Chapter 7

Being human: how your personality affects your productivity

Productivity is inherently personal. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for someone else. Some would say the secret to productivity is to be super organised, while others say it’s more about getting into the flow of your passion and creativity. Some say stop talking and get on with it, while others argue that thoughtful and consistent action wins every time.

There’s probably a little bit of truth in all those statements for everyone, but we each have our own bias, preference and natural style.

The more we understand our own personality and preferences, the more we can tailor our productivity, habits and strategies to suit – rather than try and have a personality transplant. One tool I find really useful with clients is the DiSC profile.

The DiSC profile

DiSC is a behavioural assessment profile that helps you to understand yourself and the people you work with. DiSC stands for dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness. It gives you insight into your working preferences and tendencies, your motivators and stressors, your needs, communication styles and how to work effectively with people who are different from you or people who are too much like you. What follows is a brief introduction to the model to give you an idea of how different behavioural styles give rise to different productivity strengths, challenges and strategies.

Meet Tim, Claudia, Sam and Kate. They are not real people but, rather, a combination of clients and colleagues I’ve worked with in the past, who each have different styles, needs and preferences. As you read through their examples, you might find yourself identifying strongly with one or with a blend of characters. Notice what resonates with you – and what insights you can draw out for yourself, and also notice what rings true for other people you work with – your team, your clients, your colleagues, your boss or even members of your family – and ask yourself what this might mean for how you work and relate to them.

Meet Tim

Tim is bold, ambitious and driven. He loves a challenge and is always the one to push for new horizons and stretch goals. If you want to get something done quick, Tim’s your man. He will cut to the chase and have the wheels in motion quicker than you can say ‘let’s have a meeting’.

His colleagues love his confidence and drive. He’s a force of nature: straight to the point and not afraid to speak his mind. He’s a great person to have on your side, but woe betide the person who gets in his way. His single-minded focus always gets results but can be hard for others to keep up with and can, sometimes, cause collateral damage or land him in hot water.

He’s a doer who doesn’t have time for indecisiveness and gets bored by the mundane and routine. He hates being bogged down by red tape and protocol. His directness can sometimes come across as rude and his impatience can make him dismissive of slower or indecisive people. But if you want to get something done quickly or to confront the elephant in the room, he’s your man.

If you’re anything like Tim, you’ll probably find that:

You enjoy: initiating change, taking risks, thinking big, being bold and taking charge. To stay motivated, make sure you have plenty of clear actions and immediate results to focus on, are being challenged by stretching goals and healthy competition and have a good dose of freedom and independence to make your own decisions.

You’re drained by: too much detail, mundane and routine tasks. Watch out for procrastination here. Look for opportunities to delegate, automate, or create a challenge by turning it into a game to see how fast you can get things done.

You get frustrated by: indecisiveness and having to slow down. Avoid long-winded meetings and having nothing to do when you have to wait. Give others the opportunity to think ahead, or allow processing time afterwards. Agree timings and dates so you can park it in @waiting and get on with something else. Offer to join meetings later, when the details have been hacked out and a decision is ready to be made.

Your biggest fears: are likely to come from losing control, being taken advantage of or feeling vulnerable. Watch out for your lizard brain when you feel threatened in these areas.

Things that come naturally to you: being decisive, taking charge, casting bold vision and speaking up when nobody else will. Offer these skills to your colleagues – not everyone finds this easy!

Things to tell your colleagues:

‘I need the big picture – just give me the headlines.’

‘Don’t worry about sugar-coating. You can get straight to the point with me.’

‘I need to know why we’re doing this – what does success look like here? What’s the outcome?’

‘Bear with me, I can be very direct. Excuse me if I come across as blunt. I don’t mean to be rude.’

‘I tend to move quickly and think on my feet. Let me know if I’m going too fast and you need more time to process.’

‘If I’ve upset you, please tell me.’

Meet Claudia

Claudia is outgoing, enthusiastic and optimistic. A real people person, Claudia comes alive when she’s around people – whether that’s networking in a room full of strangers, collaborating on projects or having a good natter with friends.

