Resources Mentioned in video:

Developing Self Awareness Bundle 

Emotional Intelligence: you need to apply authentic kind of Empathy

The Effects of Emotional Intelligence on Productivity

References:

Holtz, O. (2020). Virtual Team Functioning: Modeling the Affective and Cognitive Effects of an Emotional Management Intervention. Group Dynamics, 24(3), 153–167.

Gabriel, K. (2020). Are Coworkers Getting Into the Act? An Examination of Emotion Regulation in Coworker Exchanges. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(8), 907–929.

Prefer to Read? Here’s the full transcript

As more studies show Emotional Intelligence improves employee productivity and job performance, it becomes a more coveted skill in the office and one that every serious professional needs to develop.

So, first things first, let us quickly recap.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

A quick definition is that Emotional intelligence is when you can understand the emotions of yourself and others and manage your own feelings well. It shows a balance between intelligence and self-awareness.

I go into great depth in this in one of my blog posts on emotional intelligence and being able to apply authentic kind of empathy.

But in a nutshell, these are the four categories where your emotional intelligence will be assessed.

So let us quickly go through this before we get into the tips.

4 categories of Emotional Intelligence

First one is Self-Management where you are able to think clearly in situations where you feel stressed, anxious, or angry. And Self-Management indicates being able to separate yourself and how you should act from your emotions.

In other words, for example, even if you are really irritated by a co-worker, you somehow manage to count to ten if necessary, and you give a calm response rather than screaming and shouting even if that is what you want to do.

Self-Awareness. This is going to help you to change negative habits, thoughts, or behavior. And when you have a high level of self-awareness, you can recognize how your beliefs and emotions affect your thoughts and behavior.

Then we have Social Awareness. Now this, one way of looking at this is your ability to “read the room.” You can understand what others need to feel comfortable, as well as see social dynamics at play.

Social Awareness indicates how well you pick up on social cues or needs. One way of looking at it is, when you walk into a room can you pick up the ambiance over there? Is it stressed or tense?

Many people say that is having empathy or even psychic abilities at some point, but the thing is, you’re aware enough to understand what’s going on even if nothing is being said.

And then there is Relationship Management where you manage conflict well, you work well with others, and you develop positive relationships overall. And, the best part is, relational management indicates good interpersonal skills and that is something you really do need if you wish to climb the corporate ladder.

Emotional Management Affects Productivity

So, before we get into the tips, let’s also look at some of the evidence about how Emotional Management is affecting productivity.

The Effects of Emotional Intelligence on Productivity (2018)

There is a thesis paper called The Effects of Emotional Intelligence on Productivity and I’ll share a link to see the study later.

But essentials of that study were that emotional intelligence is becoming an essential area of study to determine a person’s potential for overall success as well as success in the workplace.

And it also pointed out that although non cognitive skills are not always a factor that leaders use in determining workplace efficiency, but those skills can impact productivity.

Now this was a study done, it was a single case study in order to explore the impact of these non-cognitive skills and the perception administrators and employees have regarding skills that are critical to their jobs and work performance.

The conceptual framework that was used for this study was that of emotional intelligence theory authored by Daniel Goleman in 1995, which studied personality qualities.

The focus of this study comprised of 6 skills: communication, self-confidence, teamwork, work ethics, problem-solving ability, and leadership.

Several patterns and themes emerged relating to the effects of emotional intelligence on job performance and productivity. In fact, the findings from this study can impact future of non-cognitive skills in the work environment and could positively impact social change.

Organizational leaders could use the results to develop strategies that would enhance their decision-making process and develop tools to promote employee production and productivity.

Increases team cohesion

From there, there was another study done by the University of Valencia in Spain which demonstrated that increased team cohesion happened when there is emotional intelligence amongst the participants because of the synergy effect. This produces enhanced team task performance and has a positive effect on the motivational processes within the team, thus leading to more team engagement. In other words, a team can do better than as expected.

