Stressful job demands, which include making hundreds of daily decisions and putting out constant fires, and annoying workplace distractions can lead to worker fatigue.
Mental strain diminishes worker output, while low-value tasks, like administrative work, meetings and other menial activities, detract from employee productivity. If you reach this point, you can actually start making poor decisions out of sheer exhaustion, as your brain is functioning at a lower level.
Humans all have their own biorhythms, and workers are becoming more attuned to their internal biological clocks by tailoring their own work schedules to meet their individual productivity peaks.
The term “monk mode” has been gaining popularity on social media platforms, especially TikTok, with users sharing tips on the best ways to reach peak productivity.
Monk mode—inspired by the disciplined lifestyle of monks—refers to intense periods of uninterrupted focus to optimize productivity. It involves hyperfocusing on a single task and removing all distractions.
Nearly 45% of tech workers said they spend four hours or fewer in a flow state, concentrating only on high-priority tasks, according to a May survey on Blind.
This mindset is an effective way to avoid burnout from juggling too many tasks at one time.
How To Get Into Monk Mode
When committing to monk mode, find the time in the day when you do your best work and block that time on your calendar.
In a 2023 Microsoft study, keyboard analysis observed a “triple-peak” phenomenon throughout the workday, where productivity spiked at around 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and then again at 10 p.m., reported the Wall Street Journal.
It is essential to communicate this boundary with your manager and colleagues to inform them that you will be heads-down during this scheduled time.
During your period of focused work, you must dispense with your usual multitasking. Stop all extraneous matters, such as emails, video meetings, phone calls, texts, your app usage, scrolling mindlessly through social media and surfing the internet for sales.
To ensure there will be fewer distractions, find a quiet workspace. You can arrive to work early, stay late or take advantage of your employer’s remote work option. To avoid any loud disturbances, try using noise-cancellation headphones. Lastly, having a tidy workspace free of clutter allows you to concentrate better and stay organized, saving you time and optimizing your monk-mode productivity.
Source: Forbes
