Bosses: take time out to reboot busy lives

We face ever-increasing stress and rapid change, personal exhaustion is at an all-time high.

Linda Friedland says focus on your work but take regular breaks.

If there is one quality to seek for organisations and ourselves it is sustained high performance in the face of ever-increasing stress and rapid change.

Yet personal exhaustion is at an all-time high. The constant expectations, demands and deadlines lead us to depletion and burn-out.

Faster, bigger, more and more: this ethos of market economies during the past 100 years is grounded in a totally misguided notion, the assumption that humans operate in a linear and sustainable fashion.

The reality is that humans are not designed to run like a computer, continuously at high speed for long periods. Humans are not linear. Bodies and brains function in a pulse-like fashion. Brief periods of recovery and restoration are essential for peak performance. Elite athletes and their coaches understand this. Elite executives do not.

Superior performance could be attained by assuming the mentality of a sprinter, who engages intensely in short bursts followed by sufficient recovery time. But the executive culture makes no provision for recovery. Rather, it promotes sustained function.

Unlike the athlete, the executive performs on demand many hours a day. They have no off- season. Importantly, while athletic performance requires body and brain, the executive’s work is regarded as a “neck-up” activity, with little attention to the physical capacity on which it rests. Surprisingly, stress itself is not the enemy; it is what drives and motivates us. It is the lack of recovery that wears us down.

Very short intervals of effective energy renewal are vital during the workday and longer periods of rest outside of work. While working, try to focus in the most absorbed way possible for a period — not more than 90 minutes — then take a break.

It is not how long the break is that matters most but how skilfully these short periods of renewal are used.

The simplest way to recharge is by breathing. Heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension can be dramatically lowered in as little as 30 seconds by consciously changing the depth of breathing.

Learning to practise mindfulness and meditation are effective ways to defuse stress, strengthen neural connections and oxygenate the brain. More can be achieved by working intensely for short periods, then refuelling, than by working continuously over a long period.

Energy is the fundamental currency of high performance, yet it is misused badly. Sitting for long periods causes stasis of blood flow and poor oxygenation of the body and brain.

There is no better way to recharge energy and the brain than by temporarily pumping up the body and adrenalin levels.

Use a lunch break to get to the gym, go for a run or, if that is not possible, take a brisk walk out of the office.

Post exercise, the adrenalin switches off automatically, facilitating energy renewal.

Improved training, short power naps, longer sleep hours and regular small meals four to five times a day with super foods have been shown to significantly enhance memory and mental acuity. Mental resilience, self-awareness and strategic recovery are the most important lessons to learn from the athletic elite.

Linda Friedland specialises in executive health and performance.