Improves co-worker relationships

It also improves co-worker relationships. Now there is another study which was done in 2020 which focused on the role of emotional regulation in exchanges between co-workers. And there, of course where deep actors refer to employees who “are driven to regulate their emotions with co-workers for pro social reasons”.

And the employees who were able to do that have the ability to build strong relationships with their co-workers and that in effect demonstrates benefits in productivity.

Conclusions from studies on workplace Emotional Intelligence

So the conclusions that I’d like to quickly sum up from these studies is that firstly,

Emotional intelligence is an asset.

The studies have shown that emotional intelligence training improved employee productivity. And that people who are emotionally intelligent can come up with solutions from a holistic perspective.

So now, are you interested in improving your emotional intelligence so that you can excel at work?

Good. Here are my tips.

Tips to build your Emotional Intelligence

The first one is Practice Self-Awareness and here are four ideas that you can use.

You can do reflections in journals. You can also notice when you react to something on autopilot. Think about the feedback you receive and practice seeing things from other people’s point of view too, not just your own.

Following from the self-awareness, learn to receive criticism with grace and use criticism as an opportunity to learn and grow.

You should also likewise see conflict as an opportunity to learn and understand more about others because conflict is going to happen, whether you like it or not. Whenever you have two people there will be, many times differences of opinion and it all comes down to who is able to handle it better and stay in control.

And then of course, learning to “read the room.”

Now here’s some tips for you.

How well do you pick up on the feelings of people around you? It’s the same thing I said when you walk into the room can you pick up a sense of what’s going on and from there do you know who to go to when you need a solution?

And what “unwritten rules” do people follow at your workplace?

Being able to read the room positions you as a change maker. So, it’s in your interest to start observing people and also assessing how they react so that you can come across better.

And then, learn to listen to others. Don’t do all the talking yourself. Make space for others as well. And in meetings many times people think that oh you know, if they hog all the talk time they are going to come across as you know being very intelligent. That’s not quite true.

You should try to listen in meetings and make an effort to ask people what they think. That’s what emotional intelligence is about – you also care about others.

But that of course doesn’t mean that you don’t speak up and express yourself. Do not be afraid to pitch your out-of-the-box ideas or make sure your opinions get heard!

We’re not saying just listen and keep quiet. We’re saying listen and also speak up.

And work to people’s strengths. Now you will have lots of people with different strengths and different kinds of talents. They may also have shortcomings. You have to learn to be flexible to the different types of people who make up your team.

And, to position yourself as a really good candidate for a further leadership role learn to create an environment for each person to thrive, be engaged and innovative. Because in today’s modern times, a leader is as good as his people are.

And the first step of course is to develop your self-awareness and I’ve got a simple self-study bundle where there’s an eBook with developing your self-awareness guide as well as the workbook where you can note down your findings and I encourage you to download it.

Final Words

So, my final words on the topic are that people with higher emotional intelligence have an easier time managing their stress levels, building better relationships, and reading the room.

Prowess in managing your own stress levels means that you can calmly lead a team through high-stress situations. That’s what influential leaders do. When you build better relationships it can help keep your team members engaged and motivated. And when they are motivated, they work better. They are more productive.

And being able to read the room means that you can know the right person to approach when you’re tackling a problem, or you learn to take action when you notice that a colleague feeling stressed. You know exactly when to step in before things spiral out of control.

So, I suggest that you try these suggestions for size and then let me know. And as a parting question, wouldn’t life be great with effortless stress management, better relationships, and being able to “read the room”?

Especially if it helps you improve your productivity as well as that of others in your workplace.

In the first part of this blog post series, we explored energy management.  I shared 3 methods to manage your energy for better mental, physical and emotional health.

We touched on working with our natural rhythms.

In this second part, we’ll explore how to manage that energy and combine it with time management using our natural rhythms. This will enable us to be truly productive without experiencing burnout.

Energy Management vs. Time Management

What’s more important when it comes to productivity – energy management or time management?

I’d say both are important and work in tandem.

