Are You Headed Toward Burnout?

If you’re feeling exhausted, how can you assess whether you’re heading toward burnout? You can track your burnout status with a simple, quick activity: 

The two-minute burnout checkup. 

Start by writing down how much stress, on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being negligible, 10 being extreme), you experience from each of the six factors of burnout: workload, values (how you connect with your work on a deeper level), reward (both financial and social), control (the degree of autonomy you feel at work), fairness, and community. 

For example, if you’re finding it tough to connect with colleagues after working from home, you might score community an 8. Conversely, you might rank workload a 2 if you have a good amount to do but find the number of tasks manageable. Your overall score will give you a big-picture sense of how well you’re doing at that moment. While the total number of points (out of 60) is essential, what’s more, useful are your scores in each of the six categories. You’ll likely find that you’re healthy in some dimensions and unhealthy in others. 

Once you identify your pain points, you can devise strategic interventions to target them.

The Power of Progress…

Progress can be a powerful tool to motivate employees and drive their performance in the workplace. When employees see tangible progress in their work, it instills a sense of achievement, purpose, and personal growth, which in turn boosts their motivation and productivity. Here are a few ways in which the power of progress can be harnessed to motivate employees:

1. Clear Goals and Milestones: Setting clear and achievable goals provides employees with a roadmap for progress. When employees have a clear understanding of what they need to accomplish and can track their progress through milestones, it creates a sense of purpose and direction. Regularly reviewing and celebrating milestones reached can further reinforce the feeling of progress and motivate employees to continue pushing forward.

2. Feedback and Recognition: Regular feedback and recognition are essential for fostering a culture of progress and motivation. Providing constructive feedback helps employees understand where they stand, identify areas for improvement, and make progress towards their goals. Recognising and acknowledging their achievements, both big and small, reinforces the sense of progress and motivates employees to continue performing at their best.

3. Learning and Development Opportunities: Offering learning and development opportunities allows employees to continuously grow and progress in their careers. Providing access to training programs, workshops, mentoring, and other skill-building initiatives not only enhances employees’ knowledge and expertise but also gives them a sense of progress and personal development. When employees see themselves acquiring new skills and knowledge, they are more likely to stay engaged and motivated in their roles.

4. Challenging and Meaningful Work: Assigning employees challenging and meaningful tasks can fuel their motivation. When employees are given responsibilities that align with their skills and interests, they are more likely to feel a sense of progress as they overcome obstacles and achieve results. Encouraging autonomy and ownership of projects allows employees to see the impact of their work and feel a sense of progress in contributing to the organization’s success.

5. Opportunities for Advancement: Providing employees with opportunities for advancement and growth within the organization is a powerful motivator. When employees can see a clear career path and know that their progress can lead to promotions, increased responsibilities, or new challenges, it gives them a sense of purpose and motivates them to continually improve their performance.

6. Celebrating Successes: Celebrating individual and team successes is an important way to acknowledge progress and motivate employees. Recognizing achievements publicly, such as through team meetings, newsletters, or internal communication platforms, boosts morale, fosters a positive work environment, and encourages a culture of progress and continuous improvement.

In conclusion, harnessing the power of progress in the workplace can be a potent motivator for employees. By providing clear goals, offering feedback and recognition, providing learning opportunities, assigning challenging work, offering advancement prospects, and celebrating successes, organizations can create an environment where employees feel motivated, engaged, and empowered to make progress in their careers.

AI is making us lazy…

Today if I am writing an article, instead of writing it fully, I can just go ahead and give the idea or topic to ChatGPT and it will write for me.

Why shouldn’t I just give the idea and generate the text using AI?

Because it’s not just the idea that you write, It’s how you write it, your personal style, your background, and your context.

An idea can be written in different ways, one way is Generative AI but it’s a single way because for both you and me it will generate exact text.

But when a person writes and adds context, adds love & hate into the writing, the idea comes alive.

So let us not be lazy, sit up and write.

How to boost your own creativity…

When you’re trying to innovate, emotions like fear, doubt, regret, and frustration can get in your way. Yet, they’re normal to feel. So how do you manage these feelings so they don’t stand in your way of being creative? Here are some common emotional hurdles — and what to do about them:

The fear of getting started. Pursuing a truly innovative idea almost always involves risk and you might be worried that you don’t have the confidence or competence to succeed. Identify the source of your concern then seek out the information or partners you need to compensate for any shortcomings.

A tendency to go into overdrive. Passion is a good thing. But if unbridled, it can hamper critical thinking. Schedule breaks and continually double-check with those around you that you’re on the right track.

The frustration of setbacks. Everyone knows it’s important to learn from failure, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. It’s a process that requires conscious effort and discipline. If you do stumble, dissect what went wrong, process your grief, and reframe your misstep as an opportunity for a turnaround.

2 minutes a day…

If something is very complicated and you don’t want to learn but it is a mandate to have that skill set. 

All it requires is 2 minutes a day. It will lead to learning a complicated task or skill in a given time.

All you need to do is promise yourself that you will give 2 minutes a day, every day, day after day and you will slowly grow to learn whatever it is.

How to get more done in less time…

We’re all looking for ways to boost our productivity. The good news is that it’s an achievable goal. Here are a few proven strategies to help you get more done in less time:

  1. Plan out tomorrow’s schedule tonight. When we write down what we intend to do, we’re far more likely to actually do it.
  2. Plan your work around your internal clock. This means aligning the tasks that require the most brain power with your energy peaks throughout the day.
  3. Avoid being 100% booked. If your calendar looks full, deliberately schedule a time to do nothing. You can use this time as a buffer between meetings to tackle unexpected tasks that crop up during the day.
  4. Develop rituals for different kinds of work. This may mean doing a certain task in a particular workspace or at a particular time of the day.

Try at least one of these strategies and notice any differences in your productivity.

Use Your Mobile Less. OK, But Why?

It’s known that we should spend less time attached to our mobile. But to make a real change, we need to understand why? We will have a better chance of succeeding if we identify exactly what is motivating us. Here are three common reasons people want to unplug and tips for each:

To stop being rude. In social settings, turn your mobile off, disable notifications for tempting apps, or agree on a penalty for whoever checks their phone (maybe buying a round of drinks).

To focus better at home or work. Put your mobile on silent, turn off cellular data, or — best of all — keep it entirely out of sight.

To set better digital boundaries. Use a landline at work, ditch your smartphone for a more basic model, or create strict rules for your devices (say, no mobile during mealtimes).