Category: Organization

Work organization: Flow – the special sense of time

With focus on the flow

But to do that, you have to love what you do. If you’re checking the clock all day to make sure you don’t miss the end of the day, you’re going to have a hard time ever getting into the flow. Then your private life is more important to you than your job.

But under this condition no flow can develop. The flow state requires the willingness to be able to absorb something, to devote oneself to it with all one’s heart. Therefore, concentrate fully on what you are doing at the moment. In other words: If you like your work, you will get into the flow faster.

Attention is in the moment

The flow does not happen when you dream about the future or when you think about the past, but only in the here and now, in the present. If you are in the flow, you forget the time and everything else around you. The handles are in place and the work is easy and relaxed.

Time seems to stand still. At that moment you are fully focused on what you are doing. Nothing disturbs, nothing distracts. However, it makes sense if you also switch off possible sources of interference: mobile phone, e-mail program, the Internet anyway.

Challenge creates flow

Not every activity is necessarily a challenge, just think of the ever-popular filing of files or other routine activities. Just try to find an exciting side in these works as well. Make it fun to do such things particularly well and quickly.

This approach alone changes your consciousness because you are what you think. If you approach such jobs with frustration or if you feel underchallenged, I can already guarantee you that the result will look appropriate. On the other hand, if you do it with fun, desire and love, you will get into the flow much faster. And best of all, if you can do it, you’ll even save time!

You can read more about the requirements that must be met for the flow in the article With the right work organization to the flow.

Sufficient sleep – important for reducing stress among managers

Executives with a heavy workload in particular try to gain a few extra hours by reducing their sleeping hours. At first this seems like a good idea. But soon there are symptoms similar to those of shift workers, who have to accept health problems due to bad and little sleep and who also make more mistakes at work and have less ability to concentrate.

Survey results: lack of sleep alarming

Even if the need for sleep varies from person to person, the results of a survey for a major business magazine in Germany are alarming. Most decision-makers in key leadership positions get little more than six hours of sleep a night on average. With the statements of 519 top politicians, company bosses and heads of authorities, the survey achieves a certain representativeness.

Statistically speaking, top politicians sleep the least at night: 31 percent sleep only five hours or less a night. The free economy shows somewhat more relaxed numbers: here it is “only” 18 percent.

The majority complains about the negative consequences of lack of sleep

It is interesting that, according to the survey, the majority of those surveyed often complain about not getting enough sleep and rest. This is clear evidence that lack of sleep reduces well-being. The other results of the survey make this clear.

The constant stress has consequences: 57 percent of those surveyed have already experienced that negotiations were negatively influenced by the tiredness of individual participants, for example by sudden concessions. This underscores the limitations in performance due to lack of sleep.

How to find sufficient regeneration

Tip: Make sure you have a regular bedtime, e.g. B. always from midnight to 6 a.m. Your body gets used to this rhythm and can use the short time better for regeneration. Or sleep significantly more than six hours. Most people are safe with eight hours.

Get the Christmas mail done stress-free: This is how it works

Make a list now in November of what to look out for in this year’s Christmas mail. Here are a few considerations:

Who gets a Christmas greeting?

Do you have a database for your Christmas mail? If not, it is advisable to create one. Christmas greetings are usually sent to customers and business partners, but also to suppliers and service providers. Look at your accounting records and quotes: they show who you have worked with this year.

If you already have a database, now is the time to update it. Think about who’s new and who you can delete.

Christmas mail as a letter or card?

Christmas letters are a very personal form of Christmas greetings. Choose this variant if you know the recipient well. In a Christmas letter, for example, you can recall a shared experience.

If you prefer to write less, it is better to opt for a card – there are various options here: On the one hand, you can have your company’s own greeting card printed. The various Internet printers make inexpensive offers here. Alternatively, you can also send greeting cards with a Christmas motif from your area or a card with an associated donation.

Who gets a gift?

Go through the names of business partners and customers and decide who should get a card and who should get a greeting with a gift. For gifts, avoid something similar to last year’s. Tip: add a “Gifts” section to your database, then you can see at a glance which gift the person in question has already received.

