Was there a point in your life where you asked yourself, “Why don’t I feel happy about my job?” or “Why don’t I feel content about the things that I’m doing at the moment?” It seems like everything you’re doing isn’t giving you any peace of mind, with the sense of freedom and success too far to reach. Have you ever felt that?

Think of this, you have a new job and you’re driven to be on top to get the highest payable rank or position. You did everything you can and showed your best to your boss, not fully aware that while you’re doing this, you will gradually feel less free, unhappy, and incompetent. Why? It’s because you have created and put yourself in a “must-do-this” box that made you believe that the standards of working faster, harder, better, and stronger will grant you to achieve massive goals, happiness, and freedom. 

These set of standards that you have built inside your box won’t let you get an opportunity to explore and continuously build your skills. It might seem like a great set of standards but in the long run, you will feel frazzled. Your boss will be happy with your performance for the company, but it is the other way around for you.

Do these look familiar to you? If you think this is you, let’s see! Keep scrolling to read more.

 

 

WORK FASTER

This is when people tried to do something in a jiffy. They assume that the more they can rapidly accomplish their tasks in a particular day, the more they will have plenty of time for their leisure and would be able to impress everyone with their work efficiency. However, these kinds of people are not considering the effect of this type of habit on the quality of their work and their life as well. Your goal here is all about increasing your productivity effectively & quicker, this is why most of us felt burned out!

People need to learn how to slow down but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be lazy at this moment or will lose the momentum. Slowing down is a process of allotting your precious time to do the things you have to do without the feeling of rushing it and not measuring the quantity of your work every single second.

 

As Carl Honoré said on his TED Talk Series In Praise of Slowness, “we are living in a world that is stuck in fast-forward, a world obsessed with speed, with doing everything faster, with cramming more and more into less and less time.” It will make people more productive and effective if they know when to slow down their work. If you want to know more about slowing down during busy times without losing your momentum, click here.

 

 

WORK HARDER

Working harder means putting a lot of effort and value to your work. It requires an immense focus to produce a great outcome that can be physically & mentally exhausting. They are more likely to produce a displeasing product that will result in overthinking and repeated chores. It will be better if you learn how to manage your time and your priorities because there are times when people forget to take even a small break from work. Try taking small walks, pausing whatever you’re doing for a moment, or get the most out of your rest day. It is also important to think about where you should devote your effort. 

There was this The Ultradian Healing Response, a framework of Ernest Lawrence Rossi, Ph.D. which was explained by Brad Buzzard that shows us when we need to take a rest during our work. He defines The Waking Rest-Activity Cycle that describes the breakdown of the full cycle a person can last during his/her wakefulness. There are 90 minutes of activity and 20 minutes of rest in a total of 110 minutes per cycle. 

While writing this, I tried to follow the 90/20 process. I set an alarm of 1 hr. and 30 minutes for me to be able to continue this blog content. After that, I did have a 20-minute break where I am capable of washing the dishes, playing with my dogs, eating something, and taking some rest. I did not even realize that a 20-minute break is long enough to get some things done like these. I feel much more energized! And now, I cannot stop my hands from typing all these ideas in my head as I feel like it was a fresh start again at the beginning of the next 90 minutes working session. People may have different lengths of working sessions and rest time that they can take depending on their capacity. What’s important is taking a break, no matter how short or long it will be. It is always better to have some rest than never! It is really a must-try!

 

BE BETTER

Did you constantly compare yourself with someone else? Did you feel scared that your colleagues are doing a better job than you do? Has a pang of jealousy ever struck you for what they’ve achieved? Did it feel like a never-ending competition?

If you look at the word “better”, it implies a comparison to someone, something, or whatever it would be. Your career and relationship with your colleagues can be connected to this part. The more you feel jealous about your colleague’s success, the more you will undermine your success. For instance, because of your jealousy, you will never ever cheer on any occasion if one of your co-workers was praised by your boss because he/she did a great thing for the improvement of sales of the company. You also wanted to be praised, recognized and get the attention of other employees. Seeing that you’re not getting any of that, you will never cheer. 

 

But if you are seeing their success and taking it in a positive way to inspire yourself to succeed more, then a harmonious relationship between your boss, colleagues and you will bear something greater that will help the company to thrive. It is always better to have a good and strong sense of communication inside your workplace so that it will be easier to solve problems that may arise. 

Thinking of work as a constant competition will eventually stop you from exploring your own potential. Stop spending your time thinking about what your co-worker’s next goal will be! Focus on your own goals! You will never enjoy your success if you keep feeling that you need to be better than everyone.

 

 

Get out of this trap! You won’t be able to discover unexplored paths if you use these standards as your foundation to do your work. This will only keep you from achieving massive goals, happiness, and freedom. You should continue to work smart and stay productive, not work faster, harder, better, and stronger!

 

DO IT STRONGER

Working stronger describes the energy of a person that she/he is putting into his work. It talks about the intensity you will need to finish a task. According to Emma Seppala, a contributor to Business Insider, mental exhaustion is due to high-intensity emotions. She added that showing a high intensity of positive emotion can also be stressful which Westerners would likely to associate themselves with. Because they believe that happiness is having a high intensity of positive emotion.

By saying that, there is no assurance that putting a lot of effort and intensity in your work will let you be more productive. Imagine going home, your children saw you and now they want to play with you, your pets who are thrilled to see you, or a family member who wants to have a nice little conversation with you. But you are exhausted because of putting out too much high-intensity mindset to your work and you told them “maybe next time.” Until you eventually forget to interact with your family because you are exerting too much work for your work rather than your family. 

So, save your energy for the things that really matter! 

 

WORK SMARTER AND STAY PRODUCTIVE

When you work smarter, it means you become invaluable, productive, and innovative. This simply means that you have now learned how to control the amount of effort you exert for work, which gives you more time to give attention to your family, friends, pets and yourself without the feeling of “burnout”. With this kind of mindset, you will be able to achieve your goals better. Your self-confidence will be much more developed because you have learned that working smarter is much better in coping with life.

 

Most people are too focused on improving one’s living but not improving one’s life. They are unconsciously in favor of the quantity it produces, rather than the quality it gives. They tend to aim for goals that are short-term rather than long-term because they think that everything has an easy way out. 

 

As I have mentioned beforehand, the reason people adore working faster, harder, better, and stronger is because society has set this certain standard and most of us think that this is the best way because everyone agrees that it is.

 

Get out of this trap! You won’t be able to discover unexplored paths if you use these standards as your foundation to do your work. This will only keep you from achieving massive goals, happiness, and freedom. You should continue to work smart and stay productive, not work faster, harder, better, and stronger!