Her colleagues love her passion and energy. A natural storyteller and networker, she can both charm and inspire audiences of all sizes, which is why she’s likely to be one of the most well-connected people they know. Her enthusiasm is infectious and brings life to any meeting or party, although sometimes her tendency to gloss over detail can come across as fluffy. An eternal optimist, she likes to see possibility in every idea and tends to trust and look for the best in people, which makes her more cautious colleagues nervous.

Impulsive and creative, she prefers to go with the flow. While she’s quite happy to fly by the seat of her pants, this can cause chaos for those who prefer a little more stability and preparation and earn her a reputation for being a bit flaky and last-minute. Although she wishes she was more organised, she does secretly like the buzz of a deadline. In fact, when there’s no deadline in sight, she might run out of steam and be distracted by the next shiny thing before she’s had a chance to follow through.

If you’re anything like Claudia, you’ll probably find that:

You enjoy: the buzz of new ideas, working with others, expressing yourself and being on the move. To stay motivated, look for opportunities to talk through your ideas, collaborate, focus on forward movement and express your goals as inspiring positive outcomes rather than problems or pain you want to avoid, and build in plenty of opportunity for positive external feedback.

You’re drained by: too much detail, structure, systematic tasks and too much time alone – watch out for procrastination here. Seek an accountability partner, a change of scenery, or look for creative ways to spice up the boring work – and get moving. Your energy comes from being on the move so if you find yourself stuck in a rut, do something (anything) that gets you started.

You get frustrated by: critical questions and you shy away from giving unpleasant feedback – you see this as being negative. Be aware that, sometimes, other colleagues simply may have a more naturally questioning style and may not be directly attacking you or your ideas. And sometimes colleagues appreciate you being direct with them! Also look for where others are passionate – they might be more reserved or quieter in expressing it, but seeing their passion will help you to get inspired.

Your biggest fears: are likely to be around social rejection, disapproval, loss of influence and being ignored. Watch out for your lizard brain when you feel threatened in these areas.

Things that come naturally to you: socialising, networking, encouraging, brainstorming and inspiring. These are skills you enjoy using and probably find fun and energising, so let your colleagues know that you would welcome the opportunity to use them!

Things to tell your colleagues:

‘Can I give you the broad idea and ask you to flesh out the detail?’

‘What else do you need to know?’

‘I love a good brainstorm. I’m here if you want to talk it through.’

‘I think best in conversation – can we have a chat about this?’

‘Am I getting carried away here? Is there anything I’ve missed?’

‘Please feel free to nudge me in a couple of weeks, if you haven’t heard from me.’

‘I’d like your feedback – what do you like, what are you not so keen about and what questions do you have?’

Meet Sam

Sam is thoughtful, friendly and patient. A natural helper, Sam loves being part of a team and meeting other people’s needs.

His colleagues love his calm, collaborative and supportive nature. He’s a true team player, a genuine nice guy and, some would say, the glue that holds everyone together. He takes a steady, methodical and thorough approach to his work and can always be relied upon to see a job through to completion, but sometimes can frustrate others who want to move forward at a quicker pace. Not one for the limelight, he much prefers to be in the background, refining systems and making everything run smoothly, but he does appreciate genuine praise and knowing that he’s making a difference.

Because he gets a lot of satisfaction from helping others, he’s incredibly accommodating and will often put other people’s needs above his own. He shies away from conflict so may not always speak his mind, especially if more expressive characters have the floor. He values consensus and collaboration over speed, which can sometimes lead to indecisiveness. His natural empathy, combined with his patience, makes him a great listener and an incredibly loyal asset to the team. He’s the one who remembers everyone’s birthdays and always goes the extra mile to make sure a customer is totally satisfied.

If you’re anything like Sam, you’ll probably find that:

You enjoy: collaboration, helping people, giving support and working to a steady rhythm. To stay motivated, break big goals into steady steps, build-in routines that give you stability, seek opportunities to collaborate, develop relationships, focus on how your work supports others, ask for feedback and make sure you have a support network too.

