Category: Productivity

Want to be More Productive at Work? Here’s Six Reasons to Take a Break.

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Want to be More Productive at Work? Here’s Six Reasons to Take a Break.

Woman celebrating nature

 

It might seem counterintuitive that going away from your work for a break can actually make you more effective. In fact, an increase in productivity is just one of the benefits.

As neurodivergent people in the workplace, who love to get involved and give a lot of ourselves, we invariably end up with our time fully committed and perhaps with more than one role to contend with (think diversity leader, or mental health designated person, mother, father, child, team member, leader, etc) each with their consequent agendas to attend to throughout the course of just one day. We often have difficulty saying no to requests, and our divergent perspective on time can lead us down the path of getting overloaded and towards burnout.

I’ve seen it all too often; the clients who come to coaching overwhelmed and exhausted, on the verge of imminent collapse. They work from morning to night, spend long periods working evenings and weekends to “catch up” , yet no matter how many hours they put in, they haven’t reached that ideal place yet where they feel relaxed and in control – with a “mind like water” as David Allen describes, the well-known productivity guru and author of several great books on the subject of “Getting Things Done”.

Breaks help you rest

When I ask these clients , “So when did you last have a holiday? and by holiday I mean a time where you don’t monitor or answer emails, don’t respond to work-related communications, and definitely don’t log in to your devices to “catch – up!” “, typically the answer is many months and sometimes years in the past. Some of them have yet to use their Out of Office function on their emails. 

“And when did you last have some time to yourself to do something just for you that’s nothing to do with work?“ “Ermmm…”

It’s OK to be enthused by your work, it absolutely is. However, what I frequently hear is that although someone may be plugged in to their devices, their brain has gone elsewhere, and the time and effort they expend trying to accomplish tasks is not actually that productive. They get distracted, may spend time scrolling on their devices instead, and find it hard to sit and focus on that one piece of work they need to get done. Even when you don’t want to rest, your brain will find a way. Cat pictures, anyone?

Breaks replenish dopamine levels and raise productivity

When we have ADHD, we can have challenges with maintaining focus. It is possible to hyperfocus on something we are really interested in, however when we are tired and constantly bombarded with interruptions and more and more work coming in, it’s a lot harder to focus in any way. 

One method that has served many with ADHD well is the 15 – 20 minute rule.

What you do is to divide your work into handy chunks of no more than 15 – 20 minutes, set an alarm for the stop time and then dive in. The ADHD brain thrives on sprints rather than marathons. The very thought of working for a stretch of several hours without a break is off-putting for many of the clients I coach. Once your alarm goes off, that’s your cue to get up, stretch and move your body, and get useful brain chemicals flowing such as dopamine and Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor ( BDNF for short).

Dopamine is one of the neurotransmitters/hormones implicated in ADHD, where there is usually a deficiency of dopamine in the circuits which support the Executive Functions. Dopamine helps us feel alert, motivated and engaged. Thankfully there are many ways to increase it. Medication is one such approach. Other methods include diet, exercise or movement, listening to music, spending time outside in nature, meditation, massage.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22588-dopamine-deficiency

As you might notice, virtually none of these methods seem to involve being chained to a computer or working 24/7 for 365 days per year. Interesting hmm?

Breaks help us learn

Ways to increase Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) a neurotransmitter and hormone, include exercise, meditation, deep sleep, and sunlight. Things that block BDNF include stress, sugar, carbs, and social isolation.

https://www.optimallivingdynamics.com/blog/21-proven-ways-to-increase-your-brains-growth-hormone#:

BDNF is the brain’s growth hormone, and assists in learning, memory, and emotional regulation.

https://www.banutascifresko.com/health-101/all-the-facts-on-bdnf-brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor/?lang=en

Breaks give fresh perspective

Apart from a break giving us a change physically from being seated at our screens, from the torrent of emails, from being tethered to meetings, breaks also provide mental nourishment.

Time for processing and taking a step back allows us to gain a sense of perspective. In the same way that we gain new outlooks on life whenever we travel or go on holiday, we get a chance to look at ourselves, our daily routines and habits ( if we have any!) from a different viewpoint.

For many, not having those opportunities was one of the aspects of the lockdowns which had a huge impact on wellbeing. Being stuck at home, with only those daily exercise breaks to look forward to meant we couldn’t get away from our lives and see another viewpoint. There was no variety. There was no upcoming holiday to look forward to and that felt heavy. 

Planning future breaks to look forward to can fill us with positive anticipation, even when the present situation may be challenging.

