By Yvonne Eve Walus

Picture this scenario: You arrive at the office way earlier than you would have liked. It’s winter, so the place is brightly lit with fluorescent tubes, some of them flickering like a disco machine. The place is unnervingly silent as everybody is going over the papers they need in the upcoming monthly strategy meeting. You still have five minutes to spare, so you put the coffee on, you check your email while dialling in to hear the voicemail messages. Then you spot the memo that the boss put on your desk (why didn’t she email it, you wonder). Just as you begin to read it, the coffee machine beeps, your mobile phone starts to ring and your computer announces brightly that you have new mail.

If, at this point, you feel like giving up and crawling back to bed, don’t feel embarrassed. The latest research shows that multitasking - the very quality so sought after by most employers - can often lead to stress and burnout.

Here is a short quiz for you. Are you able to:

1.      Read the new email headings in your inbox, deleting spam and items of no interest, while speaking to a client on the phone?

2.      Chat to a colleague on Skype while planning your new presentation?

3.      Text under the table during a meeting?

4.      Text with your mobile while speaking into the landline and scanning the email headings?

5.      Text with your mobile while speaking into the landline and scanning the email headings and sipping coffee?

6.      Impersonate The Cat In The Hat and, with a cup and a cake on the top of your hat, hold up TWO books, the fish, a little toy ship and some milk on a dish? While texting your client and speaking into the landline, of course.

 

 

This can be exacerbated by working in an environment that clashes with your natural working style in terms of lighting (working in a room that’s too bright for you may lead to stress), noise levels, and time of day.

 

            Barbara Prashnig of Prashnig Style Solutions in Auckland and a pioneer of Working Styles in New Zealand, has a solution: “The slogan ‘Work smarter not harder’ has been a guiding principle in business for many years. Although it sounds great, people are still puzzled about the meaning behind it and often have no idea how to put this into action. What it really means is that we need to use more of our amazing brainpower.”

 

·        “Prioritize ruthlessly”, “Get in the habit of setting time limits for tasks” and “Be sure your systems are organized” are all very good time management tips for people whose brains are analytic and detail-oriented, but totally unsuitable for global thinkers.

·        “Establish routines and stick to them” will work for those who love routine, but will be totally counter-productive for change-oriented variety-driven people.

·        People who like working alone will not do well by following the tip to “Learn to delegate and outsource” - it would simply be too stressful and too counter-productive to their Working Style.

 

Working in an environment that’s comfortable and compatible with your Working Style can prevent stress and burnout. What’s more, it can motivate you, energise you and increase your productivity.

Ask yourself:

·        What do I really want out of life?

·        What’s my order of priority for those things that are important?

·        What motivates me?

·        What are my strengths and limitations?

·        How can I minimise my limitations and use my strengths?

·        What’s my preferred work environment, time of day to concentrate on difficult tasks, need for routine, need for structure?

            Barbara Prashnig claims that: “If it is self-knowledge that unlocks the door to success, then motivation will give you the momentum to open it.”

 (To analyse your Working Style, please visit PSS on www.pss-styles.com.)

 

Is getting up with the birds every morning a challenge for you? Do you find it difficult to stay awake in the evening? You can blame your genetic makeup.

Researchers at Britain's University of Surrey have identified a gene called Period 3 which helps to regulate our internal body clocks. Period 3 can occur in two sizes: long or short. People who have an extreme preference for early mornings are more likely to have a long version of Period 3, while those who stay up way past midnight are more likely to have the shorter version.

Of course, that's the simplistic explanation. The body clock is governed by a combination of genes, and it’s influenced by external circumstances such as late nights.

You can try to fool your body clock by making it follow a certain lifestyle pattern, like early morning business meetings or working on an urgent report till after midnight, but unless that is your natural Working Style, you’ll be doing so at a cost to your overall productivity.

 

Spending time in front of a computer is not the best thing you can do for your body. Even sitting or kneeling in a special ergonomic chair designed by posture experts, you will tend to hunch your shoulders, bend your neck, strain your spine. Even the best computer screen, with minimal or no flickering refresh rate, will eventually tire out your eyes. Typing is bad from your wrists and mousing is bad for your dominant-hand shoulder.

Then of course come all the disadvantages of a sedentary pastime instead of a kinaesthetic one, and the psychological dangers of spending too much time in cyberspace, like going to chat rooms instead of parties.

To improve your health, then, it makes sense to eliminate or limit all the non-essential tasks you perform on the computer (surfing the Net for the fun of it, checking emails too often, playing games, chatting).