Five tips for effective work
Psychologists warn that frequent interruptions from new e-mails or push messages on the smartphone overwhelm our brain. Those who are too often interrupted in their work or have the feeling that they cannot keep up with the speed of modern communication are dissatisfied and exhausted more quickly. Five tips on how to work more productively despite e-mail, mobile phones and the like and how to go into the end of the day in a balanced way.
Mail program off: Communicate independently
When we are interrupted in a phase of work, it puts stress on our brain. We get exhausted quicker and therefore less productive. “Avoid interruptions or postpone their completion until later,” advises work psychologist Anja Baethge from the University of Mainz. But the distraction caused by new communication technologies is growing. Baethge takes a critical view of this: “Nobody has to get away from incoming emails, ring tones or visual signals.” It makes sense to turn off notifications on mobile phones and computers, because very few people can resist them. In addition, she recommends reading e-mails only at longer, self-determined time intervals or even resolving their retrieval frequency from Setting up the server for a longer period of time.”This way you gain valuable time for concentrated work.” Ulm psychologist Christian Montag also advises not checking emails too often: “In between: open your mailbox and get into a productive workflow.” Because it is developing only when we have peace and can forget space and time around us.
Reading on the computer in the office and the tablet PC on the sofa use the same brain regions, says Annette Hoppe , head of the Ergonomics department at the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus. That is why modern man’s brain often does not have time to recover from the stress. Hoppe therefore urgently advises alternating these stresses in everyday work: get up in the office every two to three hours, have a drink, look out of the window, away from the screen. “Our eyes are not made to hold this focus for several hours.”
