Can You Be Productive When Your Computer’s Booting?

Just like any other morning, you walk into the office, but, unlike any other morning, you discover that there are updates that need to finish being implemented before you can use your workstation. That’s certainly irritating. Sure, it’ll probably only take a few minutes to complete, but you have your coffee in hand, and you’re ready to get to work. How can you burn that time, without it being a waste?

Fortunately, there are a few ways to spend this time that could be beneficial to the day’s responsibilities, and that don’t require your computer to do!

Prepare for Your Day
Luckily, your computer is only necessary to actually complete the tasks in store for you. Planning your strategy to tackle them doesn’t expressly require the use of your device; you likely have a decent idea of what your agenda looks like. This means you can look at the time spent waiting on your workstation as an opportunity, instead of an inconvenience.

Rather than blankly staring at your screen, grab a sheet of scrap paper and focus on your strategy for the rest of the day. Are there any tasks that you need to complete more urgently than others? What do you need to accomplish; whether you need to check in with a coworker, call a client on the phone, or fulfill some other responsibility, and what needs to be rearranged to permit you the time you will need to do so?

While it may seem silly initially, exercises like these could prove to be helpful to getting in the right mindset for a productive day. Additionally, it’ll likely take just long enough to do so that your workstation will be able to start up.

Clean Up Your Workspace
We’ve all been there… a desk is clean and tidy, until it suddenly it isn’t clean and tidy at all. Between those moments of just putting something down and the habit many have of allowing things to be put down more and more frequently, it is no surprise that the workstation of today tends to be a bit unkempt.

Nonetheless, if the time spent waiting for a computer to start up is also utilized as the chance to organize the work area, not only will it make the work environment a generally more pleasant place to be, it’ll make a better impression upon any visitors as well. After all, a messy desk could be the difference between a client, and a missed opportunity.

Refill and Mingle
Naturally, productivity can sometimes be measured in more than just minutes saved on a task. Usually, productivity can present itself in other ways. For example, a good working relationship can expedite no shortage of tasks, so getting a second cup of coffee and chatting in the break room can offer a surprising boost to the workflow. By simply establishing lines of communication and camaraderie between you and your co-workers via casual interaction, operations will likely run much more smoothly, and the workplace will be a more welcome place to be.

Otherwise, if you’d prefer to try to reduce the downtime that your users experience in general, you should contemplate implementing a policy that requires maintenance to take place after hours, reducing the likelihood of workday delays. A managed service provider can assist you by implementing these updates at the end of each workday, after your employees have left. As a result, your devices remain up-to-date, without the inconvenience of updating them when there’s work to be done.

Interested in learning what else Macro Systems can do to assist your organization? Reach out to us at 703-359-9211.