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7 Easy Ways to Avoid Burnout at Home

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7 Easy Ways to Avoid Burnout at Home

You know that feeling when you just can’t find the will to work? It’s more than simple stress: You physically and emotionally drained; you don’t feel competent; and it’s causing you an existential crisis.

That feeling is known as burnout, and according to Mayo Clinic, it has real health implications. Burnout is associated with excessive fatigue, insomnia, alcohol abuse, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. 

But while burnout can be tough to solve, it’s relatively easy to prevent a few at-home approaches:

1. Get enough sleep.

Sleep deprivation is a risk factor for dozens of different health conditions, including burnout. Stop burnout before it starts by getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep every night. 

Give yourself enough time to prepare for sleep. Organize some of the things you’ll need in the morning so that you can sleep in peace. And be sure to stay away from screens for a couple of hours before going to bed. 

2. Exercise.

Many big-name business leaders make sure that they exercise daily. Some go to the gym early in the morning, but there are plenty of ways they get their workout in other than hitting the weights.

this doesn’t have to happen in a gym or other indoor setting, especially for those who are indoors during their working hours. The great outdoors provides ample opportunities to get physical activity. 

Take a walk in the morning, or go for a hike in the afternoon. The great outdoors provides plenty of opportunities to get physical. Stretching and calisthenic exercises are two other ways to keep your stress levels in check.  

3. Keep a journal.

Often, burnout stems from a lack of purpose. Scheduling time to journal is a great way for business leaders to release these anxieties and keep things in perspective. 

When you journal, think about the reasons that you do what you do in the first place. Consider the people you work with and how you impact their lives. Remember that regardless of what you do, you are helping people or fulfilling someone’s needs with your job. 

4. Engage in hobbies.

Another element of burnout is a sense of incompetence. That feeling can be demoralizing and significantly reduce your motivation. 

Hobbies give you a break from the work you typically do. More importantly, they allow you to do something that you enjoy without the stress of having to get things just right. 

If you don’t have a hobby, take this opportunity to find one. If you’re creative, sewing or crafting could be your cup of tea. If you’re interested in cooking, check out a book of recipes to try out. You might like to take and edit pictures on your phone. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

5. Unplug.

When there’s so much going on in the digital world, it can be overwhelming to keep up. If the constant chime of appointment notifications, emails, and news updates gets on your nerves, practice putting down your phone. 

What about while you’re working? You might not be able to change the fact that you work from a computer, but you can keep only a single tab open and turn notifications off — and if all else fails, go take a walk. 

6. Schedule breaks.

Be sure to include breaks in your calendar. Working nonstop is a surefire way to burn yourself out. Scheduling tools can help you get through your daily tasks more efficiently and place breaks at times when you tend to be the least productive. 

7. Make motivational playlists.

Sometimes, all it takes is the right song to put you in a good mood. Listening to music is proven to reduce depression, speed recovery from trauma, and sleep better.

There are plenty of playlists pre-built by streaming platforms for different moods. If you can’t come up with a specific artist or song, treat them as a starting point to find songs that motivate you. 

Playlists are the perfect way to power through household chores and workout sessions. Build one for every activity you dread or put off. 

Regardless of your career path, you’re likely to face burnout at some point. Add healthy habits into your schedule so you can avert a crisis. The best antidote to burnout, bar none, is self-care. 

6 Tips for Instilling Wellness in Your Company Culture

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Motivation Secrets of Productive People

Wellness is more than a corporate buzzword: It’s the work of keeping employees happy, healthy, and productive.

Many leaders realize that wellness is a worthwhile investment. But what they don’t know is how to do it: The reason many programs don’t move the needle on health metrics is that companies preach wellness without building it into their culture.

To make wellness a cornerstone of your company culture:

 1. Promote breaks.

A company that does not understand the value of breaks is sure to struggle. Workers can only handle so much stress before it starts to sabotage their productivity. Letting them take 15-minute breaks periodically will help them sharpen the saw of their productivity.

Don’t dictate what workers do on their breaks. There are plenty of ways to use a spare 15 minutes well. Some people enjoy walking around. Others would rather sit, read, or do a crossword puzzle.

2. Create a calm environment.

Clutter isn’t just unsightly. According to Psychology Today, cluttered environments reduce wellbeing, cloud thinking, and impede mental health. Chaotic spaces tend to be more stressful and less productive places to work.

Think beyond the physical environment. Poor time management creates mental clutter. The result is procrastination, overextension, unpunctuality, and over time, burnout.

3. Offer healthy foods and snacks.

Food is fuel. Stocking healthy foods for the team ensures that they don’t have to reach for a candy bar or drive to a local fast-food restaurant when they get hungry.

