A fellow by the name of Henry Mintzberg said in the 1970s that the modern workplace is one where Managers and Employees are slaves to the moment. They have task after task after task, distraction after distraction after distraction, where they are constantly thrust into a frenetic environment performing at a relentless pace.
Mintzberg calculated that the average length of time spent on a task back in the 1970s was nine minutes! That was 50 years ago, before the revolution of the internet, email, social media, the 24-hour news cycle, and Zoom meetings.
The question is, how do you recover from all this info-intrusion into your life, manage your time effectively, while avoiding stress and overwhelming when you need to perform?
The expedient answer is avoidance. Some think that avoidance is a negative thing, but that’s the point, if you can avoid the stressors and unnecessary distractions in your life, you can reassess and alter your perception of the environment.
The real answer is you need to ask questions and plan!
If you have a messy office, it needs to be clean and ordered. There’s nothing worse than turning up to your work space and seeing dirty coffee mugs (I’m guilty of this), papers, books, and pens strewn over the place when you’re already feeling overloaded and emotionally exhausted. I make a point of having a clean work space so it looks inviting and ready for action. It may seem a simple thing, but it works!
I detest an open plan office (OPO). Initially OPO was thought to improve productivity by promoting teamwork and collaboration, but in fact they achieve the opposite by being a constant source of noise and distraction. They don’t offer any privacy and can result in reduced performance, motivation, and engagement because of the constant irritation of phones ringing, water-cooler conversations, and others wandering through the workspace. I often have to use noise cancelling headphones or go and work in a quiet space like (ironically) a spare office, or relocate remotely in order to escape.
Having a workplace that respects silence is an important factor that influences mental well-being, improves productivity, job satisfaction and so your cognitive thought processes around controlling and autonomy around work taskings.
Negotiating flexible work arrangements also provide employees with more of a sense of control over their everyday lives. Since COVID and with low unemployment rates it is increasingly becoming a determining factor in the decision to accept or leave a job.
Unlike the Baby Boomers who prefer to go to the office, later generations like Gen X, Z, and Millennials (generally) choose work and lifestyle balance and are not as concerned with the growing integration between work and home life.
Managers, Employers, and Leaders need to develop greater self-awareness and adapt if they wish to value share, retain, and engage their workforce in the long-term. Leaders need to accept that flexibility is not a dirty word and gives employees the confidence and trust they are not being micromanaged, which is the death-knell for follower motivation and turnover.
The research suggests that working from home can reduce or eliminate your sense of overload because you have better control over what you need to focus on and are less distracted by office noise and goings-on. Also, by removing the travel anxiety of public transport or thoughts of battling grid-locked traffic, fighting for parking etc reduces those negative emotions that shape your perceptions.
Of course, some people prefer to work in an office and segment their work from home life, others don’t mind integrating. Some like to use the travel time to work, read or relax. It’s not about which preference is best, it’s about the power of flexibility and having a real sense of freedom to work and engage with your organisation and leaders on how you best fit and adapt to the work culture for better performance and engagement.
Avoid the “Urgency Trap” with the Eisenhower Matrix (todoist.com).
It’s a strategic tool for taking action on the things that matter.
There are 4 possibilities:
- Urgent and important tasks that you will do immediately, the same day.
- Important but not urgent tasks (to do later) – schedule in a daily timer, or negotiate a deadline.
- Urgent, but not as simple – tasks to delegate to someone else.
- Neither Urgent nor important – there are tasks that are distractions that make you feel good but are time wasters like spending too much time on social media. Good in moderation but not as a daily routine.
You need to imprint your personal values into your workplace when planning strategically for time and stress management. It’s what we interpret through our own perceptions and thoughts that shape whether we feel calm, in control, or overwhelmed. If you don’t prioritise your fit into the “matrix” of the work environment then you’ll spend most of your time managing situations and crises, and reacting to the priorities of others, which will drain you emotionally and affect recovery.
Do not Multitask. Focus on one task at a time, that will give you a sense of achievement and build your confidence to take on the next task. Use the Eisenhower Matrix to manage your time to those tasks.
Focus on the here and now, not weeks down the track or “what ifs”. I understand that strategy and planning is important, and anticipating risk is equally critical, but focusing and obsessing on the possible consequences of what may or may not happen impacts the perception of your environment and distracts you from what is in front of you! “What ifs’ cause stress and anxiousness, which causes those fight-and-flight chemicals in your brain to go into overproduction which confuses you from concentrating and focusing on the task. If it isn’t urgent, then negotiate a deadline or delegate the task to someone else, but don’t be diverted from focusing on the task in front of you.
Learn to say no…nicely. Don’t be rude, be assertive. Being a people pleaser is a sure way to being a doormat for that person’s failure to properly manage their time. While it’s nice to be wanted, to be “the fixer”’ and it gives you a nice juicy dopamine hit. What happens when the moment fades and you’re left with someone else’s deadline? Yet again you’re out of control of your environment. Only agree to do the task after you ask those questions of yourself and evaluate your time management according to the ‘matrix’.
Ultimately it’s up to you and how you wish to experience (work) life and shape your reality. Will it be messy or structured? Your perceptions, how you think about a situation matters! How you view the world from the inside out matters! Give yourself permission to impart your views on the world in order to shape them so you can live without the fear of engaging survival mode. After all, you spend around a third of your life in the workplace. Own yours by being purposeful, mindful, and strategic about decision making around time management.