Recharged on Your Off Days!

Taking a break is the best way to keep yourself going in your career. Let go of all work-related matters, from emails to phone calls to messages. Never check any of them to re-energize your body and mind. If you keep going back to your work matters, you’ll probably get back to work and felt you have never rested!

Think through what you want to do on a good rest day, never stumble off with a list of things to clear and yet again, rushing through the short frame of time that you must clear the list.

Never Check Emails.

Start your rest day with a piece of mind. Stay away from the electronic devices to check on your emails. Yes, some of our works will require us to return responses as soon as we can. But that again, you know it’s a rest day, you get back when you are able to respond. If there is anything that is urgent, the other party should have rung you up and not wait for your respond over emails.

Prioritize on the important errands.

While you are trying to clear up your personal errands on a rest day, never allow it to take up the whole day. Before you realized that you are done with the errands, you are already exhausted to even catch up with yourself.

OH, and one thing to remember - try keeping the errands around the proximity so that you do not spend too much time running from point to point.

Hit the Gym! Sweat it out!

The rest day gives you the chance to restore yourself physically and mentally, so never get yourself stuck in front of the TV or computer, like any other typical day in the office. It does not help because you get back to office with the same old lethargic motions.

Even if you do not hit the gym, go for a jog or brisk walk, to sweat it out. Make the heart beat like never on a normal day! Exercises do help in increasing positive endorphins and help you clear the stressful mind to ease your anxiety.

Rekindle Friendship.

You can even use this time to meet up with long-lost friends who may happen to be their rest days too. As you grow up, you come to realize that your friends are busy with their daily lives and catching up with time after work, which leaves totally no time for others.

When you meet your friends after work, we will always be looking at the time ticking away, worrying for the last bus or not catching enough sleep to focus at work. Meeting in the day time can gives achieve a more productive catch up, no need to rush home for work on the next day, making it more fruitful.

Tips on being a more productive worker after the long holidays

Imagine coming back after a long weekend or after a long holiday, and seeing the work pile up on your desk. You have not been working for such a long time, and you feel like you have lacklustre stamina to deal with all the stress. You need to be more productive, and here are some tips!

Plan the work you should complete today and Inform others

Take a breather while seeing your work load, and prioritise. Once you have decided on the area that you need to focus on, plan on the agenda for today. Once the agenda has been decided, let your colleagues know what your agenda is.
The trick behind this strategy, or “self-sabotage” as what others might call it – is that it makes you more accountable of your actions. 

Preventive Measures

If you know you are going for a long holiday, plan. You should have planned what are the aspects of work you could have clear before going for the holidays, especially those that you know is to be submitted within a few days of your arrival back to office. 

This helps you reduce stress, while meeting tight deadlines, and hence affects your productivity at work. 

Compliment your colleague! 

This is a weird technique, but in general research has shown that encouraging another’s success create a more positive work environment. This positive work environment helps in reducing stress and increasing productivity. This manages your stress level as well, and it encourages team work. You might have a team member who might volunteer to assist your over loaded work on that day. 

A compliment might result in an encouragement from your other co-workers. That encouragement could later lead to productivity. 

Stress Management Techniques

We all know when one is stressed, one becomes unproductive. Therefore, managing stress level can also help you become more productive on the first day of work. In general, techniques used like having lunch with your co-workers in an outdoor setting with fresh air and sunshine, could work.  You could also bring a potted plant into the office, to enjoy that bit of greenery. 

In addition, you could also talk about how your vacation went. Instead of just replying with one word sentences, you could share something more specific about what you have done. This helps you to be more positive as well, while you recall your happy times. 

Managing People at Work

In our course of work, we come across different across people from different walks of life. We might meet people who are at different end of the spectrum – from the very ambitious to the plain lazy.   

It is fair to say that workplaces do not bring out the best in people, yet it consists most of our daily hours. Here are some tips to manage your emotions, and expectations.

