Working Overtime While Relaxing

When you hear the word overtime is mentioned, these 3 words may probably cross your mind: deadline, caffeine, stress. Yes, very familiar indeed, huh? Nevertheless, I am going to add up 3 more which work just as well, and they are: relaxing, television, sleep. Whilst the second list seems exceedingly out of place, it is just as applicable to working overtime as to the former list. And the reason for this lies at the bottom of two of the most common and biggest misconceptions individuals have regarding overtime. 1. You get more done if you try working overtime on the job.

How long could a worker spend in the same room working and concentrating on the same stuff and still operates at their optimum 100%? My guess is that it will not be immensely long. A change in environment or scenery can spell the great difference sometimes. 2. The more overtime you work the more things or tasks you get to finish. Working is similar to that of a bell curve: once you have reached that maximum level, your productivity would soon eventually decrease. Just because you are working for several hours does not mean that they are all productive and efficient hours.

Therefore, if you do not work all your overtime on the job and you do not work tons and tons of overtime, then how do you make your overtime productive and constructive? Now this is where that latter, seemingly odd list of terms comes in handy. It is precisely when a person takes that much needed break from work that these sorts of stuff come unbidden in our mind. I find that several of one’s ideas and concepts and new and unique approaches on problems happens whenever one is simply relaxing, or even when watching TV or sleeping. Well, what do you know--while a person might not be working overtime in a true sense, as long as these ideas are written down and acted on them an individual might benefit from the project or tasks that they have been working on.

And come to think of it, these ideas may have been the result or consequence of several more coffee induced, glued to the cubicle hours, yet since an individual would take a breather and allow themselves to let loose for awhile, it would also come to them regardless and still be refreshed. A more mentally alert and more refreshed employee or worker is often preferred to a lazy eyed and exhausted zombie. But do not get me wrong, there will still come a time when one needs to put in the long hours at work. An individual would not always be be able to just “generate ideas” sans putting serious thought and effort into it.

Nonetheless, whenever you do come across these types of ideas just out of the blue, you absolutely need to act on them. You would be surprised at how significant non traditional overtime work could be. So write them down and make use of them.