SeeAre News September 2023
L E A R N I N G ?T I M E S? ?S T A R T? ?H E R E
“Big bold actions on the balance are not as effective as many of us are led to believe. While small might not be sexy, it is successful and sustainable.” — BJ FOGG
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New Season after Summer break: time for RESET and new habits
The end of September is here, which means the end of summer is creeping up on us. For some it is a bittersweet moment of being in the office without the benefits of the summer break:? the ability to be productively unproductive,? getting to be closer to our loved ones, giving ourselves a well-deserved break and/or reconnecting with our environment and with ourselves. For others, there is an eagerness to be doing what we love and to be productively productive again. And maybe for some, it is a bit of both. The end of a season is always a good gateway for change and renewals, and for introducing new habits. Whether you’ve just had a splendid summer break, or the grind hasn’t stopped for you, we all can use a reset.?
A crucial habit for everyone to have is to leave work at work, which is not only valid during vacation but technically each day at the end of your working day. Studies have shown the harms of work stress outside of the office: it takes a toll on our mental health, manifested through increased irritability, anger, depression, and/or other unpleasant emotions. Over time, it also has an impact on our physical health which can cause high blood pressure, and a degrading effect on our sleep patterns, which in turn leads to an increased risk of various chronic illnesses such as heart disease, and diabetes, among others. Unmanaged emotions and stress can also be taxing on personal or work relationships.?
Most of us are aware to some extent of what was described in the previous paragraph. ?
The frequent question is then about the “How”: how do we reset by picking up good habits??
?We have consolidated some tips, tricks, and mindful recommendations to be tried out and see which one works best for you:
From our experience, the more senior one becomes, the less a person is willing to look into how (s)he manages his/her time and energy as a primary point to look at, while at the same time, the more senior one becomes, time and energy become scarce because the responsibilities and people reporting to you increase.?
?To proceed with a reset on how you manage your time based on priorities of the day/week/month, we recommend to (re)use the Eisenhower matrix.
Also, are you aware of how your sleep (the quality and duration of your sleep as well as the amount of sleep debt) will have a direct correlation with what times of the day one will have productivity peaks and lows? ?
Once you’ve updated your prioritisation list following the Eisenhower matrix, you may want to schedule your most important and/or complex task during productivity peaks and not during productivity lows. You can identify these different timings either by keeping a journal where you indicate when you felt the most concentrated and alert and when not, or you use an app (such as RISE ) which collects your daily sleeping patterns for you and tells you when those timings are.?
The better you manage your tasks and your energy, the lower your stress levels, which then have a direct positive impact on your emotions, relationships, sleep quality and overall performance.?
Also, when using a prioritisation tool such as the Eisenhower matrix, you should get a reality check of what can and cannot be done that day early enough such that your mind and emotions get prepared to leave work knowing that what had to be done has been done.?
?If you feel you are the kind of person who has a hard time switching off when tasks remain undone at the end of the day, it is important for you to find a ritual which helps you to switch off. Examples: - re-doing the Eisenhower Matrix for the next day: the clarity allows your nervous system to calm down, -? make an entry in your professional journal in which you put down all your residual emotions instead of carrying them home,
- do a physical activity between the moment you stop working and the moment you get back to your personal life as a transition phase. Indeed, when your body is activated, it can’t as easily cling to ongoing thoughts. The physical activity can defer from one individual to the other: running, walking, gardening, painting,...? ?
All these suggestions are a way to enable your mind to transition from work to something else, helping it to compartmentalise the different parts of you and your day.?
Keeping the work and personal life separate and setting clear boundaries between them is crucial.
Here are some additional suggestions on how to do that:?
As already mentioned before, it would be good to establish for yourself a post-work ritual to signal the end of your workday: decluttering your desk, finishing your day with soothing tea rather than coffee, going around colleagues to communicate the delegated tasks for the next day, re-arranging your calendar for the comings days, finishing your day with the 20-30 min admin work or online training/reading…??
Once you’ve built your routine, and exercised it consistently, it creates a clear distinction in your brain between work time and the end of work.? ?
In your leisure time, including the time you spend with your family, try to do things that are creative and different from the nature of your job. For example, if you work at a desk every day staring at the screen, crunching numbers, and analysing data, take the time to indulge in nature, play chess, cook or read a novel.
Something that has little to do with your job helps to keep the separation distinct and clear.?
Creating a technological boundary between work and out-of-office time is one of the most effective ways to reduce your work stress when you’re off the clock because you’re not constantly reminded by work notifications or emails that are coming in.??
If you’re worried about going cold turkey and too nervous to completely rid your phone of all work-related notifications (including just having your work email on your phone), try starting by muting your push notifications.?
Progressively reduce your reachability when you’re not at work: Remove work-related applications, documents, and even phone numbers. Consider having a work phone that completely separates your necessary work resources from your personal phone – that way you can still indulge in the occasional social media scroll or mobile game without being disrupted by work reminders.
Additionally, if needed, establish a specific time and duration on your days off to look at your work-related notifications (e.g., On Saturdays, 4 pm to 4.30 pm) or establish a process on how to join you if absolutely necessary (knowing that the definition of absolutely necessary needs to be aligned to), such as sending a Whatsapp such that you don’t need to consult your emails regularly.? ?
