Over the past decade work place demands have grown exponentially caused in no small part by ever demanding bosses who themselves are under the same pressures. In the extreme this leads to days off work and stress related issues. The modern work model of long and continuous hours in front of a computer or at meeting and answering emails 24/7 isn’t good for us emotionally and physically and it also isn’t good for our bosses as performance will inevitably sag. Now workers will be able to graphically show their bosses when they are ‘washed out’ a general sign of stress , by the coloured light LED system on the watch , so red light may really soon spell danger to overzealous bosses.
Recent research of 1000 respondents states that more than 60 percent take 20 minutes or less for lunch, and 25 percent never leave their desk at all. One third of poll respondents spend less than half an hour a day during the workweek completely disconnected from email.
Now thanks to Cambridge tech company MvBii and their Zing smart watch this could be a thing of the past. The team of scientists behind the smart watch, a fun and affordable alternative to Apple’s I-Watch, have created a series of secret algorithms based on academic research and have come up with a watch that will track activity and enable workers to check when they feel drained and disillusioned and do something about it.
These symptoms may be attributed to fatigue brought on by unreasonable demands by bosses but often we compound the problem by not managing priorities, agreeing to silly deadlines or not knowing when taking a short break will speed things up. This groundbreaking product will now allow the user to become mindful of this pattern and to take simple but effective measures to manage them – taking breaks, brief exercise and taking into account priority overload.
“Our bodies operate in waves like the 90 minute ultradian rhythm and to feel at our best we need to get a good balance of rest and activity across the day.’ Explains Zing’s Founder Justin Pisani. ‘We often override rhythm with stimulants like caffeine or chocolate which can be effective in the short term which can make things worse.’ He continues , ‘But being sympathetic to the rhythm and trying to maintain a balance between activity and rest throughout the day not only makes us feel better but it makes us perform better.“
The unique 24 hour activity wheel which lights up on the Zing , allows people , especially at work, to see the ebb and flow of their activity in the day as it happens alongside a diary which shows an estimate of balance across the day using colour changes.
The wearer when at work or at play can add text and photo notes to it hence adapting our work and relaxation patterns and changing the way we often think of the healthy solutions in terms of single exercise events like a getting to the gym instead of a gentle walk for example. Zing shows the user that they can use the simple and normal activities of life to help create a better life balance.