01 Dec How Emotions Impact Your Daily Productivity
Have you ever thought about the power your emotions have and how they impact your daily productivity?
Expressing emotions used to be generally not desirable in a business context or in a corporate culture. However, nowadays things are changing, and employees are encouraged to share their positive emotions to keep the team spirit high and negative emotions (carefully worded) to prevent future conflicts. Put in other words, business and work life is getting more emotional shaking the old “cold” standards and beliefs.
Let’s get to the core of an emotion: what hides behind it and why do we react differently on different things? It turns out that the basis of emotional reaction lies in the importance we attach to something. When the event happens, people first, in a matter of seconds, evaluate whether it is something pleasant or unpleasant and whether it is something that matters to them. When you feel emotions for someone or something, it means that it matters to you.
[amazon_link asins=’1682303055′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’productivityboosterwp-21′ marketplace=’DE’ link_id=’6f1a3372-d638-11e7-b62c-b5325bfc9a23′]
There is a popular belief that only “cold blooded”, non-emotional people build successful businesses and careers. Do you think it is true? We need to rethink this old belief. Everyone has emotions and this is a fact equivalent to the law of gravity. Emotions are evolutively very functional and we would not survive without them. True, some people are emotionally more literate than others, some react more adequately and others hide their emotions instead of dealing with them. In fact, it is important that everyone can learn to recognize their emotions and use them for better communication and better relationships with others. The latest Neuroscience findings give us [amazon_textlink asin=’1682303055′ text=’great strategies how to deal with emotions and reach success in work and life’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’productivityboosterwp-21′ marketplace=’DE’ link_id=’f8218c1e-d638-11e7-9579-4f9da55cca5e’].
Whether something you feel today will have an impact on your performance depends, as mentioned before, on the importance you attach to this event. For example, you may be angry with the impolite shop staff when grabbing a snack before work. However, when you get to the office, it is expected that you attach greater importance to work and quickly forget about your anger. If such an event still hinders you from focusing on crucial work tasks, it means that you are overreacting and that you should work on managing your emotions. On the other hand, if you are in the middle of a divorce or have recently suffered a loss, your mind sees this as more important than work and personal productivity will unfortunately decrease. This is a completely normal reaction, and it will cease when you get more balance in life.
Register for Free Productivity Booster Training Sessions
Productivity can grow under the impact of certain emotions. This case is very familiar to athletes, and it is called incentive or positive jitters. If you feel a mild anxiety or fear about a project, mixed with excitement, this is the information for your body that something is very important for you. Such an emotional state arouses the body, increases the level of adrenaline in the blood that you cannot sleep, relax, but calls for targeted activities. Tension is rising as the event gets closer and does not allow you to think or talk about anything, which has the function to make you work on what is important and thus achieve an outstanding result.
If the jitter grows fast and becomes paralyzing, there is a small trick how you can handle it to your advantage. Use your imagination and simulate the following scene in your mind. See yourself going out to those important people – the boss, the managers, the representatives of the other company; imagine this paralyzing posture, make sure you feel it; then imagine that person with a clown’s nose. Have fun! The jitter will disappear immediately! Just do not share this with colleagues so you do not get into trouble.
While this may sound like a children’s game, there is a scientific explanation of why it is effective. When something makes us laugh, it cannot be frightening at the same time. In addition, this procedure takes away the exaggerated authority you attribute to people, and reminds you that they are usual people, just like you.
To strengthen the positive effect of this useful trick, create a list of your best qualities and the reasons why you always deserve success, and read it daily.
The emotions of happiness and accomplishment also have a positive impact on productivity. For example, if you are very happy and excited about the occasion of a job, if you see the progress and it makes you happy, your productivity will grow every day. Therefore it is useful to divide larger tasks into fewer steps and check one at a time. In this way, you will be able to track your success. Your satisfaction and motivation for further work will be more pronounced.
Negative emotions, on the contrary, decrease productivity. So how do we handle negative emotions and negative feedback? At work, we often need to communicate some information that is not pleasant to hear. Always use “I communication.” Instead of telling people that they are wrong, present it as your own perception of things. For example “I think what you do can lead to unwanted consequences for the company.” Make sure you do not talk about the characteristics of your colleague, but about their behavior. This will contribute to the general climate and satisfaction with the company, and thus will lead to progress and results.
To summarize, the basis of emotional reaction lies in the importance we attach to something. Our daily productivity can benefit from positive emotions and intelligent ways of dealing with negative emotions and feedback.
We’d love to hear from you!
What do you think emotions and their impact on our daily productivity? Please share your thoughts. Simply leave your comments and/or questions in the space below.