Breaks provide us with self-care

Breaks also give us the certain knowledge that we are taking care of ourselves. Moving our bodies has a host of benefits including increasing learning, having a positive effect on our heart health, breathing and oxygen levels. Listen to this podcast episode from Dr. Michael Mosley to find out how taking micro breaks from sitting can help lower our blood sugar and even increase our life expectancy. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011405

Breaks offer the chance to deepen relationships

Another benefit of breaks from working is the opportunity they give us to connect with others for personal not just work-related reasons.  Building and maintaining relationships takes time, and there are many ways we can help this along. 

Here are a few ideas:

Start a class in something that interests you, and you will meet like-minded people to relate to. 

Share a common interest with a friend and take a weekend workshop.

Call up a friend and go for a walk in nature together. 

See a film with friends or family and discuss it with them.

The benefits of taking breaks both big and small are many. They have the potential to support our brain health and productivity, maintain or boost physical and mental well-being, and deepen our relationships with others. 

So what are you waiting for? How many ways can you find to take a life-affirming break?

Too Many Commitments? Here’s How to Start Letting Go.

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Too Many Commitments? Here’s How to Start Letting Go.

Are you overloaded with obligations, tasks or activities that take up all your time and energy but don’t pay the bills or provide for your family? That was my situation some years ago.

At that time I yearned to build a new career for myself, yet I just could not see how to make it happen.

My life was already jam-packed.

I had a life full of activities that interested me. I was committed to all sorts of meetings, to my daughter & school, various groups, and volunteering. There were my art classes, which were a social occasion as well as for creating. I wanted to continue my part-time job, the upkeep of various websites I had taken on, and regular committee meetings that involved organizing exhibitions. I just could not see how to progress.

 My time and energy, and the sheer numbers of hours in the day and days in the week were all used up.

If I stayed the way I was, I was well and truly stuck.

How did this come about?

Some of it came from others making requests of me, some I believe was led by interest and wanting to be a part of something, to belong. Opportunities would come up in my life, and I would say YES, just because I was interested, and if the truth were known, a little flattered to have been asked. Equally, I think I needed to prove myself somehow – like I can take all this stuff on and do an excellent job of it. I did want to find ways to contribute and to feel I was helping others by doing so. Some commitments were led by a love of learning and gave me a sense of moving forwards in my personal development. I increased my knowledge and built what I considered valuable transferable skills.

Yet however fascinating these were, they were not going to bring me the level of satisfaction I believed I would gain from pursuing a potential new career. I needed to find or create time for this somehow.

Talking to a coach was my turning point.

It took speaking to a coach who asked me what I could do without, to realize that I had to take something away to begin the new and shiny thing I wanted in my life, which mattered so much to me.

What happened? At first, I resisted and fought against the idea of letting anything go. I desperately wanted there to be a magical way to have it all. But then she coached me to put everything down on a piece of paper, every single commitment I had, and just look at it.

“I understand you’re enjoying all of these, and also that you are gaining something from each of them. If there was one that you could do without, which would it be?” She asked me.

I began to see the bigger picture.

As I looked at those words on the page, I plainly saw the amount of time each commitment took up, and where each might take me. The muddy water seemed to be clearing, and a pattern began to appear.

I knew building a new life for myself would require pulling back from giving so much time to others, and using that time to re-train for a new, rewarding career. I could continue living overcommitted and underpaid, or I could start saying no to others in the short term, so I could say yes to myself longer term.

I started to make changes.

I began to find ways to discontinue the activities which took all my time and attention, one by one, honourably, and over a period. By gradually reducing my obligations, I created the space for something new. A new career beckoned on the horizon. I took the invitation, and to date, I haven’t looked back.

If you’re overwhelmed by too many commitments to others, here’s what to do:

  • Recognise that if you keep on saying YES to everything that comes along, you will reach a point when you cannot take on any more.
  • Determine what or who you can say NO to, so you can say YES to yourself.
  • Write down every commitment you have on one piece of paper, so you can see the big picture more clearly.
  • Begin by choosing just one commitment to let go of. Then as you build up your “letting go“ muscle, see if you can find other commitments that would benefit you by being brought to a conclusion.

Finally, allow yourself to let go of what isn’t going to serve you long-term and create the space for what’s really important to you now.

Anna Schlapp, AACC, ACC, is a certified ADHD coach who specialises in creative solutions to triumph over the hurdles of ADHD. Anna helps those with challenges like over-commitment and overwhelm to understand what’s holding them back, and then co-create personalised blueprints for leading more amazing lives. Read more of Anna’s strategies for empowered productivity on her blog. To find out how Anna’s unique system can help you maximise your potential, ask about a complimentary coaching session.

