Three Core Principles for Avoiding Work Fatigue

In the fast-paced modern world, productivity is considered crucial to success in personal and professional lives. A recent survey shows that being more productive is the most popular self-development goal in the US, the UK, and Australia. Over 63% of Americans strive to be more productive, prioritizing productivity over happiness, health, and earning more money.

At the same time, the tech world is facing a quiet quitting trend and a burnout epidemic. Some employers respond by implementing various monitoring solutions and return-to-office mandates. However, all of these contribute to work fatigue and have the same strategic issue: our approach to productivity needs to be redefined. Below I suggest three core principles to help you maximize your team’s efficiency while nurturing emotional well-being in the workplace. Mariana Boloban, Head of People and Career Expert shares the practices that helped our hybrid team at Headway, a Ukrainian EdTech startup, overcome the challenges of the pandemic and wartime without a drop in productivity, eNPS, or employee retention.

Determine priorities

Prioritization may seem the most obvious solution to maximizing productivity, but it is not the easiest. While we understand that resources are limited, and we can’t simply do more, prioritization issues arise. People mistakenly approach minor tasks that bring quick results and satisfaction first, while comprehensive tasks, which are critical to success, remain unattended.

A manager’s mission is to suggest an approach to help employees be on the same page while setting priorities. You may choose a method that suits your team best. However, all of these are based on the critical principles suggested by Eisenhower’s Urgent-Important Matrix. The idea is that you skip the unnecessary, postpone the non-urgent, and delegate the least important stuff.

However, in most cases, the issue is not about prioritization as a tool. It is about understanding the goals of each employee and the company as a whole. Each participant in the workflow must have a clear picture of how daily tasks contribute to business goals.

Make learning a part of your corporate culture

Sustainable productivity is the chase for quality, not speed or quantity. Help your team identify personal development areas. Motivate them to devote time to education instead of spinning in a loop of minor tasks that take time and energy. While striving to do more often leads to exhaustion, aiming to improve the quality of skills will result in higher efficiency and overall satisfaction. Education also adds to the feeling of self-actualization, which takes productivity to the next level and eradicates fatigue.

We often skip great educational opportunities, as the process is time-consuming. However, even short learning sessions may significantly improve performance if efforts are consistent. I always encourage my team to book slots for learning while planning their week so education is not overhead but an essential task on the agenda.

Encourage taking breaks

Employees often ignore the need to refresh as they strive to accomplish more. Both regular microbreaks throughout the day and days off work are crucial to nurturing productivity. The most widespread mistake is that high achievers only consider resting when they feel exhausted. Time off, however, is not a remedy for burnout but an essential component to prevent it. I ensure that every manager keeps abreast of their subordinates having enough time to recharge. Checking on the general well-being of each employee is an essential part of each weekly one-to-one.

Your team members will benefit more from an accidental day out of the office in the middle of the working week than a sabbatical taken to recover from accumulated stress. A similar approach works for microbreaks. Occasionally switching your attention will help you develop new thoughts, complete daily tasks even faster, and feel satisfied with both the process and the results.

In the modern work environment chasing productivity at its expense is a disastrous mistake, resulting in decreased performance over the long run. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity. However, consistent learning, improved prioritization, and regular breaks are the fundamentals of any corporate culture. These elements will help avoid work fatigue and detrimental outcomes of employee disengagement.