Do you answer e-mails during conference calls or even phone calls? Do you carry your notebook to meetings and pretend taking notes while surfing the internet? Do you eat your lunch at your desk? Do you handle phone calls while driving? Answer these questions and then stop wondering why you feel exhausted and overloaded by work.
By doing multiple things at the same time we lose focus and especially lose the energy that we could invest in work. Managers should therefore lead their people and themselves to do only one thing at the same time and change periods of time to concentrate on one task with periods of rest. How to do it?
Tips for managers
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Schedule meetings to 45 minutes instead of one hour to keep the attention of the participants, allow them to think about what you were talking about and have time to relax before the next task. Begin and end on time. Insist on turning all electronic devices off during meetings.
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Stop requiring immediate response. When your people focus on a particular task, distract them only when it is really necessary. Allow them also to turn off e-mail in certain intervals.
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Encourage rest. At least once a day challenge your people to stop work and make a break. Arrange a relaxing corner for them and offer various forms of relaxation.
Tips for individuals
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Do the most important task of the day in the morning. Set aside 60 to 90 minutes of uninterrupted time in, if possible, non-distracting environment. Reject any interruptions and when completing the task enjoy a short rest.
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Plan regular time for strategic thinking in the long term so that you do not stagnate in blindly performing only urgent tasks. Ideally, use a different environment than that in which you do your daily tasks.
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Choose regular holidays without conctact with your work.
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