If you are like most people, you have to do some sort of work. It probably takes up about a third or more of your day which comprises half of your waking hours. Too many people are so stressed out and overwhelmed at work that the rest of their waking hours are spent trying to relax or numb out. Or they become more stressed by the feeling that they don’t have enough time or energy for the things outside of work that they really want to do. Obviously, this is not ideal for you or anyone around you.
I recently read Eat Sleep Work Repeat by Bruce Daisley and wanted to share some of my favorite parts. These tips may work for you or might not be possible in your exact situation but you can learn from each of them. Many of the concepts are beneficial in your personal life as well! If you find this interesting, try the suggestions out or grab the book to go deeper into each area.
Monk Mode Morning – schedule focus time for yourself. You can do this whenever you are the most productive but for most people this is in the morning. Start with two three hour blocks per week and see what happens. Avoid distractions during this time – exit out of email, put your phone away, turn off Teams or Slack. Try it out and keep track of what you accomplish during those time blocks.
Walking meeting – if you have a type of meeting that doesn’t necessarily need computers, notes or presentations, make it a walking meeting and go outside. Get some blood pumping to help the flow of ideas. Try this with your regular check-in meetings to change things up.
Focus on achievements vs. time – stop celebrating overwork. You can only work so much until you hit a wall of creativity, or worse jump on the path towards burnout. Make your workday more efficient and productive so you don’t have to feel like to need to put in longer hours. Don’t judge other people for their work schedule if they are still achieving the results that drive the team forward.
Turn off notifications – take your work email off your phone or turn off the notifications so you are not tempted to check on things during non work hours. This is a good practice in general if you are wanting to be less dependent on technology. You can also turn off notifications for email on your desktop/laptop as well so you only see new emails when you go into the email application rather than getting dinged every time a new one comes through. Utilize do not disturb options for chat or on your phone if you don’t want to turn off notifications all the time.
Go to lunch – take breaks during your day to reset your mind. You will come back refreshed to keep going on projects. While working through lunch might seem like you are getting more done, it’s possible that you are taking a longer amount of time on the task and feeling more stressed than you need to because you are powering through. You aren’t meant to be constantly productive so your brain and body need some reprieve to operate at the top of your game.
Focus on thing at a time – as much as you want to try to multi-task, your brain can’t do it. What we call multi-tasking is really rapid task switching which is taxing on your mental capacity. The more things you are trying to do, the less optimally you will perform at all of them. Rather than jumping from task to task, try to go one step at a time and give each task your full, undivided attention.
Suggest a coffee break – Connect with your colleagues by taking breaks together. Change your scenery by getting out of the office for a little bit to take a walk or go to a nearby coffee shop. If that doesn’t seem workable, take some time in the break room to sit and chat together. You can talk about work projects or nothing related to work at all. You will both benefit for positive human interaction and get a break from your work to have fresh eyes when you return to it.
Halve your meetings – Take a look at your schedule and cut out unnecessary meetings. Maybe you had meetings scheduled for a reason but they aren’t needed anymore. Maybe you were added to a meeting you don’t actually need to attend. In this case, ask the organizer what role you play in the meeting to determine the necessity. With regular needed meetings, cut down the time scheduled and try to get the same amount done within the shorter time period.
Create a social meeting – Make an effort to connect with your co-workers beyond just work meetings. The tricky part here is that they are much more effective in an optional, employee led fashion rather than management trying to force it. Invite a couple co-workers to go to happy hour after work before you head home. Schedule a small team meeting during the week that is only meant for connection and team building. Coordinate a potluck lunch with your team.
Laugh + Relax – Find reasons to laugh with the people around you. Laughter is one of the greatest experiences in life and work doesn’t have to be serious all the time. Play off the sense of humor that you see in your department and create inside jokes within your team. Never laugh AT other people behind their backs but find ways to laugh with people with whom you work. Even in the most stressful job situations, try to find ways that you can relax to do your work rather than trying to white-knuckle every situation and push yourself towards burnout. Your energy will affect other people. If you can find ways to relax, you will help them relax too.
Whatever your work situation is like, don’t assume that things have to stay the way that they are. If there is something about your work environment that you think could be improved, take steps to make it better! You never know what is possible until you try. Catch yourself complaining and instead of being miserable, take a small action to enhance your situation. Since work takes up so much of your time, you might as well find ways to have fun with it!
Tell me some of your favorite work moments in the comments below.
Here are some pictures from some of my fun work experiences! Baby chicks in the office, finding a baby turtle on a walk, eating lunch outside, company birthday party and winter walks in Wisconsin.
