Avoid the bends! Could these 5 scuba diving lessons help you to work more effectively and stay healthy?

Scuba divers who spend long periods of time under water commonly use decompression chambers as a way of getting their bodies to return to normal atmospheric conditions after a dive. In doing so, they minimise the risk of getting decompression sickness (also called ‘the bends’), which can be caused by reducing the pressure on ascent from a dive too quickly.

Whilst many of us don’t take part in deep water adventures as part of our everyday work or study, we do have to deal with moving in and out of pressurised situations, sometimes on a regular basis. So in doing so, should we bear in mind how scuba divers cope with moving in and out of a high pressure underwater environment, back to shore?

1. Do you need to dive in the first place?

As with scuba diving, it’s important to assess whether or not what you’re about to embark on is actually necessary in the first place. But in a fast moving age, where you’re inundated with email and instant messages, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you always need to be doing something or reacting to something in order to be seen to be making progress.

However, reacting to a situation without stopping and thinking, may not only result in unnecessary work, but that work may need to be re-done or re-thought through.

It’s much better to get into the habit of understanding that stopping and thinking is in itself, a form of action which is a pre-cursor to any actual ‘physical’ action. In doing so, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and energy in avoiding things that are unnecessary and a waste of your time.

2. Are you prepared for your dive?

Having decided that your dive (or piece of work) is necessary, it’s worth stopping to consider whether you have everything that you need to complete your activity in one go.

The ‘pre-dive’ (or pre-work) stage, is one where things may start to feel a bit daunting. Questions like ‘How on earth will I complete this project in the next two weeks’ or ‘How will I be able to comprehend a 500 page text book this term’ might start to surface, creating potential anxiety.

Just as a dive may feel daunting because of lack of preparation and planning, a project or phase of study may feel equally daunting unless it is broken down into smaller parts. In turn, for each of those smaller parts, you might have to again ask yourself whether each of those parts is really necessary and then revisit whether you are ready to embark on your project or study period.

But by doing the above, it will help make the dive (or your piece of work) easier to carry out and reduce any anxiety that may otherwise arise.

3. How long will your dive last?

Scuba divers can only stay underwater for so many tens of minutes, before needing to return above water.

However, in many lines of business (or in periods leading up to exams), it’s not uncommon to work long hours or even consecutive days and nights, in order to ‘get things over the line’.

Whilst we live in an age where technology is supposed to make life easier, its downside is that it provides a constant conveyor belt of things to do. That in turn can lead to you running on adrenalin, which is both unhealthy and unsustainable in the long term.

So in working out how long your dive will last, not only is it important to give honest consideration to the amount of time that you’ll need to complete a task effectively, but also, that you’re able to step off the conveyor belt when you need to, so that you can retain the ability to sense check whether what you’re actually doing is effective or necessary.

4. How quickly will you need to move to your next dive?

As well as working out how long your current piece of work or study will take, it’s also important to think about what pieces of work or study may lie ahead of you next.

Just as scuba divers may spend time in decompression chambers after a dive, to avoid the adverse impact of the changes of pressure on their bodies, it’s worth considering whether you need to allow yourself some time to ‘decompress’ and if so, how much time you’ll need in order to approach your next piece of work or study effectively.

In some instances, moving from task to task may just need a tea break or a quick breath of fresh air. But if you have just undertaken a sustained period of working long hours, or have had to work through a particularly difficult problem of any length, both your body and your brain may need real time out to recover and retain their ability to function normally.

This is a particularly important consideration in avoiding burn-out in any profession. Whilst you may think that you can quickly recover from intense periods of work, in reality, if you don’t allow yourself the time to decompress properly, just as with a diver surfacing and returning to dive too quickly, you could end up with a severe case of the bends.

5. Do you have a dive-recovery system in place?

To avoid the problems mentioned above, always consider whether you have an adequate recovery system in place, that allows you to remove yourself from life’s conveyor belt for a while, from time to time.

Simple things such as switching off email and social media, eating something nutritious and getting some decent sleep are all seen today as playing an increasingly important part in leading healthier and more effective & enjoyable lives.  But they are also crucial in maintaining healthy workplaces and better and healthier interactions between all businesses. Remember, a holiday or a weekend break fails to become a useful recovery system if you spend much of your time back on the conveyor belt!

Conclusions from this little under-water adventure

The modern world and global economy are synonymous with humans being plugged in 24/7 and 365 days a year. However, I think people and businesses need to become more aware of the mismatch that is being created by this. There is a real human need to unplug more frequently and for longer periods of time in order to fully decompress from the pressures of modern day life and to retain our ability to work healthily, productively, creatively and effectively.

If we fail to address this mismatch, we risk humans suffering more and more from decompression fatigue which in turn, could lead to greater mental health issues and a reduction in our overall ability to think and act more reasonably and clearly in our interactions with others.

At a time where the world faces so many different challenges, bearing in mind how the humble scuba diver approaches his daily work may not only help us maintain better health throughout our lives, it could also help to foster better, healthier and happier relationships across all continents.