Stop for a moment and think about your typical day. When you wake up, what do you do first? Do you check your email on your phone? Do you usually skip breakfast or grab a Pop Tart on your way out the door? What about lunch or dinner? I know sometimes I bring my meal with my work and eat in the library. Sometimes I don’t go to bed until four in the morning. Maybe you have even pulled an all-nighter?
The rush of day-to-day activities increasingly plagues the world we live in. We are expected to maintain incredible levels of energy and work at what often seems to be an unsustainable pace. And the worst part is that, at least in my experience, each one of us feels like we’re the only one who doesn’t have it together. And we can’t understand why we can’t get everything done.
But for those of you who, like myself, have felt this way, I have some great news. Interestingly enough, the best way to get more done might actually be to do less. New research has shown it is highly beneficial for us to do things like work out daily, take short naps in the afternoon, sleep longer at night and take more time away from work — vacations, time with friends, etc. — activities that break up our days and let our minds and bodies recharge.
As it stands, time is the solution to everything — the resource that we use to get everything done. One-third of employees eat lunch at their desks and more than half who take vacation time assume they’ll be doing some sort of work during their vacations, according to an article written by Tony Schwartz, founder of The Energy Project. Companies often hire those who can just go, and go and go. But what we all fail to understand is that this is not the way to be most productive.
For example, sacrificing sleep has been proven to take a substantial toll on performance. You might have heard a teacher or two tell you that even though the exam you have coming up is huge, it’s more important to sleep the night before than to stay up all night studying. Well, you should listen to them. According to a recent study conducted at Harvard, American companies lost the equivalent of $63.2 billion last year in productivity due to sleep deprivation. On the other hand, University of California at Riverside researcher Sara Mednick found that a 60 to 90 minute nap improved cognitive memory test results just as much as did a full eight hours of sleep.
The importance of rest and regeneration is coded into our physiology and has been proven over and over again through testing and observation. To give another example, the island of Icaria, off the coast of Greece, boasts an elderly population that is nearly two and a half times more likely to reach the age of 90 than the average American is. Why? Because they live lifestyles in which their bodies are allowed to function at sustainable paces. They take afternoon naps, sleep eight to 10 hours per night, eat nutritious food and actively seek to be social with their peers.
In the 1960s, sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman found that in addition to the 90-minute cycles in which we sleep, we also function in 90-minute cycles when we’re awake. If you’ve ever noticed yourself getting sleepy around 2 or 3 p.m., this is what you are experiencing. Unfortunately, instead of responding to our body’s signals, we pump ourselves full of caffeine and sugar and our bodies respond by releasing the stress hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol. We can’t fathom taking a break and we push ourselves to keep going when we shouldn’t. In order to maximize gains, we must work with our bodies and respond to the natural ebb and flow of our energies.
In the article written by Tony Schwartz, he recounts his experience with tailoring his work to the energy needs of his body. He speaks specifically about his method of writing five books. For the first three books, he remembers sitting at his desk for up to 10 hours a day for the whole year it took him to finish them. For the next two books, he wrote daily in three uninterrupted 90-minute cycles. He notes that he felt more relaxed, more focused and more creative in the time he spent writing. Writing for four and a half hours a day, his fourth and fifth books were completed in less than six months.
I know it might often seem that work is swallowing us and we never have a second to breathe. But for those who have ever experienced the difference that time to yourself makes in your energy levels, you know what I’m talking about. So the next time you remember to do it, try building this in for a few days. Work out in the afternoon and take a brief nap before you go back to the library. Time is not money. Energy is.
Danny Delaney ’15 enjoys napping from 3-5 p.m. on Saturdays when possible. He would be glad to relax and watch a movie with you anytime. He can be reached at daniel_delaney@brown.edu.
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