You’ve likely heard the old adage, “Life is a marathon, not a sprint.” If you’re trying to manage your time effectively without paying attention to your energy management, you may end up with sprints rather than finishing the marathon of life.

Experts are now saying that productivity and success have more to do with how you manage your energy than it does with time management.

Eating healthy, staying fit, spending time with our children and connecting with others all take time and we do have to schedule some of our pursuits.

Whether we have the energy for those pursuits is a problem that’s often overlooked.

Trying to adhere to certain times to manage everything can leave us all exhausted. So much that we’re not even able to relax and enjoy ourselves when we’ve “scheduled the time” for it.

Having a schedule is important to manage our time but without the right level of energy to complete the tasks or activities, you’re not going to achieve much. You won’t be productive.

That’s a lesson I learned as a 10^th grade student when preparing for the board examinations was overwhelming not only me but all my classmates.

Fortunately, our class teacher knew we needed support, and we had an entire session on planning our daily schedule in prepping for the board exams.

He made it fun by telling us to block time using different colours . The real magic was our having to also put in blocks for rest and play and then doing 30 minutes of a subject that we found challenging.

I continued to use this technique all the way into preparing for my later examinations including those for my Chartered Accountancy qualification.

It would be years before I’d figure out that he was guiding us to use our energy and time effectively.

The key lesson here is that while you need to manage the finite resource of time, it’s equally important to manage your energy effectively.

This means taking time for recovering from those lengthy sprints you take so you can finish the marathon with ease rather than anguish.

Use these 4 tips for managing your energy effectively:

• List how you like to rejuvenate yourself. Make a list of what makes you feel refreshed, more creative and lifts your mood. Writing them down will help to remind you about the benefits of these uplifting activities. For example, watching a great series or show you’re following on television, sipping a cup of tea and listening to music can be very rejuvenating to your energy levels.
• Double the time you usually take for breaks. Don’t stick to a timetable when it comes to reviving your energy level. Take an hour rather than half an hour and have fun with whatever you’re doing.
• Reward yourself for every goal reached. Do you have lots of projects and it seems you’ll never finish them to be able to relax and enjoy yourself. Break those projects down into parts and reward yourself after you complete each one – rather than waiting until the entire project is finished.
• Make frequent recovery stops. While you’re on that mile-long sprint, you may feel the need to stop and renew your spirits and your energy. Do it! You’ll feel so much more like completing the marathon and you’ll be happier at the finish line.

Managing your energy is a much more effective way to get through life rather than putting time limits and making schedules for everything.

How does your Energy flow?

Your inner energy thermostat doesn’t pay any attention to the timetable you’ve created. Instead, you need to make your energy the most important factor in the long marathon you’re up against.

That starts with knowing your own energy flow. When you understand how your personal energy patterns ebb and flow, you can use that knowledge to support your time management strategy.

Some questions to consider:

• Are you a night person, who works late but starts slow in the mornings?
• Maybe you are an early bird who can get up before dawn, exercise, arrive early at work and have your in-box cleared before your boss arrives?
• Or are you a mid-day person who starts slow, picks up speed then tapers off in the late afternoon?

These patterns relate to your natural energy flow also called biorhythms.

You can observe yourself and note which hours are your prime working hours, the times when you can be highly productive with the least effort or tiredness.

Just make a simple chart of the day either on graph paper or on a spreadsheet-based graph.

List your waking hours on the bottom and a high, medium, low rating along the side.

Knowing your prime working hours (early bird, midday, evening) is extremely helpful in how you schedule the complicated tasks in your workday.

Your mind will be more alert, and you will have the energy to focus on complicated work.

During your off-peak energy times, gather related materials or do some aspect of the project that is less detailed and does not require a high level of creative energy or decision-making.

After using this approach for a few weeks, you’ll see what happened on those days when your time management plan seemed to derail even though you were motivated to do the work.

You simply scheduled the wrong task for your lower energy times and so your output was less than anticipated!

5 Tips on How to Manage Your Energy Levels

The varying degrees of your energy level can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Sometimes you have to have the energy to complete a task or activity and other times you seem to have the most energy when you’re trying to relax.

