How tired are you?
I clearly remember the juvenile bragging about how little you slept and how tired you were.
- I studied until 3 a.m.
- I partied all night
- I worked 16 hours
Sound familiar?
In your twenties your body recovers much faster, and you can treat yourself to sessions like that pretty often. Later it gets harder and harder, and every break in your daily routine simply ends in a lousy day.
I love the joke that if you see someone over thirty still up after 10 p.m., they definitely had an afternoon nap.
Good work
In the book REWORK I read that there's no glory in being tired. Workaholics aren't heroes and they don't save the day. The heroes are the ones who make the best use of the day by finding faster, more efficient ways to get things done, which lets them finish work earlier.
Good sleep affects your energy, focus and productivity. You'll get more important things done when you're well rested.
The author of The Productivity Project ran an experiment comparing his 20-hour work week with a 90-hour one.
You'd think working more than four times as long would bring much better results. It turns out, though, that they're only slightly better, and there's no point at all in sacrificing so many extra hours, because it leads to stress and lower energy. Shorter hours guarantee more focus, better rest and time to recover.
Busyness doesn't translate into productivity. You might want to set yourself strict deadlines so you don't escape into procrastination and finding yourself extra work.
Good enough is enough
Having more work doesn't mean you need more time. When you work less, you can choose to work during your prime time – your hours of peak energy and focus. Then you'll get more done in less time.
Cutting your working hours also gives you more time for processing information in the background, while your mind is bored. It's important to let it get bored in the first place and not reach for your phone the moment you have a break.
Good mind
You've probably noticed that your best ideas come to you in the shower, and that you hit on things you weren't even thinking about?
How the mind works can be split into L-mode and R-mode, also known as the left brain and the right brain (based on Roger Sperry's research from the 1960s).
L-mode, which is associated with linear, analytical thinking, can interfere with and drown out R-mode, which is linked to more creative, preconscious and asymmetric information processing.
R-mode is exactly those moments when you're not thinking about the task. You're in the shower or out for a walk, and you have that aha moment.
When you work too much, you don't give yourself time for this kind of processing.
Good sleep
There are lots of topics related to sleep. A few worth digging into:
-
In adolescents, the circadian rhythm is shifted because of hormonal changes. That's why making them get up early and start school first thing in the morning isn't the best solution for their brains.
-
Devices that give off blue light in the evening hold back melatonin production, which makes your sleep worse.
-
An evening routine and meditation (which is nothing more than attention training) are important for getting your body ready to rest.
-
After heavy strength workouts your body needs more time to recover, which shows up as a greater need for sleep. Anabolic hormones that support tissue repair (e.g. growth hormone) are produced during deep sleep.
-
The time you go to bed matters, even if you sleep the same number of hours.
-
Experiments (and torture) involving sleep deprivation.
A really interesting topic. Worth looking into.
Sweet dreams!