It’s summer time here in the northern hemisphere. An ideal time for rest and relaxation, days at the beach, ice-cream, and outdoor activities, but alas many of us are unable to take time out and get off the treadmill of work, stress and pressure. Why is it so hard to decompress, de-stress and just tune out for a while? And where are the demands of the crazy busy life-style leading us?
We equate being busy with being important and indispensible. Our to-do lists never end. We make ourselves available 24/7. But do we really have to do all that stuff? Is it essential that we always be on call? Are others incapable of making decisions without us – or have we just trained them to be that way?
Let’s take a good, hard look at how productive we are really being when we keep running on our hamster wheel. Does our non-reflective busyness and distracted multi-tasking make us look, at work and at home, like “a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli.” Just fyi, that’s the definition of a zombie.
The horror show may be closer than you think. To take the zombie quiz, read on…..
- Do you ever find yourself on auto-pilot, mechanically going through the motions of working but, if truth be told, you really don’t care?
- Do you ever tune out in meetings or conversations, because there are all those other important things you should be doing?
- Do you reach for your smart phone first thing in the morning and find yourself irresistibly checking it in the bathroom, the car, and in meetings with other people?
- Do you arrive at work with no idea of how you actually got there?
- Do you surf the web and end up in a place you did not intend, without finding what you were looking for?
- Do you finish eating without having tasted your food?
- Do you attend meetings without any point and contribute nothing of value?
- Do you know anything personal about the people you work with or what they are really good at?
- Do you know what impression they have of you?
If you are concerned that you have been a little mindless lately, so busy or so habit-bound that you are neither productive nor aware of or responsive to others, here are a few experiments you can try:
Remedy 1: Catch yourself in the act of…..
At random points in your day, just stop and take notice of what you are doing.
- Scan your body and observe: What is your posture like? Is your jaw clenched? Is your heart racing? Are your shoulders tensed? Are you feeling tired? Wired? Just take three deep, slow breaths, and then move on with your day.
- Scan your feelings. Could you put a name to your emotions at any point in time? Experiments have shown that simply naming what you are feeling helps you to defuse any strong emotions and put them aside, so you can better concentrate on your work. Also, if you start to recognize the things that consistently trigger you to speak or act in an emotional way, you will be better able to choose to react differently and maintain self-control.
- Scan your thoughts. Are they focused and ordered? Do you have unhelpful chatter going on, that is preventing you from achieving what you want? Try to quieten your mind and give yourself permission to think of one thing at a time.
Remedy 2: Make conscious decisions
We are busy, busy people. One way we cope with this is to think as little as possible, and to resort to default patterns. We say the first thing that comes into our mind, we shoot off emails as quickly as we type, and we behave the way that comes most naturally to us, regardless of the impact we may be having on others. Now that’s all very well, if that impact is positive, and our default patterns are helpful in advancing us toward our goals. But what if that is not the case? What if we want different outcomes?
Next time, before you urgently respond to yet another fire-drill, lash out with a critical comment, or hit the send button, pause. Ask yourself: what is my intention here? Is this going to get me the results I want? This simple technique can have transformative effects on your productivity and on your relationships with others.
Remedy 3: Focus on whom you are with
Be honest. Have you in the past week checked one of your devices when in a meeting with someone? Become distracted in the middle of a conversation? Interrupted someone because you felt impatient or thought you had a better idea? Are you so busy that you are always only half-there? Do you never finish anything because you are always multi-tasking? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are probably spinning through your days in a semi-conscious haze, and letting life slip through your fingers.
Just slow down and pay attention to the person you are with or the task you are focused on at the time. Imagine what a difference that could make.
Remedy 4: Practice Creative Idleness
Back to the pleasures of summertime. Just take a break and do nothing at all. Or get involved in things you never normally have time to do. Let your thoughts run free for a while. You will be amazed at what shows up.
I’d be surprised if these experiments don’t yield pleasant results in terms of your own productivity, peace of mind, and performance. And you can be sure, no one will think of you as a zombie!