I don\u2019t have to go to the doctor very often. But when I do go, I notice they follow the same routine. It only takes a few minutes, but they start by checking my weight, pulse, blood pressure, and other vitals.<\/p>\n\n
The idea is to get a quick read on my overall health. Getting a baseline enables the physician to know what\u2019s going on and make helpful recommendations. The same basic routine can help with workplace stress and burnout.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve probably seen the numbers. Modern workers report being harried, hurried, and just plain tired. One study by the World Health Organization found that workplace stress costs businesses $300 billion\u2014yes, that\u2019s billion with a B<\/em>\u2014each year.<\/p>\n\n And it costs us all individually as well, doesn\u2019t it? So what are the vitals we need to check when we\u2019re feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and unproductive?<\/p>\n From where I sit there are eight workplace vitals we can check to establish a baseline of health.<\/p>\n Exercise: Are you active?<\/strong> When we\u2019re stressed and pressed for time, we often sacrifice exercise. But that\u2019s a zero sum game. The best way forward is to expand our energy so we can do more with the time we have. Exercise<\/a> is a key component of that.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Priorities: Are you clear about what really matters?<\/strong> When we\u2019re unclear about our priorities, we expend our energy on pointless tasks. Establishing priorities conserves our energy and frees our time for the kinds of projects that will move the needle in our business.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Commitments: Have you made too many?<\/strong> Being unclear on our priorities usually leads to other problems, including making too many commitments. It\u2019s impossible to make progress on projects that matter when our calendars are stuffed<\/a> with meetings and tasks that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Interruptions: Do you have systems to filter distractions?<\/strong> Emails, drop-ins, phone calls, social media\u2014if we don\u2019t have systems to keep all that noise at bay, we can\u2019t focus on what matters. The important work just keeps mounting and that feeling of overwhelm gets harder to shake.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Multitasking: Are you trying to do two or more things at once?<\/strong> We\u2019re at our most productive when we focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking leads us to waste attention and efficiency switching between multiple tasks. It drains our mental resources and slows us down.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Strategies: Are you using strategies that don\u2019t fit your work?<\/strong> Lots of productivity systems don\u2019t really fit the kind of work we do. We use them because a coworker does or we heard they might help us. We end up wasting time and energy trying to support an arbitrary system instead of using strategies that support our work.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n If you\u2019re feeling sick, the worst thing to do is just keep moving forward like nothing is wrong. Symptoms are red flags that alert us to trouble so we can fix what\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n\t\t\n