Social networking is important, but spending too much time on Facebook can affect your productivity. Here’s how to limit this usage.
By Craig Falck for Africa Report
Photograph: © Lucian Milasan | Dreamstime.com
What started as an online novelty quickly become a hindrance in the workplace and a costly addiction. While there are many other social networks besides Facebook, it is Facebook that has the broadest reach and most addictive fan base. It’s time to step in and curb your usage.
The first step in admitting that you have a problem is recognising that you’re spending too much time on Facebook and not enough time on your work. That’s what they say to drug addicts and alcoholics, right? Well it applies to Facebook too. It really is like a drug in that you keep telling yourself, “Just five more minutes”… Before you know it, it’s been 50 minutes. Now what you need to do is actually stop, right then and there. Just say to yourself, “I can do this”, and logout. Allow yourself times when you can use Facebook, either before work or after work or during your lunch break. Just realise that this means coming to work earlier, leaving later, and being stuck in your chair at your desk the entire time and not going out for a break. You’ll quickly learn that this isn’t the way to do it.
If you’re the boss, you can simply block Facebook and other such websites. Your IT specialist or digital administrator will be able to do this easily and it’ll mean that your staff simply cannot log on using their computers and won’t be wasting the company’s time (and bandwidth, for that matter) poking their friends and posting status updates about “look how pretty and blue the sky is today.” This might annoy your team, but they’ll quickly learn that you’ve done it for a purpose – you’ve hired them to meet company objectives and goals and perform tasks that will get see the business progress in its industry; you didn’t hire them to mess around online.
You also need to realise that you’re in a professional environment and you need to take your job seriously. Just say “no” to temptation and find something else to occupy your mind. It might be reading a book or doing a crossword puzzle or doing research on projects that would benefit the company. The more time you sit thinking about what your friends are doing on Facebook the less work you’re going to get done, and then you’ll have to face the consequences. And don’t think that your boss will accept, “I was on Facebook and that’s why my work isn’t done” as an excuse.
By limiting your time spent on Facebook or removing it completely, you’ll see your productivity increase sharply. This will make you a better employee and see you climbing the ranks while the rest are poking their way to the exit door.