The value of the gift should be as close as possible to last year. If the gift in the Christmas mail had a lower value this year, the recipient could see this as a devaluation.

Time management: How to improve your time behavior

Procrastination occurs when you are extremely reluctant to tackle upcoming tasks because they are either boring, do not promise quick success, or you assume that you cannot achieve the result perfectly. The result: They search desperately for other things that need to be done or they jump at any distraction that comes their way: First of all, a cup of coffee with a colleague, surfing the Internet or an important private phone call has priority.

Researchers have found that about 20 percent of professionals spend up to two hours a day procrastinating. And what can you do to improve your timing? Above all, set your priorities. Of these unwelcome things, what absolutely needs to be done first? If you can’t bring yourself to do it because you’re KO’d or you’re stuck in your head, then choose a good time to do it and stick to it consistently.

On the other hand, if you need some pressure to trick procrastination, set short deadlines.

Strengthen your self-discipline

It doesn’t take much effort to put off unpleasant tasks. As already described, a coffee is quickly fetched, a chat is had or just a phone call is made. Now, if you find that such distractions are fueling your procrastination, just say to yourself, “Stop.” Practice self-discipline for a little while and stand firm.

It may take 30 seconds at the beginning, but with increasing practice it will become less and less. The background: Your decision to postpone things and devote yourself to other activities arises in fractions of a second. Once you have bridged this and continue with your original plan, you can improve your timing and push procrastination more and more into the background.

Become immune to distractions

Distractions of any kind are readily used whenever something is not fun or when you are being forced to complete certain tasks. Then even the smallest interruption is a welcome change. But that doesn’t help you in the end, because your unpleasant tasks continue.

So it makes more sense if you force yourself to focus and see through the task at hand. In this case, being concentrated means concentrating only on the task ahead of you and not looking left or right. Going through means not looking at other tasks on the side or even starting to work on them.

Note: The more unpleasant the task, the easier it is to get distracted. Therefore, encourage yourself to resist any distractions that may arise. And that includes being distracted by other employees. Tell the truth: “I’m sorry, but I really need to finish this thing. After that, I’ll take my time for you.”

3 important things you can do to unlock time reserves

Today’s tips will help you find out where your time is and how you can unlock time reserves.

1. Log how you use your time

Because that’s the only way to be able to reliably say what you’ve been (actually) busy with during the day. Only vague assumptions will not help you in this case. In this way you can quickly unmask what your own expectations are when it comes to time and what is actually happening.

The advantage: You not only determine where your time is, you can also specify what you are going to use your time for from now on. This also sharpens your sense of time.

How to proceed: Write down your activities for a week. Record what you spend your time with day after day – from morning to evening, leave out Sundays and public holidays. But be careful: Cheating won’t get you anywhere, because it’s not about presenting yourself in a good light, but about recognizing exactly where you can definitely save time and use it differently.

2. Analyze your time log

After a week, take a close look at your log and answer the following questions:

• Which activities took the most time? Was that what you wanted or not? What was neglected, although you would rather spend more time on it?
• Which tasks were particularly difficult for you? Can you delegate some of these?
• How much time do you lose through procrastination, double work or lack of determination?

The answers to these questions will quickly show you what you can do better and where there is potential for savings. You get a sense of where you are really effective and where there is a need for change. If you’re honest with yourself, the results will surprise you.

3. Be balanced

So analyzing your time log relentlessly reveals how you spend your time. The next step is to examine how much time you spend on different areas of your life. Example:

• How much time do you invest in your job?
• How much is left for family and social contacts?
• How much time do you devote to your health?
• Do you miss out on hobbies and free time?

You will immediately recognize where the balance is no longer right and where you should take countermeasures and initiate changes. A situation in which each area is given its due to a sufficient extent would be ideal. However, this will be difficult to achieve. At least make sure that the professional area is not disproportionately represented, because in this case health problems will arise. Do not just tick off these insights, because there is often (usually later) a rude awakening.

