Tips to hit your targets

EAs are busy people but sometimes, like everyone, they'll find their motivation lacking. Here are a few tips to help keep the train moving and hit those targets you set.

1) Take advantage of loss-aversion

Numerous studies in behavioral economics have found that people are loss averse; that is, the loss of something troubles them more than gaining the same thing. You can take advantage of this quirk of human nature by paying yourself a lump-sum reward at the start of your task, and then subtracting from it if you don't achieve your goals. This should prove more motivating than paying yourself for achieving.

2) Solidify abstract goals

People managed to hold out for longer in physical endurance tests when they could see a bar graph of their time growing as opposed to watching a stopwatch go round and round, New Scientist reported. The original researchers suggested this could apply to other tasks too - draw a graph to mark your progress or print out a calendar and mark off every day that you stick to a certain regime.

3) Forget the fat

Researchers at the University of Montreal found that eating a high fat diet can impair the function of the mesolimbic dopamine system that controls motivation. This suggests that otherwise healthy people may be sapping themselves of motivation when they reach for the fatty fish and chips.

For a creative boost, listen to happy music

If you're trying to find more creative solutions to a problem, the key might lie in what you're listening to. Researchers in Australia gathered 155 volunteers and split them into five groups, who then did a variety of creative thinking tests. Of the five groups, four listened to music and one worked in silence.

The groups that described the music they were given as "positive" came up with a wider variety of solutions to the tasks they had to complete. The other kinds of music had no effect.

This effect, however, only bore fruit in the field of divergent thinking - the generation of new ideas. Convergent thinking, which is the synthesis of old ideas into new solutions, was not improved by the happy (or any) music.

The authors of the study noted that, "when getting stuck in a rut, it can be helpful, instead of digging deeper, to dig elsewhere". This is what the happy music helped participants do, and could be a valuable tool for EAs on those days when their idea-well runs dry.

How to deal with conflict

Conflict in the workplace is unavoidable. If no disagreements are voiced, it's likely that instead of things being harmonious, people are just keeping their lips sealed. That's not to say conflict should be encouraged but rather that when it comes, EAs shouldn't see it as a sign of dysfunction - it's natural for teams to have disputes now and then. What, then, is the best way to move through them constructively?

1. Don't back away and let things fester

When conflict bubbles to the surface, the absolute worst thing that can be done is to back off and let things fester. If someone's having a bad day and is just in a cranky mood, sometimes there's no reason to take things further. But when the cause of conflict is something deeper and more permanent, it won't go away after the respective parties get a good night's sleep. Substantive conflicts should be resolved as they arrive; left untreated, what begins as a splinter becomes an infected mess. Getting to the root of a conflict and resolving it quickly stops things from spiralling into personal territory too.

2. Understand both sides

Easy when you're outside the conflict, but when you're one of the warring parties, it can be difficult to see the other person's point of view. It's important to understand why they feel the way they do, because that's the only path to amicable resolution. In particular, see why the point of contention affects their job - you might not be able to see the problem because you're looking from the EA perspective.

Declutter your desk to declutter your mind

Is your desk covered in clutter and junk? It might be messing with your thinking. Sherrie Bourg Carter, a psychologist writing in Psychology Today, said "messy ... work spaces leave us feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed". A study by researchers at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute found have multiple visual stimuli in your field of view has them competing for neural representation - in other words, lots of stuff to look at diminishes your ability to focus.

Some people seem to accumulate clutter almost like a magnet, whereas others naturally keep their workspaces clean. If you're one of the ones whose desk always looks like a tornado's blown through it, here are some tips for keeping it in order.

1. Go digital (where you can)

Having to manage endless reams of printed documents is a nightmare for keeping a clear desk. If you must keep them, make sure you have a functioning and manageable filing system - otherwise, your best bet for a clear desk is to go digital. Only print what you absolutely must and keep everything else on the screen.

2. Don't let clutter build

Clutter becomes overwhelming when you let it build. What would have been a few minute job had you kept on top of it becomes half a day's work. Stop the build-up before it becomes a problem - a good way to do this is cleaning your desk before you go home at the end of the day. That way you come to a clean work surface in the morning and can dive straight into your work.

The key to a productive day: manage your interruptions

Picture this: you're sitting at your desk, mind focused, fingers blazing across the keyboard as you power through the latest task. You're in the zone. All of sudden, the phone rings and it's a co-worker asking when you're free to chat about an upcoming event. You check your calendar and tell them, put down the phone and return to your task. But as you begin typing, you find it's all a lot harder than it was two minutes ago before the interruption; you're no longer in the zone.

As a knowledgeable EA, being interrupted is probably going to happen often, as everyone has to come to you to have their questions answered. That said, your goal should be to minimise these productivity breaking interruptions as much as possible. There are a few things you can do in this regard:

1. Make your calendar accessible to all

Having a calendar that everyone else can see is great because co-workers no longer need to ask you whether you're free for a meeting or a chat - they can just look at your calendar and see.

2. Make finding information easy

This leads on from the previous point. Companies have FAQs on their websites - can you make one for your office, or if not, make it known where people can find this information?

3. Have a "no-interruptions" time

If you're constantly being interrupted for minor questions, consider having a "busy" period where people should know not to disturb you. How strict you wish to be with this is up to you, but it can at least signal to your co-workers that you'd prefer not to be interrupted, and to consider whether the request can wait