The opportunity to take part in the future work design project and have access to training to improve my digital skills, was one I embraced whole heartedly. I am proud to be one of the geekiest members of my team, but in all seriousness- anything that makes your life easier at work is always a bonus!
By using MS 365 and MyAnalytics I’ve certainly become more aware of my working habits. It’s also made me reflect on my past working practices, including things I did on autopilot because there didn’t seem to be a better way to do things.
I am fortunate that health and wellbeing are important in my organisation. Scheduling Focus Time is something that would be encouraged; working from home does help to maintain that. I feel more productive using this to carry out certain aspects of my job without interruption. Psychologically I feel a sense of achievement that I’m being productive and efficient.
Meeting and communication habits are interesting when you break them down in MyAnalytics. I feel a motivational boost when I can see at a glance how many emails, chats and calls I’ve made in a four-week period (I sent 441, read 625 emails and had 316 chats and calls in the last 4 weeks). It’s like a non-judgemental friend giving me factual feedback that no one can dispute. I also like reading the suggestions- they challenge me to think about how I’m using my time.
Although you hear about some people feeling isolated whilst working from home, my personal experience is that I have had better quality interactions with people digitally. We’ve had scheduled time to share coffee breaks and interactions are more task focussed. I’ve concluded that whilst some aspects of work will always be better on a face-to-face basis, many interactions are just as effective when carried out digitally. Especially using MyAnalytics.
The daily diary is an excellent self-reflective tool that takes less than 5 minutes at the end of every working day. It provides a self-awareness of how I’m feeling. For me, asking myself the question, ‘how have I felt today?’ is mostly a positive reminder of what I’ve achieved and how I feel about it.
In the future I’d like to see the integration of MyAnalytics into our working culture and practices. I feel that the four themes of Focus, Wellbeing, Network and Collaboration, whether used digitally or face-to face are all positive for the organisation, the individual and ultimately, North Lincolnshire.
