• Agile Coach

Here’s why your maximum performance depends on the perfect work-life balance

Abdomen and head

These urges come from the proverbial gut. The belly points us in the direction of our needs. Fortunately, there is also a proverbial head to control the gut. The head directs us toward the things you should be doing.

In every team, there are things you owe to the team, and there are things you just want to do for yourself. But how can you balance the two while keeping productivity high? Also discover the role of Agile Change Management….

Rebellious belly

When you are born, you are completely belly. As you get older, you gradually learn social behavior. You get better at planning and long-term goals. Your head takes off.

The belly just doesn’t go away – and that’s a good thing. The belly stays to remind the head of its bodily needs. It even keeps score and can intervene at inopportune times if it becomes too negative. The gut rebels against overload.

Why is belly so important for teamwork? In the teams I coach, people mainly use their heads. That is what is expected of them. This means they tend to ignore their proverbial gut. And this is dangerous. Too many unmet needs can make people cranky, stressed or depressed. That’s not good for teamwork. Therefore, keep head and gut in balance!

Art of balancing head and stomach

“Balance? That’s boring,” you might say: “On our team, it’s rock and roll. Pushing boundaries!” However, I have discovered that true balance is not boring at all! It is dynamic and elusive. Take any YouTube video of an extreme sports athlete: their performance is extremely dynamic balance!

Ok. But how do you do that? Here are the 5 most important tips for balancing work-life balance in teamwork:

• Make room together for fun things in between all the “musts.
• Stop fun things in time and go do something;
• Make time to relax under stress;
• Provide deen bit of alone time after many calls and meetings;
• Have a chat when your productivity drops at your computer.

Where is the threshold? It varies. I try to be aware of my productivity. If my productivity drops, I take a break. I usually don’t find it hard to notice a drop in productivity, but it is hard to act on it. Initially, this felt counterintuitive. I always thought the best cure for lower productivity was simply working harder. Or drinking more coffee. But the opposite is true: taking a break increases concentration again. The break usually provides insight into why productivity was dropping in the first place. Often I then overlook something important.

“Meditate for 15 minutes a day. If you don’t have 15 minutes, meditate for an hour.” – Zen saying

Taking real breaks

There are fake breaks and real breaks. A fake break is just doing something else with your proverbial head: checking your e-mail, checking social media or playing a computer game. This kind of activity does not give the mind a break.

A real break is just doing nothing with the mind. Activities that work well for me are:

– Taking a walk

– Talking over a cup of coffee

– Going to the bathroom without a smartphone

– Peeling an orange

– Consciously drinking coffee or tea

I try to avoid mindlessly drinking coffee at my desk. I try to make coffee a real break. Coffee can be something social or remarkable.

Conclusion

Productivity and rest, the individual and the team, needs and THE needs: they are all deeply intertwined and must be constantly balanced.

Does this mean the team should work less? Should you lower your ambitions? Not at all! You should work smarter . In fact, working really hard is important to achieve great goals. But you can only work rock hard if you carefully balance your gut and head.