We process large amounts of information every day, so it’s no wonder people can feel overwhelmed. Exposing your staff to vast amounts of stimuli could lead to them becoming stressed and unproductive, purely due to the deluge of information on their desk.1
To support your workforce, we’ve looked at some top tips for managing information to help avoid stress or anxiety.
Offer the right training
Prioritising workloads poorly may be caused by your employees not efficiently managing information. An employee’s creativity and productivity might suffer when they attempt to jump between a number of tasks at one time – this could be due to them thinking they can multi-task, when in reality, most people struggle.2
One way of supporting your employees is to offer training to teach them new techniques to efficiently manage their time and tasks. This can help them to see their workload differently, and manage the information they are subject to on a daily basis much better.
Set time aside
According to reports, office workers receive on average 121 emails every day, each containing information that needs to be read and digested.3 With working on the go becoming the norm and email accounts accessible on smartphones, trying to take in all the information you’ve been sent can become challenging.
Support your team in managing this by encouraging them to set time aside to read and respond to emails – you could set up rules within an email account so that new emails are filtered into a separate folder to be reviewed and replied to later in a much more efficient manner. This will also help to stop employees being distracted by a new email every time it pops up on their screen.
The average worker spends 28 per cent of their working week responding to emails, so improving how they handle them could make a big difference.4
Empower them to say no
According to studies, due to human nature our brains are “hardwired” to say yes, and we often find ourselves being overly optimistic about our own workloads – thus being willing to take on more work and putting more information on our plate.5 Let your staff know that if their to-do list is already at capacity, they shouldn’t be afraid to say no and prioritise the tasks they already have.
Write things down
If you’ve got lots of ideas floating around your head, this is bound to add to feelings of anxiety and confusion as your brain is trying to process everything.1 Be sure to write down creative ideas regularly, a bulleted list will do – this will help to clear your mind and focus better.
Implement the Pomodoro Technique
In the midst of a busy day, it’s easy for people to get too wrapped up in one task which can lead to an overload if they don’t allow themselves enough time to deal with everything else on their to do list.
The Pomodoro Technique is a timing method used to help employees get a good balance between work completion and their overall wellbeing.6 The technique is based on working in 25 minute time periods, known as a ‘pomodoro’, followed by a short non work-related break. This cycle is repeated until four pomodoros have been completed, after which the employee takes a longer break, up to 30 minutes. To find out more about how the Pomodoro Technique can help with employee productivity and wellbeing, read our blog.
For more information about Sovereign Health Care and how its cash plans can help support your business and employee wellbeing, visit sovereignhealthcare.co.uk/business
1Self Employed Success, 2McKinsey Quarterly, 3Campaign Monitor, 4LifeHacker, 5Trello, 6Focus Booster