Have you ever found that the more you concentrate on work, the less concentrated you become? It’s a strange phenomenon that affects everyone, but there are reasons why it does. Perhaps you find that the more you try, the worse your performance is. Or the more you re-do a piece of work, the poorer it becomes in quality?
We can all sometimes fall into the trap of believing that devoting every waking moment of your entire life to your work means you’ll get more done. And though it may appear that the straight hours we’re clocking in are showing in the quantity of our work produced, in the long run the quality of work can suffer massively. Being locked in to what we’re doing and not taking any breaks is actually very detrimental to both our mental and physical health, which therefore negatively affects our work in many different ways.
But there are ways to boost the output of our work, even when we’re taking a well earned break or settling down for a good night’s sleep, and, no, it’s got nothing to do with special concentration or sleep apps on our smartphones. Instead, it has something to do with that famous phrase: sometimes the old ways are the best.
Books Can Inspire
If you are feeling deflated or unable to concentrate, you might find that absorbing a book or two can give you inspiration about your job and your life in general. You can dive into fiction, or explore a number of self help, business or other non fiction books to draw ideas from. Some great motivational speakers have written books to help people like you make more out of work and life. You might find that a book can change the way you view your work, your family, your friends and your body, and give you a more positive outlook in general. Books can also stop you from feeling stressed, which we will move onto now.
A Book a Day Keeps the Stress Away
Reading has become something of a lost art in today’s modern culture of digital everything or else why even bother. Even if you were interested in a new novel that was coming out, the fact that your phone can hold millions of songs, downloaded and saved so that you can listen whenever and wherever you want to, means you’d probably just download the audiobook and listen to it instead (from a price perspective, this also seems like the more frugal method of consuming literature).
But by listening to books instead of reading books, you’re missing out on all the health benefits associated with reading the physical copy, benefits that positively affect your work output. The benefits of reading include the prevention of cognitive decline, strengthening of the brain, alleviation of depression, reduction of stress and lengthening of the lifespan, among so many more. Given that all of those issues can lead to work absence, you can also expect to be healthier and happier at work if you read a book or two.
This study explores the link between reading skills and attention, and the results are fascinating. It found that the ability to pay attention is actually strongly linked to both reading accuracy and speed of reading, and this makes sense from a neurological perspective; neurologically speaking, reading is far more demanding than speech or image processing which forces greater concentration. Something to think about!
In terms of relieving stress, which we know is important at work, reading is perhaps the most accessible and beneficial method of doing so. This 2009 study comparing the stress relief between reading, yoga and humour found that 30 minutes of reading was just as effective at lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and feelings of psychological distress as yoga and humour. That can definitely be squeezed into anybody’s busy schedule, and a short reading break can only do wonders for your productivity.
If you’re looking for something to read that can be beneficial to your productivity, here’s another blog of ours that can help you with that. Scroll down for how else we can help you…
How Flexispot Can Help
Stress is a big problem when working as a high functioning professional in your industry, and yet we ignore the problems that can be easily solved by using the right equipment.
The FlexiChair BackSupport Office Chair BS8 has been purpose built to serve your professional needs, and its ergonomic support will no doubt cultivate a calm and soothing atmosphere while you tuck into your next read.
If you want to learn more about our products and how they can help you reach your professional goals, please speak to us and we’d be more than happy to help.
