Managing "Tech Stress"
10 September 2012
Read by 1467 persons
New communication technologies make our lives easier, but they also bring new, unforeseen challenges... So what solutions can we apply? Here are some ways to manage "tech stress." They involve healthy habits and etiquette, which need to be reinvented and adapted in the workplace following the arrival of emails, smartphones, and other new communication technologies.
• Contribute to stemming the "tide" of emails that overwhelms us by being more discerning in choosing recipients. 80% of a message comes from "body language": nothing beats meeting your interlocutor, especially if they are a few meters away. Or choose a phone call, which can be much more efficient and faster than an email.
• Strive to make information concise and quickly usable. If an action is expected from someone, put their name in bold or color before the expected action.
• Take into account and adapt to the constraints and habits of your interlocutors. For example, with the Middle East, concentrate phone meetings on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
• Ban sending professional emails after certain times of the day, weekends, and holidays. Find out how to schedule their sending during working hours.
• Schedule meetings at times compatible with your employees' personal lives: after 9 am in the morning and until 6 pm in the evening.
• Turn off mobile phones in meetings, and especially don't put them on the table so as not to be tempted to consult them. Typing on a phone in a meeting is actually a sign of disrespect to your colleagues, not to mention that it distracts and reduces the efficiency of the meeting.
• Know how to free yourself from the intrusion of new technologies. Identify the most favorable times for checking and processing emails and phone calls (generally morning, midday, and end of the day), and agree to close your messaging and phones outside these times. Or disable the pop-up function for new emails, and don't check them on your smartphone either. Protect yourself from the number of information input channels.
• Know how to say no. Accept that you have to make choices, give up believing that you can respond to all emails or requests. Saying no can be well accepted by your interlocutors, and you can explain your reasons or even help them find a different solution.
• To process information more calmly, first review it quickly to identify emergencies. Apply the Eisenhower matrix, based on the urgency and importance of the actions to be taken: deal with the urgent and important immediately, schedule the important non-urgent, delegate the urgent non-important if possible, and refuse to deal with the non-urgent and non-important.
• Accept to "disconnect" literally and figuratively, and leave your worries aside in the evening when you get home. Much easier said than done! I like to say "Let the little bicycle that's turning in your head fall down. No need to tie it up, no one will take it from you..."
• Take breaks, isolate yourself to "reconnect with yourself," and practice abdominal breathing, for a few minutes, eyes closed, at the office, on public transport, etc.
• Take time for yourself, and unprogram yourself from our education which consists of "gritting your teeth" until you achieve what you want. In the end, taking time to breathe allows you to be much more efficient.
• This comes down to applying another principle: "Charity well ordered begins with oneself." Because I find that, under pressure, we are often tempted to cancel relaxation, rest, sports, or leisure time planned for ourselves first. Yet, that's a bad calculation...
• Allow yourself time, gentleness, and kindness, to be better at your work and in your relationships with others... Quite a program!
Shahine Ismail.
Etre-bien-au-travail.fr
Published September 5, 2012.
Posted online September 10, 2012.
• Contribute to stemming the "tide" of emails that overwhelms us by being more discerning in choosing recipients. 80% of a message comes from "body language": nothing beats meeting your interlocutor, especially if they are a few meters away. Or choose a phone call, which can be much more efficient and faster than an email.
• Strive to make information concise and quickly usable. If an action is expected from someone, put their name in bold or color before the expected action.
• Take into account and adapt to the constraints and habits of your interlocutors. For example, with the Middle East, concentrate phone meetings on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
• Ban sending professional emails after certain times of the day, weekends, and holidays. Find out how to schedule their sending during working hours.
• Schedule meetings at times compatible with your employees' personal lives: after 9 am in the morning and until 6 pm in the evening.
• Turn off mobile phones in meetings, and especially don't put them on the table so as not to be tempted to consult them. Typing on a phone in a meeting is actually a sign of disrespect to your colleagues, not to mention that it distracts and reduces the efficiency of the meeting.
• Know how to free yourself from the intrusion of new technologies. Identify the most favorable times for checking and processing emails and phone calls (generally morning, midday, and end of the day), and agree to close your messaging and phones outside these times. Or disable the pop-up function for new emails, and don't check them on your smartphone either. Protect yourself from the number of information input channels.
• Know how to say no. Accept that you have to make choices, give up believing that you can respond to all emails or requests. Saying no can be well accepted by your interlocutors, and you can explain your reasons or even help them find a different solution.
• To process information more calmly, first review it quickly to identify emergencies. Apply the Eisenhower matrix, based on the urgency and importance of the actions to be taken: deal with the urgent and important immediately, schedule the important non-urgent, delegate the urgent non-important if possible, and refuse to deal with the non-urgent and non-important.
• Accept to "disconnect" literally and figuratively, and leave your worries aside in the evening when you get home. Much easier said than done! I like to say "Let the little bicycle that's turning in your head fall down. No need to tie it up, no one will take it from you..."
• Take breaks, isolate yourself to "reconnect with yourself," and practice abdominal breathing, for a few minutes, eyes closed, at the office, on public transport, etc.
• Take time for yourself, and unprogram yourself from our education which consists of "gritting your teeth" until you achieve what you want. In the end, taking time to breathe allows you to be much more efficient.
• This comes down to applying another principle: "Charity well ordered begins with oneself." Because I find that, under pressure, we are often tempted to cancel relaxation, rest, sports, or leisure time planned for ourselves first. Yet, that's a bad calculation...
• Allow yourself time, gentleness, and kindness, to be better at your work and in your relationships with others... Quite a program!
Shahine Ismail.
Etre-bien-au-travail.fr
Published September 5, 2012.
Posted online September 10, 2012.
