In this article you will learn 3 simple ways to learn how to be more productive at work. You will also know what the SCARF Model is.
A million things happen in our brains at the same time, and knowing what is happening there is vitally important; since we can be more aware of our behavior and correct it in order to know how to be more productive.
David Rock, doctor in neuroscience of leadership, speaker and author of books such as Silent Leadership: 6 Steps to Improve Our Performance at Work, Your Brain at Work: Strategies to Overcome Distraction, Regain Focus, and Work Smarter; He has been working on the SCARF model for some years.
What is the SCARF model.
- Condition (Status): The importance we believe we have for others.
- Certainty (C.ertainty): Ability to make accurate predictions.
- AAutonomy: Feeling of control.
- R.elation: Connection with others.
- Justice (Fairness): Impartial exchanges with others.
For David, these are the 5 domains that activate strong threats or rewards in the brain. And that is why he has dedicated himself to training more than 10,000 executives in more than 60 countries; giving them tools to improve in these 5 areas and thus improve their performance.
His experience and work done at NeuroLeadership, a company of which he is the founder and CEO; allow you to be a pioneer in integrating neuroscience with leadership and an authoritative voice on the subject of productivity.
For this reason we bring some tips from David to know how to be more productive at work.
How to be more productive at work.
1. Prioritize priorities.
Facing simple but stressful tasks, such as reading and answering emails, release large amounts of cortisol (a hormone released in response to stress). Making the tasks that we must do later, more difficult to complete.
And if we add to that that our brain has a limited capacity to process information; It is a huge mistake to get up to answer emails. Because the only thing we are achieving is using up our best resources for the most basic tasks.
Prioritizing is key to better managing our creative productivity.
2. Understand what ‘Attention Residual’ is.
We have already talked about the “attention residue” here. Which prevents us from giving our maximum if we do several things at the same time. But David has a much more interesting fact.
The psychologist Gleen Wilson, in more than 80 tests, found that people who usually answer texts and the like, while they are working, reduce their IQ by approximately 10 points.
That’s 6 points more than the loss caused by using marijuana!
Men have an average loss of 15 points, while women suffer a loss of approximately 5 points. This corroborates that women perform better in distracting environments.
3. Reason the emotional.
On any given day, the situation at work can become complex. An email that was misinterpreted, an offense by a colleague, frustration, anger, pride… in short; emotions can take the leading role in a business day.
What to do in those cases where we do not want to get carried away by what we feel and move on?
In the prefrontal cortex of the brain is our rational part; the one that understands and analyzes what our senses capture. While in the limbic system are all our emotions; the same ones about which “we cannot” reason and that usually take over us.
In a stressful situation, for example, the balance between the rational and the emotional is broken; being the limbic system the one that begins to condition our behavior.
The goal, says David, is to practice and make a habit of naming our emotions, so that it stops being an emotional issue and we can reason it out.
Thus, with our own name we will be able to reinterpret the situation, understand what is causing it, act more intelligently, obtain a more beneficial result and not undermine our productivity.
But it is important not to try to suppress emotions, since the result of this is to leave ghosts in our minds that come and go, distracting us from what is truly important.
Conclusion.
Learning how to be more productive at work is not something that can be learned in 3 steps. However, with a little practice on the 3 steps we covered above, you will start to see better results.
Many successes!
And remember, if you are really interested in creating your own business, you can read our book “How to create a company while working: Discover how to manage your time, manage your money and motivate yourself while creating a company and working for another” , where you will find all the information you need to found your own company, without having to leave your job.
