Support wellbeing
"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."
Anne Lamot, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope (2018)
Supporting your wellbeing
Wellbeing refers to your overall sense of satisfaction and fulfilment in life, encompassing key aspects such as happiness, health, and contentment. It includes physical, mental, and emotional health, along with a sense of purpose and meaningful social connections.
Focusing on your wellbeing highlights the importance of personal responsibility and self-care. Managing your wellbeing involves making intentional choices that support and enhance your physical, mental, and emotional wellness.
Professional wellbeing
Professional wellbeing goes beyond mere productivity to include how supported and fulfilled you feel at your job and in your workplace. It refers to the overall quality of your work experience, including:
job satisfaction
mental and physical health
thriving in a professional setting
Managing digital workloads
Roles across many occupations have moved to being heavily focused to working within digital spaces. The amount of digital content that you consume at work can be overwhelming and distracting.
There are several ways you can manage digital workload. Consider adopting some of the strategies listed below, they can help you optimise productivity, maintain focus, and protect your well-being.
Strategies for managing a digital workload:
- Streamlining your workload: Prioritising tasks, batching similar tasks, or delegating where possible or appropriate.
- Limiting digital overload: Set clear boundaries and define your work hours, only using the tools and apps that are essential to your goals and scheduling regular breaks using techniques like the Pomodoro Technique.
- Combat distraction: Silencing notifications and unnecessary alerts on your devices, use digital focus tools or in-built focus modes on devices, or make your desk a distraction-free zone by removing non-work-related gadgets.
- Cultivate good habits: Practicing mindfulness, adopting digital detox routines like scheduling regular screen-free time, and developing healthy routines around sleep, balanced nutrition, and exercise.
- Build resilience against overload: Learn to say no and avoiding over-committing to projects or responsibilities, adjusting your own and others’ expectations about what is realistic to be achieved within a timeframe, and seek the support of your managers and colleagues if your workload becomes unmanageable.
AI and wellbeing
AI tools can be used to assist with work and with your wellbeing.
AI tools can help us by allowing some tasks to be completed more efficiently and in return provide us with more time to spend on other activities that benefit our personal wellbeing. AI tools can be useful when planning and organising. Some tools can help create structured steps for how to complete specific tasks which in turn help us with organising our time and make tasks less overwhelming. Such as automation of repetitive tasks, calendar management and task prioritisation, and providing summaries of emails or reports.
AI tools can be fun, there are a number of tools that offer creative outlets for art, music and writing and exploring new hobbies.
Alert
It’s important to keep in mind workplace policies around the responsible use of AI tools. Ensure you’re avoiding over-reliance on AI tools, using them ethically and appropriately.
Work/life balance
In today’s volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, work world, ensuring your wellbeing while still excelling at your job can seem like an uphill battle. If your work is largely in the digital ecosystem, striking a balance for wellbeing can be particularly tricky.
Work/life balance is all about finding a healthy balance between spending time focused on work and your overall health. Therefore we need to find ways to engage with technologies in your day-to-day life in ways that are helpful rather than harmful to your mental and physical health.
Basically, it’s about knowing when to step away from your work computer, when to stop responding to emails, or when to turn off notifications and go to bed.
Click on the plus (+) icons below for useful wellbeing practices you can put into practice, whether working from home or on-site:
Eat, sleep and exercise
Eat well, sleep well, and exercise well. These are three cornerstones of good health. Coffee and energy drinks aren't a meal, try having actual food for lunch.
Remember, the video you’re watching can be paused, so don’t compromise on sleep. Keep up physical activities, maybe take your phone on a walk.
For more info read this HAYS blog.
Find your happy place
Find spaces that promote separation from work and regularly use them!
These spaces have been shown to support mental and physical replenishment. Take a break on your couch or find a sunny spot to work in.
Check out more suggestions in this Conversation article.
Take breaks
It is important to take breaks to let your brain and body relax. Short breaks give you the ability to refocus on your work tasks.
Read more in this short Student Space piece.
Disconnect from technology
Technology keeps us connected 24/7, which makes it difficult for the brain to switch off.
Try no technology in the evening, like spending quality time with family and friends. Get outside. Go for a walk, tend to your garden, or read a book in the fresh air and sunshine.
This Black Dog Institute article has more suggestions and a downloadable tips sheet.
Reduce blue light exposure
Step away from the light! The blue light that is. Electronic devices with screens and energy-efficient lighting increase your exposure to blue wavelengths, which can impact on your health, such as disrupting your sleep.
Devices typically have a filter, such as “Night Mode”, that can be applied to reduce exposure to blue light. Find out more about blue light impacts from Harvard Health Publishing.
Establish end-of-day rituals
It’s important to establish end-of-day rituals. It can be hard to switch off your brain around work. Try meditation, journaling, listening to music, starting a hobby, or exercise.
Explore this Conversation article for more tips.
Practice mindfulness
Practice mindfulness techniques to help reduce stress levels and improve focus. Do a deep breathing routine to help you focus before working through one task at a time.
Check out this Medium piece for more mindfulness techniques.
Engage in play
Play Wordle, newspaper quizzes, sudoku, etc. Playing games can support your wellbeing by bringing some light relief and enjoyment to stressful times.
The University of Exeter have curated a collection of digital games for users to explore that support wellbeing.
Key advice
Set boundaries for your digital habits to protect focus, productivity, and wellbeing. Manage notifications, take breaks, and be mindful of screen time. Prioritise balance and find ways to engage your senses differently by mixing up your activities.
Be kind to yourself - technology should work for you, not overwhelm you.