If you can learn how to manage your energy levels effectively, you can move ahead rather than lag behind.

Here are some tips about how to manage your energy levels so that you’re ready for anything – any time.

1. Determine the times you’re most energetic. As mentioned earlier, some people are more energetic in the mornings and others are night owls. You should be able to determine from past experience which time of day you get more done. Those are the times you should schedule the most harrowing or mind bending of tasks.
2. Identify what drains you of your energy. Be honest about this assessment. When you know which obstacles and situations keep you from being the best you can be, you can do what it takes to minimize them or eradicate them from your life.
3. When you do have energy is it negative or positive? If you have lots of energy, but your output is all about negativity, you are likely in a constant reactive mode rather than a positive, active mode. Negative, but energetic people never seem to have enough time to get things done.
4. Use your energy to make headway, not merely survive. We all have increasing demands on our time. The way that we meet it determines whether we go through life just barely getting by or having the energy to advance. Quit rushing through in survival mode simply to get things done. Choose performance over immediate solutions.
5. Be consistent in the way you handle situations. When you experience energy highs and lows, you may find yourself reacting to situations according to your energy level. If you’re energetic, you can be positive, but if you’re lethargic you could react in a totally negative manner. Try to be consistent in your reactions and it will help your energy levels to be consistent.

Thomas Leonard, a highly successful financial planner and business entrepreneur says that time is an illusion – “There’s no such thing as time management. There’s only activity management in the time we’re given.” How much activity you get done in that allotted time is directly responsible for how energetic you are.

Tip: Make your activities into priorities according to your energy level.

Performing low-energy tasks at times when you’re least energetic and high-energy tasks at times when your energy level is highest can help you meet all the demands and expectations and still have time to relax and enjoy life.

How to Effectively Manage Your Energy and Increase Productivity

It’s not just experts; more people are realizing the importance of managing their energy level rather than time to increase productivity.

There are many things and tasks that can zap your energy levels and make you much less productive than you could be.

It’s possible that you may also experience low energy levels during certain times of the day. If so, you should either take a break during those times or schedule non-important tasks.

If you’re finding that certain people, tasks or times of the day are taking a toll on your energy, it’s time to assess what those problems are and do something about them.

It’s about managing your energy effectively rather than your time.

Energy levels are different from person to person. If you’re a morning person who is at the top of their game at the first crack of dawn, you should schedule the more difficult, mind-boggling tasks at that time.

Others, who are night owls, should plan their schedules the opposite.

Some other ways to effectively manage your energy to get more done include:

• Delegate – Some people have difficulty with delegating tasks to others. But if you delegate tasks that aren’t in your zone of genius or which can be done by others and allow you to focus on more critical tasks, do it. You’ll be saving the energy you would have spent on something that can clearly be completed by someone else.
• Track your tasks – There are some great online tools (such as Google Tasks) that can help you track where your time and energy is being spent. You can break the larger tasks into smaller increments; do the most difficult ones when your energy level is high and mundane tasks when your energy level is lowest.
• Get rid of distractions – Distractions can be huge energy-drainers. If you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and other social media sites, you may find yourself wondering where the time has gone after you’ve spent an hour on one of these sites. Disconnect to save your energy and get more done. Stop alerts and hide the sites until you have some relaxing time to devote to them.
• Refresher breaks – Some of us can spend hours at our work desks without looking up or moving around. At the end of one of these sessions, you’ll notice that your energy is drained and you don’t have much left for anyone or anything else. The remedy is to take refresher breaks – get up and stretch and move around for a few minutes. Your productivity will likely increase.

In other words, getting in sync with your natural energy rhythms can help in so many areas of your life. Work, personal life and health are just a few of the ways that managing your energy can make you a happier and more productive person.

Taking small breaks improved my focus and productivity while preparing for my 10^th Grade Board Exams. Many of us were feeling overwhelmed with the study load and the importance of this exam. God Bless our class teacher who devised a system for us that worked.

