They eat up our time and make our days endlessly longer. Worse. while we think we are saving time, the opposite is happening. Our keys to getting out of micro-working.
Have you ever read your mail at the supermarket checkout? Annotate a document in the subway, between two appointments? Reply on company messaging platform when you are in bed or RTT? In this case, you are doing “micro-work”, understand that all these micro-tasks are “urgently” done outside of official hours, but actually eat up your free time. “It’s the intrusion of work into everyday life,” warns Sara Zituni, founder of the feminist career coaching company. MASTER your career. We think they will only take us a few seconds, but in reality these microtasks violate our right to disconnect.”
If France is the pioneer in the legalization of this right, why do we persistently continue to work, even outside the office? “We have FOMO[Fear Of Missing Out],” says Karine Troyer, a career coach known as Career Kuen on social media. We’re always afraid of missing out. opportunity… Today, if we don’t respond spontaneously to a text message, we fear not being ambitious or committed.”
Mental fog
However, microwork has never proven itself to be effective. As soon as we leave the office, we check our email. Unfortunately, (at least) one of the emails received is important and requires a moment of thought to respond. We finally decide to deal with it the next day, we put the email back to “unread” so we don’t forget. But too late. its theme will be on our minds all evening. “There’s no point in reading this letter if, in any case, we didn’t intend to answer it that same evening,” Sara Zituni emphasizes. All you get is mental fog.” And disturbed rest.
There are also messages that we have responded to quickly by forgetting the app or making a few spelling mistakes. Result? We do not invest quality in anything. neither in this fast-paced task, nor in what we were doing at the same time: starting a car, drinking with a friend, starting sports… “Work is not that, you can tinker in the corner of the table,” recalls the founder of the company. MASTER your career!. If you find it difficult to get out of the office, it’s better to schedule an hour after dinner to work again with a set deadline.”
The “hamster in the wheel” effect
Calling work where it has no place means further erasing the boundaries of professional and personal life. And reciprocally. By microworking at home, you also allow yourself to take your personal to-do list into the office. Place an order here, book your next vacation there or even manage administrative files…
“This makes the distribution of time porous,” emphasizes Sara Zituni. It’s a never-ending process, there’s always something to do. If we don’t set boundaries, we can drown quickly.” To avoid this, finer segmentation is necessary. A clear end to the workday, taking into account our achievements and the day’s progress, allows you to better enjoy your free time. If possible, it’s a good idea to have two phones, a professional one and a personal one, or switch to “do not disturb” mode; thus we physically separate the two worlds. And we save ourselves from unwanted notifications at 21:30.
If everything is urgent, nothing is
Especially since it should be remembered that e-mails or instant messages are not intended for emergency situations. “If someone needs you right away, they’ll call you,” reassures Sara Zituni. Furthermore, we are not always responsible for other people’s emergencies; everyone should be able to control their priorities.” The first step to break away from micro-tasks. take a step back to distinguish the important and urgent from the rest and restore a form of hierarchy in your organization. “Through micro-tasking, we forget the definition of productivity, which is a saving of time and convenience, which is only achieved when we have visibility on priorities,” comments coach Karine Troyer. To coordinate, we can agree on a code that is shared with certain people (our superiors, our co-workers, etc.) to notify each other of a real emergency. This way we know everything else can wait until the next office day.
Right to opt out
This also allows you to frame your discussions and possibly prevent you from responding outside of hours. Because by writing once, late at night, in a team chat group, we set a precedent. At the risk that our interlocutors will not understand us the day we ignore their messages. It also forces us to reevaluate our behavior each time, asking ourselves if we are responding this time or not. Hence the importance of setting strict rules. “Disengagement is an individual responsibility, but it is in neither the employee’s nor the company’s interest to have permanent employees,” argues Carine Troyer. The less we recover, the more anxious we are, the worse we sleep and the less we can concentrate on our work.”
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Therefore, it is important to raise the topic with your superiors and your team. We specify how we work and the times we can be reached, while remaining flexible depending on the situation. We may also ask for clarification on how quickly our manager expects to hear back from us. “These are things that are clarified coolly, especially not hotly, if we’re nervous about making coordinated contact outside of our office hours,” insists the career coach. We can use performance as an argument. “I need this break to be productive.” If we set our boundaries and stick to them, people will probably stop texting us late at night. And who knows, we might even be an inspiration to other members of our team.
Source: Le Figaro