Reduce stress by exercising at work

Typical signs of fatigue occur in the office, especially when working on a computer screen. Screen work in particular tires the eyes and leads to neck pain and headaches if the office furniture such as tables and chairs is poorly adjusted. In addition, when you are stressed, you can lose concentration after a while and you start making mistakes. Take small breaks in between to move around. I have put together 3 small exercises for you.

3 seated exercises to reduce stress

If you’re sitting (this also applies to the first two exercises for the subway or the bus, by the way) you can

a) Shoulder circles

This exercise is suitable for all who write a lot. Since the arms and shoulders are always aligned forwards when writing on the PC, you create a counter-movement and relaxation by circling your shoulders backwards. Raise your shoulders toward your ears, then let them fall back. Repeat this small exercise several times until relaxation is sufficient for you.

b) Raise your arms and stretch

Stretch and stretch, almost like when you get up in the morning. Stretch both your arms up. Perhaps you imagine yourself reaching for something you can’t reach right now (e.g. an apple tree on a tree) and so you stretch your arms even further to get at it. Do this exercise with both arms at the same time or alternate sides. About 10 repetitions give a good effect.

c) Loosen the backrest of the office chair and rock it backwards

When you relax the backrest, you sit more “mobile” and activate your muscles to stay upright. If you want, you can also simply lie back and relax, close your eyes for a moment and mentally travel to a pleasant memory.

How to use your time more effectively

The following tips tell you what you can do about it.

1. Time management tip: Curb your perfectionism

How do you feel about perfectionism? Is something rarely good enough for you? Do you often criticize yourself for seemingly imperfect tasks? Then you should consider whether this assessment is correct at all! In most cases it is always your own attitude towards things that makes you try everything to be as perfect as possible. If you’re struggling to find a wording that works for you, or if you change a report a dozen times just because you think your boss might pick at it, ask yourself if you really need to.

Try out a new variant now: Good is good enough. Set yourself a deadline by which you want to complete a certain task – and stick to it. Otherwise you will never get done and on top of that you will neglect other things that also need to be done. This automatically puts you under time pressure and gets on your nerves because you are always looking for the supposedly even better version. Aside from the fact that in most cases they don’t exist, your schedule gets completely out of whack. The result: You achieve exactly what you originally wanted to prevent.

2. Time management tip: Show more self-confidence

To put it bluntly: nothing against a willingness to help, because it contributes to good cooperation. Unfortunately, there are often enough situations in which this willingness to help is exploited – by acquaintances, colleagues, but also friends. At the latest then it turns into its opposite. Your good nature is being exploited and you are in (time) pressure unnecessarily. This is then explained to oneself in such a way that one does not want to offend colleagues or friends.

But that is an erroneous assumption. Make a move to allowing yourself to be persuaded or persuaded only in situations where it is actually necessary. In this way, the supplicant quickly learns that you don’t say yes and amen to everything and begins to respect your opinion. You can avoid relapsing into the old days if you practice saying no and consider in advance how you will justify your refusal.

Because the fact is, as soon as you help others, your work stops. With this picture in mind, you will become better and better at determining when your helpfulness is appropriate and when it is not.

3. Time management tip: Pay attention to your performance curve

In short, your power curve gives you information about when you are in top form and when you have less energy available. Knowing this will help you get complicated and demanding tasks done during your peak energy times, and defer less important stuff (email, filing, mail) to the off-peak times. Just paying attention to these different performance levels can help to significantly increase your productivity.

Just look at the last fourteen days: At what times were you able to uproot trees and at what times didn’t you want to succeed at all? For many people, the performance curve reaches its peak in the early morning, then drops sharply after lunch and only slowly rises again in the late afternoon without reaching the level of the morning. Others, on the other hand, only reach their peak performance in the evening hours. It is therefore crucial to select the tasks to be completed according to your own personal performance curve. This saves you a lot of time and lets you work much more efficiently.

Business tips organization

Does time management have anything to do with your inner values? And whether! You can set wonderful goals, plan the way there exactly and then work very effectively to achieve them – but if there are no inner values ​​behind them, then you only mechanically work through your activity list. The result: listlessness, listlessness and just being annoyed. Logically, because the motivation is in the bucket. You then ask yourself more and more often what the whole thing is actually supposed to do.

