‘The human brain can easily be productive for about 90 minutes at a stretch. You may however push your performance at a go to three hours if you know how to manage your energy levels. Otherwise, stop to take a break so that you don’t begin to feel restless and distracted after 90 minutes’
DO you know that there are 10,080 minutes in a week? Do you know that you spend 540 minutes at work every workday if you resume at 8:00am and close at 5:00pm? This translates to a minimum of 2,700 minutes every week in the workplace.
If you reflect very well on these numbers you will realise that you spend less than 40 percent of a five day work week in the workplace. The concept of a workplace transcends the typical physical office setting today. Of course COVID-19 has established the concept of working from home in a little over two years now. So, in our context, a workplace simply means any location or online platform where work is performed.
Realising this fact should worry you if you are unable to produce any tangible result in the workplace. On the other hand, as a leader or manager, you should know that your ability to lead and direct others to achieve set goals is questionable if your subordinates produce suboptimal results.
Most people are unable to account for the long hours they spend at work on a given day because they are not intentional in making the minutes count in the workplace. If you believe that it is difficult to be productive in the workplace, it is because you are not consciously working smart.
The truth is that if you are not deliberate about putting in positive work daily, you may be underperforming without knowing it. There are too many distractions in the workplace that hinder you from performing your core duties on daily basis.
The article published in the November–December 1974 issue of HBR on the Monkey Story is illustrative of how other people encumber the leader with tasks that they ordinary ought to perform. When a leader oe manager allows his subordinates to unwittingly delegate tasks to him or her that leader will certainly have underperform.
Often times our productivity is hindered because we do not have a clear cut formula for our personal productivity.
Working for three uninterrupted hours, an equivalent of 180 minutes, everyday will boost your productivity. Infact, if you consistently practise this for five days in a week, an equivalent of only 900 minutes (representing only 33.3 percent of the total of 2,700 minutes you spend at work in a week) you would be on your way to becoming a high achiever. However, there is a method that makes this possible.
As I observed in the article on How Practice Makes Perfect published on Thursday March 10, 2022 you need to understand the time of the day that you perform and get the utmost desired outcomes. For some people the morning hours is the best time while some people perform at their best late afternoon or early evening.
Secondly, you will perform best by paying attention to your body. A research, according to New York Times, has shown that the human body naturally remains alert before succumbing to feelings of tiredness every 90 minutes. The human brain can easily be productive for about 90 minutes at a stretch. You may however push your performance at a go to three hours if you know how to manage your energy levels. Otherwise, stop to take a break so that you don’t begin to feel restless and distracted after 90 minutes.
Thirdly, learn to perform your most difficult tasks during the period of the day that you are most productive.
In addition to the above, block out your time in the day to concentrate on your work. This is that period that you avoid distractions by putting your telephone on “do not disturb mode”. You can also deactivate all notifications on your telephone and computer device. If you share your work space with some colleagues you may want to use a pair of headphones.
One other way of activating your workplace productivity is to plan your work in advance and apportion time slots for the relevant tasks during the day.
It is also important to rest at intervals as you perform tasks at work. You need to refresh regularly to rejuvenate your brain and energy.
The last point is that you must avoid multitasking as much as possible. It works you up unnecessarily while not boosting your productivity. Endeavour to perform a task at a time for effective performance.
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