It’s only logical that the healthier you are, the more productive you can be. Think about it - the last time you were ill, how much work did you really get done? It is so easy today to neglect ourselves because we are “too busy” or “too tired.” We’re coming up on that busy holiday time of the year where everyone seems harried and has too much to do. The holiday season doesn’t have to be a drain. Now is the time to take steps to keep yourself healthy!
1. Get enough sleep! I know, easier said than done - but it is important!
2. Get your flu shot. No, it isn’t fun, but neither is the flu.
3. Don’t neglect your exercise routine. It is easy during the holiday season to skip over your regular workouts. Try to stick to your routine, and you’ll feel better!
4. Treat yourself but don’t overindulge. It’s not easy to say no to pumpkin pie and mom’s specialty side-dishes. Have some (it’s okay)…in moderation.
5. Say “No.” There are invitations galore, requests for assistance, volunteer time and all sorts of demands on your time time during the holidays. Do the things that give you joy and help your community, but again…in moderation. Don’t neglect yourself and your family for the sake of something “good.”
You can keep up your energy levels throughout the holidays and not end up in burnout on January 1st! If you haven’t yet, check out my latest book, The Exhaustion Cure. You’ll find all sorts of ideas on how to stay healthy and energetic!
Humor in the workplace is a productive thing, according to Psychologist Maren Rawlings from Swinburne University of Technology. In a recent study, Rawlings “found a direct correlation between the climate of good humor in a workplace and employee satisfaction.” Previous research found a link between job satisfaction and productivity, so the logical leap is that humor is good for productivity. Of course this doesn’t mean we can spend our entire days cracking jokes, but it says to me that we can lighten up and laugh a little. Rawlings also noted “If employers take measures to encourage a positive humor climate in the workplace, they are more likely to retain their staff.” Keeping the staff you have rather than experiencing turnover is clearly more productive than re-hiring and training new folks.
Find creative ways to lighten things up around the office. My assistant told me of a place she used to work where the Sales Director hung a punching bag in the doorway to his office so that his sales reps could take out their frustrations on it. The same Sales Director, when sales were dragging, decided that if sales were dragging, it was time to have sales “in drag”…so the reps came to the office the next day in gender-bending outfits. Everyone laughed and had a great time, and my assistant tells me they hit a sales record that month. It is no big secret that when people are enjoying themselves, they can get more done and stay positive about what they are doing. Have some fun at work. It’s allowed, really!
People love their Blackberries, no doubt.A recent study confirmed this, according to this article on WCBSTV.com.They may be terrific productivity tools for some, but at what cost?The article by Scott Rapoport states “The study of 6,500 traveling executives says 35 percent of them would choose their PDA over their spouse.”Wait a minute – people would choose a communication device over a loved one?If this is true, where have we gone wrong?
It is important to keep track of your business, be connected to your co-workers, clients and employers.Blackberries certainly have made this easier, particularly for those who don’t spend most of their time in the office.With this easy connectivity, are people losing the ability to know when to turn it off?It would seem that technology is not only helping us be more productive, but is also blurring the lines between work time and off time.Is it really more productive to have one foot in the working world and one foot on the home front at the same time?I’m not so sure…
If we are always “available” via Blackberries, email, cell phones and pagers, are we truly focusing on our loved ones when we are allegedly “off” from work? Can we really let loose and play if we’re always poised to answer the next email or text message?Unless your connection to work means life or death, you CAN and should turn off and tune out when the work day is over. Are we working to live, or living to work?
Do productive people always have their dream jobs? No. Are you more productive when you enjoy what you’re doing and are happy in your work? Yes.
So do you find your work fulfilling? Or are you just going through the motions to pay the bills? What if you’re in a job that is a springboard to the next one? That’s fine. There’s a difference between everyday annoyances and unsettling, deep malcontent. Life’s too short to keep a job that makes your stomach hurt. As they say, do what you love, and the money will follow.
How do you know if you’re in your dream job?
• Make a list of your dreams. You may have only one; you may have several. Some may be really big. Some may be small. “I want to make jewelry and sell it online.” “I want to be a meteorologist.” “I want to start my own pension consulting business.”
• Make a list of your passions. What do you love? Singing? Playing guitar? Photography? Is there a dream job in there somewhere?
