Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat!

Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat! 

For many of us, that sounds like an all too accurate description of our day to day lives. Of course, it’s a bit of an exaggeration. Even those of us who work more than 40 hours per week still manage to do other things with our limited free time. 

But still, it captures the main thrust of the cycle many of us feel trapped in. And in some ways, it’s even an understatement. Many of us skip our lunch breaks, burn the midnight oil, and wake up at the crack of dawn for our jobs. Forget about “eat” and “sleep” – it’s mostly just “work, repeat.” 

Even worse, the work itself often feels stressful, draining, and devoid of meaning. It all adds up to a recipe for a profoundly unhappy, unfulfilling work-life. What’s gone wrong? And what can we do about it? Those are the questions we’re about to explore. 

More than half of all British workers report feeling burned out by their jobs. And when workers across the world are asked to rank their daily activities from favourite to least favourite, being at work ends up in second-to-last place – just a notch ahead of being sick in bed. 

The picture is pretty bleak, and it gets even bleaker when you start looking at the consequences of all this unhappiness. 

The key message here is: Workplace unhappiness is a widespread problem that deeply affects our health, well-being, and productivity.

A stressful job doesn’t just make your life unpleasant. It can also take a heavy toll on both your body and your mind. 

Some simple changes in practice can help us to recharge our energy at the workplace. 

Alright, so we feel exhausted by overwork, constant connectivity, and continual distraction but how can we start recharging our depleted energy? 

In this blog, we’ll start looking at some simple and potentially controversial solutions.

Some simple changes in practice can help us to recharge our energy at the workplace. 

Now, this first thing might sound a little silly or trite, but it’s actually one of the most effective things you can do: turn off the email notifications on your phone and computer. When the notification ping or banner goes off, it’s really hard to resist the urge to check your messages immediately. So why not remove the temptation altogether and only check the inbox at designated times? 

OK, now another straightforward thing you should do: 

Have a lunch break, preferably with your colleagues. 

Don’t skip lunch and don’t eat alone, if you can help it. Obviously, skipping lunch can deplete your energy that same day, but research suggests it can also interfere with your sleep and make you exhausted over the weekend. As for eating alone, researchers at Oxford University have found that this is the second greatest contributor to unhappiness, right after having a preexisting mental illness. In contrast, when we share lunch with other people, social interaction releases feel-good endorphins into the brain. 

Ready for another no-brainer? Go for a walk. The physical benefits of this are obvious, but there are mental benefits too. Studies from researchers at Stanford University have found that walks can help to boost both our creativity and our concentration. 

Want to take your walks to the next level? Add a social and professional element to them by having a walking meeting with a colleague. Here’s how it works: the two of you go for a walk, and one of you talks about a work problem you’re experiencing while the other person just listens. The idea is that by “talking it out,” you can clarify your thoughts. 

More Hands-On Methods:

If you have a smartphone, you know about airplane mode – but you might not have heard about monk mode. OK, it’s not an actual feature on your phone, but it’s still something you and your colleagues can start implementing. It means you’re unavailable for any form of contact during certain reestablished hours say, every Wednesday and Friday morning until 11:00 a.m., or whatever works for you. This way, you can focus entirely on your work for at least a couple of solid blocks of time per week. To help enforce your monk-like solitude, you could work from home during these hours. 

If headphones or monk mode aren’t enough and you want a stronger fix of peace and quiet, try going off-grid for a whole day. No email. No texts. Nothing. You’re completely unreachable for the day. You and your colleagues can take turns doing this so that only one of you is unavailable at a time. 

If that’s a bridge too far, you should at least be going off-grid over the weekend. Having a work-free weekend is crucial, even from a productivity standpoint. Research from Stanford University shows that people who work 48 hours per week with Sunday off get more work is done than when they work 56 hours with no day off. 

Shorter work hours can be a huge energy booster in general. In Sweden, an experiment with a large group of public sector workers showed that when their work schedules were reduced from eight hours per day to six, their productivity increased, their health improved, and they missed less work – a win, win, win for employers and employees alike. 

Find Out More Ways To Have More Energy In The Workplace & Love Your Job In The Book; Eat Sleep Work Repeat: 30 Hacks for Bringing Joy to Your Job By Bruce Daisley (Click Here)