• Agile & Scrum Basics

If you can’t get anything out of your hands

Why not working sometimes makes you work smarter

Now really getting started. But there’s also a pile of email. Let’s see. Yes, you really need to answer that one now. Then there’s that one irritated email from your colleague. How do you respond to that? It keeps running through your head. Don’t think about it, read that newsletter first. Suddenly it’s lunch. Okay. After lunch you really start. Or no, after the walk to digest your food and then do something. Five o’clock already? Well then work through the evening. Ten hours. You stare at your laptop, nothing comes out of your fingers. Your to-do list has actually only gotten longer. Despondent, you think you’d better get some sleep. Up early tomorrow. And then really.

Such a day

Do you ever have those? I never. But a very good acquaintance of mine has it from time to time. He tells me in confidence that it makes him feel ashamed. Is he really the man for this job? Is he worth it? To prove it, he works harder and harder until he is completely worn out.

Focus and pause

That very good acquaintance of mine – I won’t name names – thankfully has fewer and fewer of those days. Because he told me he has developed a strategy to focus better. It’s the focus-pause strategy. What he does is work for 20 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. Simple, but not easy. You see, it only works if you make an intention for those 20 minutes. That’s what you’re going to do. For 20 minutes and then you’ll see.

There is a second condition: the five-minute break is really break time. No phone, no social media, no screen. Then suddenly the clearest insights emerge about what is really important today.

And the third: use a clock. Then there will be a nice rhythm to it. Otherwise, sometimes you just forget to pause and miss all that inspiration!

Slowly accelerating

My acquaintance-I-don’t-name-notices that he works so much smarter, without working harder. At the level of teams, you have that too. Then you make sprints with each other. And every so often you relax. Feet on the table. Then together you have the most beautiful insights to move forward again. This way you feel that you belong and that your contribution really makes a difference. I look back on my working day with a satisfied feeling and I still have energy left for my family in the evening.

Curious about more tips and tools to work smarter? So you too can make an impact and have time for family, friends and fun? Feel free to contact me and we’ll talk about it together.