Note: This article is taken from the writer "ANGEL CHERNOFF", and she talks to us about the most important methods that enable us to work in the best way without stress or anxiety.
to this end, I have chosen ten powerful ideas and put them together to help you adjust your stress level, persevere in situations of uncertainty, enhance your creativity and achieve more appropriate achievements with a smile on your face.
10 Powerful ideas that will change the way you work
1. Set aside time for fun exploration
In 2006, students at Xavier High School were given the duty of writing to their favorite surviving authors, several of whom chose to write for American author Kurt Vonnegut. His only response in class was to outline the importance of playful exploration, which is associated with great work and achievement.
He said the following: "What I have to say will not take long: Train to practice any art such as music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, sculpting, writing poetry, fiction stories, articles, research and journalistic investigations, regardless of whether you master it or not, and do not practice those arts to earn money or fame; but to live the experience of becoming a different person and discovering and developing your inner facets of your soul, and I mean really and seriously; you have to start practicing and learning the arts immediately and resolve to continue doing so throughout your life; For example, you can draw a funny or other beautiful picture of your teacher in the school and give it to her, dance on your way home after school, sing in the shower, make forms and faces in your plate, or pretend that you are a fictional figure.
Although Vonnegut's response was directed at young students to give them motivation and encourage them to start learning and exploring new ideas and skills, we should all learn from it, so it is easy for us to limit our work to one specific creative area such as writing, coding or design; Then, we feel comfortable in it and never think about developing our creative and intellectual abilities, and never work to achieve our maximum potential.
So keep the idea of fun exploration in mind and remember it well and set time to implement it, and try to do new things to bring yourself out of the ordinary and develop your spirit and development and keep your life fresh and innovative; You can then take advantage of the achievements and concepts you encounter during the exercise of those activities in your main work, which eventually will make a big difference in the world around you.
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2. Track and appreciate each small step of your progress
We all have an innate desire that our hard work be essential and that our efforts and endeavors make a difference and have a critical impact, which is what makes the cleaners- believe it or not- who work in hospitals enjoy somewhat higher rates of satisfaction and job satisfaction; when they enter a dirty room, they know well what to do, and how the rooms should look when exiting, and also know the positive impact their work will have on the people who use that room, and then look around them as they leave and have a strong sense of meaningful achievement.
Your progress may not be as easy to notice as their work, but the more you appreciate your hard work and efforts, the more productive you will be. So try to see the things and achievements that you have been able to achieve at the end of the day every night, and be aware that acknowledging your lesser victories is very important, keep notes and write at least one thing that you have made progress in each day and why it is critical in your life, and continue to do so for 30 days and see the impact on your happiness and productivity.
Also, consider celebrating your accomplishments in simple ways as part of your daily routine; you're more likely to finish a task or job and then go straight to your next mission or assignment without appreciating your successive accomplishments and effort, which I find me doing all the time.
For example, I just wrote a very complex email that required a lot of thought and planning, and when I sent it, I moved right on to do my following task; Therefore, the next time you find yourself doing it, take a moment of your time and quickly celebrate and appreciate your hard work and achievement, and for me try to make celebrating my accomplishments fun, healthy, and rejuvenating.
Here are five simple ways to celebrate significant work or effort on a project:
- Listen to your favorite song.
- Take a short walk and enjoy the fresh air.
- Reach out to a close friend or colleague and tell them about one of your extraordinary accomplishments.
- Eat a small piece of dark chocolate.
- Write a few lines about your achievement or success in your diary and save them, and always feel grateful and proud.
Simple behaviors like the above keep you positive and motivate you for the task ahead.
3. Search for meaning and try to find an essential goal for your tasks and projects you accomplish
Each task you intend to accomplish can increase or decrease your happiness and help you build a better career or be a source of inconvenience and anxiety in your life. Each task has a specific goal, even if it is too easy.
So if you feel that the missions and actions you accomplish do not have an actual target or essential purpose in your life, then it is time to find a way to get rid of the work and tasks from your life or delegate them to someone else who does it for you.
