Every ambitious person strives to improve their work performance and increase their productivity. While striving for continuous improvement is healthy, it is important not to be too ambitious and not increase productivity at the expense of mental wellbeing. So how to better oneself in sustainable fashion? Why should managers not overdo things and how can they increase their productivity without burning out?

If you work in an unsustainable way, you risk having physical problems

Emma Harris, CEO of the British company Glow London, told the website ManagementToday that too high a pace of work almost killed her. As she constantly focused on getting better and better at work, she eventually reached the point of total collapse and had a heart attack. Only then was she forced to realise the stress and strain she was exposing her body to and decide to start working in sustainable fashion.

What are the risks?

If you strive for maximum work commitment and performance, but at the expense of health and sustainability, you are at risk of a number of complications, from a higher error rate to stress and psychological problems, all the way to psychosomatic diseases and burnout.

How to increase work productivity but still stay calm?

Some tips do exist on how to improve at work in the long term, but at the same time stay calm and work sustainably.

• Make health a priority. Long-term stress has a negative impact on you. You can usually observe this on yourself - overeating or, on the contrary, lack of appetite, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate. Adjust your work schedule as much as possible so as to avoid such stressful situations.

• Learn to delegate work. Many managers are unable (or unwilling) to delegate work sufficiently. Set up an effective system for handing over work to subordinates and thus make your life easier.

• Focus on genuinely high-quality streamlining of your work. Many managers try to increase their team's productivity only in a quantitative way. They make subordinates earn more, get more done, spend more time at work. Instead, try to focus on getting your team to adopt tools that will actually help them do more and work more efficiently, but in less time and with less effort.

• Sustainability first. When making changes in your team's work processes, always keep sustainability in mind. Never make sudden ad hoc changes based on the current situation; always consider whether change is really necessary, if it will stand scrutiny in the future and help your team work more efficiently in the long term.

   

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