Be Patient

Once a while, we need to be constantly reminded that we have different moods throughout the day. It is impossible for one to be constantly optimistic and positive about life. Do remember that if you are experiencing a disheartening colleague, or even an unreasonable one, you should not be judging the person as his entire character. Instead of being judgmental, you can choose to be tolerant.

Instead, it would not hurt to show a little bit of a concern to understand the reasons why they are not in the best of moods, and to be supportive. This helps you make more friends than foes.

Say what you feel, constructively

Some people are not as sensitive as the rest, and colleagues could have affected you without being aware of their actions. Share your thoughts to people who are being overly critical on others. This might help to heighten self-awareness which would lead to either them being very apologetic, or defensive.

This would still be a form of negative reinforcement and your colleagues would subconsciously consider twice before being overly critical on others.

Manage expectations

This would mean either managing your expectations, or managing your colleagues’ or superiors’ expectations. If your colleagues, or superior would expect you to be on the ball always – even during after work hours, or when you are on a holiday – you might want to sit down with them to personally share with them on their expectations and to see how other ways you can work together.

With these three tips, you should be able to handle your emotionally needs as well as your colleagues in understanding the different people. It is always important to remind yourself, that past situations have led people to be who they are – including yourself.

5 Time Management Tips

Have you ever felt that no matter how much you are able to multi task, time is always not on your side? The fun fact of today is that humans are generally poor at multi-tasking, so  you are not alone! 

Here are 5 time management tips that you may use to better manage your time and increase your productivity:

Checklist is really important

You should always take a moment and consider the things to complete by the next day before heading home. If you know your objectives and tasks to complete the next day, you will sure be able to sleep better and wake up with a fresh mind to start the day!

Early birds catch the most worms: BE EARLY! 

I'm not asking you to be a bird. It is just a metaphor but imagine if you're always rushing about at the start of the morning. Nah, that’s not the way to go. Always get up slightly earlier so that you can take things slowly and calmly. Here’s how: 

Start the day right – Scheduling

Remember attending the list of things you need to complete by the end of the day first. 

1. Go through email that have accumulated over the night. These are the unpredictable ones you could not foresee, with more tasks to be completed. Based on the emails, you should schedule the tasks at the end of today, or another day. 
2. Filter out and attend to quick responses to allow other people to start working on tasks. Work delegation is a crucial factor to meet deadlines of projects.
3. Evaluate the urgency and the implications of not completing tasks on hand. Schedule the ones you need to give immediate priority to. 

Taking regular break is important

1. Take regular breaks during the day.
2. Block off time in your calendar and take breaks.
3. During your breaks, you can evaluate your tasks on hand. This helps keep your mind organized consistently throughout the day

Set realistic deadlines & Learn to say NO

1. Stick to the deadlines. If possible, you should set a deadline few days before the task so that you can complete all those tasks that may get in the way.
2. Challenge yourself and meet the deadline & reward yourself after that!
3. Politely refuse to accept additional tasks if you think that you’re already overloaded with work. Recheck your “to-do-lists” before taking up new job scopes.

3 Tips about Work Space

If you are a messy person, you can totally relate with what I am about to share with you.

Ever get so stressed when you are unable to find an important document, while you vividly remembered placing it on your desk. You know it is in there somewhere, among all the other pile of documents. Now, can you understand why I would be sharing with you that having a clean work space is beneficial to you and is definitely one of the important elements to increase your productivity at work. 

While typing this article, I could recall reading that geniuses have the most messy work spaces. If the article is referring to you,  that makes you the exception. Please go all out to be messy! (YAY!). If not, you will find the following tips rather useful. 

Keep yourself organised

Keeping a desk clean will make it easier to focus on your work. Things get done when you have lots more space, rather than pushing the mess towards the side and accumulating it to the pile. It is the same context in data files in your laptop. Cluttering old files or overflowing email inbox will decrease work productivity. Take some time off to organize them properly and you will feel the effect of getting things done faster and clearer!

