If at the end of the working day you don't feel a rush of dopamine, but can barely get up from your chair, something is going wrong. Everyone gets tired, but if this feeling seems to have taken over your whole life - both work and personal - then something needs to change. And these changes must first of all come from you. This article is about how to help yourself get your energy back, how to stay energized at work, and at the end of the day feel like you have reserves for walking, fitness, and life.
Fatigue can be a symptom of a condition such as occupational burnout. If you feel like you just can't do what you used to do anymore, that you don't care about anything - it may be burnout, we talked more about it here.
Importance of rational use of energy at work
Imagine that every day you have a certain amount of energy reserve. Let's assume like a 100% battery charge. However, if you don't get enough sleep, your morning battery charge is only 60%. Skipped breakfast - another -10. In such a state you don't want to start the working day: your body tells you that your battery needs to be recharged in the morning.
Our energy is taken away by unhealthy food, disrupted daily routine, lack of physical activity, and other negative factors. So if you have them in your life, it means that you have an additional huge reserve of resources, which will be restored as soon as you return to a proper regimen.
Many people think they can handle any load. And when it turns out to be the maximum, they feel defeated. And this is a fundamentally wrong approach: the fact is that the deliberate defeat is precisely by taking on the impossible. What to do in such situations? You need to either automate some of the tasks or delegate.
Think about how many tasks and which ones you can do yourself. And don't take on more than you can carry.
How task management boosts energy levels
Without task management, coping with stress and fatigue will not work.
Managing tasks to improve productivity involves going through several steps:
Step 1: Formation of the total volume of tasks for the given moment of time
Suppose you are a receptionist in a hotel, your main duty is to check-in guests. One of the guests needs to print out documents, but the printer refuses to work. A queue of five people is slowly forming. In this situation, the right solution is to call a sysadmin. A clear understanding that setting up the printer is not part of your duties will help you not to waste time on non-essential, additional tasks. Moreover, if you have no idea how the printer works, you will be of no use now!
When you have the full scope of tasks for the day in front of you, cross off/delegate the ones you shouldn't be doing.
Step 2: Prioritize each task
You may suddenly be surprised to note that even if one of the accountants insistently demands the act, you can take it from the performer and a week later. Now the priority may be quite different tasks.
Step 3: Distribute tasks by day of the week
This is where many people have a problem: it seems that everything can be done in the shortest possible time. However, they are very rarely achievable. And achieving them creates unnecessary stress. Stress creates fatigue, etc. So at this point, download Voiset. It is an AI-based scheduler that will evenly distribute all your tasks, taking into account their urgency and priority.
Step 4: Energy boost
Here's the answer to the question, “how task management boosts energy”: many times over. When you see that all tasks are doable, you'll feel calmer. And you'll also be able to appreciate the realistic deadlines for completing all the tasks. You will certainly do them all, but, for example, in five days, not in three, as you wanted. You wouldn't have done it in three days anyway, or it would have been bad.
Prioritizing tasks to prevent overwork
Effective task prioritization helps:
1. Less distraction by non-priority activities. It helps when you want to be distracted, for example, by texting a friend. It also helps when something you don't consider important suddenly comes up;
2. It's better to prioritize things. All that is urgent, that burns, you will always be done on time and in the most perfect way;
3. Increase productivity. You no longer need to perform the entire volume of diverse tasks: you do exactly those that are necessary today. For tomorrow - new urgent tasks, etc.
To understand that a task is a high priority, assess the importance of its completion as well as the deadlines. The best way to do this is with the Eisenhower Matrix, which we described in this article (Time Management: Basic Strategies and Tools to Increase Productivity). The most urgent and important things need your immediate attention, all others can wait.
To understand that a task is a high priority, assess the importance of its completion as well as the deadlines. The best way to do this is with the Eisenhower Matrix, which we described in this article (Time Management: Basic Strategies and Tools to Increase Productivity). The most urgent and important things need your immediate attention, all others can wait.
Optimization of breaks and downtimes
Having a daily regimen that is fully reflected in your schedule is what will help you avoid overwork. Following a set schedule is very important for your physiological and psychological health.
Many novice employees choose not to go for a break to get more work done. The result of such behavior is always deplorable: a person needs breaks. Physiologically, we cannot function 24/7. It's important to remember that taking a break on time is about professionalism because it's about understanding your capabilities.
What about forced downtime? These are the periods in which you have no tasks. Downtime is the perfect time to do all those things that are not a priority right now, but still need to be done. Use downtime to take care of these kinds of things: freelancers can complete tax returns, designers can update portfolios, etc.
Choosing the right task management tools
There are a lot of planners, but there is one special one based on AI. This is Voiset, of course.
Why is Voiset the task management tool you've been looking for?
1. You can use it for all aspects of your life - both personal and work life
Create your schedule with both personal and work tasks.
2. Build workflow with colleagues and clients within the app
To give access to a workspace, just send a link to it and a password (if used).
3. The calendar displays tasks for different workspaces in parallel
You can easily estimate the volume of tasks for each day and time period.
4. Hold meetings within the app
Thanks to integration with Zoom and Google Meet.
5. When you don't know which to-do to take on - Voiset will tell you
It will organize your entire schedule with consistency and flawless AI logic.
6. When you're uncomfortable typing - Voiset will hear you
And it won't just record your voice message, it'll translate it into text and make a note out of it. And it will also ask you if you want the note to become a task. If so, he will choose the best day and time in your schedule for it.
7. When you decide to take on too much - Voiset will keep you safe
It will tell you that the day is already busy and it would be better to do the new task tomorrow. There's also a perfect day for it, and Voiset has already found it.
You can prioritize each task in Voiset, allowing you to focus on the most important things. And Voiset will take care of you, helping you to maintain your work-life balance, not to take on too much and still reach your goals! To get rid of fatigue at work, you need to make some changes in your life. Start those changes now, try Voiset!
