Do you want to win the sprint or the marathon? When we talk about sports you just choose what you like best and where your talent lies. But when we talk about our (work) life we all want to win the marathon, right? Nevertheless, we are all sprinting. The new way of working ensures that we go from one online meeting to the next, work and private life are more mixed up, and constantly looking at your screen with the many notifications can also promote that sprinting. But the new way of working is therefore not necessarily doomed to failure: it can be done differently. Namely if we combine our modern form of exertion, the new work, with a new form of relaxation: the new relaxing.

In this blog, you'll read about how we're now approaching the new way of working, what the implications are and what the fallacy is when it comes to relaxing. You'll also read what the new relaxing is and what it gives you.

Because like it or not, hybrid working is here to stay. A McKinsey survey of employees showed that more than half would prefer flexible working after the pandemic. Studies by TNO, PWC, Rabobank, I&O Research, EenVandaag and HEVO, among others, also confirm that digital, place- and time-independent work is being embraced en masse.

Our environment has changed and will continue to change. Not for nothing did Matt Brittin (former vice president of Google Europe) say earlier:

"The pace of change today, is the slowest any of us will experience for the rest of our lives. We'll need to work smarter."

Your work is an incredibly important part of your life. We spend 6 times as much time on it as the time we spend with our families. Our work life has also changed tremendously over the past few hundred years. Where before we were physically tired after a day of work and where exertion and relaxation followed each other, we have moved to much more work from our brains.

Because of the way our world is shaped today, relaxation is no longer natural. Evolutionarily, your brain is programmed to perceive new stimuli (important for your survival). These new stimuli are abundant in our modern society. Therefore, we need to make conscious choices to relax on a daily basis: the new relaxing.

The new way of working

In the new world of work, communication is increasingly taking place through a screen. Workplaces and times are blurring. More people, better technology and a higher workload because efficiency has become our main yardstick. The pandemic has accelerated this, but modern stresses such as many stimuli (partly due to digitalization), always being available and information overload have been around much longer. This requires a conscious approach to effort and relaxation. The 'new way of working' therefore also involves a new way of relaxing.

Would you and your team/organization like to learn how to combine the new way of working and The New Relaxation? So that you are productive & energetic employees in a hybrid world? Then sign up your organization for Recharge

We call for a revolution in our humanity: the new relaxing

How does a homo sapiens anno 2022 relax? You probably have an image of it. Just watching a series, relaxing on the couch (with phone in hand), scrolling, reading short posts and constantly sifting through new impulses. Exercising or eating out we do too, but we look right at the phone in between to get our dopamine shots. Many people like to live towards the weekend or that planned vacation, because: then it's time to relax.

Distraction vs relaxation

The question is whether or not your brain can actually relax during that time, or whether you are working considerable overtime in your head. For example, can you really let go of your work during the time you are doing something else? Also, most series/movies are also mostly more information to process (brain-wise). The moments of nothing, such as when you are waiting in a restaurant for a while, are filled with distractions.

The proud workaholic

Besides weekends and vacations, we all just work hard. Some proud workaholics even during weekends & vacations because being busy and having heart for the business is praised. We also don't take breaks (except the very necessary) and we only see our to-do-list grow.

"We're getting busier and busier and dealing with it worse and worse. "Hidde de Vries - founder The Recharge Company

The road to burnout

You can maintain this lifestyle for quite a while. Until your body starts sounding the alarm or you start making mistakes at work that cause your supervisor to sound the alarm. Why do we all do this anyway? Very simple: instinctively, our brain is always alert to new stimuli. We can hardly do otherwise.

Underperforming

We continue on half a battery. Never quite full ON, never quite full OFF. Only much-needed recharge time (sleeping and eating and okay, maybe a quick trip to the bathroom, obviously with phone) doesn't bring the battery level up far enough. Men are even more likely to sit down during a toilet visit so they can look at their phones. You can imagine what that does to your performance at work and to the quality of your relationships. The quality of that recharge time we do have is also up for debate, considering almost [1 in 4 people have sleep problems](https://www.trouw.nl/binnenland/bijna-een-kwart-van-de-nederlanders-heeft-slaapproblemen~bdb776db/#:~:text=Bijna a quarter of the Dutch struggle with sleep problems.,for Statistics Netherlands (CBS)). has.

Recharge your battery

Continually going on and getting new stimuli in causes our battery to not fully recharge. But why do we continue on a half-battery instead of fully charging the battery? Often we do this so we can tick off our 8-hour workday.

Busy vs productive

We don't ask ourselves whether we were actually productive in those 8 hours or whether we were actually just busy. Because honestly, how many times have you gone on vacation only to find out there that you're actually quite tired?

Fortunately, there is a solution: learn how to Recharge your battery fully again and use your time and energy smartly.

Learning to relax again

Hard work and relaxation should alternate. This is how we did it as primeval man and this is how our body and brain work. Think about the gym: you tense your muscle, relax it again and repeat this. If you want to tighten your muscle for minutes on end without a break, you will succumb at some point.

Digital evolution

Evolutionarily, the one who adapts best to the changing environment has the best chance of survival. Our environment is constantly changing. Survival we do, but thriving is really something else than survival. But what do we need for that? A different approach to relaxation.

The new relaxing

The new relaxing means making relaxation part of your daily life. Grabbing your moments throughout the day instead of only when it's necessary (and you're dead tired). Think of muscle training as an example: relax enough so that you can exercise again afterwards. And not unimportant: how you relax is also important. That is what the new relaxation is really about.

Our fallacy is that strenuous things, are relaxing. Entertaining yourself by scrolling on Instagram feels very relaxing (because you get a shot of dopamine thanks to the new stimuli) but is actually strenuous for your brain. After all, your brain has yet again new info to process. In addition, dopamine is addictive and you quickly enter a vicious circle.

It is time to let go of this way of relaxing, the old relaxing. Simply because it no longer serves us.

What does the new relaxing provide?

More energy
Better focus
Motivation & fun
Better relationships
Financial peace of mind
A healthy body
Mental peace
Creativity
Connection with yourself & others
Self-assurance

3 tips to relax more in less time

The new relaxation is about changing your lifestyle and constantly making conscious choices. Taking control of your agenda, time and energy.

You can apply these 3 tips today for more relaxation & working smarter:

Learn it difference between a priority and task list know.
Know how to pause.
Take a focus block with the pomodoro technique.See also our tips for making working from home more relaxed, smart and effective:

Learn to apply The New Relaxation together with your team/organization? So that you are productive & energetic employees in a hybrid world? Register your organization for The Recharge Program

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