Because tasks vary in what they are, how they are completed, and the results they produce, you should look for chances to put more effort into your projects and tasks to support accomplishing your more significant life goals. Make sure to understand the reason behind your mission and its meaning. As for the reason that motivates you to accept work on that task, it may be quite simple, such as meeting the desire of your manager who asked you because of your need to maintain your salary or wages to support your family or the reason is more subjective, such as hoping, thinking, or knowing that your task will delight future customers.
It becomes much easier to remain motivated or encouraged when you can imagine the reaction or impact your hard work will have on the lives of others. The bottom line is: When you can find meaning and purpose for your tasks and duties, you will perform better, achieve greater achievements, and often enjoy each mission you accomplish much more.
4. Look for ways to draw a smile on the faces of others
Communication is an essential reason and motivation for accomplishing your tasks and duties. If you work hard on something and get a smile in return, it is evidence or visual proof of the importance of your work.
So the next time you feel your energy or motivation decrease while working on a task, try to replace it with another mission that can help draw a smile on the face of one of your colleagues, customers, or manager, you will get motivation and encouragement, and it will become easier to deal with your next task and accomplish it.
5. Take advantage of the factors that motivate and push you to work hard
Everyone has factors that encourage and motivate them to work hard and will help them when they need to raise their energy level. For me, music is one of my motivators. I like to listen to classical music while writing. The musician "Mozart" gives my work a little enthusiasm and activity; It encourages me to write and inspires my ideas. This motivational factor helps me to enter and maintain a state of complete and intense focus; So that I can accomplish a massive number of works and tasks.
Music may not be a motivating factor for you, so you have to discover for yourself the things that succeed in motivating you and urging you to work hard, and you can try something simple such as taking some deep breaths before starting to carry out a task to help you focus before you go deep into work, which can help you work better or make wiser decisions; The best thing is that if you continue to do it, it will turn into a habit in your life that will stimulate your concentration state, increasing your speed to focus and full attention and the number of achievements you achieve effectively and efficiently.
6. Set breaks to relax and recharge your energy
You should know that you do not have an infinite supply of energy; still, you should consider yourself a battery that needs to be recharged during the day, as most people record their peak productivity and energy about two hours after waking up in the morning, which lasts for about three hours and then their energy level decreases very quickly after that, especially after lunch.
You've likely experienced an afternoon slump many times, and most people resort to boosting their energy by eating sugar or caffeine, which is not healthy; Therefore, the appropriate and healthy alternative is to set short breaks or relaxation to recharge your energy and help you maintain a more stable and consistent level of energy and will also help you avoid eating unhealthy snacks.
Try to limit your breaks to the time you know your energy will usually drop or weak enduring it, and you can also make an appointment to walk a little and eat a piece of fruit, and then take time to breathe deeply and reorganize your thoughts for 10 minutes before you return to work.
7. Seek help as soon as you need it
If your personality is type A, this idea is helpful to you. You may be good at many things, but you cannot achieve all of them alone all of the time, while others have skills and experience that can help you accomplish more work and tasks and make your efforts more effective and efficient. Others around you must rely on them when you feel exhausted, so try to seek help from others when needed.
The great thing about asking for help from others is that, when most people have the opportunity, they like to help others. They get inspiration and encouragement when they draw a smile on your face, while you get motivation and encouragement from not having to do everything alone.
8. Overturn the imposed scenario or change the course of events
One of my clients hates conducting performance evaluations for her employees, and she has always delayed and postponed the completion of those evaluations until the last minute, which was an equally bad experience for her and her employees.
She hated doing so because she felt that her team did not want or need those evaluations, so she turned the prevailing concept upside down and asked her employees to conduct criticism, evaluation, or reviews and developed a career plan according to her guidelines and directives for the next 12 months; They succeeded in doing so, as they all participated and cooperated among themselves and devised a better process that they felt excited and joyful about.
If you have a very hard or challenging task or project in your life, try to find a new and innovative way to address or treat it; It may take several attempts to find the best solution, but if you can find a way to enjoy performing a task you hate, you will become happier you and the people around you.
9. Learn to circumvent tasks that don't excite you
Learning to reject and simply saying “no” is one of the key factors to doing more of the work and accomplishments you love and building a happier life in general; if you have a project that does not suit you and offends your skills and experiences, you have to find a way to reject it, and the secret here is to hold on to your position without arousing a sense of rejection or repulsion in the other person.
