Productivity at Work Tip #2: Wellness Breaks

This tip is part of our "Productivity at Work" series and is provided by Tom Von Deck, corporate meditation trainer, speaker, and author with DeeperMeditation.net.

Stress is cumulative, and so is peace. According to the American Institute of Stress, American workplaces pay $300 billion for the stress that employees accumulate.  For this reason, some companies actively encourage activities that accumulate peace.  It is rumored that Apple has a meditation room in its Cupertino headquarters, and each employee can use 2.5 hours per week for silent contemplation, stretching, or prayer in their afternoon wellness breaks.

What is not a rumor is that Tribe Inc, a company that designs employee engagement programs for corporate clients, also has a meditation room plus an ice hockey rink for its own employees.  Each employee can slip out of the office for healthy activities at any time until they reach a grand total of three "wellness hours" for the week.  Some employees follow along with guided meditation CDs, and others play hockey or take a stroll along the riverbank.

I have had the privilege of interviewing Tribe's president, Jennifer Bull, and two employees.  Each of them were very enthusiastic when telling me about the effects of this policy on their energy levels, absence rates, and overall productivity.  In fact, I've never experienced a higher level of employee morale at any workplace, or so it seemed when speaking to them.

Create Your Own Wellness Breaks

Your company may not have such policies.  In such a case, it is recommended that you make your own wellness breaks.  Stretch breaks can be great peace accumulators.  You can use the down times of your day for this or commit to at least 30 seconds out of each hour.  Try some head rolls and shoulder rolls.  Shake out the tension in your joints.  Bend over, touch your toes, and stretch the hamstrings.  This will anchor you in your body and in the present moment.  Keep a momentum in your stretch breaks, and you will notice profound results in your sense of peace and productivity.

Maybe you don't want to be the freak who gets up and starts stretching every hour.  There are less conspicuous things you can do in your wellness breaks.  Simple chair stretches are good for this.  The simple act of giving thanks for all the blessings in your life is another way to accumulate peace.  Some people naturally close their eyes and take a few deep breaths once in a while.  The possibilities are endless when designing your regimen of wellness breaks and stretch breaks at work.

Here's your challenge.  Make a list of activities, both conspicuous and subtle, that are grounding, relaxing, and centering.  Include some stretching exercises and physical activities in this list.  Create a system of wellness and stretch breaks at work that last between 30 seconds and 5 minutes a piece.  Try it for 30 days, then write down the difference you feel in energy levels, productivity, and the amount of times you feel like calling in sick.  You'll be surprised by the power of these brief intermissions, as they add up to huge results.

Tom Von Deck is an international corporate meditation trainer, speaker, and author of Oceanic Mind - The Deeper Meditation Training Course.  Tom specializes in making meditation a much easier process for busy people and a more customized process for people of all religious backgrounds, lifestyles, and temperaments.  One of the methods he employs to make meditation easier is to take stretch breaks at work because it works.  Learn more about Tom at DeeperMeditation.net.

Flickr image from lululemon athletica

Productivity at Work Tip #1: Delegate

This tip is part of our "Productivity at Work" series and is provided by Donald W. Mitchell, chairman of Mitchell and Company and founder of the 400 Year Project.

Everyone knows that if you can delegate a task to someone else, savings follow.  Yet, if you're like most busy managers, you find yourself torn because you feel that you're too busy to give the needed instructions to someone else.  If it will take longer to train someone than to do it yourself, you simply won’t delegate.  That’s usually a mistake.

Instead, ask yourself how much time you will spend doing the task over the next year.  If it’s only 15 minutes a week, that’s still 13 hours a year.  If someone else can be trained to perform the task in 3 hours, that’s a clear time saving within 4 months and over many months thereafter.  Even if the person leaves the organization, that person can train his or her replacement.

Delegating might enhance other parts of your work as well.  One example, a busy CFO used to spend 40 days a year negotiating budgets.  After he delegated that task to his controller, he saved 37 days a year, and he had more influence with operating executives, because he hadn’t used up all of his credibility with them during budgeting.

Schedule 2 hours a week to delegate tasks that will save the most time, and then just keep delegating!  After just a few months, more hours can be allocated to starting new delegations, so take advantage of that.

Donald W. Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company and the founder of the 400 Year Project to increase the rate of making improvements by 20 times while spending no more effort, hours, or money.  You can read more about the 400 Year Project at FastForward400.com.  Donald is also co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution describing how to be much more productive.

Flickr image from nkeppol

Done by Ten: A Simple Productivity Trick

I'm always on the lookout for a better way to work and a faster way to get things done, so I'm no stranger to productivity systems, and I've tried the lot (except GTD, too complicated - if I need a chart to remind me how to use it, there's a pretty good chance I won't).

This week I stumbled on a very simple trick for maintaining focus on the most important tasks of the day: done by ten.

I started out the week lacking motivation (after spending four relaxing days on the beach).  After too much fun in the sun, I just didn't want to get back to work.

I knew I had to get it in gear, and since motivation was the missing link, I gave myself a motivating deadline:

Finish the most important stuff by ten o'clock, and then you can do whatever you want.

Easy enough, and since it was a way to cheat a little and extend my vacation, I quickly jumped into action so that I didn't waste a single second of "free time" on work-related tasks.  I wanted to be done by ten o'clock, no later.

The first day was a success.  I moved all the big rocks of the day and even managed to wash a load or two of laundry post-trip.

The second day, even though I stayed up until 2 AM the previous night, I was still motivated to do my best to be done by ten, so I didn't allow myself to oversleep.  I jumped in again and got my list knocked out in no time.

The next few days were a bit of a stretch.  The tasks I had on tap were much more complex, so I finished between 1-4 PM, but the advantage was that my mindset had changed, so instead of wasting time surfing the Net or doing anything I could to keep myself occupied and away from work, I was diving head first into the most important thing.

Plus, there are no charts to memorize, no tight schedules to maintain, or overwhelming to-do lists to priortize.  I just think to myself, "I want to be done by ten," and that gives me an amazing super-power that somehow managed to elude me all this time: the ability to zoom right in on the most important priorities in my life and business.  Easy peasy.  No muss, no fuss.  Just done by ten, and then I can do whatever my distracted little heart desires, which (oddly enough) has been improving other areas of my life and business, so the sudden burst in productivity is a motivator all its own.

What's your simple trick for staying motivated and productive?