How to survive a high intensity workplace?
If you are a professional and a runner, then your body knows by experience what it takes to run for a marathon or a series of sprints.
If you are a professional and not so into running, then you still know what is your preference between endurance (making a continuous effort) or strength (repeated intense effort).
Those are two different exercises : if you try to run a marathon the same way you sprint, then you might injure yourself. Burn-out is a risk when you work very hard for a long period of time. Burn-out does not reveal a weakness. This shows that a person had been strong for too long. And the body says : “STOP” ! Does this sound familiar ?
1. Take breaks
Whatever the way you prefer to do your work, you need to refresh, to take short breaks regularly. It might sound trivial, still not everybody is committed to do it.
Some people like to go get a coffee, others go out smoke a cigarette. It is not so much the coffee or the cigarette by itself which is beneficial. What is beneficial for you is standing, walking, disconnecting from what you are doing, changing air, taking a deep breath, talking to someone, joking…
After that, you will be more focus, efficient, creative and relax. Consider to do it every hour.
2. Organize your day and your week
Know your limit. After spending 8 or 10 hours a day in your office, how is your energy level and concentration ? And after you have reached 40 working hours during a week : how do you perform ?
Knowing that, you can organize your day and your week. For instance, you can start your day and your week by performing more challenging tasks. Then keep some easier tasks for the afternoon or for the last day of the week.
3. Work/life balance
You might not be an athlete, and I am definitely not. However, we live in a world which requires to be enduring and strong. It is more global, complex, unpredictable and faster every day ! So we are easily caught into a “sprinted marathon” before we realize it.
Tips 1 and 2 will help your productivity. That is not enough to thrive nowadays professionally : work life/balance is key. You need something to look forward to once your job is done : family, friends, hobbies. They are worth investing your time and energy in. Indeed, they will support you when things do not turn the way you expected.
If you want to find an effective and lasting solution to your current professional challenge, contact me for a free discovery session.