You’re drained by: conflict, too much task-focused work rather than people-focused work, having to make major decisions independently, being overstretched – watch out for procrastination and burnout here. Seek opportunities to collaborate: engage your customers or stakeholders so you can be motivated by the people that you are helping, ask for help to talk through and break down major decisions, build-in me time to make sure you’re tending to your own needs.

You get frustrated by: decisions that overlook people, working in a tense or chaotic environment, being rushed and reacting to last-minute changes. Ask for thinking time to process and build in routines and rhythms to give yourself some certainty, especially if you’re in a season of rapid change. Remember that chaos or conflict is not always negative or personal; give people room to rant and blow-off steam and know that, sometimes, the best teams don’t always have to agree to be able to work together. If you are making a case for people to someone who is task-/results-focused, get them on board by drawing the focus back to how it affects bottom-line results.

Your biggest fears: are likely to be around loss of stability, change, loss of harmony and offending others. Watch out for your lizard brain when you feel threatened in these areas.

Things that come naturally to you: establishing routines and habits, systemising and making things methodical, breaking big goals into step-by-step actions, bringing a team together, getting people to collaborate, listening, bringing calm to chaos – you probably do all this so naturally that you don’t even acknowledge it as a strength. But not everyone finds it easy, so give yourself permission to shine in these areas and take pride in your natural talents.

Things to tell your colleagues:

‘This is becoming a regular thing. Shall I create a process to make everyone’s life easier?’

‘I’d like to process this a bit further – can I drop you a line later with some more ideas/questions?’

‘I like to be prepared – can you send me an agenda so I can make sure I come with my best ideas?’

‘Can we have a quick catch up next week to make sure I’m on the right track?’

‘Can I send you the draft to make sure I’m on the right track?’

‘How urgent is this? When do you need to know by?’ (So you can prepare, rather than react.)

‘This is happening more quickly than I’d like. Can we establish what we need to cut down to accommodate the new deadline?’

Meet Kate

Kate is quiet, logical and precise. An expert with high standards, Kate loves solving problems and diving deep into detail.

Her colleagues love her thorough eye for detail and attention to quality. She likes to plan ahead and take a systematic approach to her work and will persevere with quiet diligence until the job is done. Objective and logical, she much prefers facts to emotion, analysis to assumption, and research to impulse. If she doesn’t know the answer, she’d rather take her time to figure it out than bluff her way through or go with general consensus.

A true professional, working within strict rules and guidelines doesn’t phase her. In fact, she prefers knowing where she stands and welcomes the opportunity to bring order and stability with routines and procedures. In social situations she tends to be more private and reserved, seeing little value in casual small talk, but she’s not afraid to ask the difficult questions, especially when it comes to analysing risk. In fact, her 101 questions can drive her colleagues mad, especially when they want to move forward quickly, but if you want something done right, you know Kate will leave no stone unturned and no ‘i’ undotted.

Her focus on high quality and efficiency means she often picks up on details where others glaze over but, as a perfectionist, she reserves her highest standards for herself. She hates being wrong and beats herself up for making mistakes and is likely to spend much more time preparing, analysing and checking her work compared to others. While this generally pushes her to achieve her best, it can also hold her back from taking risks or taking action until she’s 100 per cent certain of her own abilities and the situation in hand.

If you’re anything like Kate, you’ll probably find that:

You enjoy: research, analysis, complex details and in-depth problem solving. To stay motivated, look for opportunities to get involved in longer-term projects that require depth and focus, rather than immediate quick fixes, pursue work that allows you to develop your area of expertise and structure your day and working environment to give you sizeable chunks of time where you can be absorbed in your work, in between smaller tasks and people-facing time.

You’re drained by: unpredictability, erratic or emotional people, chaotic environments, conflict, being wrong or unprepared, feeling rushed and having little private time. Proactively agree expectations, outcomes and communication needs with colleagues to reduce the potential for interruptions and reactive working, negotiate time and space to work independently, practise stealth and camouflage, request meeting agendas upfront (explain this is how you can contribute your best ideas) and request time to think when a request puts you on the spot.

