Evening star., 1952-04-13
Do YOU HATE YOUR JOB?
Continued from preceding page

merely sitting down there is sufficient to start the
man OH" This advice may not be very helpful
to you on your regular job but if you have work
to do at home it will help
Professor BWtt points out that it is not so
important for all your work to be done at this par
tcular place, as for this place to be reserved for
nothing but work. If your desk is used for semi
recreatonal activities. such as reading the papers,
gabfests, mblbing refreshments ETC.. that breaks
the SPELL When you sit down you're likely to think
OF those things - and have difficulty concentrat-
ing on the work at hand.
Professor Burtt doesn't mean that you shouldn't
take time out to relax now and then but if you'll
take your recreation away from your desk, you'll
do better work when you 60 back to it.
Q: Is there best time of sIay for doing diff
JGcuit ,Uork?
H: The consensus of scientific studies shows that
the average person does his best work in the
morning. For this reason, experts point out that
we can increase our productivity by scheduling our
most important work for the morning hours and
taking care of the more routine matters in the
afternoon.
Surveys of both industrial and Office workers
show that most of US don't really get going in the
morning until about an hour after we start work.
After that warm up" period, we are at our best -
and our capacity for work is greater than at
any other time of the day. As the noon hour
approaches. our efficiency begins to diminish After
the restorative effect of lunch, our mental and
physical energies take brief upswing. But it
doesn't last long - and from this point on,
efficiency goes into decline until it hits its extreme
low for the entire working day, in the late after
noon. There are exceptions, of course but this
charts the average work day for most of us-and
it's smart, if you can, to arrange your work
accordingly.
Q: Can you do better sUork ,cIsen you're
''lying dO,vn on the job?
A: Literally speaking, yes. At least studies con-
Quoted at Colgate University suggest that greater
efficiency could be obtained if Office workers were
given mattresses instead of desks Tests indicate
that if feet are propped up slightly higher than the
head, greater competence is the result. In study
on undergraduates, the Colgate psychologists
found that the students were able to do mathe-
matical problems IA per cent faster in this position
and accuracy was improved Ia per cent.
This demonstrates - the investigators point out
in summing their findings - the importance of the
amount of blood coursing through the brain; and
its relation to the speed and accuracy with which
it operates. And one psychologist observes that
the erect position of human beings apparently
gives them moderate but perpetual handicap of
cerebral anemia
Its doubtful that your boss will let you trade
your desk for chaise Tongue - however, it does
provide you with grade-A excuse for propping
your feet up on your desk"
Q: At sol'at temperature do you do your best
su0rk?
A: 1t depends on what kind of work you're doing.
At Johns Hopkins University. scientists conducted
studies to determine at exactly what temperature
you can accomplish the greatest amount of work
with the least effort Here are their results.