Leading by Influence - Tim Wilke

One of the habits of successful leaders

Leadership

One of the habits of successful leaders

High energy is one of the keys to leadership success

I’m sure you’ve all heard it. You need to work long and hard if you want to succeed, be it at leadership or anything else for that matter.

But is that really true?

Well according to the pop psychologists and the great motivators of our time, it is. You know the deal. No pain, no gain and all that.

But science doesn’t agree, particularly with regards to the “long” bit. Let me explain.

Our mental energy levels naturally arise and fall throughout the day, according to what psychologist Peretz Lavie calls the “ultradian rhythms“. A graphic representation of which is shown below.

daily energy cycle

You can deal with this situation in one of two ways.

  1. You can stick with the long-held belief that the only way to truly succeed is to work 8 or more hours straight without taking a single break each and every day. Which means ignoring your ultradian rhythms all together.
  2. You can choose to “work smarter” by aligning your periods of work and rest with your body’s natural rhythm.  It’s an approach based on the premise that the best way of getting your brain to perform optimally is not to push it to operate at maximum intensity for long periods of time without allowing some downtime to replenish itself.

In other words, instead of forcing yourself to work at a high level of mental energy for a full 8 hour stretch, funnel your daily efforts into four 90 minute-windows of high intensity activity, interspersed equally with 30 minute rest periods.

As counterintuitive as this may sound, having short breaks between periods where you’re completely immersed in work, results in close to 20% more productivity (Source: a study conduced by the Federal Aviation Administration).  But as much as this is now a proven fact, option 2 is still a new way of thinking.  Which means that learning to function in this particular manner won’t be easy during the initial stages of putting it into practice.   But you will master it in time if you commit to following the instructions as set down below.

Step 1.

Determine at which point of the daily energy cycle you are at by working hard until you feel drowsy or your mind starts to wander from the task at hand.

When this happens, take it as a sign of being in one of the troughs in your natural energy cycle (see diagram above).  Which means that you now have the required knowledge to accurately sync your intense periods of activity and times of rest with your personal daily rhythm.

Step 2.  

At this point, set a timer for 30 minutes.  During this time, you can do any of the following:

  • Make phone calls.
  • Respond to emails and texts.
  • Go for a walk.
  • Have a snack.
  • Take a powernap.

But make sure you avoid doing anything that taxes your cognitive abilities in any way.  In other words, you have to use this time to rest your brain otherwise you won’t gain the productivity that comes with the “funnel” approach.

Step 3.

Once you’ve had a 30 minute break, set the timer for 90 minutes.  Now return to the tasks you were doing in Step 1.  Or if you completed them during the first work period, begin with the next task on your list.  But whatever you choose to do, make sure you are 100% focussed for that entire time.

Step 4.

After the 90 minutes are up, set yourself another 30 minute block of rest time.   And keep on doing this alternating process for the rest of the day.

Step 5.

Continue to apply this “funnel” approach of 90 minute work sessions followed by 30 minute brain recovery intervals on a daily basis until it becomes your normal way of doing work.

Now if you want to learn more about the science behind this approach and how best to put it into practice, watch the following YouTube videos.

The Science of Productivity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfjvYzr-3g 

Tony Schwartz: Working in 90 Minute Increments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5Nf8jbDtLU

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