You get frustrated by: mistakes, especially when they are a result of slipshod methods, lack of regard for rules or procedure, when people get carried away by enthusiasm, when quality is sacrificed for speed or where your expertise has been overlooked or ignored. Expand your fact finding to what motivates your colleagues (others may value speed, action or people above accuracy). Present your concerns as questions that provide insight to help them achieve their goal. Your eye for detail can be of service rather than a criticism or a road block that halts progress altogether.

Your biggest fears: are likely to be related to being wrong, especially if others criticise your work or spot a mistake, and taking risks when you don’t have all the facts. Watch out for your lizard brain when you feel threatened in these areas and be careful not to take mistakes too personally – sometimes things just don’t work out and that’s not always a bad thing, nor is it your fault.

Things that come naturally to you: in-depth research, complex problem solving, quality assurance, testing, probably anything that involves fine detail and facts. What you’re good at and enjoy, others may be actively procrastinating and resisting. Offer to help with the detail and not only will you be doing them a big favour, but you’ll also satisfy yourself that it’s done properly.

Things to tell your colleagues:

‘Would you like me to give that a once over?’

‘Shall I take a look into the detail for you?’

‘What are the key factors of success here?’

‘Can you send me the agenda on Monday so I can be prepared with my best ideas?’

‘Let me think this through and come back to you with my questions/comments by Thursday.’

‘Let me take this away and work on it. When do you need an update/the finished product by?’

‘I’d like to get a full understanding of all the variables so I can crack on with putting the solution together. Rather than go back and forth with meetings and emails, can we book in a morning/afternoon to get it hammered out once and for all?’

Strengths and weaknesses

What would come to mind if I asked you about your strengths and weaknesses? You may be tempted to focus on your strengths and ignore or avoid your weaknesses. Or you might find your weaknesses come to mind much more easily, as they are the things you struggle with and stumble at, the things you think you ought to be better at or have resigned yourself to being rubbish at. They are the words you would choose to complete the sentence: ‘I’m too…’ or ‘I’m not very…’. The areas you have spent time, energy, money and attention trying to fix or improve.

Now, I want to ask you, what’s the hidden strength in that weakness?

Our strengths and weaknesses are not two separate things. They are two sides of the same coin. Every strength overused becomes a weakness and every weakness hides a strength.

As my friend Marianne Cantwell put it, ‘Our weaknesses are just our strengths in the wrong environment.’¹ It’s where something we’re really good at gets misused, overused or simply used in a place where it isn’t appreciated, like Marianne’s own love for change and seeking new solutions. It got her into trouble in her old job where she was being paid to follow the status quo, ask no questions and just get the job done, but now her fresh insights and incisive questions are exactly what her Free Range Humans love and value about her and pay her for.

I was bowled over recently by my nine-year-old’s teacher at parents evening. There are really only three things I want to know as a parent at parents evening: 1) How’s my child doing? 2) Is he in an environment where he can thrive? 3) What can I do to help?

The teacher could have said: ‘Yes, he’s doing fine, well above what’s expected. The only thing he needs to work on is his pace, as he can be a bit slow. This is what you can practise with him at home…’ But, instead, he described our son as a thoughtful boy who cares about getting things right, a methodical learner who is hungry to learn and does best when he takes it step by step; a deep thinker you won’t hear from for a while, but when he does contribute to a group discussion, he’s worth listening to; and a powerful writer whose words are something his teacher looks forward to reading.

Now, that’s a teacher who knows my boy. And because of that, his classroom is an environment I know he’ll thrive in. If he had focused only on the weakness, we would have known one tiny little fact about who he’s not, and missed everything about who he is.

When we focus on our weaknesses, all we notice is who we’re not. Where can we really go from there?

Our weaknesses stem from our strengths. They are our strengths overused: when drive becomes stubbornness, when directness becomes rudeness, when compassion becomes people pleasing, when an ability to make stuff happen becomes control freakery, when attention to detail becomes perfectionism, when thoughtful becomes slow, when fast becomes impatient, when improvisation becomes unreliability, when imagination becomes easily distracted, and when possibility becomes indecisiveness.

