Give yourself a break—for productivity’s sake

© Siart | Dreamstime.com

© Siart | Dreamstime.com

How are you responding to these stressful times?  Feeling frazzled?  Going to bed a little later and getting up a little earlier?  Eating lunch at your desk?

If your intention is to strengthen your job security as layoffs happen all around you—you just might want to reconsider that six-cylinder, 24/7 strategy.  It’s counterproductive.

Overstressed employees are less engaged, less focused, and less vision-driven.  This hurts customer service, which in turn hurts everything.  Stressed employees are also more likely to get sick, lose sleep, and develop dysfunctional behaviors, all of which further hurts productivity.

Martin Luther once said, “I generally pray for two hours every day, except on very busy and demanding days. On those days, I pray three.”

Productivity WINS and the bottom line WINS and quality goes UP when employees are happy, rested, and well cared for.  We need to say, “In normal times, I get seven hours’ sleep each night.  But during busy and demanding weeks, I get eight.” It makes sense, and it works.

Want to improve the quality of your work, boost your productivity, impress the boss?  Become a well-oiled machine, not an overheated engine.  Here’s how:

•  First and foremost, take responsibility for your physical and emotional health.  Get rest, eat right, and exercise.  If you see a frazzled, sleep-deprived face in the mirror, consider it not as a badge of honor but as a failure to maximize your abilities by taking proper care of yourself.

•  Show up fully wherever you are.  When you’re at work, be at work, 100 percent.  When you’re at home, be at home.  Both work and home will benefit from your full attention.

•  Set definite limits on work done at home.  Sometimes bringing work home is unavoidable, and that’s fine.  But when it becomes a norm to work through the evening, you are sapping your energy and reducing your productivity.

•  Share your planned limits with those around you.  If you’ve decided not to work after 7 p.m., tell your wife or husband and the kids.  They’ll hold you to it.

•  Build non-negotiable breaks into your workday.  I’m talking about real breaks.  Eating lunch at your desk does NOT count.  Reading spreadsheets in the break room does NOT count.  Get away and recharge your battery.

•  Learn when to say no.  Over commitment destroys productivity.  Stop seeing it as a virtue.  It’s a failure of personal quality control.

One of the keys to all this is silencing the nagging voice in our heads—the one that says “no pain, no gain,” that tells you working more and harder and longer with fewer breaks and less sleep will make you better and more productive.  It’s NONSENSE. 

Run a car’s engine in high gear for hours and you’ll end up with a pile of junk.  Why would running a human being be any different?

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