Top-top watch

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

How long do we work? Usually 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. If without rushwork and urgent tasks, for the implementation of which you can sit up until ten in the evening. And if you also count the time you devote to work on weekends or even vacations in order to finally understand all the innovations in accounting legislation or strategies for successful sales.

Well, and of course, do not forget about the nightly check of homework done by your beloved child, and a bunch of household chores. The result, unfortunately, affects not only the face, it leaves its mark on the soul and on health - a bad complexion, bags under the eyes, insomnia, fatigue, forgetfulness, apathy or, conversely, aggressiveness. Why it happens?

Out of rhythm

Already in our student years, our capabilities and preferences are revealed. Some martyrs of science can have fun from session to session and learn all the material 2-3 days before the exam, without interrupting their preparation even for a short nap. Others prefer conscientious daily activities and a relatively calm, relaxed exam time. And in our work we are all different. Secretaries are usually expected to maximize composure and the ability to perform several tasks at the same time, without forgetting or losing sight of anything. The specialist does not have to listen to conflicting instructions from the management, but instead it is necessary to concentrate on one or two projects, which monotonously drag on for several months and require a scrupulous study of the smallest details. And this is not surprising.

It's just that all of us can, roughly speaking, be divided into two groups.

Representatives of the first - easily switch from one type of activity to another, and prolonged "wiggling their brains in one direction" quickly tires them. Representatives of the second concentrate well; they like a "deep understanding" of the problem under study, but do not expect a quick answer to an urgent, albeit easy, but not in time asked question from them.

Very often, our bosses do not ask themselves the question of which of these types of personality is working under his leadership. Therefore, it is not uncommon for a "concentrating" employee to be constantly pestered with the instruction to urgently prepare an order, two lines long, just at the very moment when the poor fellow went headlong into a confused report. At the same time, a "switching" subject may suffer nearby, for whom a small assignment would be a lifeline thrown into the troubled waters of a tedious and long project. Of course, in any case, the management will not refuse, they will have to do (or not do), but if you yourself know exactly what "type" you are, then it will be easier for you to organize your time so that you get less tired and do more.

By the way, "concentrates" are generally more lucky in office and work life. After all, the bosses see that a person is trying all day, thinking, working. And what does the "switch" look like in the workplace? It doesn't matter: he writes something, then scrolls through something, then checks his mail, then rests on the Internet. Moreover, the boss, as luck would have it, grumbles in the ear that you are disorganized. I just want to tell the world: no, we are "switching" are organized, and how - we manage to redo a bunch of things in one day, but we just have a different organization!

Three facets of time

Whoever you are - "switching" or "concentrating" - you are probably familiar with one very unpleasant feeling that arises during the next blockage at work: work no matter what. " A dilemma about which dangerous passions are raging within us! The realization of your own helplessness, fatigue, clumsiness and stupidity presses on you with more and more force, you stop noticing the obvious and hearing the voice of your own reason. A little of this kind of life and you are a prisoner of depression and apathy. Usually this kind of stress is provoked by work. Why is this happening and how to prevent it? I found the answer in Eric Berne's acclaimed book Games People Play.

It turns out that there are two types of time "hour" and "target". Usually we choose one of them to solve a problem. Either: "I will prepare this report until 6 pm, then turn off my computer, leave the office and forget about work until the next morning" - this is one hour, or: "I will do this report until it is ready" is the target time.

Ideal, of course, can be called cases when the deadline for which the report should be ready is indicated in such a way that you can work on it exactly until six, at the usual pace and without overworking. It happens that the report is needed by tomorrow morning, then you can work with tables and papers until midnight, leave the folder on the boss's desk and sleep the next day until lunchtime. But sometimes fate turns its back on us: the deadline for the delivery of materials is inexorably approaching, and you just can't get into the numbers, figure out the indicators, draw up the results. There is a combination of "hour" and "target" time. And time from your ally turns into your worst enemy, becoming "urging": "I have to do all the work by Friday", ie get all the work done at a specific time, which Berne believes is a "violent combination of hour and target time." Living in the rhythm of the urging time is not safe. Feeling the pressure from within, you start to get nervous, afraid that you will make gross mistakes in calculations, worry that you will receive a scolding from your superiors; you may experience insomnia and, as a result, overwork. Maybe someone knew this from the very birth, but for me the story about the hour, target and urging time turned out to be just a revelation.

Now, no matter what happens at work, I say to myself: "Stop! I'm not on fire." Even if the contract is not ready by 10.00, the world will not cease to exist. But if I drive myself into a psychological impasse, then my priceless health may suffer greatly.

Aligning yourself

No, I am not suggesting that you do the following: come to work three hours late, responding to the boss's remark that you are a night owl and still cannot work early; then sit online for half a day, going from site to site every 20 minutes (and of course, you need to switch often); not to carry out the urgent task of the boss: all the same, I will not have time until tomorrow, do not spur myself on? With such an attitude, none of us can hold out for a long time in a working chair, giving up a soft spot to someone more organized. But it is possible to distribute work and time in such a way as not to collapse on Wednesday and not feel like a squeezed lemon on the weekend. Dividends? Calm, health and pleasure from life!