Our gut instinct is to suppress those weaknesses by changing who we are. But when we focus on our strengths – especially the strength that lies at the heart of each weakness – we can start to channel our strengths in the direction where they will grow healthily instead of spiral out of control. We can harness them in an environment where they will thrive and be valued. We can refine them into something that’s brilliant and beautiful rather than destructive.

More than that, our strengths are who we are. When we ignore our strengths, we hide who we really are. We see only a glimpse of who we could be, just a shadow of our strengths, overused or misdirected. When we nurture our strengths, we honour who we are, we learn how to handle ourselves, we grow to become the best of who we can be and we thrive. Boy, do we thrive.

Redefining weakness

What would you consider to be one of your weaknesses? Find the strength that’s hidden within and speak it out like it’s a good thing.

For example, instead of saying, ‘I’m easily distracted by shiny new ideas’ how about, ‘I have my best ideas at the most unexpected times, so I will make sure I’m always ready to capture them.’

Instead of saying, ‘I’m such a perfectionist’ try, ‘I have high standards and take pride in my work. I may not be the fastest, but I always deliver quality – I just need to remind myself to “deliver” that quality rather than perpetually edit and keep it to myself.’

Harnessing strength

What are your strengths? Where are your strengths most appreciated? What environment do you thrive best in? How often do you get to work in that environment? What changes could you make to your work or the way that you work to operate from a place of strength more often?

What life support or coping strategies do you need to put in place when you are not in that environment? As human beings, we are very adaptable. While spending all your time out of your element is not advised, we can surprise ourselves with how much we can flex outside of our comfort zone when the purpose or situation calls.

What can you do to nurture your strengths? What training could you pursue to develop your strengths? What opportunities would allow you to practise and grow your natural abilities? What support, mentoring or inspiration would feed those strengths

Bear with me

Let’s stop thinking we have to be perfect or entirely normal. As human beings, we sometimes defy logic and we all have our own foibles and quirks. That’s what makes our contributions and creations more unique. Instead of hiding behind a mask of complete normality, what conversations can you have with those you live and work with?

If you are easily distracted by shiny things, who could you give a heads up to, or permission to call out your magpie behaviour when it’s not serving you well? If you find yourself getting bored or bogged down in detail, where would it be appropriate to admit openly that you may not have covered all the angles, who could you hand over the baton to, to cast an eagle eye over the finer details? If you have a tendency to be as subtle as a bull in a china shop, who would it be useful to forewarn that your directness doesn’t necessarily mean you have upset, angry, dismissive or combative, but that you just tend to be economical with your words? If you don’t think best on your feet, when might it be useful to say, ‘Bear with me. I need some time to process this. Let me come back to you.’?

When we are open about our imperfections, quirks and foibles, we can prepare and equip people with insights, tips and strategies on how best to work with us, so that when they notice certain behaviours they have a better understanding of what that might mean (rather than assume what it would mean in their world) and what to do about it. It’s not a blank pass to behave however we want, but rather a heads up to avoid offence and miscommunication, to promote better ways of working together and also to give permission for others to call us out when we are not operating in our strengths or when we’re overusing our strengths.

What do you need?

Often, we treat other people how we like to be treated, but what about how they’d like to be treated? As an extrovert and a high relater, I thrive on praise – I love getting feedback from people to know that I’ve helped them. On the other hand, my friend Josie, who is a much more private introvert, would rather avoid feedback, positive or negative. She appreciates that people are trying to make her feel good when they give her feedback, but she still finds that place of being judged incredibly uncomfortable. Ironically, her work often is so good that people can’t help but give her praise, but her real joy comes from creating, from the work itself.

Another friend, Rebekah, thrives on fun. She can tackle even the most complex spreadsheets, as long as she’s having fun. So her screen and her working environment is full of colour, pretty things, pictures, music and, even, hula hoops because that’s what she needs to do her best work. My husband, on the other hand, is highly sensitive to noise – visual and auditory noise. If he’s in a busy environment with lots of sound, stuff and especially people, his senses go into overload and he can’t think straight. So what he needs is quiet and space.

What open conversations could you have with the people you work with, to find out what they need to be motivated, to do their best thinking, to know that they are valued or to deal with difficulties, conflict or setbacks? How often do you ask someone, ‘What do you need?’?