• Make a list of your core values. Is it important to you to have ample time to enjoy life? Is it important to you to be helping others through your work, no matter how many hours of the week it takes?�
• Make a list of what you’re naturally good at and love to do. Teaching people how to play tennis? Working with animals? De-cluttering homes and offices? Cooking French cuisine? Is there a dream job in there somewhere?
Now why don’t you do it? Perhaps you’re afraid you won’t make any money. Perhaps you’re afraid to leave a high-paying job in search of a more fulfilling one. Perhaps you’re afraid you’ll fail. Whatever the reason, fear is a really energy drain. It will paralyze you, lock you up, and keep you in the status quo. If you are to find your purpose and experience the flow, you will have to muster the courage to fight it off.
Happiness is not all about money. You could have a BMW, a home with 4 bathrooms, your kids attend the best schools that money can buy, and your wife looks like a supermodel. But perhaps you’re still unhappy, and you can’t figure out why.
As Stuart Goldsmith says in his book The Seven Secrets of Success, “Becoming wealthy has little to do with buying a bunch of silly toys. You have to be a very sad individual if this is the limit of your imagination. How much champagne can you drink? How many Rolexes do you need? How big a wardrobe of clothes will satisfy you? This is all junk. They are toys—harmless baubles to amuse us for five minutes. Attaining these toys is not the purpose of a noble life.” He adds, “. . . Happiness comes from leading a worthwhile life and producing something of quality and value. Sitting around in a mansion and staring at your Porsche will not make you happy.”
It’s quite normal and understandable for people to want a lot of money. Having a lot of money, especially in a capitalistic society, is equivalent to having plenty. This is an instinctive, evolutionary drive. Of course you don’t want to have to walk 20 miles with your Neanderthal club in hand to find a food source. But in a capitalistic society such as ours that’s brimming with shiny things, this perfectly reasonable drive morphs into greed. And before you know it, we equate money and things with happiness.
But it’s not money in and of itself that makes us happy. It’s the freedom that money provides that opens a big, wide door to the land of happiness. In other words, if we’re not living hand to mouth, we have the time to pursue what we truly love—whether that’s writing a novel, volunteering full-time for a homeless shelter, or having time to watch the sun set every single evening.
How much did you spend on your most recently acquired boast-worthy possession? What if you were to that same amount of money and donate it to a charity that feeds the hungry? Can you picture the poverty-stricken child whose face lights up when she receives a week’s worth of hot meals? Which brings you more happiness, the possession, or the child with a full stomach?
How do you like to make the world a better place? Helping people overcome illness? Working with the mentally handicapped? Teaching people how to exercise?
If I looked at the way you spend your time, would I be able to tell what’s important in your life? The majority of people spend far too much time working and not enough time with their loved ones. Then they arrive home and have no energy left to devote to their spouse or children. They take the day’s problems out on the people they love—the entire reason they’re working in the first place. You say your family is important to you. Can people tell you value them by the way you spend your time? You say your significant other is the most important thing in the world. How much time have you spent spending time with them versus spending time working? You say your spirituality is important, but how much time do you spend praying, reading, meditating, attending services, volunteering, or whatever reflects your beliefs? Is it merely an outside facade? Say and do the same thing. Be congruent. Or just stop saying it and be yourself. To be in alignment with your values, what you say and what you do should be the same.
Bottom line: Adjust your career and your life balance so your time reflects what matters to you most. Put some metrics on your priorities. Companies measure their results, and you should measure yours. Spending time with my family is my greatest pleasure in life. Work is just my hobby. I only want to be out of town five nights per month. I want to eat dinner at home 25 days per month. I want to take six weeks of vacation each year. I work no more than 45 hours per week, although I could easily work 100. Keeping track of my behavior each month makes me accountable; I know immediately whether my schedule is meshing with my priorities and my values. These figures are in front of me as a constant reminder of what I’m trying to accomplish with my life.
Assess how you’re spending your time. What are you doing with it? Watching TV? Flipping through magazines? What would you rather be doing? What are your metrics going to be? What do you want your epitaph to say? “He had a well-mowed lawn.” “There wasn’t one speck of dust in her house.” “His Porsche was really shiny.”
People with high stress levels are more likely to have heart attacks and strokes, respond poorly to flu vaccines, and catch colds more easily than those with low levels of work or interpersonal stress. To sideline stress, you need to learn to shift your perception and the impact of stressful situations. Here are some hints on how to do that.
