Do you find yourself feeling exhausted before your workday has even begun? Do you rely on coffee to make it through the day?
There’s no doubt that 2020 was a stressful year. All of that stress hasn’t yet melted away. While pandemic fatigue certainly exacerbated existing health challenges, it didn’t start them. From time to time, we all experience office fatigue. Whether we start strong and falter a few hours in or have trouble even getting out of bed, these are more than the workday blues.
Recognizing Workplace Fatigue
Because fatigue, like burnout, can be a gradual process, we don’t always recognize office fatigue in time to mitigate its impact. The more we can do to recognize fatigue, the more we can do to put a stop to it before it starts. While fatigue from time to time is common and normal, chronic fatigue that plagues every workday can hinder your performance.
Here are a few of the tell-tale signs of office fatigue:
Headaches
Yawning and heavy eyelids
Difficulty focusing and concentrating
Increased number of mistakes
Irritability
Lack of motivation
Symptoms of depression
Feeling tired even after a good night’s sleep
What Causes Office Fatigue?
While a lack of quality sleep can cause fatigue, it is not the only reason you’re feeling tired in the office.
Expectations — A toxic work environment can easily lead us to feel fatigued day-in and day-out. Whether we’re combating the stress of unrealistic expectations or unfair management, it takes a toll on us mentally. A lack of adequate breaks, too much overtime, night shifts, consistently tight deadlines, and negative reinforcement can all create more fatigue than you should experience at work.
Environment — Environmental factors play a role in fatigue. There are two distinct extremes here that cause exhaustion. A loud, overwhelming environment, uncomfortable workspaces, lack of natural light, and disorganization can all make us fatigued. At the same time, being too comfortable, too warm, or too dim can also bring on lethargy. We must operate in an ergonomic environment — not just a comfortable one.
Physical Factors — Physical factors come from within. Poor sleep quality, poor nutrition, and a lack of regular exercise contribute to fatigue.
3 Ways to Combat Workplace Fatigue
Eliminate Overtime
Studies show that the more hours we work, the smaller the return on investment. Productivity and quality decline with overtime. While many of us are guilty of spending late hours in the office now and again, a habit of taking overtime is detrimental to your work rather than beneficial. It follows the law of diminishing returns very, very clearly across different industries. Pushed by our productivity and busy-minded culture, workers find themselves resorting to unhealthy habits...and substances… to push themselves to work past their breaking point.
Focus on Your Health
You know I’m going to say it. As much as I enjoy writing about leadership and work culture, you know that I’m a health and nutrition guy at heart. If you want to beat fatigue, you have to start with your health. That means a few things:
Adequate nutrition — This means eating whole foods and appropriate portions, managing your caffeine intake, and increasing the amount of water you drink.
Proper sleep — Sleep debt is real and it is difficult to overcome. As adults, we need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. If you compromise on sleep or fail to set up a proper sleep environment, your health and your focus will suffer. Limit screen time before bed and create a cool and comfortable atmosphere. Avoid triggers that could compromise your sleep quality, such as foods that cause heartburn.
Proper exercise — Exercise is a great way to relieve stress, increase your focus, and improve the quality of your sleep. It makes all the difference in the world to get up early for a workout versus rolling out of bed and to the office at the last minute.
Tweak Your Environment
We’re enormously impacted by our environment. We’ve seen, for example, how the popular “open office” environment does not encourage real innovation but takes a toll on productivity due to exposure to intrusive distractions. Loud coworkers, office chatter, and the constant movement can all distract us and drain our attention. Open offices are just not good.
Unfortunately, this might be something you can’t change where you are. That said, you can improve your environment. Adjust your chair to improve ergonomics (or get a new chair altogether). Experiment with different setups, like a standing desk or exercise ball chair. Bring in a few live plants to keep on your desk.
When you make your environment ergonomic and inviting, it is much less likely to sap your energy and willpower to do good work!
How do you handle fatigue at the office? Share your tips in the comments!