Boost Your Day with Brain Ergonomics

The working day is over and you feel exhausted, out of energy. Whole day you have been busy and working like crazy. But still you feel like you haven't accomplished what you planned - again. Does this sound familiar?

Work burdens us in different ways. Usually workplaces strive to improve working conditions so that the burden of work would decrease.

Ergonomics is a good example of this: the distance of the monitor from the eyes, the height of the table, the adjustability of the chair etc.

Work also puts a strain on our brains, but for some reason this receives much less attention. In fact we should think more about the load on our brain, brain ergonomics. Brain ergonomics means taking into account the brain's normal functions and limitations in such a way as to avoid unnecessary and harmful brain load.

When our brains are well, we cope better and we also feel better overall. Fortunately, we can also influence the well-being of our brain through our own actions.

Interruptions

Have you ever counted how many interruptions you get during the workday? Or even in one hour?

Many people find it difficult to concentrate in an open office. Working remotely at home may not be much easier - a small child requires attention, and full concentration on work is not possible.

?? According to a survey commissioned by Technopolis, an expert in work environments, open-plan offices are the most annoying thing in office work [1]. Especially annoying are when someone is talking to you while you are trying to focus on your work, taking calls in an open office, loud laughter and conversations unrelated to work. All of these cause interruptions.

?? A knowledge worker is interrupted on average every four minutes [2]. Due to interruptions, 40 to 60% of working time is wasted [7]. The number of errors also doubles or even triples because of interruptions [5] [10]. In addition, each interruption slows down the completion of the task by 15-24% [2].

That's not all yet. After each interruption, it takes time to get back to the same point before the interruption. Depending on the topic and how deep we were in the topic when the interruption came, it takes on average more than 20 minutes to return to the interrupted task [5] [6]. Sounds like quite a long time, doesn't it?

?? When there are enough frequent interruptions, we don't get anything productive done, but all our time goes to the change of tasks caused by the interruptions, task switching!

??However, not all of our interruptions are caused by external stimuli. It is interesting that we interrupt ourselves almost as much as some external stimulus [3].

The sound notification caused by a new e-mail and chat message or the icon of the letter arouses our curiosity to look at the message right away. Actually in many cases it is not necessary to view the message immediately. The world is unlikely to fall if we answer later.

We tend to answer incoming calls immediately, regardless of time and place. We even interrupt an ongoing conversation and answer the call. Actually, we prioritize the incoming call above face-to-face conversation. This is our own choice. We could call back a bit later.

Multitasking

It is generally believed that we can do several things at once, multitasking. It is considered a sign of efficiency and is also something to be pursued. In fact almost everyone, up to 92%, multitasks in meetings [8].

?? Multitasking reduces productivity by up to 40% [4] [9]. In multitasking, detecting new things takes 4 times longer than normal. Doesn't sound very effective and certainly not worth pursuing, does it?

In addition, interruptions and multitasking at work increase exhaustion and are a burden on the brain.

?? I found an interesting experiment related to multitasking.

For a week, the person did only one thing at a time: he was actively present at meetings and did nothing else. When he had a call, he focused on it, etc. He didn't let interruptions distract him from what he was doing [4].

As a result, he made significant progress on his challenging projects, his stress level decreased, he lost his patience for things that he didn't think were a good use of his time, his patience for useful and enjoyable things increased tremendously. There were no negative observations in the experiment.

Change in nature of work due to automation

??In many professions, especially in knowledge work, big portion of routine tasks have been automated. With the development and increasing use of artificial intelligence, this trend is also likely to continue in the future. What is left for us humans is solving complex problems and special cases and acting in exceptional situations. There are usually no guidelines for these, as they are rare exceptional situations and have not been thought about in advance.

Acting in these situations requires finding unconventional ways and solutions, often still under time pressure and disturbed by interruptions. This kind of work puts a particularly heavy load on the brain.