1. Take a chill pill. High anxiety can put a damper on your performance levels, so take psychological steps, like prayer, meditation, and positive imagery, to reduce your anxiety level. Or just forgive someone who’s slighted you.
2. Actively counter stress. Your stress won’t go away by itself; you may have to use effective stress management techniques to ease it. A massage, listening to music, and even crying can help you release built-up tension.
3. Seize control in small ways. You can’t control a traffic jam, your company direction, or Mother Nature. Identify things you can and can’t control in your daily life. Once you’ve done this, you can work on the things you have some control over, and let the rest go.
4. Turn off work when you’re on personal time. You can’t let your job take over your life. Re-erect the personal boundaries between home-time and job-time that electronic devices have so recently eliminated, or you’ll be eaten up by stress.
5. Take full advantage of company-sponsored benefit plans. Don’t let a desire to impress your employer keep you from taking advantage of your company benefits. There are valid reason for daily breaks, sick time, vacation, and the rest, and a smart boss will realize they’re instrumental to recharging your batteries.
6. Avoid crises by working ahead of deadlines. Procrastinating can force you to do everything at the last minute, which just ratchets up the stress, sucks away your energy, and adds to the difficulty of getting things done.
7. Lose the Type A Personality. Type A personalities tend to be competitive, aggressive, dominant, ambitious, acquisitive, self-driven, and hardworking. Ultimately, these traits can have effects on your body far beyond energy drain. Seek help before the physical effects overwhelm you.
8. Don’t stew. If you’re stuck somewhere where you can’t get anything done — say, in a line at the bank — it’s better occupy your mind than to stew. Pull out your handheld and answer email, or work on a Sudoku puzzle to keep your mind sharp.
The physical effects of stress are so wide-ranging and common that some experts estimate that almost half of all doctor visits are stress-related. So do what you can to take it easy; in particular, stop trying to control the uncontrollable, and instead focus on what you can control — yourself and your reactions.
Even if you’re in a rewarding relationship and have plenty of acquaintances, you can still feel lonely. Research shows that physical exercise, relaxation, and physical health are positively associated with feelings of well-being, but the variable with the strongest association of all is social support. So if you want to boost feelings of psychological well-being and happiness, have lots of friends — and take these tips to heart.
1. Spend time with your friends. No matter how much you love someone, relying on a significant other as your sole source of friendship is a mistake. Just because you’re in a romantic relationship doesn’t mean you don’t need other friends.
2. Nurture friendships at your workplace. Many people believe you shouldn’t combine work and play, but that can be a mistake. People who have good buddies at work are seven times more likely to be engaged in their jobs, and up to 96 percent more likely to be satisfied with their lives.
3. Spend time with people outside your children’s circle. If all your socializing occurs in the bleachers during baseball practice, then your life is seriously out of balance. This can severely deplete your energy, if only subconsciously.
4. Overcome shyness. If you’re so shy that you avoid making conversation with others, you’re hampering your ability to make new friends — and not having friends is detrimental to your mood, energy level, and overall health. Uncover the reasons for your shyness and seek to overcome it.
5. Stop leaning so heavily on non-humans for company. No matter how shy or Scrooge-like you are, you need relationships with people to maintain your energy levels and stay sane. Dogs, cats, caffeine, and cigarettes just won’t cut it.
6. Get plugged in with others of similar likes. Feeling disconnected from other people is a certain recipe for anomie and low energy levels. Join a club with others who share your skills or experiences.
7. Spend quality time with your children. Instead of over-scheduling your kids with soccer practice and ballet, and running yourself ragged getting them there, sit down with your kids and enjoy them while you can. At the very least, have dinner with them as a family on a regular basis.
8. Work through relationship problems. Don’t let stressful relationships fester, especially at work. Offer feedback when asked, make your opinions clear, and work to defuse chronic dysfunctional politics.
Loneliness undermines health by altering your cardiac function and disrupting your sleep. The strength of social isolation as a risk factor is comparable to obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and possibly even smoking. The happiest people surround themselves with family and friends, don’t care about keeping up with the Joneses, lose themselves in daily activities, and forgive easily. Become one of them.
Studies have proven that lighting, décor, smell, noise level, temperature, ergonomics, and color can all affect how you feel. If your environment’s draining you dry, try these tips for a little refreshment.