Are Distractions Ruining Your Life? How to Fix What’s Wiping out Your Focus.

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Are Distractions Ruining Your Life? How to Fix What’s Wiping out Your Focus.

What can you do to help yourself focus and be more productive when distractions keep getting in the way? Whether you find it practically impossible to concentrate in a busy environment, or you’re zoning out while listening to someone, distractions can rule your life and prevent you from doing and achieving the things you want to get done.

Everyone can get distracted at times, yet for people with ADHD “Distractibility” is one of the major symptoms, often affecting us continuously from morning to night. Knowing when, where, and how you’re getting distracted is a good starting point to doing something to improve your situation. Lists, charts, graphics, or voice recordings of your distractions are just some of the ways you could collect this information. 

Follow these pointers to create your unique Personal Distraction Profile:

When do you typically get distracted?

Is it when you are talking to someone and you start to follow a train of thought sparked off by something they said, pulling you away from what the person is saying? Perhaps it’s being in a noisy, busy environment at work when your concentration is broken by phones ringing, or people coming and going, and asking you things. Or maybe it’s when you start a domestic clear out, and you find so many interesting things that distract you. All of a sudden, hours have gone by, and nothing gets done.

So, identify when you get distracted and record the times you get pulled off focus.

Where are you most often distracted?

Is it at work, where the chairs are uncomfortable, so your back begins to ache, and the discomfort is hard to ignore? Or at home, where the thought of unpaid bills distracts you from the task in hand, and the dinner gets burned – again!

Perhaps you are out for a meal somewhere with friends, only the music and conversations together make it virtually impossible to hear what anyone is saying, so you spend the evening feeling isolated and on the edge of things.

Make a note of these places and add them to the record.

How do you get distracted?

We are all individuals, and one way to understand and identify your unique brand of distractions is knowing how you take in and then process information. You take in information through your senses. Depending on individual processing styles, one or more of your senses can be the source of many distractions.

It can be useful to divide distractions into two main categories; external and internal. Continue to add any more instances to the data you’re compiling about yourself.

 External distractions can be anything entering your field of awareness via your senses – this could be the regular five senses:

· hearing, 

· visual,

· tactile or felt,

· smell,

· taste.

In addition, some individuals are affected by:

· temperature changes or extremes,

· perception of where their body is in space,

· sense of balance.

People respond differently to these stimuli – some people will find the subtlest sounds or movements distracting, while others won’t even be aware of them. 

Then there are internal distractions. These can be things like:

· thoughts,

· feelings,

· emotions,

· images,

· memories etc.

Add this information to your Distractions Profile.

Now pinpoint any emerging patterns and consider how you could better manage them.

For instance, do sounds distract you and interrupt your train of thought when writing emails? You could try wearing ear defenders, moving to a quieter place, or changing the time of day you work on them, so that you are sure to be in a quiet environment.

 Or maybe it’s the visual distraction of other people around you, moving around or walking past that you find most distracting? Try working in a room on your own, using a screen, or turning your desk to face the wall.

Perhaps you are repeatedly distracted by memories that get triggered by seeing a place, person, or object? Before you know it, you are off down memory lane, and time is ticking by. Many of my clients have found Mindfulness practice can help with being more present. Over time, regular Mindfulness practice can reduce instances of getting lost in thoughts and emotions for long periods.

It’s worth bearing in mind that each type of distraction has its own solutions. Being more precise about what your distractions are will help you customize your responses with more success.

In summary, to build up your Personal Distraction Profile, identify and record:

· WHEN you get distracted.

· WHERE you get distracted.

· HOW you get distracted.

· your external distractions.

· your internal distractions.

Make additions to your profile whenever you find yourself pulled away from things, unproductive or overwhelmed, or when you find you’ve lost track of time.

The final step is to identify any recurring patterns, and think of some action(s) you could take based on your findings.

If you don’t feel up for doing this alone, why not ask for help from a trusted friend. Alternatively, you could engage a specialist in coping with distractions such as an ADHD Coach to assist you. 

Once you have identified your times, places and types of distraction you will be in a much stronger position. Then you can take positive action to reduce or eliminate them. Your focus and productivity will increase as a result!

