Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/492208
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 8 APRIL 2015 12 Business Today Have you ever felt so tired that you fear physical and/or mental col- lapse? Perhaps you've recently be- come easily irritable or short-fused. You find it difficult to wake-up in the morning. You even lack motivation. Maybe you've started to suffer from anxiety. You can't stop checking-in to your 'mobile-office' aka the smart phone; a prisoner to that sound of in- coming mail. You might have started to experience weight problems, you constantly feel lethargic and/or are suffering from insomnia? If this all sounds familiar you most probably are suffering from burnout. If you want to take a quick-and-easy self-test go to: http://www.mindtools. com/pages/article/newTCS_08.htm Many professionals, managers, leaders, business owners, etc, have at some time or another experienced burnout. It is a dangerous state to get yourself in and it takes time and a lot of determination to get out of it. Burnout can seriously affect your mental and physical wellbeing. I've seen it happen time and time again in my consultancy work. Normally, it affects the high- achievers or the perfectionists. They push themselves beyond their limits without any regard to their physical or mental wellbeing. True: to achieve great things you have to push yourself beyond the normal limit, but do this too often and you will burn out. Rather than focusing on the signs of burnout, I think it would be of more value to MT business readers if I were to offer some useful tips on how to avoid it. 1. Mornings vs afternoons: You are at your freshest in the morning. So tackle your toughest challenges in the morning. I always try to work at my desk in the morning (write a report, research a problem or answer an important email) and organise my meetings for the afternoon. What I also try to avoid is a day with intermittent meetings as this doesn't allow me to get my teeth into any real work and I end up the day not concluding anything of value, which can be very tiring and frustrating. As I always say: meetings are part of work but they are not work; 2. Leave your work at the office: Give it your all when at the office but the minute you leave, switch- off. Focus on your family, your sport, your hobby, your friends, etc, but whatever you do switch-off from work. It is impossible to be 24-hours plugged-in on an ongoing basis, reading-&-replying to emails at night and generally letting work invade your home. You can get away with this in the short term but make a habit of it and you will soon burn out; 3. Read books: I have already written in this newspaper, on 12 February, 2015, about the benefits of 'deep reading', in an article entitled, 'Why CEOs should read books'. Reading has the power to get your mind to switch-off from work by means of your stimulating imagination and intellect plus it gets you to immerse yourself in another reality. I strongly recommend you take up reading if you have a demanding and stressful job, it is one of the most powerful ways to disconnect; 4. Long weekends: I am a strong believer in working long hours (10 hours+) between Monday-Thursday but starting the weekend early on a Friday afternoon. I find that an early start to the weekend allows me to enjoy Saturday and Sunday a lot more. Granted we can't always do it but it should be your objective to finish early on a Friday. If you are in a managerial position of trust and responsibility, you don't work normal hours (9am-5pm) anyway hence it should be easy for you to give it your all between Monday- Thursday in order to be in a position to finish early on a Friday afternoon. Granted you can't always do it but at least make it your aim; 5. Exercise plenty: I can't emphasize enough the importance of exercise. We were designed to move and not to sit on our bums all day. You must as a bare minimum exercise at least 45 minutes per day, taking Sunday off to rest. Your body releases endorphins when you exercise and endorphins are what you need in order to fight stress and burnout. I lead a pretty hectic working week but I also exercise intensely every morning and I am sure that if I didn't I would quickly burn out. I also would be a very unhappy 40-something-year-old. If your workplace doesn't permit you to exercise swap it for a job that does. That is how strongly I feel about exercise; a healthy mind and body mean a more productive worker. I also consider it the be-all and end- all to happiness and physical well- being. Life isn't worth living if you can't exercise. Naturally, there is a lot more you can do. I have just skimmed the subject but I honestly think that these five tips will help you avoid burnout and enjoy work more. People frequently talk about