How Fun at Work Can Improve Your Productivity
Feeling stressed? Tired? Skipping work may sound wrong, but according to one neuroscientist, it can ultimately make you more productive.
As Dr. Tara Swart explains to Fast Company , taking a little extra leave from work is good for your brain. To be productive, Swart says, you need blood flowing to all parts of your brain. Otherwise, you won’t get enough glucose and oxygen delivered to your brain to think and stay focused. But when you’re too stressed at work or feel that you are being treated unfairly, the brain diverts your blood supply from the higher centers of your brain and switches into what is called “survival mode”. In this state, you can work well enough to survive, but your productivity suffers and you are less inclined to work with others.
Without proper blood flow to the higher executive functions of the brain, Swart says, you lose the ability to regulate emotions, suppress your biases, switch tasks efficiently, solve complex problems faster, and think less creatively. In the video, Swart compares your brain to the CEO of your body:
“… if you knew how your CEO thinks, what his values are, or how they want to work, you could give them the best job you can. It’s the same with your brain. The more you know about how it works, the more you can benefit from it. “
So Swart suggests that you take a little personal break when you’re really nervous or having interpersonal issues in the workplace. Call the sick person even if you are not sick, or better yet, take one of those “mental health days” that are not used often enough. You will come back more productive, creative, and warmer towards your colleagues. So yeah, anyway, I’m going to take the rest of the day (don’t tell my editors) and I hope you will too.