Place bowls around the workplace with snacks like bananas, apples, and protein bars. Fill the fridge with hydrating drinks like sparkling water and Gatorade. Be sure to ask team members about allergies before introducing new foods.

4. Set up group activities.

Learn what you team members like to do outside of work, and create hobby groups for them. Go on walks together, try group yoga, or simply set up a recreational basketball league. Socializing is good for mental and physical health, and it reminds workers that they are part of a team.

If workers aren’t interested in physical activities, set up discussion groups. Current events clubs, company improvement task forces, and foreign language groups give team members a voice.

5. Invest in perks.

Gym memberships and massage therapist visits cannot create culture alone, but they do get the message across that the company cares about the health of its team members. You can even include concierge services for when workers need groceries or office supplies.

If you aren’t sure where to start, look at the tech giants. Take Google: The Alphabet subsidiary offers its employees a host of unique perks, such as decompression capsules, a full on-site medical staff, and even free cooking classes.

You may not be able to afford all of the benefits that Google offers, but you can use them for inspiration. Create a list of perks that might fit in the budget, and ask team members for feedback on which ones are most important to them.

6. Ask for feedback over and over.

In order to be happy, positive, and productive at work, employees need to feel like they have a say. Sit down with team members monthly to get their thoughts on the company’s culture and how it’s affecting their personal habits.

Reward workers for suggestions on how to improve workplace conditions. Don’t penalize people who see flaws: Providing honest feedback is not the same as complaining. If employees’ suggestions conflict, get the group together to talk about how best to proceed.

Focus particularly on areas where multiple employees may need help. If two or more members of the team want to quit smoking, set up a cessation program that includes private counseling. If weight management is an issue across the team, perhaps activity trackers might make a good quarterly gift.

Workplace wellness programs are well and good, but a culture of wellness is what actually makes a difference. Leave no stone unturned: Physical, mental, and social health all matter in the context of overall wellbeing. Give employees the tools they need to improve in all of those areas, and you’ll be surprised at just how much stronger your company’s culture becomes.

Stumped By High Turnover? 4 Steps to Find Out Why It’s Happening

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Stumped By High Turnover? 4 Steps to Find Out Why It's Happening

In a strong economy, employees know they have options. Sooner or later, workers who aren’t satisfied with their jobs start searching for opportunities with other companies. 

Although this is good news for employees, it can be a problem for employers that are unaccustomed to an employee-driven market. 

Companies that do not understand (or are unwilling to make) the necessary adjustments inevitably pay the price in turnover. According to one study, employee turnover in 2018 cost US companies $615 billion. Of that, an estimated $469 billion was voluntary turnover that could’ve been avoided.

How Turnover Happens

Although inadequate salary or benefits are common reasons for leaving a company, they aren’t the only ones. Other reasons include:

  • Unclear or unreasonable job duties: Turnover is a two-way street. Employers who don’t provide accurate job descriptions, hire over- or under qualified candidates, or put too many obligations on their employees’ plates set themselves up to lose talent.
  • Unpleasant work environment: Bad management is a big reason behind turnover. Aside from poor leadership, companies with outdated equipment, poor morale, or office tensions set themselves up for retention issues. 
  • Inadequate career development: More than nine in 10 employees say they’d stay longer at a company if it invested in their careers. Workers need to feel like they’re advancing in their professional lives, or they’ll go somewhere that they do. 
  • Work-life imbalance: Nobody can work all the time. Employers who insist that workers put in more hours than they agreed to, provide little or no time off for family events, or give minimal vacation time won’t keep workers around for long.

Turnover happens for all sorts of reasons. Whatever the cause, there are a few steps you can take to reduce it.

Solving Steep Turnover

To boost your company’s retention rate:

1. Ask for (and listen to) feedback.

Talk to employees who are leaving your company as well as those who intend to stay. Keep an ear out for trends: Are the leavers all upset about your company’s vacation policy? Do the people who are staying love your office environment? Make clear that there are no wrong answers, and thank the respondents for their honesty. 

2. Get HR and management on the same page. 

Once you’ve learned what’s pushing people away from your company, take that information to your HR and management teams. Schedule a meeting with each group to chat through it: Chances are, they have questions about your findings. Suggest action steps as well as affordable ways to reward employees for their work. 

3. Decide how aggressively to fight it. 

Your HR leaders and managers know turnover is an issue, and you’ve given them some ideas about how to handle it. The next step is to decide together how much disruption you’re willing to put up with.

Say you’ve heard a couple of names come up again and again in those exit interviews. You could fire the people who are bringing down the office culture, or you could put them on a performance improvement plan. Every situation is unique, so use your best judgment based on the gravity of the issue and the individuals involved. 

4. Keep it up. 

Turnover issues are not solved overnight. As an employer, you have to commit to the people you hire. Give team members ways to talk about issues before they boil over: Set up an anonymous comment box, and read submissions publicly.