Basic human needs

Let’s go back to basics for a minute. In 1943 Abraham Maslow proposed in his paper ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’ that there are five hierarchical levels of human needs:

1. Physiological: air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep.
   
2. Safety: protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear.
   
3. Love and belonging: friendship, intimacy, affection, love – from work, family, friends, romantic relationships.
   
4. Esteem: achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, self-respect, respect from others.
   
5. Self-actualisation: realising personal potential, self-fulfilment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
   

So, why is it that we think we can sacrifice sleep as long as we have enough self-fulfilment, or that prestige will compensate for a lack of close relationships?

It’s true that the higher needs are our true motivators – the more we get, the more it fuels our motivation – whereas the lower levels are what Maslow referred to as ‘deficiency needs’ – they are strong drivers when they are unmet, but once they are met they no longer fuel us. Once we have enough food or sleep, getting more generally doesn’t really excite us! But we do need to meet our basic human needs.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Maslow, A. H. (1943), ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review 50(4), 370–96. This content is in the public domain.

Three basic human needs that often get sidelined in the ‘too busy’ conversation are:

• sleep
  
• diet and hydration
  
• exercise.
  

Sleep

We all know we need it. But it’s often one of the first things to go when we’re faced with a crazy schedule, overwhelming workload or an impending deadline. In fact, with comments such as ‘I can sleep when I’m dead’ and ‘the most successful CEOs have only four hours’ sleep’, it has almost become a competition to see who can get away with the least amount of sleep.

I don’t know about you, but I know from both self-induced and baby-induced sleep deprivation that when I don’t get enough sleep, I’m more scatterbrained, less focused, easily distracted and lose my train of thought. I do a lot of staring at screens. I forget my words. I’m less engaging as a trainer. I’m less creative and less able to think on my feet. I’m also far more grumpy, more prone to sense-of-humour-failures and far less forgiving – of others and of myself. You know that moment when you see a toddler throwing a tantrum on the floor and the parents turn around to each other and say with that knowing voice ‘they’re tired’? That happens to us adults, too.

Research increasingly suggests that ‘the short-term productivity gains from skipping sleep to work are quickly washed away by the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on your mood, ability to focus, and access to higher-level brain functions for days to come. The negative effects of sleep deprivation are so great that people who are drunk outperform those lacking sleep.’²

Lack of sleep affects our high-level brain function: our ability to think logically, process information, pay attention and think creatively – all the things we need to do our work well. It affects our mood, resilience and relationships – making us more easily irritated or upset, less objective, more likely to take things personally, more prone to misunderstanding and more reactive to stress. It affects our health: from colds that take weeks to shake, headaches, coughs, infections, loss of voice (a highly inconvenient occupational hazard for teachers and trainers), existing conditions that get triggered (my husband’s bad back gets aggravated by lack of sleep) to more serious health conditions – cancer, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, infections and obesity have all been linked to reduced sleep.³

It also affects our memory and routines: forgetting to put the milk in the porridge, losing keys in the fridge, forgetting to lock the door, missing the turning that you take every single day to work – things we take for granted and usually do without thinking, we forget to do when we’re tired. And we become more prone to making mistakes. As my husband found when he completely killed a database he was trying to fix after pulling an all-nighter: we can do more damage than good when we’re tired. Bill Clinton, who has made some pretty famous mistakes, said on CNN in 2008:

‘Most of the mistakes I made, I made when I was too tired, because I tried too hard and worked too hard. You make better decisions when you’re not too tired.’⁴

Diet and hydration

Convenience food, skipping meals, surviving on a diet of chocolate and coffee – we’ve all done it when we’re pressed for time, but this too can be a quick fix that ends up costing us more.

