I speak from experience when I say mental health in the workplace cannot be overlooked. I recently quit my job. I was another casualty of burnout, an increasingly problematic side-effect of the long, relentless hours of an “internet job”.
After taking a step back, decompressing, and assessing everything that had happened did I realize how much impact I actually had on the entire situation, how my neglected health and stress levels were easily the biggest factor in my burnout.
Ever since leaving my work in November, I’ve been working similar hours with similar workloads. Sure, I’ve had the occasional stressful day, but my mental and physical health are in a totally new place. Much of it has to do with how I approach my days and what I do during each work day.
Below you will find 10 exercises you should use everyday to keep your brain and stress levels in check and get more done.
1. Listen to music
The first thing I do when I sit down to begin working each day is open Spotify. Without music, my mind wanders and I’m prone to give into every distraction. If there is some background music, however, I tend to get right to work, forget about what’s going on around me, and tap into a heightened state of focus.
Years of research has yielded tons of conflicting results on how music affects productivity, and you’ll likely find it affects your personal productivity differently than mine. Some say its the sound masking that helps or the mood spike you get from your favorite music that brings on an upswing in your productivity. Some find noise or music harmful to productivity.
The best solution is to find what works for you and stick with it. For me, it’s not always the same thing. If I’m not feeling the classical music one day, I may switch to death metal (yes, death metal) for a while and experience the most focused state I’ve had in months.
2. Silence all notifications
In a world constantly filled with dings, vibrations, and pop-ups, it’s unbelievably easy to get distracted. You can be in the zone, getting more work done in a few hours than you have all week. All it takes to ruin that productive streak is a single buzz from your phone… Continue Reading >>>
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