PERHAPS YOU are the person who tends to work 5 straight hours, especially if you have a project or report to finish, with no breaks during those 5 hours. You’ve skipped lunch and you feel proud that you have accomplished more than your workmates or classmates the entire morning. But in the second half of the day, in the afternoon, it’s a different story.
You find it hard to focus,
easily distracted, and irritable. You would need a lot of coffee,
chocolate and other snacks to energize yourself, just to get it through the
afternoon, because you feel you’re drained. Authors Jim Loehr & Tony
Schwartz of the book, “The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time,
Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal” says you are mismanaging
your energy if that’s the way you work. No wonder you feel exhausted
because you’ve spent all your energy in those work sprints. Sustained
work is a marathon, not a sprint, the solution is to take many breaks instead
of having long sustained sprints, so as to feel energized all throughout the
day.
Dr. Jim Loehr, co-founder of the Human Performance Institute,
discovered these energizing breaks when he started working with elite athletes
in tennis. The performance gap between high-ranked athletes with lower
ranked ones was due to the short rituals of recovery high-ranked players would
have during breaks in between games and points.
When he asked his tennis
players to wear a heartbeat monitor, the high-ranked ones would be able to
lower their heartbeat to 20 beats per minute in between points but the
low-ranking, low-performing athletes who had no ritual for recovery maintained
an elevated heart rate all throughout the game. The low-ranked players
eventually made errors that cost them the game. Loehr found that high‐performing athletes can consistently perform at a high level because
they’ve developed the habit of going through rapid cycles of intense focus and
relaxation.
The key is to build a set
of rapid recovery rituals into your day to restore your energy sources. You can
execute the rituals in two scenarios: (1) After 90 minutes of continuous focus
on a task. Or (2) any time you start to feel slightly irritable.
During your break, the
authors recommend four energy sources you need to restore: physical, emotional,
mental, and spiritual energy. You don’t have to do all four in one
break, but through the series of breaks, all throughout your work day.
Each break can be around 10 to 15 minutes.
For recovering your
physical energy, you can take a walk outside your office, walk up a flight of
stairs, or do push-ups. The exercise would oxygenate your cells and
rejuvenate your brain. Then drink a cold glass of water. Drinking water
has a profound impact on your physical energy because your brain and heart are
made of almost 75% water. Dehydration causes your brain to slow down and
lose its sharpness.
To recover your emotional
energy, you can set an appointment with someone you enjoy spending time with
like your wife, best friend or a classmate. Planning events with others
creates a sense of anticipation and excitement that can carry into your work
session. Or just simply have an interesting chat with an officemate about
the latest events or give praise to others. Giving praise to others would
boost their emotional energy as well as yours.
For restoring mental
energy, you can listen to music or take a walk while letting go of what you are
working on, and let your mind wander. By letting your mind wander, you let
ideas related to your work incubate in your sub‐conscious.
When you return to work 10‐15 minutes later, you’ll have a burst of creative energy.
To restore your spiritual
energy, try reading a spiritual book and reflect on the material you are
reading while trying to converse with God. This is called mental prayer
or meditation and will work wonders not just on your mind but to your entire
being, i.e., body and soul. For me this is the best source of energy among
the four because you just don’t tap to your own energy but from the energy that
God provides you.
“The richest, happiest and
most productive lives are characterized by the ability to fully engage in the
challenge at hand, but also to disengage periodically and seek renewal.” – Jim
Loehr & Tony Schwartz (ECC)
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