Welcome to week 4 of your journey. We want to take time to salute you for taking the necessary steps to reach this point. Having reached week 4, you should be comfortable in using the ClarityPark app to effectively organize and manage your tasks. You should also have developed a greater understanding regarding the principles associated with “digital wellness” from week 3 as you attempt to use technology in a more productive manner.
While it may seem like an oxymoron, one of the most important principles regarding being productivity is rest. Rest by definition is not about stopping what you are doing, or simply taking a break. Rest by its literal definition implies taking time to “recreate”.
In this case, your mind and physical body often require periods of rest to begin to prepare for the next chapter. As you organize, you tend to be more conscious of the actual time associated with various tasks. Knowing that an upcoming task will require lots of work, gives you the opportunity to plan periods of rest between tasks so that you do not become overwhelmed in your schedule.
1.1 Failing to Rest
If you are completing multiple tasks but fail to incorporate proper elements of rest into your schedule, you are acting contrary to your goal of productivity. There are lots of productive people suffering from burnout issues. Burn out is a term that refers to emotional,mental or physical fatigue caused to prolong stress. The condition of burnout is not always immediately visible, but can have long term damaging effects.
Burnout isn't just synonymous with being stressed out. It's "a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
World Health Organization
Incorporating rest into our schedule is the most preemptive measure we can take to avoid burnout, and continue to be continually productive over a long term.
1.2 Timed Breaks from Technology
In our generation, there is more conclusive data to help us understand the effects of constant cell phone usage and spending time in front of screens. It is becoming more and more necessary to take timed breaks away from technology, as well as understanding how to pace ourselves when performing tasks which require computer usage for prolonged periods of time.
Simple activities, like taking a break every 2 hours to stretch can be a major factor in causing us to be more productive in our endeavours.
1.3 Sleep Patterns
Sleep as a discipline is a practice for most military personnel because of its importance. But in corporate and student life this discipline can go unattained. Lack of productivity many times can be due to the failure to develop proper sleeping patterns or habits that have formed in our lives.
Studies on daylight savings time show that in the first few days after we lose an hour of sleep, there have been increases in car accidents and heart attacks by as much as 24 percent.
There are many tools on the market to help you develop a healthy pattern of sleep. If you are serious, it is essential to maintain a disciplined cycle of sleep and understand how attaining proper rest incorporates into the greater cycle of productivity.
If you feel the 30 Day Journey has helped you to be productive, we encourage you to follow our blog and sign up for our newsletter to stay informed