We drew up a weekly timetable with different colors for each subject. Each subject was to be studied for 45 minutes and then switch to another subject.

I loved the idea of crossing out the boxes with a black marker pen as we went along.

But the clincher was the 15-minute breaks after every 2 study subjects. In other words, we got 15 minutes off after every 90 minutes of study.

The system worked and I topped my class without stress. Better still, the method still works after 40 years.

The only difference is my timetable is now on an Excel spreadsheet on my laptop. I still love crossing out the boxes!

Since then, I’ve learned some other strategies to go with this simple method helping me stay focused and efficient. And so can you.

The Dilemma of staying Productive in an Unproductive environment

We all want to be productive and efficient in the workplace. The good news is our bosses want that from us too.

The bad news? Even with the best of intentions, bosses sometimes can’t always create environments that facilitate productivity.

In the days when open office plans were the rage, the best they could do is tell you to work in the meeting room or if even work from home.

That doesn’t mean you can’t create your own productivity formula, though.

In fact, by taking small breaks regularly throughout the day you’ll be able to maintain your focus, thus being a more productive person.

I think our teacher knew that taking regular breaks during our study time would refresh our concentration and retention power. It would also help us to get more studying and revision done.

Years later, I found external evidence too in favor of regular breaks and even the duration of the break.

How often should these small breaks occur?

While there is wide range of opinions on this, there are 2 that answer this question.

MIT Sloan’s Robert Pozen recommends a break after 75 (to 90) minutes.

The Energy Project’s Tony Schwartz also recommends a break after 90 minutes.

Schwartz’s research shows that humans naturally move from full focus and energy to physiological fatigue every 90 minutes.

Our body sends us signals to rest and renew, but we override them with coffee, energy drinks, and sugar… or just by tapping our own reserves until they’re depleted.

That’s when we experience burnout and literally collapse.

While Schwartz suggests we purposefully take short breaks every 90 minutes throughout the day to drink water, walk, or to eat healthy snacks, even pausing to do a short meditation or power nap would do wonders.

I love his mantra is, “Pulse and pause.” It’s this idea of pulsing energy that’s behind the Pomodoro Technique developed by Francesco Cirillo.

With the Pomodoro method, you set a timer for 25 minutes, work on a single task with your full focus, then take a 5-minute break to get up, move around and maybe drink some water. Then, you repeat the cycle.

These experts believe that working for up to 90 minutes at a time will take advantage of the brain’s focus and consolidation modes.

Quite simply, there are 90 minutes of focus, and a 15-minute break allows your brain to consolidate and retain that information efficiently.

Not every position or schedule will allow you to take regular breaks at specific times. If this doesn’t describe your job, then simply take breaks where possible.

If someone is running late for a meeting, that’s your opportunity to grab five minutes to yourself.

That’s a technique I used in the office when leaving the desk for a full 15 minutes or so wasn’t possible. It also helped prevent a back problem or carpal tunnel syndrome in my hands.

I must point out that a lot depends on the culture of the company that you work for. Many owners and managers frown upon breaks.

We’ve gotten into this habit of scarfing down a quick lunch without even walking away from our desks.

All in the name of productivity. All to be seen to be doing the right thing. The right thing, though, for your health and your productivity, is to take your breaks!

The right way to take regular breaks

Plan to take a break at least every 90 minutes. If you want to be productive and maintain your focus, then you will protect your concentration by taking regular breaks.

The key lies in making the right decisions and not use it as an excuse to do wrong activities.

Resist every urge to hop online when you are supposed to be working. Don’t be tempted to check emails when you’re supposed to be focused on a project.

Another way to protect your focus is to resist eating junk at lunch. A burger may be quick, easy, and delicious, but it isn’t feeding your brain.

All of these decisions and choices that you can make throughout the day adds up to maintaining your focus and concentration.

It’s all about training your willpower and building up that muscle.

That, of course, includes those regular breaks.

The Pomodoro technique advocates for breaks after 25 minutes. Some experts suggest a break after 50 minutes.