1. Make sure your workspace is ergonomically designed. Constant discomfort is a great way to lose energy fast. Look into the possibility of getting ergonomic tools and furniture for your workplace, so you can stay productive.
2. Avoid RMIs. If you perform the same motions over and over again, you may end up with a repetitive motion injury (RMI) like carpal tunnel syndrome, Blackberry thumb, or bursitis. If you’re having a nagging pain, see your doctor and determine what behaviors might be causing it — and what you can do to avoid it.
3. Create a well-lit office space. Bad lighting can hurt you in several ways. Insufficient light causes eyestrain and headaches, both of which are energy bandits. Plus, fluorescents lack the blue light that apparently sparks greater energy in workers. If you can, work under bright incandescent light or natural sunlight.
4. Strive for a neutral background. A distracting office environment can cause you to waste energy on things that don’t really matter. Your best bet is not to have anything around that your body has to use energy to either pay attention to or to ignore.
5. Limit your overexposure to electromagnetic radiation. While there’s nothing wrong with a little electromagnetic radiation (after all, that’s what sunlight and radio waves are), it’s a bad idea to get too much of it. Stay at arm’s length away from the screen, and be sure your monitor conforms to Swedish MPRII guidelines.
6. Avoid eyestrain. Protect your eyes from your computer by taking regular breaks, and by positioning the screen the proper distance away. Irritated, blurry eyes make it difficult to dedicate your energy to worthwhile pursuits, and staring at a computer screen that’s too close to you can quickly give you a headache.
7. Insist on proper ventilation. If you and your co-workers seem to be getting sick a lot, or if you’re constantly having to fight off mold, consider checking your building’s ventilation system: the building itself might be sick.
8. Reduce background noise. Studies show that constant low-level noise in open-style offices increases stress and lowers motivation, and impairs the brain’s cognitive function in the prefrontal cortex. One way around this is to listen to music while you work, especially if you use a set of noise-reducing headphones.
Does your environment boost or bust your energy? If you’re not sure, take a close look and learn how to assess the impact of your environment. All it takes is a few simple changes to boost your energy to the ceiling.
Take a look at yourself. Is your life the same every single day? If you feel like you’re wasting your energy because you’re unchallenged and uninspired, you’re probably right. There’s a good reason the saying “Grow or die” is a something of a cliché, because it verbalizes a deep-rooted truth about human nature: you need to keep to growing intellectually all the days of your life.
If that sounds good to you, then use these tips to help you get growing.
1. Challenge yourself to learn something new every day. A lack of challenges is a real energy killer. How can you be anything but bored if you don’t learn something new occasionally? Human knowledge is so vast and complex that there’s always something new to be learned, so get to it.
2. Exercise your creativity. There’s a reason a zeal to create is often referred to as “creative energy.” Channeling some of your time into creating something –whether it’s a meal, a watercolor, or a poem — can help you unwind.
3. Make a change in your life. If you feel like your life isn’t going anywhere, try something different to shake you out of your doldrums. Even something as minor as changing your route to and from work can help.
4. Challenge yourself to read more. Reading can be relaxing, but it also engages your intellect and keeps you busy. In our culture, reading is a necessary life skill, and that’s more than most forms of entertainment can say.
5. Do puzzles to sharpen your mind. A lack of mental stimulation can bore and depress you, which can put your energy level in the basement. Just as reading can kick-start your intellectual energy level, so can puzzles — brain teasers, Sudoku, Kakuro, even a good, hard crossword.
6. Push yourself to grow and learn. Sometimes we get a little apathetic and jaded, thinking we don’t have much to learn. Instead of giving in to apathy, get a mentor. Developing new personal relationships is a great way to go to the next level.
7. Get involved in a worthy cause. Contributing to the greater good can make you feel good inside, which is a surefire way to increase your personal energy and kick exhaustion to the curb.
8. Make new friends. If you never stray outside your comfort zone, you’ll get bored with life real fast — and there goes your energy. We humans are social animals; we need to relate with other people on a continual basis. Get to know your neighbors, join a reading circle, or get involved with a hobby club.
Your energy level isn’t entirely dependent on your physical condition, or even your emotional and psychological health. One of the biggest energy stealers is a lack of mental and intellectual stimulation. The same dull environment experienced in the same way every day for months on end, can bore you to tears; instead, make a commitment to challenge yourself every day, and learn continuously.