Tips to improve brain ergonomics

We cannot always influence the requirements or content of our work. Fortunately, we can improve our brain ergonomics by paying attention to how we work. Here are some practical tips to increase own brain ergonomics and wellbeing at work.

?? Set tasks in order of importance, prioritize. Have you heard of the term busywork? It means doing tasks that keep us occupied but don't necessarily move the needle forward.

Busywork may give the illusion of productivity, but it often comes at the expense of real progress. More about busywork in my posting.

?? Eisenhower's matrix is handy for prioritizing, for example. Sort the tasks into four categories:

?? If the task is not urgent and not important, don't do it, forget it

?? The most important tasks that should be done today - do these first

?? Schedule important but not urgent tasks

?? If possible, delegate less important but urgent tasks

?? Focus on one thing at a time until it's done or you reach a point where you can't continue. Sounds simple but may be difficult to implement in practice. The pomodoro technique can help here.

Concentrate on the task for e.g. 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. After that, continue with the same task or move to the next one if the previous one was finished or you can't continue doing it. Naturally, you can adjust the time for focused work to suit yourself. However, it is worth starting with a fairly short time, because then it is easier to concentrate.

?? Meetings: People spend an average one third of their working week on meetings and 35% of them are useless [6] [8]. Think about whether reading the meeting minutes would be enough for some meetings. If you don't have anything to contribute at the meeting, and the topic doesn't really concern you, you should seriously consider skipping it. On the other hand, be actively present in the meetings you participate in.

How much more time in a week just cutting out pointless meetings could give to your important tasks!

?? Minimize the interruptions you can control. Turn off sound notifications for messages and emails. You can put your phone on silent or don't answer calls when you're concentrating on work, in a meeting or talking to someone.

?? Divide your working day into activity zones: Do tasks that require creativity and brain power when you are the most energetic. For a morning person, this is usually in the morning before lunch, for an evening person, later in the afternoon or evening. Do routine tasks at other times.

?? Don't read e-mails throughout the day, but only read them at certain times, e.g. once in the morning and once before the end of the working day. Emails should be taken care of when you have time to do something with them, i.e. you should reserve active working time for processing emails as well.

?? Take small breaks during the working day. Break away from work for a while, do something else from time to time - go for a walk, to the gym, do yoga, clean room, etc. This should be easier to do working remotely than in the office. Simply moving your gaze away from the screen every now and then somewhere far away, e.g. out the window, helps a bit as well.

The same principles apply to rest periods as to work tasks: You should also take rest periods without interruptions and multitasking - when you rest, you just rest, doing one thing at a time.

References:

[1] These things annoy Finns the most about the open-plan office: https://technopolisglobal.com/insights/stories/these-things-annoy-finns-the-most-about-the-open-plan-office/

[2] Shocking Study Shows Cost of Being Interrupted at Work: https://tldv.io/blog/interruptions-at-work-statistics/

[3] Too Many Interruptions at work?: https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/23146/too-many-interruptions-work.aspx

[4] How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking: https://hbr.org/2010/05/how-and-why-to-stop-multitaski

[5] 6 Jaw-Dropping Facts About Workplace Interruptions and What You Can Do: https://trainingmag.com/6-jaw-dropping-facts-about-workplace-interruptions-and-what-you-can-do/

[6] The science is in: Interruptions Kill Productivity and Increase Stress: https://workjoy.co/blog/scientific-research-notifications-and-interruptions-negatively-affect-work

[7] The Hidden Costs Of Interruptions At Work: https://www.fastcompany.com/3044667/the-hidden-costs-of-interruptions-at-work

[8] 50 Surprising Meeting Statistics for 2024: https://www.flowtrace.co/collaboration-blog/50-meeting-statistics

[9] Multitasking: Switching costs: https://www.apa.org/topics/research/multitasking

[10] Brief interruptions spawn errors: https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/brief-interruptions-spawn-errors