To be more productive, control not time, but energy

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

To do more, work less.

Who has not come across the feeling that there are simply not enough hours in the day to do everything. Things for which a few minutes should have been enough stretch for hours, and at this time more and more new tasks accumulate. Usually, to deal with this, we linger after work or even work on weekends. The result is fatigue, stress and burnout. But what if you change your approach?

Classic time management doesn't work

We tend to think that by working eight hours or more we will increase our productivity and impress our colleagues and leaders. However, Alex Sojong Kim Pan, psychologist and author of Relaxation: Why We Do More When We Work Less, believes that overworking doesn't help us be more productive or get creative with problem solving.

Productivity is improved when we work very little overtime. If we do this constantly, we begin to make mistakes more often and all our work goes down the drain.

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Even a traditional working day is not the same as high productivity. In 2014, the Latvian IT company The Draugiem Group conducted a study of the habits of its employees The secret of the 10% most productive people? Breaking! … It turned out that the most productive employees didn't stay late at the office - they didn't even always work eight hours a day. The secret to their productivity was that for every 52 minutes of concentrated work, they had 17 minutes of rest.

Try redesigning your workday. For example, break it down into several 45-minute chunks and try to be as productive as possible during those chunks. To avoid wasting your focus and energy, make time not only for work, but also for breaks such as sports and meditation.

Resting during the working day can help reduce stress levels and therefore increase productivity.

How to increase your productivity

1. Work without distraction

To do this, you can isolate yourself from everything and completely immerse yourself in one task or apply a "journalistic" approach, using any convenient minute for work during the day. The main thing is to determine how much time you can work without losing concentration, and according to this, structure your day.

2. Redefine your approach to to-do lists

Highly detailed lists are ineffective; they only demotivate. Most likely, a lot of unforeseen awaits you during the day, so try not to plan everything by the minute, but leave in the schedule a place for improvisation.

3. Give yourself time to relax

According to Cal Newport, author of Stop Dreaming, Get Started! and “To work with the head,” idleness is not indulgence or vice. It is as necessary for our brain as the body needs vitamin D. Paradoxically, it is idleness that helps us to work. When the brain switches between focused and relaxed states, we work more efficiently.

4. Benefit From Energy Drops

In the middle of the morning, just after lunch, and in the afternoon, productivity usually declines. Take a break at times like this to relax or allow your brain to think calmly.