1 - Plan Your Day
Prioritise your day. Don’t spend the day doing the unimportant
things. Always use a “To-Do” list. Keep your major objectives in the
forefront of your mind. Have a written plan of how you will achieve
those objectives. Keep your plan up to date with your progress, but
don’t delete previous achievements. Use them to remind yourself of how
far you have come already.
2 - Get a Good Nights Sleep
You can’t work well if you haven’t rested properly. If you
find yourself watching late night TV with a glazed expression in your
eyes – go to bed. The average person needs a minimum of seven hours
good quality sleep a night. Don’t lie there worrying about work. If
there is a particular issue that is causing you sleepless nights, write
it down on a piece of paper just before you go to sleep and tell
yourself “I will deal with that tomorrow.”
3 - Have Lunch
Break your day. Actually go to lunch and forget about work. Do not
sit at your desk and eat sandwiches, or worse junk food. You may think
that you are being productive, but by not taking the break you will be
less productive later in the day. Relax and chat with friends or find a
quiet place to reflect and contemplate. Make sure your lunch is
nutritious. What you eat now will fuel you for the rest of the day. Try
to avoid a heavy lunch. The brain needs to divert blood away from your
brain and muscles to your intestines to help digest your food. That is
why you feel sleepy after a large lunch and will be less productive.
4 - Take A Break From The Computer
Staring at a computer all day can drain your energy. Your eye
muscles were not designed to constantly maintain the same focal
distance. Look up every now and again and focus on something in the
distance to change the muscle tension in your eyes. Ensure that you have
at between five and ten minutes away from your computer in any one hour
period. Better still, organise your work so that you get natural breaks
away from the screen. Work should alternate the length of focus of your
eyes to prevent fatigue of the eye muscles.
5 - The Phone Is Urgent, Not Important
When someone calls and gives you a task, put it on your To Do
list. (You do have one don’t you?) That way you can get the action
into perspective and accord it the correct priority against your other
tasks. If you have some important job to finish, divert your phone to
voicemail or a colleague and ignore it until the task is done. If you
can't do this, just turn the volume of the ringer down to zero - but
don't forget to turn it back up when you have finished. If it is
important they will call back or leave a message.
6 - Drink Plenty Of Water
Dehydration will quickly sap your effectiveness and energy levels.
Ensure that you drink plenty of water during the day. Between 5% to 10%
dehydration can reduce your effectiveness by up a third. Try to limit
the amount of caffeine you ingest, whether in tea or coffee. Caffeine is
actually a poison. It gives you a boost by triggering your stress
hormone, which releases adrenalin. If you are running on caffeine,
eventually you will crash. It also prevents a good nights sleep.
7 - Take A Time Out
Your brain is a muscle. Working constantly at the same task uses
the same parts of your brain. Try to do different tasks throughout the
day. Best of all, take a time out every so often. Talk to your
colleagues. This helps build rapport with them and leads to a feeling of
inclusion, which actually increases the productivity of the team by
boosting self-esteem of team members. Remember we work at our most
productive when we are happy and feel valued.
8 - Make Someone Smile
When you are feeling stressed and worn down, take the time to
smile at someone else and give them a cheery word. Amazingly, although
you may feel that it is forced, they will smile back and you will gain a
genuine smile. The physiological act of smiling causes the brain to
think that everything must be OK, so you end up with a psychological
feeling of well being. A feeling of well being produces endorphins that
makes us feel good and reduces the feelings of negative stress in our
minds.
9 - Learn To Delegate And Share
No one can do everything. If you are doing something that would be
done better by someone else, give him or her the job and don’t
interfere. If you are doing a task, but feel that you can’t do it, ask
for help. The highest compliment you can pay another person is to ask
for their assistance. Working with others on a task also reduces
feelings of isolation. Feeling isolated can cause a build up of stress.
10 - Eat Properly
Stress is all contained in your brain. The brain is made up of
over 100 billion neurons. These neurons communicate with each other
across synaptic gaps. The actual connection requires neurotransmitters,
which consist of chemicals that are extracted from the nutrients that we
eat. The brain is only about 3 lb in weight and yet uses 30% of the
oxygen and 40% of the nutrients that we consume. Over 100,000 miles of
blood vessels carry this oxygen and nutrients to your neurons. If they
are not available, connections fail and we cannot function correctly. So
eat well. |
