At work, with healthy and productive digital use

The summer vacations gave us a chance to take a breather from our screens. With the start of the new school year, it's time to adopt new habits, for a more self-respecting professional digital use that doesn't harm our productivity.

As professionals, many of us are constantly connected. It's estimated that we spend over 6 hours on screen time on all devices combined, and this has been rising steadily since 2013. Digital solutions are our main working tools, accompanying us in and out of the office, from morning to night. Beyond the applications we need to carry out our missions, most of our professional communications go through digital channels: messaging, e-mail, videoconferencing. Sometimes, however, we let technology overwhelm us, to the point where our well-being and productivity suffer. By making good use of these tools, we gain in performance.

To avoid these situations, and at a time when the right to disconnect is becoming a priority in Luxembourg, here are a few tips for responsible use of digital technology.

Disconnect from your screen regularly

It's time to make a personal diagnosis, face reality and look at our screen time. Nowadays, you can check your screen time on your smartphone or tablet. It's not uncommon for the review to bring a few surprises, and that's not counting screen time at work.

Let's start with the basics, with the classic break of at least 5 minutes every hour if the screen task is intense, or a quarter of an hour every 2 hours if it's less so. During these breaks, we recommend that you briefly leave the workstation, and move around to "break" the prolonged static posture.

These little rituals are just as important for your well-being as they are for improving your productivity. It has been shown that our concentration drops sharply after 25 minutes, so taking regular breaks helps to restore it more effectively.

Don't let digital interrupt you

Digital technology may be ubiquitous, but it also has a tendency to interfere with our concentration. We are regularly interrupted in the course of our work by a notification. Whether vibrating or flashing, the purpose of these reminders is to grab our attention for a moment.

A study by the German think-tank Next Work Innovation found that an employee in a knowledge-intensive profession is interrupted an average of 15 times an hour. That's equivalent to one interruption every four minutes.

A simple solution to limit these interruptions is to turn off all notifications. In the evening, as in the morning, it's best to favour 30 minutes to an hour post and pre-sleep, without the use of screens. A complicated challenge in a more connected world, but possible if this time is substituted by reading, sport or family time.

Another way to avoid having your attention diverted is to opt for a streamlined digital environment, with only the applications and windows you need.

For those prone to "FOMO" ("Fear of Missing Out"), that social anxiety characterized by the constant fear of missing out on something, an event, a party, or any other opportunity for social interaction, there are also applications to block access to social networks for specific periods of time. On the iPhone, this concentration time can be customized according to time and day.

Log off outside working hours

Digital technology is blurring the boundary between work and personal life. Many people access their work e-mail from a smartphone. So much so, in fact, that you may find yourself replying to a work e-mail in the middle of an evening spent watching a TV series from the comfort of your living room. It's also not uncommon to be just as surprised to receive a reply from your contact a few seconds later, to which you'll reply rather than wait until the next day.

Disconnecting, taking full advantage of the time we have to ourselves, is essential. In Luxembourg, the right to disconnect is about to be enshrined in the Labour Code, following the adoption of a bill voted through the Chamber in early June. In this context, each company is required to establish its own "disconnection regime". We also recommend activities that require less use of our devices. This can start with an evening jog, usually accompanied by music or a tracking application. And why not spend 30 minutes in a park or other green space, where we can enjoy the sounds of nature?

From a personal point of view, it's also advisable to plan periods without screens or smartphones. Particularly at weekends, where we can plan days or at best afternoons when we keep our everyday friend out of reach, so we can recharge our batteries and reconnect for the most important moments.