Work smarter, not harder – embrace your Downtime!

By Ciaran Deely

I’m in the Barbican Centre in London on my laptop working through my daily tasks, when my minds begins to wander- I’m thinking about my working day and trying to be more productive and make it more enjoyable…when a very interesting article is pinged through to me by email! After reading it, it made me think- how best to be effective in your work? I’ve done the whole thing of working 13 hours day as a Sport Scientist at QPR FC Academy, working 07:30 to 20:30 which left me physically shattered, tired, cranky and at times generally unfulfilled. So here’s what I took from the article and another one from the upcoming , much anticipated Peak Performance book by Brad Stulberg & Steve Magness- with a few more ideas of my own thrown in too. Thanks Brin for sharing the article! ????

13 Ways to be more effective and productive in your training/working life:

1). Schedule in appointments of ‘Deep Work’ on your monthly calendar & be really ready & focused for those days to be productive

2). Don’t check your social media or emails first thing in the morning- spend the first hour working on important things you need to get done, perhaps without internet

3). Make a list before bed or end of working day of the important things you want to get done the following day. Check that list first thing in the morning then

4). Break up your working days into 60min blocks- with 45mins of productivity followed by 15mins of rest

5). Schedule blocks of your day into different activities that not only include work. Schedule exercise, meditation/yoga, rest, reading, fun communication, eating the same way you would schedule work projects and appointments

6). Schedule particular days away from your work completely- go for a hike, a cycle, visit your friends, enjoy a nice meal & drinks, allocate days to be with your partner/family/loved ones

7). Eat well, hydrate well, rest well throughout your working day, and develop a daily ritual of work- a particular desk, room, place where you are effective

8). Set out monthly goals in your work plan, have a structure but leave room for improvisation

9). Discover are you a ‘Lark’ or an ‘Owl’- are you most effective early in the morning (Beethoven) or late at night (Mozart)? Do your deep work then, undisturbed and fill your other time with more mundane tasks such as checking emails, chores and scheduling meetings

10). Build a ‘tribe’! Surround yourself with other effective, motivated people who have similar interests as you

11). Avoid ‘Decision Fatigue’. We only have a finite amount of mental energy to use per day. Eradicate small decisions from your daily routine in order to preserve it for more taxing decisions and tasks. Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Barak Obama and Albert Einstein famously made as few decisions possible with regard to what clothes they wore on a daily basis in order to focus on more important things

12). Embrace periods of idleness, downtime, and ‘be lazy’ time. Unscheduled those days, embrace them, enjoy them, then move on from them 

13). During inevitable ‘slumps’ in your working day- usually mid morning, directly after lunch or mid afternoon- use it to switch off and allow your brain to travel off from what’s in front of you and be creative. Lie in a hammock! ????

Here’s link to the referenced article and another one of interest:

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170612-why-you-should-manage-your-energy-not-your-time

https://www.outsideonline.com/2189911/daily-behaviors-worlds-best-share