As you resume your work after the Christmas break, it is a good time to resolve to work smarter this year than you did last year.
Working smarter is a theme that runs through all the work that Meta does – it is essential if you want to be at your best and stay productive and healthy.
It is not difficult, in fact it is common sense, but we often forget to apply it when there seems so much to do. So what does it mean in practice?
1. Take breaks
If we stop and take a break when we are running out of energy, we give ourselves the chance to recover and become more productive again. Just a tea break, or a short walk can make all the difference.
2. Do what is most important not what is next on the list
It’s easy to just keep going through those mails and wear yourself out with the less important things. If you take a few minutes to decide what you really need to do that day, you are more likely to ensure that what matters most is what gets done well.
3. If it’s a big job chunk it down
If the task you have looks daunting, break it down into smaller chunks. Everything becomes more manageable if we don’t try to do it all in one go, but set ourselves part of the task to do each time, and we have a better sense of achievement.
4. Talk to people rather than email them
It is not only often more effective in resolving things to have a conversation with someone rather than try to do it by email, it is also good for us to have proper human contact in the course of our day.
Even if we only applied these principles to our workdays – and maybe our lives in general! – we would make it more likely that we didn’t exhaust ourselves, and that we enjoyed what we do more.
Keep them in mind as you launch into 2019 – it would be great to make this the year you enhance your care of yourself.
Happy New Year from the Meta team.
Di Kamp
Leadership Director of Meta
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