work-life-balance. I say there is work and there is life. Keep them separate and treat them with equal importance. In the words of the Dalai Lama: 'Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.' Kevin-James Fenech is a management consultant at FENCI Consulting Regular market closed – 7/04/2015 Symbol Code Volume Traded Value Traded Trades High Price Low Price Open Price Close Price Change Twap t BOV 119344 278716.200 29 2.390 2.300 2.390 2.300 -0.090 2.335 t HSB 40338 84357.160 11 2.099 2.089 2.099 2.090 -0.010 2.091 s MDS 5000 9555.000 1 1.911 1.911 1.911 1.911 0.011 1.911 s MIA 36950 128859.100 9 3.500 3.446 3.446 3.500 0.052 3.487 s MLT 127000 121210.000 7 0.970 0.935 0.935 0.970 0.030 0.954 s MTP 12000 17066.040 4 1.425 1.421 1.425 1.421 0.001 1.422 l PZC 9500 9025.000 1 0.950 0.950 0.950 0.950 0.000 0.950 s RS2 23000 68486.910 5 2.990 2.970 2.970 2.990 0.020 2.978 t G15A 11647 11766.960 1 101.030 101.030 101.030 101.030 -0.020 101.030 t G15B 23294 23974.180 1 102.920 102.920 102.920 102.920 -0.030 102.920 l G16A 18000 19177.200 1 106.540 106.540 106.540 106.540 0.000 106.540 t G16B 23294 25079.480 2 107.670 107.660 107.660 107.670 -0.040 107.660 t G17C 162400 179403.280 5 110.470 110.470 110.470 110.470 -0.020 110.470 s G19A 5524 7013.270 1 126.960 126.960 126.960 126.960 0.210 126.960 l G21A 3495 4438.650 1 127.000 127.000 127.000 127.000 0.000 127.000 t G22A 3728 4875.860 2 130.790 130.790 130.790 130.790 -0.020 130.790 t G23A 2796 3812.910 1 136.370 136.370 136.370 136.370 -0.030 136.370 t G28A 31000 43458.900 2 140.190 140.190 140.190 140.190 -0.160 140.190 t G28B 17800 24330.820 3 136.690 136.690 136.690 136.690 -0.310 136.690 t G29A 96000 139516.800 7 145.330 145.330 145.330 145.330 -0.220 145.330 t G30A 123600 182637.600 7 148.000 147.760 147.760 148.000 -0.100 147.770 s G31A 107200 158216.480 5 147.590 147.590 147.590 147.590 0.980 147.590 l G32A 150000 209560.800 10 140.000 139.640 139.640 140.000 0.000 139.710 s G32B 12800 17491.200 5 136.650 136.650 136.650 136.650 1.150 136.650 t G33A 111000 149129.700 6 134.510 134.020 134.510 134.020 -0.490 134.350 s G34A 101500 137224.000 11 136.000 134.500 135.010 134.500 0.490 135.200 l G40AA 649900 768743.100 70 119.000 117.270 118.400 118.400 0.000 118.290 l GC16A 22100 21264.000 4 97.000 96.000 97.000 96.000 0.000 96.220 s IH19A 10000 10299.000 1 102.990 102.990 102.990 102.990 0.090 102.990 l MI17A 2000 1800.000 1 90.000 90.000 90.000 90.000 0.000 90.000 Market Summary as at April 7, 2015 Equity Official List Session State ................................................................... closed Number of trades ............................................................. 214 Volume Traded ................................................................. 2,062,210 Value of € denominated securities .................................... 2,860,489.6 Value of US$ denominated securities ................................ 0.00 Value of GBP£ denominated securities .............................. 0.00 Current Index ................................................................... 3773.569 Previous Index ................................................................. 3806.222 Change in Index (%) ......................................................... -0.858% 6pm Holdings plc ........................... 0.700 0.00% Malta International Airport plc ........ 3.500 1.51% Bank of Valletta plc ......................... 2.300 -3.77% MaltaPost plc .................................. 1.421 0.07% FIMBank plc ................................... 0.500 0.00% Medserv plc ................................... 1.911 0.58% GlobalCapital plc ............................ 0.800 0.00% Middlesea Insurance plc ................. 1.160 0.00% GO plc ............................................ 2.850 0.00% MIDI plc ......................................... 0.270 0.00% Grand Harbour Marina plc .............. 1.900 0.00% Plaza Centres plc ............................ 0.950 0.00% HSBC Bank Malta plc ...................... 2.090 -0.48% RS2 Software plc............................. 2.990 0.67% International Hotel Investments plc 0.710 0.00% Simonds Farsons Cisk plc ................ 3.201 0.00% Island Hotels Group Holdings plc .... 1.020 0.00% Tigné Mall plc ................................. 0.752 0.00% Lombard Bank Malta plc ................. 1.950 0.00% Pefaco International plc .................. 2.190 0.00% Malita Investments plc .................... 0.970 3.19% Santumas Shareholdings plc .......... 2.000 0.00% Kevin-James Fenech Don't give in to burnout Leave your work at the office: Give it your all when at the office but the minute you leave, switch-off. Focus on your family, your sport, your hobby, your friends, etc, but whatever you do switch-off from work Book reading: a powerful way to disconnect