Attitude, whether positive or negative, is contagious; so what type are you spreading? Being negative takes extra energy you could otherwise be channeling into your favorite pursuits. Instead of sowing discord wherever you go, learn how to cultivate tolerance instead of impatience; optimism rather than pessimism; and gratitude versus an ungrateful spirit.
Here’s how to get started.
1. Stop negative thoughts in their tracks. Smother your feelings of pessimism, self-doubt, complaining, whining, and general negativity as they’re born, or they’re likely to take over your life and poison your relationships.
2. Stop worrying about everything. Instead of worrying about things you can’t control, create alternate mental pictures in which you and yours are the winners. Worrying about stuff you can’t control is a one-way ticket to the funny-farm.
3. Listen to what your anger is teaching you. Anger is an evolutionary tool that keeps us safe; therefore, you should respond to it carefully. Instead of lashing out, become introspective about what it’s trying to tell you.
4. Learn to deal with emotionally-charged situations. Simply being around some people makes you tired, and others are brusque and irritable. It may be necessary to adjust your own attitudes to deal effectively with others’ personality quirks.
5. Choose to be an optimist. Assuming all your basic needs are met, happiness is a choice. It’s said that pessimists forget to laugh, and optimists laugh to forget. Keep things in perspective. Remember: things can always be worse!
6. Count your blessings. Don’t show the world an ungrateful spirit. Stop complaining about what you don’t have and start counting all the things you do have. Counting your blessing can be an instant energy boost.
7. Cultivate patience with people. Others’ differences can sour your attitude, draining your energy. Realize we’re all different, and force yourself to find just one thing you like about someone who’s annoying you.
8. Don’t bother overanalyzing people. There’s not always an ulterior motive behind what people do, so don’t waste time and precious energy by playing psychoanalyst to those who annoy you. Sometimes a cigar’s just a cigar.
Instead of being a “de-energizer” who sucks the live right out of others, learn how to lift their spirits and give them joy. Being negative really takes extra energy — energy you could otherwise be channeling into your favorite pursuits.
(C) 2008 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker who helps busy workers Leave the Office Earlier® with Maximum Results in Minimum Time™. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations. Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces. She is the bestselling author of three works published by Broadway Books: The Exhaustion Cure (2008), Find More Time (2006) and Leave the Office Earlier (2004). Laura is a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, and Day-Timers®, Inc and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Cisco Systems, Sunoco, KPMG, Nationwide, and 3M. To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401. Visit www.TheProductivityPro.com to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter.
It may seem a tad paradoxical, but you can’t be productive if you don’t know how to relax. Leisure activities and relaxation like reading, talking, playing games, and other non-gadget pastimes can reduce your stress levels and increase your energy.
Want to learn more? Check out these tips!
1. Step off the merry-go-round. If you’ve recently undergone a particularly busy spell, you may be addicted to going full-throttle. When your mind’s sick and tired of working, but your body can’t stop, you need to slam on the brakes.
2. Understand that rest isn’t a bad thing. You don’t feel guilty about going to the bathroom, so why feel guilty about resting? While too much rest can cut into your productivity, an occasional break is necessary to top up your energy reserves.
3. Set aside some “me” time. Pamper yourself occasionally; it’s okay to think about yourself and do something simply for the pleasure of it. It’s not about being selfish; it’s about self-care and energy replenishment.
4. Don’t feel guilty when you play. When you’re playing, don’t dwell on what you could be doing instead. Be present in your play and enjoy yourself. After all, if you wait until all your work is done before you play, you’ll never play.
5. Don’t be a workaholic. If you’re a workaholic, get help. Too much work can literally make you sick. You’re likely to burn out, which can lead to depression, excessive physical and emotional stress, and a shortage of physical energy.
6. Learn to unwind. If you find yourself unable to relax after a stressful day, try progressive relaxation for 30 minutes. It quiets your mind, and it’s particularly helpful if you suffer from insomnia.
7. Take regular vacations. Stress and leisure are inversely proportional: the less leisure time you build into your overall life, the more stress you’ll experience — and that translates into less energy. Take all the vacation time you’re due.
8. Don’t jam up vacations with work. Work and play are meant to be separate, so make sure they stay that way. A working vacation isn’t a vacation — it’s work. The quality of a vacation isn’t measured by the output, so leave your cell phone, Blackberry, and laptop at home.
