3 reasons to recharge yourself and not your phone.

Rest, not excessive hard work, is the key to success

Work smarter not harder, it's true. Despite or seemingly indefatigable belief that hard work is noble, honorable and the answer to everything, including success, the fact is that like so many things,  even work is better in moderation. Even if you love what you do, a break can improve your performance, your creativity and problem solving abilities. On this post, you'll get insights on how easing off the work can bring your closer to your brilliance, your best ideas and what you want most.

1.)     Don’t be Pavlov’s dog: when you are constantly responding to the dings and whistles of your technology, you begin to confuse activity with accomplishment. While you feel you are making progress or getting things done by being so responsive to the never-ending dings and bells, often, you're merely satisfying the simplest part of your brain - the part that has Whack-a-Mole mentality; it gets a buzz from finishing something, no matter how minor, i.e. responding to an email 20 seconds after it arrives.  While you fritter away your mental energy on the minor things technology provides an almost endless stream of,  the important things - the 20% of your goals that are going to get you 80% of your results, are languishing. People who live in this response zone often don’t know how to prioritize the important things in their life, so  they respond to it all. 

How to break the pattern: Identify and work on your most important tasks in chunks of time during which you turn off all alarms for messages, mail etc., and if possible disconnect from the Internet. Start small 10-20 minutes, and lengthen the chunks over time 

2.)         Technology taxes your body: Mental waters need to be calm for the effervescence of creativity and problem solving to rise to the top.
This was brilliantly illustrated in an article “The Making of a Corporate Athlete”, by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, in which they point out that the most successful athletes are the ones with the most consistent recovery rituals.  Complete breaks from focus on work allow your brain to recharge and absorb all the information coming at you everyday. It  facilitates creativity and problem solving. This happens most productively when the brain (and body) is at rest. 
Even in the minor state of anxiety that you are in when subconsciously “waiting” for the next ding is causing the body to dump Adrenaline and Cortisol into your system, overworking your adrenals.  Usually the first symptom is the 3:00 p.m. “crash.” If you find that your nodding off and having to head to the snack or soda machine for a sugar buzz (the average soda contains 30-40 grams of sugar), your adrenals are already showing fatigue, which is diminishing your ability to perform and to recover and dulling your edge. Eventually, even the mid-afternoon sugar/caffeine bomb won’t be able to resuscitate your mind or body.
How to break the pattern: I played softball as a kid, when one of us made a bad play our coach, would say “walk it off.” It meant, walk away from whatever happened. Let it go.  It's great advice. Leave your phone on your desk and walk for even 10 or 15 minutes does wonders to let your body come down and let your mind stop spinning. It also helps you realize that it’s not the end of  the world to leave your phone in your desk drawer.  If you work out for an hour or more a few times a week, even better, provided you leave the technology in the locker room or at home.

3.)        You teach people how to treat you:
Anything that is readily available is usually not considered precious, it's taken for granted. So, in addition to resting your mind and body, you can increase your value by making yourself more scarce in the virtual realm. When you respond to every email the second it comes in, you may think it make you look like the employee of the month since you're always “on,” but in fact the opposite is true. It suggests you don’t discriminate the minor from the major and that you're ready to jump anytime someone snaps their virtual fingers.  
How to break the habit: communicate to people what your availability is and isn’t. If you have be available for certain people, customize their ring tones, or ask them call you. Most of our interruptions are not phone calls but electronic messaging of some sort. Leaders discriminate.

A final note: If you think your productivity will decrease when you disconnect your umbilical cord to the technology mother ship, keep this in mind: since 1971 productivity in America has decreased, not increased.


I'd love to know what you think.

1. How do you disconnect and re-charge? 
2. Have you had an experience that showed you that resting, not working harder, brought about a better result?

Courtney Kirschbaum
Founder, Her Next Move