Blog – Feeling Overwhelmed? Get away from your desk!

We’ve all been there. Overloaded with work and lots of fast approaching deadlines. It’s quite a common thing in academia, industrial research, and medicine. These jobs are highly technical and often highly demanding. I can’t speak for industry and medicine but in academia things also seem to come in peaks and troughs. Sometimes you are sat at your desk trying to find things to do, other times you are missing those days while you fight to get everything done in time for what feels like an endless list of deadlines.

I am currently in the latter situation. I have multiple papers to sort, multiple grant deadlines and lab research to keep ticking away in the interim. It would be better if this was just a result of poor planning but it is the culmination of multiple things landing on my desk simultaneously and grant calls opening and closing at very similar times. A normal person could probably rifle through these tasks one by one but my brain doesn’t work that way. I need to list everything out and prioritise before putting on noise cancelling headphones and listening to things like ‘music for concentration’ on YouTube. I don’t know if there is any science to show this helps but something about the minimalist, long tones at frequencies apparently designed to increase concentration seems to really focus my mind and stop me getting distracted. It might be a placebo but it still works.

Having said that, no amount of binaural beats can help you when it all gets too much. This happened to me earlier this week. I was sat at my desk and could feel my chest tightening. I was getting quite anxious and realised I hadn’t looked away from my screen all day. It was a bad combination of too much coffee and not enough time away from working. I closed my laptop, got up from my desk, left the building and went for a 30 minute walk. We’re fortunate to have a lot of green spaces on campus at the University of Birmingham. On this particular day I was in the College of Medical and Dental sciences which has gardens and a stream and I found myself standing watching the water flow by. I could feel the stress and anxiety literally pouring out of me. There’s something about seeing sky, trees and water that I am convinced is evolutionarily wired into us to cause a calming effect.

I went back to my office and it was so much easier to get things done after that because I had realised I was neglecting one of the most important things – self-care. This is especially crucial in the demanding environment of a really busy job or a job that has been made extremely busy by numerous, fast approaching deadlines. We’ve all heard of burnout. A state of total mental and physical exhaustion triggered, often, by stress and a lack of self care.

At times of heightened stress and pressure we lose our ability to focus.

Our decision-making abilities plumet and we struggle to handle challenges (such as upcoming deadlines!) No matter how busy you are, it is essential that you always take time to look after your own wellbeing. That 30 minutes of spending time outside paid me back with another 4 hours of productive work. Had I not listened to my mind… had I instead further caffeinated and pushed myself… I would probably have struggled to get beyond another hour of work. On top of that, I would have greatly increased my risks of burning out by pushing myself beyond what my brain was trying to tell me was my limit.

It is not selfish to look after yourself. How can you function effectively and, just as importantly, how can you be in a good position to help others if you haven’t got yourself in order? We have become tied to our desks and we seem to have forgotten that we are literally evolutionarily wired to be outside. That is why time outdoors can be so comforting. Our brain recognises it as a calming place.

We need to stop thinking about breaks away from our desks as a luxury. They are a necessity for maintaining our wellbeing. It allows us to reset, destress and come back with fresh perspectives. Regular breaks are as essential to productivity as they are to mental clarity. Remember… your best self will always emerge not from continuous work. It emerges from the balance that you strike between work and self-care. Do yourself a favour. Get the heck away from your desk!

Dr Sam Moxon

Author

Dr Sam Moxon is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. His expertise falls on the interface between biology and engineering. His PhD focussed on regenerative medicine and he now works on trying to develop 3D bioprinting techniques with human stem cells, so that we better understand and treat degenerative diseases. Outside of the lab he hikes through the Lake District and is an expert on all things Disney.

Follow @DrSamMoxon