Make retention a regular topic at leadership meetings. Measure month-by-month changes to your turnover rate, checking whether investments in retention result in dips or spikes.

Rarely does turnover happen for just one reason. The sooner you get to the root of those reasons — and the more seriously you take them — the better. 

Should You Ask Your Team to Track their Time?

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The 11 Biggest Symptoms of Poor Time Management

For those working in professional services, like lawyers, consultants, advertising specialists and anyone else who has clients, time tracking is inevitable. Billable hours are billable hours, and poor time tracking can lead to some angry clients.

What about everyone else, the working professionals who do not necessarily need to track every minute of their workday? 

As entrepreneurs love to say, time is money: Is the time spent tracking time worth the squeeze?

Why Track Time?

1. Improved efficiency and accountability

Probably the greatest argument for time tracking is that it makes workers accountable and efficient. If someone knows they have to track what they are doing, they are likely to put more effort into getting things done in a timely manner. They’ll probably also block their time to make the process easier.

Time blocking is a time-management technique that encourages practitioners to estimate how much time a certain task will take them, and then carve out that exact chunk of time to complete the task. This prevents multitasking and procrastination, and it sometimes produces a better finished product. 

2. Insights into employee development

Time tracking isn’t just helpful to the boss. Employees who engage in it benefit, too.

When workers see where they’re spending their time, they tend to spot opportunities for improvement. Are they a faster writer than an editor? Are they spending too much time building out certain product features? Is one stage of the sales process taking longer than it should?

Time tracking also helps workers showcase their contributions. An employee who has  documentation of working long hours, taking on an extra-heavy workload, or going beyond their job description will have an easier time asking for a raise. Similarly, tracking time makes it easier to ask a supervisor for extra help or delegatory authority. 

3. Data to support company goals

Employee time is a company’s most important asset. Examining where it’s spent helps leaders identify priorities for the next month, quarter, or year.

If you do decide employees should track their time, compile it into a single spreadsheet. Look at the proportion of company time spent in key areas, like sales and product development.

Think about whether those investments line up with your priorities: Should a third of company time actually be spent on sales? Or should a larger slice of it go to things like culture-building and mentorship?

Before you decide the tracking time is right for you, though, think about its cons. 

The Problems With Tracking Time

What are the downsides of asking employees to log their hours? The four primary ones are:

1. Rushed work

Asking employees to state the time they spend on each task may cause them to give short shrift to tasks that deserve some TLC. Work that was done too quickly is likely to contain a lot of mistakes.

Some work simply takes time. In a creative field like advertising, it’s worth taking a few extra days to think through a campaign. Otherwise, the damage won’t be obvious until it’s already out in the public eye. 

2. Time lost on tracking

In a perfect world, time would be tracked on an “as you go” basis. The fact is, though, that time tracking is often the easiest task to push to the back burner.

Expect employees to put it off. Come Friday afternoon when the timesheet is due, many may spend an hour trying to think through how they spent the past five days. Employees are so bad at tracking time, in fact, that the average firm loses around $50,000 per year in revenue due to mistracked emails alone. 

3. “What category do I put my bathroom break in?”

Nobody wants to ask about how to track their human needs, which may cause workers to ignore them. Not only can that hurt morale, but studies suggest it can actually hurt productivity.

Researchers studying interruptions to prolonged sitting found that periodic movement helps to lift mood, combat dry eyes, and reduce fatigue. Even if employees do track when they get up for coffee to use the bathroom, employers are likely to discount the productivity benefits those breaks provide. 

4. A sense of distrust

One of the most common arguments against time tracking is that it creates feelings of distrust among employees. Given that nearly two in three employees already distrust their leader, think carefully about whether time tracking would perpetuate the problem.

So should you ask your team to track their time? There’s no clear answer, unfortunately. Weigh the pros and cons carefully, and remember: You can always change your policy if it isn’t working like you thought it would. 

5 Ways to Improve Office Communication

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How to Optimize Your Appointments in 2021

At work and in life, communication is key. Open, efficient lines of communication make companies more productive and keep employees happy. Twisted or broken ones produce mistakes and burnout.

But good communication is about more than talking to each other regularly. To communicate well, companies need clear processes and effective tools. Here’s where to start:

1. Minimize drop-in chats.

What’s wrong with walking down to a co-worker’s office to ask a quick question? Not only does it interrupt what he or she is working on, but it tends to spiral into unrelated conversation. As important as the outcome of last night’s game is, it’s irrelevant to work.

Encourage your employees to reduce the small talk by using Slack for small questions and comments. For longer conversations, or those that require multiple people, schedule a meeting. Small talk can be healthy for office relationships, but precious work time can quickly go down the drain when employees are visiting each other’s work spaces throughout the day.  