That’s well and good if you work from home or have an understanding boss. 90 minutes is your goal.

It’s worth noting that DeskTime research found that the most productive employees worked 52 minutes (on average) before breaking for 17-minutes.

Why? It might be that we are more focused and remain focused because we know there’s a break coming.

If you think about a traditional working situation, then you know exactly how you lose focus as a break approaches.

Your body and brain are desperate to get to that break and you start to lose focus. You completely shut down and turn off, watching the clock for the magic number.

It’s different when you enjoy regular breaks. You don’t watch the clock because you are refreshing your concentration regularly. Try it out and see how much of a difference it makes.

Make those break time minutes matter. Most organizations have firewalls on their servers and internet so checking social media or watching puppy and kitten videos might be out.

Here are some better ideas:

Exercise: Do small workouts within your office space. If that isn’t possible, how about walking up and down the stairs for a few minutes?

Walking: Take a walk to clear your mind and get some genuine Vitamin D. This will improve your concentration powers too.

Chat with your colleagues: Research shows that employees who socialize are happier at work and are able to do as much as their non-socializing co-workers.

If you aren’t sure whether your boss will allow you to do this, you can try it at home with a project.

The difference it makes to your performance might be enough to help you convince your boss to make the change in the office.

Frequent breaks are part of the survival kit for every office worker – they can improve your eyesight, reduce back pain, arthritis, stress levels, and even the risk of heart disease.

Simply put, working non-stop for long periods of time can lead to cognitive boredom and that’s when we tend to make mistakes most.

The human brain isn’t able to focus for 8 hours at a time. Besides giving your mind a break, it gives you a chance to take advantage of the Zeigarnik Effect, another productivity hack.

More importantly, your body gets a chance to rest and even boost your productivity.

Isn’t that worth taking regular breaks?

Actually, it’s not so secret. You’re most probably using it without realizing that you’re using it or that it has a name.

Did you watch Dallas in the 1980s?

Remember the Season Finale which ended with the question Who Shot JR?

That dear reader is an example of The Zeigarnik Effect.

A simple technique, it’s something that’s commonly adopted in TV serials where cliff-hangers guarantee that viewers will return to the program because they want to find out what happened and get closure.

Last year I saw a series of Nescafe ads that used this effect to perfection. In the story, the famous Indian actress Deepika Padukone has a new neighbor who is aware of her celebrity status and how they become friends over a mug of coffee.

There’s a minute worth of advert with the signage ‘to be continued’. Of course when the ad came on, our eyeballs were glued to the Idiot Box.

I love Nescafe and if I hadn’t, I’d certainly have gone and bought some.

Closer to home, let me ask you a question.

Do you remember the work you’ve done or keep fretting over the tasks that you have to complete and are either incomplete or not started?

If you answered affirmative to the latter, then you’re experiencing Zeigarnik Effect.

In psychology, the Zeigarnik Effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.

Moreover, if we are doing a task, in an interested and motivated way, and have to stop doing it, we’ll find it hard to settle until we get back to the task and finish it.

The Power of Observation – How the Zeigarnik Effect Was Discovered

The Zeigarnik Effect is named after Bluma Zeigarnik, a Russian psychologist, who worked with Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin in Vienna.

One day in 1927, while sipping coffee in a restaurant in Vienna, she noticed that all the waiters seemed to remember all the orders which were unpaid and in the process of being served. When completed, however, the orders evaporated from their memory.

Back in the laboratory, Zeigarnik decided to test the theory on her students. She set them a range of tasks such as solving puzzles and stringing beads.

In some tasks, she allowed them to finish; in others, she interrupted them half-way through. Afterwards, she discovered that the students were more likely to remember the interrupted tasks than the completed ones!

Are you brave enough to try this experiment? It’s easy, you do nothing!

The best way to prove a point is to try it. Here’s my challenge to you.

I suggest you purposefully leave an activity or task that you know you need to complete unfinished for just 1 hour (if you’re braver, then for the whole day) and observe how you feel.

