If you have a Smartphone, you probably take it with you to work. Our Smartphones contain so much of our lives these days. While that’s a good thing, it can also interfere with your work. This article outlines 4 tips for being Smartphone savvy at work.
Turn off all sound notifications
Unless you use your Smartphone to take work phone calls or texts , leave all notifications off so that you’re not distracted by them while you work. Leaving sound notifications on during the work hours is not only distracting to you, but to your co-workers as well. Whether they let you know or not, the constant sounds coming from your phone will be unpleasant. Even if you use your Smartphone at work, any games that you play should not be set to notify you by sound. If you find that you are distracted by notifications and need to know what they are right away, turn off notifications altogether.
Don’t sneak to the bathroom to make calls
Even if you’re on your break, you shouldn’t go to the bathroom to place a personal call. You might think that you are alone, but you never know who is around. You really do not want to complain about your job, boss, or co-workers out loud where anyone can hear it. Don’t talk about anything around work that you wouldn’t want someone to overhear.
Stay off of social networking sites
Your boss wants to know you are working hard while you’re at your job. That’s what you’re being paid for. Even if you’re not posting status updates about how much you dislike your boss and his poor choices, posting on social networking sites might show you have too much time on your hands or you’re not focusing on your job as you should be. It doesn’t matter if everyone else on the job is posting status updates through the day, you’ll make a better impression if you don’t. Always assume that your boss and co-workers can see what you’re posting online.
Organize
If you do use your Smartphone at work, either to take calls or to text and email, it’s important that you do what you can do keep work and personal apps separate. Keeping them separate will reduce the likelihood that you get distracted by the fun apps that you use in your spare time. Keep shopping apps and games on a different page so that you won’t constantly have them tempting you.
Having a Smartphone opens you up to a world of knowledge and entertainment. It’s a great tool to have at your disposal, but knowing the right and wrong places to use it. It’s especially important to know the Smartphone etiquette rules for the workplace.