“My day at Telefónica”, by Graciela Ares

First of all, I am going to make a small caveat as I consider that a day in my life "in" Telefónica is conditioned by this circumstantial of place "in", so I will change the sentence and add the preposition "with", which makes me feel more affinity with my feeling of belonging and integration as a collaborator in this world called "TELEFÓNICA".

I am part of it, and I participate in many activities and projects that take place in it, I am fully integrated in this telephone world with different dynamics, so that the day to day, is more creative and bearable.
Therefore, I feel accompanied by all the people who make up the company and that is why I like this preposition "with" even more, so I have titled this article "A day in my life with Telefonica".

The activities that I carry out on a daily basis in the workplace, some of which are not related to my role, I voluntarily develop some contributions in fields that I am passionate about and help me to share my academic knowledge, expressing my passions and skills, one of which, I present to you, is written, oral and physical communication with people.

Communicating with people, knowing about them, their needs, their dreams, learning about life, interacting empathetically with each of its members, with their abilities and values, makes me feel part of that tribe, some are momentary, other times more private, and sometimes diplomatic.

Hand in hand with all this passion comes my creative writing, which is what I am doing at this very moment.

How to emphasise that which needs to be developed

I could define a day with Telefonica in many ways, but I will focus on how to emphasise what needs to be developed for attention, how to present a given task at an appropriate time, and how to use our skills, which are ours, to accompany our daily activities with energy and creativity.

If you were to ask me how I start my day, I would actually say better how I finish it the day before, because, in order to start a new beginning, we must be clear on how to prepare that way, for the day ahead, and, therefore, see how we finish it.

If there is one thing I would like to tell you, and I think it is relevant, it is that we are used to prepare ourselves to start our day, either by going to the office or by preparing our diaries when we are in the "Home Office". We go round and round in our head with preparations of how to get ready, what to wear, what to bring in terms of some unresolved issue, with scheduled meetings and other preparations that usually take us an extreme amount of time, without taking into account the amount of energy we spend in this preparation.

But on the other hand, we never prepare ourselves the night before to positively face t

he day ahead. So I will ask you the following question: What do we do to get in a good rest the night before?
We have been taught to think and schedule agendas for the day to be productive and positive in our balance sheets, right down to the menu we will eat for breakfast. We already devise in our minds as soon as we get up, also the schedule for lunch, and in women, it includes the make-up we will wear along with our outfit, depending on whether there is an important meeting that day.

But what we don't realise is that we already go to bed with all that in our heads, the night before, without giving space for rest and silence, which we don't even take into account, in order to favour a restful rest.

Have you ever done the test, when you are already in bed, think about any pending issue? Those that trigger anxiety or worry and only rob us of our sleep, it becomes difficult to fall asleep with a pile of thoughts where urgency and priority are the protagonists.

That is why I believe that it is very important to be aware and give ourselves that space to prepare ourselves to remain in mental and physical stillness when we go to rest, which is indirectly the first link to all future daytime activity.
Only by quieting our minds, relaxing and preparing for sleep, will we be able to face the next day with good spirits and energy.

It is also important not to stimulate my brain with blue light screens from mobile phones, laptops, TVs, tablets or iPods before going to sleep, as it affects our circadian cycles. The brain is anxious about new things, it likes to anticipate what is coming, it loves to compare and sometimes it even gets stuck in some past event, it is extremist, it always thinks the worst of situations, that is why it is addicted to the news and mental ruminations of what happened to us, and it is just in bed when we remember it.

Going to bed "worried" won't let me get the restful sleep I really need. Avoiding watching TV will help me to prepare my sleeping space.

It is certain that, if I fall asleep with a heavy dinner in my stomach, or with excessive alcohol consumption, my rest will be influenced and the sleep phases that will be achieved will be the shallow ones, and the ones responsible for me not being able to rest deeply. With consequences the next day, to remember and pay attention to what is important. My executive functions will not respond optimally in terms of attention, memory and motor skills. Rest is essential in order to achieve success, which we will have to carry out the following day.

A few tips on how I organise my day-to-day tasks

The night before I look at my meeting schedule to see what time my social interactions start and wake up at least an hour earlier to give myself time for a good breakfast.

Another thing I do, if I am in a home office, is that I change my clothes, I never stay in my sleeping clothes. I activate my mind, or at least I trick it into waking up, and I don't work in the room where I sleep. Changing the place conditions our mind that it has to wake up.

The same thing happens when I go to rest, when the brain is in bed it prepares itself to fall asleep, that's why it is important to take the televisions out of the rooms where we rest.

From there, when I wake up, I start my day with a good breakfast, rich in fruits, proteins, with healthy fats and carbohydrates that are a great source of energy to wake up and last in the morning with a positive, energetic and lack of "hunger".

A good breakfast helps us to undertake whatever we decide to manage without interruptions in the morning, either by lowering our energy level, or by losing our attention because we feel like eating something, so that we can get to lunch without interruptions.

As a tool, I consider it very important to set alerts on priority issues that need to be solved during the day.
I usually write down general personal tasks on paper and then discard them with a pencil and cross them out as I solve them, because knowing neuroscience, I know that our mind is agitated and exhausted by having those pending tasks in thought mode, so if I have a hectic day, it will give me great pleasure to cross out those pending tasks when it is a completed task.

Also in the corporate email, I follow up with colour those I am waiting for a response, or with a little flag detailing the name of their follow-up and I also create folders and subfolders of related topics, where it is visually easier to find them.

The tools I often use are the Outlook agenda, also the mails, and Workplace, where before starting my daily work, I take it as my best newspaper, where I get informed of all the topics that encompasses the company at the level of communications, benefits, digital security, searches, internal communication and work team groups, since I have several walls identified as informative channels and of my interest.

If I have a course through Teams, a tool that is widely used in my team, I connect and silence the other chats to be able to pay attention to the subject to be discussed or learnt, postponing the reading of e-mails until the course is finished.

On the other hand, I write down doubts about topics that cannot be solved on a sheet of paper, in order to take the appropriate time to learn about that topic with the corresponding person.

The importance of "one to one"

I have weekly face-to-face meetings with my superior to write down pending issues, or resolutions that arise on a daily basis and that require some programming.
I have also made it a rule, if I receive a task that needs my priority and attention, and its management requires only a few minutes, I manage it immediately and mark it as done, so it does not remain as a pending, and I no longer need to write it down in my to-do list.

My best moment of the day

My best moment of the day is when I complete that list in the evening of tasks already done, fulfilling my daily goal. As I cross off my list or postpone the tasks that I didn't finish, I keep in mind that the ones that take more time I prepare in advance and day by day I do only a part of them, so that when the estimated date and delivery date arrives, I already have them ready.

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