Keep your work space neat and clean

Being neat in your work space helps in your personal image, as well as the company's corporate image. However, it is so much more then that. Keeping work space neat and clean will make yourself more productive. It reflects how serious and respectful you are in your profession as well. 

Being Health Conscious for you and people around you

One of the causes for low work productivity and falling behind in your assignments is falling sick in your work place due to lack of cleanliness. You may have cleaners outsourced from cleaning companies, but they are unable to touch the documents on your desk because of confidentiality. If you have ever sneezed, or consume lunch or drinks when you are at your desk - it means you are highly likely accumulating germs and viruses which would not only affect your health, but your colleagues as well. 

Benefits of Punctuality

Ever thought of the impression that you are giving to others each time you are late for appointments? You may not have realised but being punctual does help in improving work performances.

Besides, i'm sure you only want positive impressions. Either be punctual, or be ready to get judged.  

Be 15 Minutes Early!

Be it if it’s for work or appointments, being punctual clearly show the importance and respect you have for the person you are meeting. Your time is as precious, as it is for others. Yes, we're talking to you although you may be the Managing Director of a established company.  Your employees would appreciate the respect they deserve. 

Meeting deadlines

Put in some effort to reach office early or even on time to give yourself ample to settle down before the day begins. This reduces any stress and pressure that you may be lagging behind your colleagues in work completion. I’m sure you want the other party to have confidence and faith in you when you meet them up for discussions and as much as they trust you to finish within deadlines when they hand the projects or assignments over to you.

Professional Punctuality

This is utmost important in workplace and it shows as a professional way to be trustworthy and reliable. Always keep in mind that while you delay any submission or miss any deadlines, you are also keeping others from finishing their work. In such a interdependent work environment, never give your colleagues any opportunity to have a bad impression of you or see you as someone undependable.

Always Ready

Being ready a couple of minutes before any meeting will give you ample time to easy your mind and time to relax. Ensure that you are ready to give your best before meetings while you collect your thoughts and get ready. 

4 Ways to Manage Stress

Yes, that’s right! This article was intentionally published on the Monday for you to read when you are on the way to work.  We usually associate stress with work – but it might necessarily be true.  

Stress often occurs when people face demands from their everyday life, and there’s always a negative association with it. Stress does help to motivate people to get through difficult situations such as deadlines. One thing to note is that prolonged stress is detrimental to your health.

Here are 4 ways to manage them:

Time Management

Plan your time well. One should always plan your day at the start of the day and note down your daily events and tasks. Giving yourself ample time in between your schedules allow you to have minor hiccups here and there – such as traffic jams and vehicle breakdown (Not that it wish it happens to you on Monday mornings!)

Change your perspective

Have you ever experienced tension when things do not go your way? Instead of perceiving it in a stressful way, think of it in the more positive light. If you can’t find any positivity from it, how about thinking it as an opportunity to challenge yourself? Remind yourself that what you are experiencing, others are experiencing it as well. Talk to your friends and manage expectations.

Travel plans always work. Yes, you might not be able to travel now but you can always plan one so there is something you can look forward to!

I guess, it’s the right time to say that “Tough times don’t last, tough men do!”

Exercise Regularly

If you are like me, you would find that exercising is stressful in its own right. However, give yourself some time to relax your body – whether is it exercise or Meditation. Personally for me, it’s the latter.  Do what help you to destress, and improve your mood. If you are an outdoor junkie, go for outdoor activities and perspire it out!  
 
You can even do crazy things such as brisk walking, or using the stairs to get back home. That’s crazy in my definition.  

Get Sufficient Sleep

This personally, is the easiest way to manage stress! Giving yourself adequate sleep of 7 – 8 hours would allow you to have more focus at work. This makes you more productive, and thus allows you to cope better with stress as well.