Do you feel relaxed or uncomfortable? At ease or uneasy? Do you think I’ve suggested something crazy to you?

You WILL feel uneasy and disconcerted and I promise you, the activity that you’ve left incomplete will be top of mind for you.

You’ll experience task-specific tension.

Lewin’s field theory states that a task that has already been started establishes a task-specific tension, which improves cognitive accessibility of the relevant contents. The tension is relieved upon completion of the task. If the task is interrupted, the reduction of tension is impeded. Through continuous tension, the content is made more easily accessible, and can be easily remembered.

This explains why some professionals are great at multi-tasking and maintain their productivity too, even though at times they feel they’ve become jugglers. (I’ve shared precious tips to fulfil Multi-tasking Job Skill requirements while exuding Executive Presence in this blog post.)

Coming back to the subject of my post, the Zeigarnik Effect suggests that not finishing a task creates mental tension, which keeps it at the forefront of our memory.

You can only alleviate this tension by completing the task.

As such, the phenomenon proposes that making a start on something – no matter how big or small – keeps it ticking way at the back of your mind until you reach the end.

And the same goes for your seemingly impossible task. Just make that first step and the rest will follow.

I use the Zeigarnik Effect whenever I really want to get an important task done but feel my energy is wavering.

For example, when I’m working on a blog post on a topic that I’m passionate about, I start writing it, research the images and quotes that I want to use and then stop. I commence on another activity using the Pomodoro Technique or just take my dog out for a walk.

My mind is still on the task at hand and while I’m enjoying my furry friend’s company, I am eager to get back to the task at hand and relieve myself of the tension created by incompletion.

If I’m suitably motivated, I’ll return and complete the post, images and upload it to my blog within 30 minutes. Otherwise I leave it till the next day.

As a social scientist and student of behavioural psychology, I was keen to find out how I was actually getting more done and more importantly, how to guide others to do the same.

I discovered there were 3 critical factors involved – my motivation level, nature of experience and the amount of work I had done before I stopped.

Whenever I’m passionate about something or highly motivated, then I return quickly to the task to hasten completion and enjoy the sense of achievement.

If I’m not excited, then I have to commit to a time schedule or I’ll procrastinate. For example, paying bills is something that I’ve slotted a day of the month and scheduled in my diary to complete no matter what.

While I enjoy development and business tasks, I don’t want to let maintenance tasks fall to the side. I teach my entire Time Management Strategy and Tactic in my course.

I also discovered that how far I had gone in doing my task mattered. If I had completed at least 10%, then the probability that I would return to it sooner increased and so did task completion. There has to be some skin on the teeth and it’s easier to complete what one has started rather than feel a sense of disappointment or failure.

If you love reading research, then this article by Will Joel Friendman, PH.D is one that you will definitely want to check – The Zigarnik Effect and Completing Everything.

3 Step Plan to apply the Zeigarnik Effect to reduce anxiety and being productive

Step 1: Make a list of all your pending tasks for the day – the good, the bad and the ugly. It doesn’t matter at this point how you feel about the task, just the task.

After you’ve brainstormed your list, take a good look at it and decide which ones are priorities and cross out the superfluous tasks.

Assess the amount of time required for each task. If it’s a short one, do it immediately. If it will take time, then move to the next step.

Step 2: Start the task but stop at a point when you’d really like to go on and take a break doing something completely different. All through your break, your subconscious brain will be quietly sorting out how to complete the unfinished task (like the blog post example I shared earlier).

Things will then fall into place allowing you to complete the task more efficiently than if you’d carried on without stopping.

Step 3: This step may sound counter-intuitive but leave a task unfinished at the end of the day. This will motivate you to pick up that incomplete task the next day and finish it faster. It’ll also give you the momentum to start new tasks because you’ll already have that sense of achievement and good feelings are the best motivators I can think of.

Your turn – how do you maintain productivity and avoid anxiety?

PS. Did you notice how I used this technique in the blog post? 🙂