Are You Mental ?!


I remember when I was studying in the UK, how "Are you mental?!" was a phrase used to inquire about a person's sanity, when they said or did something ridiculous, outlandish or totally out of the ordinary.

Over the years I noted that there was greater emphasis on physical fitness, but not so much on mental fitness or training. This is a sorely neglected area, and it is so crucial not to be neglected. In my viewpoint, everything we do is more mental than physical.

As a project manager, planning starts with a thought. Before anything is typed on your computer, your brain is already processing, tasks, resources, contingencies and so on.  The need to train your mental side to be strong, and able to process all the tasks that you need to keep track of, will definitely contribute to be able to handle the role better. This is true for all roles in general.

Few suggestions on things that have helped me that may work for you:

  • Put all events you need to track including personal ones on your calendar with reminder notifications.
    • This puts less stress on your mind to track everything.
  • Review your calendar for at least the next few days before you shut down, so that you have a rough idea what you need to do when you wake up.
    • This gives you an idea of how much work is scheduled for tomorrow.
    • Check on any dependencies, that will impact the upcoming days.
    • Mentally prepare yourself for the next day.
    • Review if you have additional leeway, to fit in additional tasks that needs attention.
    • Most importantly, to plan how much sleep you can get tomorrow ... yes you should have done this, to plan today's sleep already.
      • Do you need to sleep earlier, in order to get sufficient sleep, if you have an early schedule the following day.
      • Is there any opportunity to get additional sleep.
  • Reduce viewing negative things in media.
    • Choose to view media which is more related to your hobbies / interests or just fun stuff.
  • Get in touch with your spiritual side.
  • Disconnect in your personal time from work... including thinking about work.

#pmandre

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Location: George Town, Penang, Malaysia

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