2. Share calendars.

The practice of sharing calendars allows employees to schedule meetings with each other and gain insight into their co-workers’ projects and daily schedules. Many calendar apps allow workers to share tasks, view what’s been completed by each party, and send messages back and forth.

To choose the best online calendar for your business, take into account usability, integrations, and features. Look for a low-cost or free option that provides insight into who you’re spending your work time with. If you work across time zones, be sure your calendar can automatically adjust the time depending on where each user is. 

3. Send out meeting agendas ahead of time.

Meetings can be valuable, and face-to-face communication is still the foundation of strong relationships. But without a clear agenda, meetings can run long or be dominated by side conversations.

At least a day in advance of each meeting, compile an agenda and send it out ahead of time. Ensure everyone knows what the meeting’s goal is, who is involved, and what they might need to bring to the table. This doesn’t mean there’s no room for fun in meetings, but an agenda helps you respect your workers’ time by making the best use of it. 

4. Encourage personal relationships.

Efficiency is hugely important for good communication, but do not let it get in the way of office camaraderie. Carve out time for your employees to get to know one another on a personal level. Host office lunches and holiday parties. If a meeting involves new faces, do a brief icebreaker activity at the start.

The better your employees know each other as individuals, the better they will be able to communicate with each other and work as a team. If anyone feels left out, the whole team’s efficiency will suffer. 

5. Avoid over-communication.

We’ve all had the experience of coming back to work after a few days out of the office and having 1,000 unread emails in our inbox. Not only does going through those take time, but it adds unnecessary stress and risks miscommunications. With over 281 emails sent and received every day around the globe, over-communication is a real risk.

Be careful not to create an environment where people’s inboxes are constantly flooded with unnecessary or irrelevant messages. Instead of sending out multiple informational emails throughout the week, perhaps you can send out one concise weekly email that summarizes the team’s progress.

Be sure, too, to consider your audience. Does everyone on your team need the information you’re sending? It’s better to over-communicate than to under-communicate, but your workers will start to tune out mass quantities of emails in their inboxes. 

The same principle holds true for meetings. To the best of your ability, invite only the people to each meeting that need the information you’re presenting. Present only the information that those people need. 

Poor communication is frustrating and costly. Be a model of good communication. Put the right processes in place, and you’ll achieve that ideal blend of efficiency and strong relationships.

4 Ways You Can Improve Teamwork

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Regardless of how talented your individual team members are, you won’t get very far if they don’t work cohesively. As the business owner or manager, it’s your job to implement strategies that will improve teamwork. When your team works together, trust begins to build and responsibilities become clear. A healthy team knows how to be honest with one another even if it means putting forth harsh criticisms.

That all said, here are seven ways you can improve teamwork in your company.

Establish a clear team mission.

This applies to your overall company mission, and the mission of each project you kick off with your team. It may take five, ten, even twenty years to build a successful company. During that time, you may kick off projects that drag on for months if not a year. Regardless of what stage you’re in, you need to establish a clear team mission. If you can paint the big picture and align everyone with the same goals, your team will be motivated and productive.

Create a reporting infrastructure.

In every organization there will be problems. The last thing you want is to have an employee sit on an issue and not have anyone they can report to. On the flip side, you also don’t want that employee to gripe about their problems every time they arise. The best way to handle this is by creating a reporting infrastructure. First and foremost, you need every team member to understand their roles and to whom they report issues to. If there is a disagreement, there needs to be a process in which that issue gets discussed. Last but not least, you need to decide which members of the team make the final call. Establishing these ground rules is key to improving overall teamwork.

Make the right hires.

While this one sounds obvious, it’s surprising how many managers fill roles with unqualified employees. The problem is, most hiring managers overlook the importance of personality fit. A fancy resume and a proven track record may look good on paper, but if they don’t get along with the rest of the team what’s the point? As you go through your interviews you need to focus on both skill and personality qualifications. If they seem promising, you should always throw them in the mix and let them work amongst the team for a few days. If things don’t work out, try shifting things around or look for another candidate.

Build relationships outside of the workplace.

In order to build honest and lasting relationships you need to encourage team bonding outside of the workplace. Work can get stressful, and that stress can really weigh down on people. Instead of trying to fix things at the office, take your team out to lunch or organize a team field trip. Not only will this give your team a breath of fresh air, it’ll give them the chance to get to know each other on a personal level. One great option is to have your team join a sports league together. First and foremost, health and fitness is as popular as it’s ever been. Second, team sports is one of the best ways to build team chemistry. For tech companies, there are plenty of sports leagues you can join where you compete against other companies. This way you can network, exercise, and foster teamwork all at the same time! At the end of the day, building teamwork takes time – so it’s in your best interest to start now. For starters, use the four strategies above so you can improve teamwork.
Originally published here.
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