Time management - Playtime
Playtime
General
You work hard along with many others. You try to maximise the use of your time by doing as much as you can every hour of the day.
The problem is your energy levels begin to wane, your mind isn’t quite so receptive and alert as it was and you get less done and start to fall behind. You get frustrated, irritable, your sense of humour disappears and you get stressed and this causes a further decline in performance.
It’s a downward spiral.
You need to break the cycle and recharge the batteries, get back enthusiasm and get on top of the work.
Take a break. Have some playtime.
You need to relax your mind and stop thinking about work matters for a period.
We know that this comes easily to children who will play at any time, anywhere on any theme that they can think of.
It is best to take stock of your situation to see if you need regular breaks to recharge before someone else tells you.
Try to celebrate the little gains as much as the large; don’t just focus on the autopsy of failures.
This applies to your team or family as much as yourself.
Reasons for avoidance
- Many people will not admit they are overworked.
- It is easy to believe that you are the only one who can do the job.
- Others may think you are not capable if you admit being overworked.
Things to try
- Activities can become tedious because of routine. You don’t have to have a break as such. Just alter some of your habits. Why not travel to and from work via a different route?
- Contact people you haven’t seen for ages.
- Visit a place you have always wanted to go to.
- Enjoy a hobby or start a new one. Pay for a course of activity up front this will encourage you to do it.
- Think of something you only did when you were young and perhaps try it again.
- Pick up a takeaway on the way home and relax with some music or a film.
The principle is to indulge your self. Basically, what do you enjoy and haven’t made time to do?
If you have children then try to play with them more often at their level. No rules, no direction just play relax and forget about time constraints.
Little bits
It’s not always easy to just enjoy your self at the drop of a hat. If you are unable to do it at the time you may want to carry out a few preliminary things before you get around to the main event. Make a list of things you need to do, make a telephone call, check on availability of others etc. This will help you to look forward to the activity.
It is hard to work at peak efficiency for more than about an hour. So, why not take regular breaks. This doesn’t necessarily mean a 30 minute time out.
It just means finding something else to occupy your mind for 5 minutes or so to give your mind a chance to ‘breathe’.
Imagination
The exercise of imagination is extremely important.
So much so that Disney refers to ideas generators as ‘imagineers’ who are responsible for coming up with new concepts and making them reality.
To paraphrase Einstein he said that knowledge defines all we presently know but imagination gives us the opportunity to move forward.
Find time for imagination and use it. It may prove extremely useful.