When your days blend, it’s time to create transitions.
When we wake up, leave our home, drive, walk, bus or bike ourselves to work, arrive, and get settled, transitions are happening. The same occurs when we leave a meeting to attend another meeting in another city, conference room or building.
When your days are in the same location all day or virtually all day, using the same screen to navigate, it’s easy to lose sense of when things happened, what day it was and who was present, because the variables are mostly unchanging.
How can you create transitions in a screen filled world?
- Plan breaks every 60-90 minutes. Create the space on your calendar or set an alarm. Physical movement helps immensely.
- Drink water. It will help with needing breaks, and also makes you get up frequently for refills. Don’t keep everything within reach – snacks or beverages.
- Every meeting should only be as long as it needs to be, it’s not mandatory for them to be in 30- or 60-minute increments.
- Stand for meetings whenever possible. Sitting is too pervasive in our screen centric worlds.
- Go for a walk outside. Take two or three 10-15-minute walks outside every day you can. Instead of one long walk, break it up.
- Use your phone, zoom and slack. All things don’t have to involve video these days.
- Turn off your view of yourself in meetings (if possible). You will focus on others and it “feels” more like being in a face to face meeting.
- Take great notes on paper – it moves you away from a screen and engages your brain differently.
- Find hobbies that don’t involve more screen time. Nature, puzzles, art, crafts, sports, crosswords, sudoku, books…create breaks in your day to enjoy a hobby break.
- Take an actual lunch break. Stop working, pay attention to what you’re eating and be present. If you choose to engage with co-workers over zoom for lunch or as you work (not on something together, just like sitting in a common area working on separate projects), it allows for a periodic interruption and exchange as well.
Don’t let it blend, adding some transitions can be a game changer.