I’ve spent the first half of this year doing more traveling on behalf of M/C/C than I’ve done over the last few years (post college and post existence of spring breaks) in my personal free time. Fortunately for me, I love to travel and I love the field of study that I chose to make my career in. So for me, attending conferences that include hours upon hours of speed-learning, philosophizing with new friends and flying (MY FAVORITE) are a real treat. However, my experience show-hopping from SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) to Hispanicize and BlogHer has opened my eyes to an issue I wasn’t expecting each time I returned and went to work, sometimes fresh off a red-eye: hitting the wall.

I consider it a great privilege to attend these conferences and task myself with bringing back tons of information that is valuable to our PR and social media team, the agency and our clients. The only downfall is that these shows are often held over a weekend, which can sometimes make you feel like you’ve worked for 12-hour days for 14 days in a row. Even Einstein’s brain would be fried.

Even when I was in college cramming for exams during Dead Week, I adhered to a personal theory about the human brain’s capacity for retaining and understanding new knowledge. Basically, I thought of the brain like a sponge – it takes on knowledge like a sponge soaks up water. At some point, the sponge is full, and you have to wring it out if you want to keep going. In college this meant putting down my note cards and highlighters to make a quick trip to the local casino with my study group and spend five dollars on the quarter poker machines. (I went to school in Oklahoma where opportunities like this are prevalent.) While this tactic worked then, it’s not exactly ideal for maintaining productivity and focus in the workplace. So, with another half-year to go, I’ve researched some methods to help anyone stay at the top of their game and actively engaged in the office no matter their industry of career expertise.

One of the first resources I turned to was a project I knew our Creative Director and Interactive Designer had both first encountered at SXSWi. The Energy Project is lauded by clients including Google and Sony, and functions based on this theory:

“Demand is exceeding our capacity. Time is the resource we’ve traditionally relied on to get more done. The problem with time is that it’s finite, and most of us no longer have additional hours left to invest at work. Energy, by contrast, can be expanded and regularly renewed. Drawing on the multidisciplinary science of high performance, The Energy Project has developed a set of simple principles and highly actionable practices for more effectively managing energy.”

I could identify with feeling depleted of both energy and time, but the idea that I could manipulate energy to improve productivity was intriguing. I looked deeper into their research and found that one study of 90,000 employees in 18 counties found that only one in five feel fully engaged when at work. In fact, two in five are actively disengaged, while both groups affect business performance and the bottom line. In addition to their full-blown program, there are some key soundbites that can be implemented easily and immediately to boost your energy and, in effect, productivity.

  • Myth: sacrificing one hour of sleep gives us one additional hour of productivity. Ninety-five percent of people need at least seven to eight hours of sleep a night – that doesn’t just apply to babies and teenagers.
  • In support of my brain-sponge theory, we all need to spend and recover energy. According to The Energy Project, you can perform your best work for 90-minute periods of time, or sprints, and then taking a break to recharge. Maybe go outside and take a walk around the property. By following this rhythm, you can get more work done in less time, and deliver a more quality product.
  • Multi-tasking is a myth. When people think they’re multi-tasking, their brains are actually “task switching” completely, generally adding an average of 25 percent of the time it takes to complete the initial task.
  • Focusing on what seem like immediate demands, like email, can decrease productivity as well as efficiency, as opposed to concentrating on important, long-term tasks.

The final point is very similar to the principles behind Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix, which was first introduced to me by my favorite intern. I’ve found that the visualization and categorization of tasks using this time management method can be really helpful and calming for me. My only qualm with this is that sometimes, it takes an extreme amount of time, thought and stress to prepare my matrix. I’d recommend creating a living matrix for the week rather than every day.

 

Wanna test out your capacity for work performance? Give yourself an Energy Audit. In the meantime, what are your thoughts and best practices for time management at work?