Be More Productive at Work

In today’s world of “do more with less” employees are feeling the pressure to work longer hours to accomplish tasks at work.  This means getting to the office earlier and staying later, and it can also mean working through your lunch and refusing to get up from your desk to take breaks.  Though it may seem like the world will end if you log off your computer for an hour, getting away from your desk can make you happier, more awake, and more productive throughout the day.  Here are some tips to improve your work day while still meeting your deadlines:

1.  Take a Walk

Exercise increases blood flow, relieves stress, improves overall mental and physical health, and can help get your creative juices flowing.  Whether you eat lunch while taking an hour long lunch-brake stroll, or you walk around outside your building for 15 minutes, make an effort to get up and get moving.  You will find that after breathing fresh air and getting away from computers, phones, and the person in the cubical next to you who is constantly complaining about the heat in the building, you will return to work energized and ready to take on the rest of the afternoon.  Remember, leave you cell phone at your desk.  No matter how tempting it may be to carry your cellular leash, you deserve an hour away from phone calls and emails.

2.  Eat Healthy at Work

During breaks, stay away from vending machines and fast food restaurants.  Don’t eat the donuts that Joe brought in that morning and do everything within your power to avoid Joan’s left over birthday cake.  Sugar foods will make you tiered, irritable, and uninspired.  Have healthy snacks readily availalbe at your desk or in the break room so that when others are eating the wrong thing you can hang out while eating the right thing.  Try bringing baby carrots, kale chips, whole grain crackers and natural peanut butter, nuts, soy beans, to work with you.  You will be happier as the day wears on that you didn’t binge on empty calories.

3.  Cut Back on the Caffeine

Wait before you close this page in fury, hear me out.  One study in Neuropsychoparmacology Journal states, caffeine only makes you more alert if you don’t typically drink coffee. The study actually shows that heavy coffee drinkers keep right on chugging Lattes, espressos and other forms of the drink to avoid withdrawal symptoms.  Give yourself a caffeine limit.  If you currently are drinking 10 cups of coffee per day, try cutting back to 8 cups one week followed by 6 cups and so on.  Don’t quit cold turkey, but give yourself long term goals.  Try replacing your cup o’ joe with decaf coffee, decaffeinated tea, apple cider, or juice.  Remember, Starbucks has tricked you into thinking a Grande or Venti is a normal size of coffee.  It is NOT.  8 ounces is one serving, and all you need to start your day.  If you are feeling sluggish at 10am or in the afternoon, try eating leafy green vegetables, nuts, or take a walk.  There is nothing wrong with resting your eyes for a few minutes or getting up and splashing cool water on your face either.

4.  Work from a Virtual Office

Virtual offices have changed the way companies do business and employees do work.  Virtual offices are not a positive solution for everyone, but if you have the ability to work from a virtual office, take it.  I look at the work day like I look at home schooling.  Why would you make your kids sit and do nothing after they have finished their lessons for the day just because other kids in public schools are in class from 8:15am – 3:15pm.  Virtual offices allow you to be more productive because you are not constantly interrupted by your annoying cube mate who insists on showing you YouTube videos all morning and you have the freedom to set your schedule.  Even if you are working the same amount of hours, believing that you are free is half the battle.  Eliminating the bored micro-manager will improve your mood, creativity, and will make you naturally want to work harder so you can finish your assignments and watch Maury at 2pm.

5.  Take a Power Nap

Don’t let the office standard be your standard.  Find a place in your office that is quite (maybe a spare room or conference room that is never in use) and take a power nap in the afternoon.  The work force is trained to believe that napping means you are lazy, but done correctly, a power nap can make you feel refreshed – thus more productive.  The trick is to not sleep for too long.  Set an alarm that will go off in 20 minutes and lay down and relax.  If the only power nap location you can find is your car, leave your cellular leash at your desk (unless it acts as your alarm, in which case turn it on silent so your micro-manager can’t try interrupt dream time) and park in a quite, shady area – preferably an area away from where your co-workers walk.  Relax, breath deep, and slow your thoughts.  Don’t think about the meeting you have later in the day and don’t think about your cube mates annoying laugh.  Instead think about things that make you happy and calm.  Close your eyes and allow yourself to actually sleep.  Sleep like you did when you were in Kindergarten and nap time was a required part of the day.  Don’t ever feel guilty for power-napping; feel sorry for those who don’t do it.

6.  Eat a Healthy Breakfast

Breakfast is not a Starbucks Old Fashioned doughnut and Carmel Crappaccino.  Breakfast is an egg, whole grain toast with natural peanut butter, and a glass of Calcium rich orange juice.  Make time for breakfast.  You can wear a little less make-up and still be fine in the work place, but if you are cranky, sluggish, tiered, and struggling to stay awake you are not a good employee.  So re-evaluate your morning and cut time out of the things that don’t matter so much (i.e. the perfect eye makeup or hair-do) and use that time to eat a proper breakfast.  Oh, and skip the second cup of coffee and have a piece of fruit instead.

7.  Ask for Help

No one on your team will know you are feeling overwhelmed and overworked unless you say something.  Don’t whine or bitch about it, but think through your work load and ask your team if they can help you with projects.  If you have a good relationship with your co-workers, they should be more than happy to help you out.  Ask them if they need help managing their work load.  See if there are things you are stronger at than your co-worker (and vice-versa) and share the workload.  If you ask at an appropriate time and in an appropriate way, you will be surprised with people’s willingness to lend you a hand.  Thank them!  Buy them lunch, tidy up their office, give them your parking spot, write a thank you note, surprise them with a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant.  If you ask for help (or someone just offers to help because they see you crying uncontrollably in front of you monitor) and you don’t thank them, they won’t be so willing to help you out again.

8.  Enjoy your Evening

A job is just a job.  I know it doesn’t feel that way, but at the end of the day you should not be fretting about what is coming tomorrow or what happened today.  Go home at a decent hour and enjoy your family.  Take your neglected dog for a walk.  Hug your partner.  Laugh with friends.  Skip the gym and instead get your workout completed outside.  Consider the hours that you are away from your office as a gift that should be valued.  The best employees are the ones who live balanced, healthy lives which means they aren’t staying at the office until 7pm, rushing home with a bag of McDonalds, then watching television until 11pm.  You must find balance in your day to do things that make you happy.