welcome Scott, Dominic, Sara, Gillian and Liz to OC House!

Founder and CEO of Emergent, Holly helps leaders and teams formulate the questions to find their disruption strategy. As a keynote speaker, Holly’s secret weapon is simplifying the complex to make the difficult doable. Welcome Holly!

In Other News

We are a little tentative to get a full program of events up and running before you’ve had a chance to settle in and figure out what the year will look like. We will, however, host our first Friday Wine Down of the year on February 26th.

 OC House Book Club is also up and running and will begin again with 'My Brilliant Friend' by Elena Ferrante. The next meeting is Friday, February 25 from 5pm. Speak to reception for more details.

Can we help?

If you aren’t a member of Our Community House and are in need of a space to work, a mailing address or just want to be part of a wonderful community of people and organisations, email us hello@ochouse.com.au and we can take you for a tour of our beautiful space. Come for a free trial day to see if Our Community House is the place for you