Self-management: 3 ideas for getting your priorities right

1. No more hectic activism

Don’t fool yourself: In hectic phases, your daily routine is almost always determined by urgencies. The result: Although they had their hands full, they still didn’t get anything important done. The question arises why? Because being busy has nothing to do with productive work and you are not getting any closer to your real goals.

Stressful situations in particular are predestined for the fact that the overview is quickly lost and you can only separate the important from the unimportant with great difficulty. If you are approached with new projects at such moments, take a step back and check very carefully whether these tasks actually (now) have to be completed.

Perhaps it makes much more sense to postpone them until later? And if that’s the case, set a specific date for it right away.

2. Always set priorities in writing

Since you are confronted with many tasks every day, it makes sense to write down what has top priority and what the further gradations are. Because once you write something down, your subconscious becomes much more involved than if you were just thinking about it.

Creating a priority list also requires some thought. And it can sometimes happen that a task that appears to be extremely important at first glance falls back to second or even third place on closer inspection. In this way, you can often recognize different approaches to a solution while writing them down. Therefore, purely mental priority planning only works to a limited extent.

Once you have set your priorities, transfer them to your calendar and block the necessary time for them at the same time.

3. Courage to delegate

Do you think that only what you make yourself makes sense? Is that really the case? Or do you sometimes not expect too much? Those who are reluctant to delegate often do not trust others to be able to do this work just as well or just as quickly. But especially when the hectic pace increases and more and more pours in on you, you can lose track of things pretty quickly.

On top of that, you lack the confidence to be able to meet all deadlines. In such moments, jump over your shadow and think about who could help you. And when someone helps you, reciprocate when the time comes, because getting help shouldn’t be a one-way street.

Self-management: How to skillfully set limits

tip no. 1: Always answer two questions

Before you rush into making a commitment, always answer two simple questions for yourself:

• Be able you take on the extra task?
• Want you accept this?

The answer to the first question will show you whether you are technically able and, moreover, whether you have the time to do a colleague or employee a favor. The answer to the second question is related to your goals and priorities.

The professional competence is usually given, because otherwise you would not be asked. When it comes to the second aspect – your time – things get a little more difficult. Because a promise automatically has consequences. You have to put your own work on hold, possibly also postpone appointments. It is therefore always your right to refuse something. It has nothing to do with not wanting to help.

On the contrary: You know your tasks and have to assess very carefully whether any of them can be postponed. And finally, your own priorities can also lead you to reject a request that has been made, which means that you have to draw clear boundaries.

tip no. 2: Being collegial does not mean doing the work for others

Unfortunately, there are quite a number of people who want to cheat their way through life at the expense of others. They are then quick to take advantage of your helpfulness and good nature. This is wrapped up in such harmless requests as “Can you just finish that?” or “Could you do that, I have to go to an important meeting?”

So that there are no misunderstandings: Of course you should help when there is a need. But you should check that carefully. A no, for example, depends on the previous type of cooperation. If your colleague is in trouble through no fault of her own, because an order may depend on it, you should only refuse to help if you yourself have time problems and are definitely unable to help.

If, on the other hand, the bottleneck is your own fault because your colleague has been dawdling for so long that the air is now burning because she always works at the last minute, then you should not help out. And not even if you could. Because your colleague should not develop a habit of relying on your good nature. Conclusion: With misunderstood willingness to help you only burden yourself.

tip no. 3: Rejection made easy

If you often succumb to the helper syndrome, then you have the feeling – often wrongly – of being needed. But not being able to say no and losing sight of your own concerns leads to stress. Therefore, learn to refuse a request with a clear no. Because the work you can handle is limited. So the more you help others, the less you can realize yourself.

Refer other colleagues to your projects, which also cannot be postponed, or offer alternatives: “Unfortunately, that’s not possible at the moment, let’s talk on the phone about it later”. Then, in a friendly but firm manner, explain why you will not take on a task. If you find it difficult to refuse at first, think of a standard answer that will save you time. (“I have to ask my calendar first if that’s possible, I’ll get back to you later”). This will prevent you from falling into the habitual trap of automatically saying yes.