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Here, these are the details of this new project our partner wants to have done by the end of the week. There you go, this file holds the documentation that has to be processed immediately for our client abroad. Hey, can you take a look at this report and send feedback to me later today? Morning, how are you doing with the company presentation for the conference on Thursday?
In most modern corporations, work never seems to slow down flowing and your desk has no chances of ultimately getting cleared off. Useful or useless, there are hundreds of tasks you are expected to juggle to the best possible final effect, which appears to get nearer and nearer perfection. In search of competitive advantage, companies are determined to push their employees, demanding increasing productivity, efficiency and creativity. Importantly, their requirements are not normally coupled with a rise in available resources, such as working hours or substantial financial bonuses. In other words, they ask to achieve considerably more without having to invest much, pointing to the fact that there is potential left to be tapped into. Where is it?
Well, some of it is actually outside the company and all too many fail to notice its importance in the context of doing better at work. The classic example is sleep, one of the most basic functions of the human body, which people wrongly sacrifice for more and more waking life, even though there is a high price to pay for doing so. And it is not just deliberately cutting down on the amount of nighttime, but compromising its quality by taking medications, introducing harmful habits and taking on too much stress. Feeling fully rested and rejuvenated is a precondition to making the most of your cognitive potential.
Similar patterns can be seen for mood. When you let your emotions run wild, which is not very difficult to do in a tense setting that characterizes the modern workplace, your concentration and determination are bound to take a blow. The answer to this problem should not be artificial feelings, but closer attention and better maintenance of how you feel. It has to do with developing stronger awareness and healthy distance to what you do in order not get carried away in stressful or uncomfortable situations.
A lot can be achieved by cleverly manipulating what and how you do things. One leadership-training specialist suggests working in focused intervals, rather than continuously. Our brain has been designed to handle intense stimulation for a limited period of time only and then has to revert to a resting mode to replenish its resources. The same applies to other organs. Opticians advise taking your eyes off working devices, such as a laptop or a graphics tablet, and look into the distance, preferably trees or other greenery, to stretch vision muscles. What can also increase productivity is resorting to all kinds of to-do lists that have the benefit of taking steam off our minds and giving a visual representation for complex tasks. Why not give these simple tricks a try?
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