Going hungry doesn’t help. If you put ‘hunger’ as one of your culprits for distraction in Chapter 2, you’ll be pleased to know that you have scientific backing. Your brain needs fuel to function and that fuel is glucose, twenty-five grams of glucose in fact – ‘about the amount found in a banana’, according to brain researcher Leigh Gibson.⁵

How you get that glucose doesn’t affect brain function immediately, but quick-release sugars will cause spikes and slumps in glucose levels that mess with our ability to concentrate – which explains why it’s so hard to stay awake in meetings that occur straight after a carb-heavy lunch, and why eating sugary foods makes you crave more. Whereas slow-release foods, such as oats, or combining sugar with protein, will give a more steady level of focus and attention. Personally, I’ve found that being on a sugar high might not have me bouncing on furniture like my children do, but it certainly makes me more jumpy and easily distracted.

‘Adequate nutrition can raise your productivity levels by 20 per cent on average’, according to the World Health Organisation, which recommends dark chocolate, nuts and seeds as great foods to snack on for productivity.

Dehydration also affects our productivity. The human brain is made up of 75 per cent water, and even mild dehydration can affect our mental performance as well as our mood and physical energy. It’s often said that once you’re thirsty, it’s already too late. If you’re feeling sluggish or foggy, the chances are you may well be dehydrated.

Exercise

Exercising releases endorphins, makes us happier and keeps our bodies active and healthy – and it also gets our brains working better. Brain activity increases after a 20-minute walk, compared to sitting still, and a study by the University of Bristol found that, ‘On exercise days, people’s mood significantly improved after exercising. Mood stayed about the same on days they didn’t, with the exception of people’s sense of calm which deteriorated.’

Many clients and workshop delegates I’ve worked with have reported that doing some exercise before work or during the working day has helped them to be more charged, focused and creative in their work. Taking a walk or even just standing up can change our brain activity and get us thinking differently. The same goes for walking meetings and stand-up meetings. Changing our physiology changes our thinking. Our brains have evolved to solve problems on the move:

Safety, love and belonging

It’s also worth remembering that safety, love and belonging needs are also essential needs in the pyramid. Our sense of security and certainty and the health and quality of our relationships at work also affect our productivity. Working in a hostile or toxic environment can be a real productivity killer – however personally motivated or brilliantly organised you are. Operating in a season of high-level unpredictability and insecurity will take its toll in energy and attention. Major life changes, from getting married, having children and moving house to divorce, bereavement and family issues, all have an impact on how we show up at work.

Pretending these things don’t affect us can consume valuable attention and energy that’s already in short supply. Giving ourselves and our colleagues permission to show up as human is far more effective for our well-being and our productivity, and when we have the opportunity to support each other as fellow human beings, we create strong working relationships and genuine friendships that transform both the quality of our work and the quality of our life at work.

One-point improvements

We all know this to a degree, but how do we get back on track? It’s one thing to know that looking after our physical needs will improve our productivity, but how do we change our habits when life is busy and shortcutting on our basic needs has become an accepted way of life? Here are some ways to get started with small steps:

• Create a relaxing bedtime routine.
  
• Aim for one early night a week.
  
• Try a screen-free evening.
  
• Bulk-cook meals and freeze in portions.
  
• Stock fruit, nuts and dark chocolate as snacks.
  
• Have a glass of water next to your bed; drink it before you get up in the morning.
  
• Keep a drink of water on your desk (a friend of mine even used her ‘coffee to go’ cup for this).
  
• Take phone calls standing up.
  
• Get a stand-up desk or an adjustable one.
  
• Have walking or stand-up meetings.
  
• Take a walk at lunch-times.
  
• Do desk stretches.
  
• Keep a stock of healthy breakfast supplies at work.
  
• Encourage healthy eating at work with an office weekly shop where healthy snacks come out of the office budget and unhealthy snacks are paid for by the individuals themselves.
  
• Have a shower at the office for those who want to cycle to work or go for a lunch-time run.
  
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What do you need to give yourself?

This is a question I often ask my clients, and one that has two parts:

1. What do you need?
   
2. What do you give yourself?
   

Do you always give yourself what you need? How often do you give yourself a hard time, when what you really need is a break – or distraction when what you really need is focus? Do you give yourself more to worry about when what you need is clarity? Do you give yourself criticism when what you really need is encouragement?

What do you need to give yourself to be at your best?

Because when you’re at your best, you do your best work and you give your best to whoever you’re with – at work, at home and everywhere else in life.

Over to you