“If you work hard enough, you will enjoy the fruits of your labor in the future.”
Such familiar words and teachings that many grown-ups would say to the youth. Yes, the path to success meant a lot of work and experiences. Yet there are times when we try too hard in our careers, businesses, or pursuing our goals. We would often sacrifice a part of us that is also important, such as physical and mental health.
In fact, Filipinos have been known worldwide for being resilient and hard-working in whichever career or industry. Despite hardships or even heavy workload, instead of resting, we mutter words like, “Kaya ko pa.”
Many Filipinos would commute from two to three hours from their homes to arrive on time at their offices. Some Filipinos even work harder to provide for their families.
Today's work culture encourages having more than one job or side hustle to earn more money.
In recent years, hustle culture equals working harder, and constant productivity can help you reach career growth faster. While many success stories contain the narrative where sacrificing blood, sweat, and tears have allowed individuals to achieve their dreams. The untold side of the hustle culture is the glamorization of “overworking” in the Philippines.
We live in a society where we recognize sleepless nights as medals of accomplishments at work. In fact, more and more Filipinos often feel like being unproductive or choosing to rest is as bad as being lazy or not performing well.
Many Millenials who try to balance work and life but feel exhausted can have this mindset. Primarily caused by overworking or even staying passionate in their chosen career.
As a result, we constantly doubt our skills and even compare our progress to our peers. Is working harder really better to excel in our lives?
However, working longer hours isn’t really necessary, and overloading ourselves with work is actually counterproductive. According to an article by www.inc.com
“Research that attempts to quantify the relationship between hours worked and productivity found that employee output falls sharply after a 50-hour work-week and falls off a cliff after 55 hours -- so much so that someone who puts in 70 hours produces nothing more with those extra 15 hours. According to a study published last year by John Pencavel of Stanford University.”
This month, Legazy honors every talented Filipino laborer and skilled worker in different professions by launching its first Baybayin Cardigan collection called “KAPA ''.
Legazy's Baybayin Cardigan is part of our efforts to acknowledge the contribution of our countrymen that tirelessly work to ensure that the Philippines will prosper in the future. Legazy is also here to help you be more efficient in getting the job done with these top tips for working smarter.
Cut down your to-do list
Managing your to-do throughout the day can help you stay on top of getting things done while making each task more achievable. Having a smaller list of tasks can help you focus on the workload you can accomplish through the span of the day, ensuring the quality of work for each primary task. Another pro-tip is to base your to-do on the complexity and time needed to finish the job to know where to shift your focus.
Stop multitasking
While most people believe that they can juggle multiple jobs simultaneously, humans aren’t really capable of doing various things at once that require equal concentration and brainpower.
Multitasking is actually a habit of most workers that shifts their focus from one task to another. It may make you think you are paying attention to different tasks. Still, you are not really paying attention to everything around you.
In fact, many experts say that multitasking makes it even harder for people to fully complete their tasks.
So, when you feel the need to juggle your workload, take a step back and breathe. Allot enough time to do one task at a time to allow your brain to focus on each work needed to be done more efficiently.
Relieve stress and take breaks
Have you ever felt overwhelmed, or that pressure builds up within you?
These are just a couple of ways stress can affect your work performance. Many factors and situations can stress someone out, and work-related stress specifically could even negatively affect your mental health.
Without real breaks, our brain gets tired and gets more distracted that getting work done is near impossible. This is why it’s essential to take small breaks and relieve the stress from your body even during work. It can be in the form of simply standing up from your desk and taking a breather.
Remember that even the best machines are turned off to recharge or rest.
Communicate
No matter what role you have, whether as an employee, businessman, or even a freelancer, collaboration is critical to delegating tasks better. It also lessens misunderstandings and miscommunications at work.
Improving your active listening and communicating skills lets you strengthen teamwork with other people in your industry.
Measure your results and not your time
Have you ever checked the time to see how long it took you to finish a specific task only to feel frustrated about the amount of time to accomplish it?
For example, you spent roughly 2 to 3 hours to finish a written article. Yes, it took an ample amount of your work time. However, if it meant ensuring the quality of your work meets the standard of your job, it is not truly a waste of time and energy.
Focusing solely on the time over action and results leaves more room for inefficiency and errors in your projects or tasks.
Like taking breaks, if you pressure your brain to rush your work, it will lead to physical and mental exhaustion.
Also, when you feel forced to execute work beyond your capacity, eventually, you will begin to hate what you are doing.
Be open to learning new methods and skills
As technology evolves, some complicated tasks or processes can be simplified and done faster when you are open to learning and improving your skills.
The more you expand your knowledge, the more you will be able to accomplish tasks quicker and more efficiently.
And while these are just a few of the tips, Legazy can give to boost your work productivity. The most important thing to remember to excel in your career is to enjoy the process and love each big and small achievement you gain in your profession.
There are still struggles and hardships in any profession, but know that your perseverance does make a difference.
So, here at Legazy, we’re making it better for you to wear your profession in pride and style with our release of the Baybayin Cardigan collection!
This premium quality, Baybayin Cardigan, is Legazy’s latest collection that pays homage to the Philippines' labor workers. This collection consists of 8 different professions, and you can even choose from three stunning colors - Beige, Black, and Army Green.
It is also a versatile statement piece that you can style to fit formal occasions with its On-Duty mode. Or even go for a relaxed and comfy look that shows the intricate Baybayin details with the Off-Duty mode.
Similar to our previous Propesyon collections, the Legazy Baybayin Cardigan is our way of continuing to support the professionals of our nation.
May you continue to be the inspiration that can touch the next generation's lives!