 

Anna Schlapp, AACC, ACC, is a certified ADHD coach who specialises in creative solutions to triumph over the hurdles of ADHD. Anna helps those with challenges in focus and attention to co-create personalised blueprints for leading more amazing lives. Read more of Anna’s strategies for empowered productivity on her blog. To find out how Anna’s unique system can help you maximise your potential, ask about a complimentary coaching session.

Lost something again? A fresh approach to keeping track of your stuff.

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Lost something again? A fresh approach to keeping track of your stuff.

Are you a person who’s always losing things? There’s your keys, your phone, your purse, your glasses. They are never in the place where you think you last saw them, are they? Or where they ought to be, in that special basket by the door, or on that hook next to the stairs.

Why not? Well maybe you, like many others, are not fully paying attention when you put your keys down. Because you’re busy thinking about other things.

When you’re busy in your head thinking, it’s pretty much impossible for you to notice what you are doing with your hands or anything you’re carrying. For much of our days we are going through life on autopilot. We can eat, walk, and even drive whilst thinking about other things entirely. Some studies show that maybe as much as half of our lives are spent on autopilot, and that goes for everyone, not just people with ADHD. No wonder we lose our stuff!

So what’s the solution? Well, one sure way is to pull yourself out of autopilot at the right moments, so you can pay attention to where you are putting your keys.  Catching our own autopilot behaviour as it is happening is the secret.

You can do this by building up your ability to catch yourself acting on autopilot. Think of it like a skill that can be improved on with practice. You get better at it the more you do of it, right? Or a muscle that gets stronger the more you exercise it. If you are training to lift weights you don’t immediately start with the heaviest weight, do you? You’d end up in hospital with a strained tendon or worse. So you start small with a weight that’s well within your capabilities and work your way up.

Use plenty of help and support to make it easy on yourself at the beginning. A good starting point is to use some kind of external prompt at intervals throughout the day. This could be any signal that comes from outside yourself which can call your attention to what you’re doing in the moment.

For example, choose an activity you already do several times a day – such as making yourself a hot drink or having a glass of water – and link that to consciously noticing what you’re doing right then. This will begin to build up your “noticing” muscles. Maybe you’re the sort of person who wants something that will be sure to rouse you out of your autopilot trance. You could use bells, alarms or any kind of noise that will grab your attention. If you are a visually oriented person, other options might be to have post-its, sticky notes or coloured dots strategically placed in odd corners of your home. Put them somewhere you’re sure to see them.

You can set up timed or random occasions for catching autopilot throughout the day. Why not get creative with this; finding new ways to gently prod yourself to consciousness with an alerting stimulus? Try several until you find something that works. You may need to swap them around from time to time once your techniques lose their novelty and become an invisible part of the furniture, when you don’t respond to them anymore.

Once you’ve noticed you are in autopilot, then what? Simply being aware of what’s happening in the here and now, aware of both your internal thoughts and feelings, and of your surroundings, can give you some space. A welcome break from the chatter in your mind.

You can regularly interrupt the current of mindless inattention, by bringing your attention back to the present. I tell my coaching clients they can do this by practicing catching themselves in autopilot and bringing their attention to what’s happening in and around them. Then I encourage them to stop whatever they are doing for a few moments and bring their attention to their breath. This is a form of Mindfulness practice; a way of “taking control of our attention (self – regulation) with an attitude of openness, curiosity and acceptance.” (Bishop et.al. 2004 – in Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition.) 

This way you give yourself a chance to notice, then choose what you want to focus on. By checking in with yourself at regular intervals throughout the day, you’ll give yourself opportunities to ask yourself “What do I want to do right now? What could be next?”

Once you learn to catch your own autopilot behaviour, you’ll begin to notice things you didn’t notice before.

You can learn how to pull yourself out of autopilot and back into the present with:

  • Gradual practice building up bit by bit.
  • External prompts like a certain time of day.
  • Linking to things you do regularly like drinking a hot drink or glass of water.
  • Setting up timed or random occasions to draw attention to what you are doing.
  • Auditory prompts like bells or alarms, or custom noises.
  • Visual prompts like post- its, sticky notes or coloured dots.
  • Stopping what you’re doing and bringing your attention to your breath.

Before long you’ll also become more aware of the times when you’re putting your keys down. And begin to remember where to find them later.

Anna Schlapp, AACC, ACC, is a certified ADHD coach who specialises in creative solutions to triumph over the hurdles of ADHD. Anna helps those with challenges in organisation to co-create personalised blueprints for leading more amazing lives. Read more of Anna’s strategies for empowered productivity on her blog. To find out how Anna’s unique system can help you maximise your potential, ask about a complimentary coaching session.