1. Self-Reflect/ Analyse:
Take some time for yourself to understand how you got here and the causative factors. Often this means a holistic approach as work and personal stressors and frustrations can become all mixed together and overwhelming, and when this happens it can be more challenging to fully appreciate where the root cause is an what requires your attention to change this.
If the issue is in fact your organisation and your role or indeed both, then this is something that you can absolutely control. Whilst you are unable to control your environment (at least fully), you can absolutely control how you respond to this, what hours you agree to work over and above required hours, and whether you in fact stay in you role or with the business.
If you are suffering from mental or physical stressors, unrelated to work or where you are placing undue pressure and expectations on yourself, then this is also time to stop and take immediate action, not just push through. You need to recharge your batteries and address mental or physical exhaustion or burnout before you try to make rational decisions around your role or a career move/change and this is time to seek support and help.
2. Take some time out to get a fresh perspective:
It can be easy to lose sight of your goals and aspirations or even to fully appreciate milestones already achieved when you are in the doing and go, go go!
Taking some planned time out to get out of this cycle and clear the decks (so to speak) is always a good idea, allowing different perspective and mental clarity to make considered decisions, without the day-to-day noise.
3. Focus on short-term tasks and prioritise the things you dislike doing first :
First and foremost – ladies specifically – multi-tasking is not a real thing! Multi-tasking is ineffective, disruptive and generally means it will take longer to complete any given task or outcome desired.
If you focus on one thing at a time and check things off your list, you will feel like you have achieved something and are tracking in the right direction, with a sense of achievement and satisfaction as you do so. (this is an easy feel good factor and will help to re-energise you and to move forward to bigger, more complex tasks or decisions needed.
This task focused approach can create a positive feedback loop instead of a negative one, allowing you to lift yourself out of your productivity slump and is also useful for working with team members who are under performing or struggling to remain focused, at any given time, managed in the right way so people understand the goal and why this technique is being employed.
4. Identify Barriers to Making a change and what you need to do to move forward?
If you are genuinely unhappy, you may be avoiding that discussion with your employer and the fact that it’s time to look for a new role or career pathway.
Unfortunately avoiding these discussions and decisions do not make them dissipate and often we see these fester and people who stay too long becoming totally dis-engaged with their employer noticing marked changes and not always understanding what is happening.
When those niggles start, that is the time to start from the top and self-reflect. Discuss, analyse and seek advice, rather than allowing this to get into a slump which is always harder to pull yourself out of, rather than taking early action. However, if you are already there then take measured steps to take control and ask for help where needed to support a change.
If you are dreading Mondays, having sleepless nights worrying about work or what lies ahead for the week, dreading going into the office – it is time for urgent reflection and action.
Taking these steps will help you recover from your slump, take back control and re-energise yourself, without affecting your productivity and personal brand in the process.