Such systems can ease your fears about a work emergency that goes unresolved in time but also make sure you don’t overly commit your time off to responsibilities that should be constrained within the office.? ?
If ever it is unavoidable that you have to bring work home, or maybe you work from home and struggle to keep work from running into your personal time, it is helpful to establish a work zone.
This area is strictly used for work and is entirely separate from your personal area (so not your bed, or your living room couch, etc.). Try to fully distinguish that space from your other living areas, e.g., change the lighting, the music, your clothes, etc. Though these measures seem drastic, they clearly define your workspace to the area you confine it to and help to distinguish work from personal areas.??
By the way, you have a separate work phone, this is where it lives when you’re at home. Leave your work phone in this space so there are minimal chances of you picking it up by habit.
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3. Thoughtful effort: From doomsday thinking to problem-solving –
Lastly, while physical boundaries are very effective and helpful in keeping our work and personal lives separate, we need to build up our psychological barriers as well. It’s almost impossible to keep our thoughts from ruminating and wondering about issues at work, but learning how to deal with these stray thoughts can have a huge impact on how we manage our stress.
Instead of obsessing over matters that you can’t solve at the moment (“I have so many things to do, I haven’t even started on the presentation deck, and I need to get the market research finalised before I can even start on it”), think about practical ways you can solve the issue (“Maybe if I move my 3 pm appointment to Friday, I can finish the market research by tomorrow EOD, and start on the presentation deck the next day”) – turning ‘doomsday’ thoughts into practical problem-solving brainstorming can help to reduce that overwhelming sense of helplessness and stress.
To conclude, while picking up new and good habits is difficult and oftentimes met with fallbacks time and time again, what matters is progress and effort – keep wanting that good change, and working towards it. It can be hard to leave work behind but doing so (even if you only manage to pick up one or two of these tips) will help to lower your chances of excess stress (or help you recover from it, if just a little bit), and prevent disruption of your recharge and recovery time. You’ll sleep better, you’ll feel happier, and find yourself excited about your progress and productivity at work.
OUR NEW JOINER
Our team is expanding. Kathi HIBBS brings a strong international background as she lived in 9 countries overall. She has over 25+ years of experience leading talent management, leadership development, and business process improvement with major multinational organizations.
领英推荐
?In addition to her ICF certification as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), she is certified and experienced in interpreting and applying assessments including Hogan, DiSC, Saville Wave, and DDI’s Leader3 Ready Executive assessment. ?
Her expertise:
Feel free to contact us if you wish to meet Kathi!
UPCOMING: PERSONALITY MAPPING PROGRAM
SeeAre is happy to announce that our?modular Personality Mapping Program?will be open to the public again! This program is intended for professionals who have a keen interest in on-the-spot personality mapping (also called people reading, mind hunting or profiling), which is a skill and an art that enables you to understand a person accurately in order to build a deeper relationship, including in a professional setup.
??Why such a program? In today's work environment, active listening is critical but how to master it? In just 5 minutes, you will learn to actively listen to the said and the unsaid, observe the body language and pick up any conscious or unconscious cues provided by the sharer to?understand the person deeply, eventually to the point of being able to identify this person's values.
??This program is designed to help all professionals: - pitching to a prospective client,
- managing conflict,
- influencing stakeholders,
- managing teams,
- going to an interview, ... The?opportunities are limitless?as such a skill can be applied in every single human interaction.
?? How does such a program look like? 4 modules of 2 hours focused on improving the understanding of someone’s personality and their essence as a person by learning how to:?
1) Analyse a person’s choice of words for insight into their?mind?
2) Learn to interpret?body language?for deeper insights?
3) Decode?emotions?in business conversations for a more complete understanding
4) Synthesise all observations for a comprehensive personality mapping of the?person’s essence?
Each module is online and suits both Europe and Asia time zones.
?? Get more details and show your interest by contacting us ?? here. We'll contact you once we have the final dates for this cohort.?
We have many more workshops available. Check our website for more inspiration and detail s.
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Don't let a conflict situation hinder all efforts that you are currently putting in place. As part of good habit perpetuation, it is important to manage those kinds of challenges sooner than later.
Our specialised experts, Carina Rogerio and Marine Pesret-Thompson are fully dedicated to helping you work out through those difficult moments. Whether you are facing a misalignment in the executive team, a conflict with a third party or in need of preventive mediation, contact our team to start a conversation about your current situation.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
This book is a classic! It is still very relevant after its first printing 30 years ago.
Based on a "principle-centred approach", it looks at effectiveness from the inside, your "inner core". What should you be aware of in your personal sphere to be more effective?
This is what you will find in this book.
UPCOMING EVENT
Come join SeeAre's founder Carina Rogerio in free-of-charge 45-60 min sessions every 1st Thursday. Our next session will be Thursday, October 5th!
There are no restrictions on topics to be discussed. It can be anything since we tap into everyone present to exchange and nourish the conversation, always with the intention of expanding our understanding of the world.
Let's create a Human Library moment which is totally agenda-free. Filled with honesty and curiosity, come prepared with a question or questions to get the most out of these sessions.
??G E T? ?I N? ?T O U C H
If you have any questions, reach out to us via our Contact Form on our website or by sending an email to the address email below.