Be Active.
Manage Your Energy Levels
Our body is made up
of chemicals. We are giant, glorified walking petrie dishes. If you put in the
time to ready consider what you are putting into your body and how you are
treating your body: what your body responds to, what it doesn’t; then you will
see extraordinary effects. Maybe three coffees isn’t as good at improving your
productivity in the longer term as it feels like it is. Then again, maybe it
is. Keeping account of the food you eat, what hours of the day you feel buzzed
and those that you don’t, will help you maintain a consistent energy level the
whole day. Suddenly 3pm is as productive as 10am.
Mindful Exercise
Something that has
been found to remarkably help people improve productivity is doing 30 minutes
of exercise before work begins. The
rhythm of a jog creates a mindfulness, preparing people for the day ahead.
Already, people have solved problems before they are even in the office.
Something you must keep in mind too (and to continue this jogging theme),
productivity is a marathon and not a sprint. It is something to work toward,
and like a jog, takes effort initially but the fruits will realise themselves
quickly enough.
This is not to
mention that a daily or even weekly jog will improve your energy levels in the
longer term, keeping you alert and energised for the whole day as well as
improving your sleeping habits.
Active Workplace
Another way to keep
active, employed at a management level, is to upgrade your office from a
cubicle farm or open plan office into an Activity Based Workplace (ABW). Rather
than sitting people in one place and keeping them confined to one particular
work station, ABW is about providing a a variety of office environments to
create a more social workplace in order improve collaborative workflow. The
range of office environments might include hot desks, more casual relaxed
workspaces and central team spaces called “anchor points”, where people can
share ideas and host meetings. ABW forces employees to be less sedentary, more
active and as a result, more productive and enjoy working more.
nsquared
Keeping active is a
mindset not only for you but also a mindset for an organisation. At nsquared we
design and build for AWB environments, and staying true to our belief, we also
work in an active way. Meetings are often walk-and-talks between pairs, and for
larger groups, our stand up DIGITABLE PLUS meetings are dynamic and pointed,
keeping us constantly moving. To top it off, running seems to be the default
mode of nsquared legs, spurring each other on at our daily stand up meetings.
An active office is an engaged office.
