Schedule Breaks
The human body is a phenomenal biological machine. For reasons I have failed to discern, the expectation for American workers is that you show up and get your stuff done with 100% effort. We demand our professional sports athletes to earn their multimillion dollar paychecks by giving their maximum effort for the entire duration of a game over the course of an entire season. Yet, we do not have a problem when these professionals take regular breaks. There is even a longer break, halftime, where these incredible sportsmen and sportswomen leave the playing area to recover from their exertions!
Remarkably, our work culture does not grant the vast majority of us the luxury of scheduled breaks that are lavished upon professional athletes. Oh sure, you can take a break, but there is that sneaking feeling that you really should be working when you are on the clock.
Schedule time for yourself! It is impossible to be at 100% every Monday through Friday. At 10AM, regardless of what work I have to do, I take fifteen minutes to myself to meditate. At lunch, I take the full hour. Around 3:30, I’ll take a walk. It does not matter what it is you do on your breaks, but it is imperative that you give yourself time from your mental or physical exertions. Just like the professional athletes do.
Care for Your Eyes
There is a vast and ever-growing library of research about the harm of looking at digital screens. Whether you work on a computer, laptop, phone, or, more likely, a combination of all three, you are straining your eyes in a way nature never intended.
Screens are harsh on your delicate eyeballs, fortunately there are some low- and high-tech options to lessen the deleterious effects of bright blue light.
An additional environmental change will also help - change all the color themes on your desktop to dark backgrounds. You’ll have less bright light hitting your retinas, and it feels much easier to read emails with white text on a dark background.
Get Balanced
As anyone with vertigo or motion sickness will attest — it is extremely unpleasant trying to get your bearings when the world seems to be moving too fast or too abruptly. The same principle applies to how the mind reacts to non-physical stressors.
When you feel you are being pulled in a dozen different directions, and you are hopping from one thing to the next without an opportunity to find stability; you are on a one-way trip to burnout. Therapist Michael Mahoney stumbled upon a very simple way to regain balance with one of his clients that he writes in his book Constructive Psychotherapy. The technique approaches the problem from reverse. First, stand up and purposefully lean from one side to the other.
Pay attention to how your body feels as you go from almost falling over, to centered, to almost falling over again. This has the wonderful effect of short-circuiting your brain. Suddenly, you’ll start feeling more balanced mentally because your brain is registering the physically sensation of regaining your balance.
Enjoy Your Commute
Why is road rage a thing? The author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do, proposes a novel hypothesis — humans are intensely social creatures, then we get into a mobile metal contraption that limits our vast options of communication to two sets of blinkers, high beams, and a horn. No wonder we can get so pissed off driving — we can’t talk!
Podcasts, audiobooks, debates on YouTube: there are so many options to get your mind going or to let it get caught up in a story. On my morning commute I typically listen to something educational or challenging. This gets my mind in a state that is more willing to solve problems at work. The drive home then, turns into a reward for the effort I put forth that day. I have a sci-fi or other fantasy audiobook playing, or I’ll play an upbeat and happy playlist from Spotify.
Create an environment where you can focus on the road, while you engage your mind for a more pleasant trip.
Access Your Flow State
Also known as being in the zone, or in the moment. A flow state is a timeless place where you are so totally present that everything but the task at hand goes out of focus. Those involved in any sport can testify about feeling these moments. Time zips by, and when you come out of the state you harshly reenter a world where you have to consciously juggle a dozen different obligations.
When in a flow state, you’re no longer you. You become a combination of you and the task in which you are engaged. As a result, you perform better, make connections more easily, and generally dominate. What’s awesome is that you can have this at work with some noise-cancelling headphones and a multi-hour playlist of Binaural Beats.
The science on listening to these beats for improved mental health is still early, but there are strong anecdotes for using repeating beats to relax the brain and induce a flow state.
Legs Up the Wall
If I was forced to pick only one yoga pose that I could use for the rest of my life, I would choose legs up the wall. I also cannot believe I learned about this restorative posture at the late age of twenty-seven. This simple activity should be promoted in schools and businesses as a free and effective method to de-stress the mind and body. By sitting down all day, blood pools at your feet. It takes work for your heart to pump blood up your veins against the force of gravity. Putting your feet up the wall, either completely perpendicular to the floor or on a gentle incline, gives your heart a break and allows the pooled blood in your lower extremities to work its way back to the rest of your body.
Also, this is just pleasant. You’re on your feet all day without much thought to them. Take a break from reading this and go put your feet up a wall. Your first thought will likely be: “why did I wait so long to do this?” Plus, putting your feet up is recommended by Navy SEAL Jocko Willink. SEALs only use the best equipment and the best techniques. So if it’s good enough for elite special operations forces, then it is certainly good enough for any other person in any other job.
Develop A Work Shutdown Ritual
Humans are creatures of habit, and our habits reinforce how we live our lives. I learned about a Work Shutdown Ritual from Dave Crenshaw on a Lynda.com course on time management. It drastically improved my quality of life. The idea is to create a literal end to your workday so your brain gets the message that it is time to transition to thinking about the other parts of your life, without thoughts of work invading your consciousness. Here is my shutdown ritual, which I perform about 15 minutes before the end of my work day:
Review my email for any pressing messages, and send replies if necessary.
Check my calendar for any meetings, commitments, or deadlines for the rest of the week.
Write down three good things that I did that day.
Turn off my laptop.
Lock my laptop in one of my desk drawers.
Say: “I am done with work for the day.”
Your shutdown ritual can be whatever you want. All I recommend is to end it with an affirming statement that announces to your mind that you are finished for the day. Then I leave, and my mind focuses on all the things I get to enjoy for the rest of the day.