For example, if your manager comes to you with a project that does not excite you and does not suit your strengths, then you will be responsible for finding a better solution to their problem or project; Offer them another option to implement their project and solve their problem to accept your rejection of that project instead of saying the word (No) only. Everything can be negotiated; Therefore, try to solve your problems creatively and innovatively so you succeed and achieve your goals and everyone around you.
Another strong idea that I will quote from my husband, writer Marc Chernoff, from his recent interview in Forbes magazine, is: "Invest a little of your time now to save more time in the future, and to do this, you have to think about the tasks you repeatedly accomplish during the weekly working hours, and then try to find a more effective way to perform them or learn a way to carry out those tasks in a shorter, faster way or a way to automate those tasks and implement them through machines or delegate them to other people.
Perhaps you can finish a specific mission in 20 minutes while applying a more efficient and effective way to do it will take two hours of your time; Then, you must accomplish the task that takes 20 minutes daily while enabling the two-hour solution to reduce the time required to achieve it to 5 minutes or less each time, then it is a solution or treatment. It is worth implementing.
One smooth way to do this is to use technology to automate tasks, such as using filters for emails and paying bills automatically, and teaching someone else to help you and authorize some missions and work has another option to do so; the bottom line is: the more you automate tasks and delegate them to others more, the higher your rate of achievement and work with the same level of effort.”
10. Allocate time for full focus
Entering a state of complete and intense concentration is one of the most critical habits of the most effective and efficient workers or employees; If you can accomplish your essential work effectively ahead of time, you will have more time to rest and relax or try new, innovative, and creative ideas.
You can start with a state of complete focus by making use of the aforementioned fifth idea related to motivational factors; If you can use these motivational factors to help you focus well and faster, you will be able to do more work days, and then the next step - which may be more difficult - is to do the right things when you are in a state of complete concentration, which means not allowing any distracting factors to hinder you from performing your tasks.
I will quote Mark again from the same interview: “Anyone who wants to achieve their goals should do two basic things; first, focus on doing the right things, and second, be strict about getting rid of all distractions and not letting them get in the way of your work at all.
Several studies have shown that people never get more done by increasing work hours on all the tasks they face automatically and blindly. They get more done when they follow careful plans that can measure, work, and take into account the highest priorities and most important goals.
So if you want to become more successful and less stressed, don't look for a way to make something more effective and efficient before you know you need it or have a compelling reason. Being able to accomplish something in a good and great way doesn't make it a fine thing to achieve in your life; This is one of the most common problems in time management tips. Productivity experts and professionals often focus on how to accomplish tasks quickly, while the vast majority of missions that people achieve quickly should not be executed and waste time on them.
So once you know for sure that you are working on the right things in your life, getting rid of all distractions for a specific period during your work is one of the most effective ways to accomplish tasks; You can do this by closing your door to avoid people entering and distracting you with their conversations, putting a banner that states Do not disturb, turn off your mobile phone, close your email application, or disconnect from the Internet and so on.
You can not stay hidden in this way forever. Still, you can double your productivity while hiding for that specific period, so do everything you can to create a calm environment free of distractions where you can focus on your work.”
In conclusion
Please do not try to work on all the previous ten ideas at once; follow your intuition and notice which one has touched you and resonated with you; perhaps the idea that scared you or excited you the most is the one that will be the most beneficial to you at the moment.
The next step is to make the idea you have chosen workable, so write down the first three steps you will take to implement that idea, and then write down when and how you will implement the first step.
For instance, if you want to sharpen your focus in the morning, your first step is a list of the three distractions you want to eliminate. Then, pick the one that is the most distracting and visualize how you will solve the issue and get rid of it from your workspace.
If people are interrupting and disturbing you throughout the day, which distracts you and your focus, you should find time to return to your full concentration; The first step may be to send a signal to your colleagues that you need time to focus or wear headphones from 9 to 11 am or add a small message to the footer of your email page or a short phrase in your voicemail about your work on an important project every day until 11:00 am is the time allocated for you to focus and you have to invest.
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