Weekly Productivity Roundup (the get your zzz’s edition)

Rise and shine! Hope you got to rest up and recharge a bit over the weekend! We read a lot this week about the effects of sleep and relaxation on your productivity, so we decided to take the theme and run with it. Here’s a nap-tastic set of productivity links for you to start your week with.

How much sleep do we really need to work productively? 
Everyone needs a solid 8 hours, right? Well, it depends, but probably not really. Leo Widrich explores some of the current thinking and science behind sleep and productivity.

Cutting back on sleep for school work is counterproductive
In this study, sleep deprivation decreased students’  reading comprehension and their ability to stay focused on learning new material.

Why Your Office Should Have a Nap Room [INFOGRAPHIC]
If those posts put you back to sleep, here’s an infographic about office nap rooms from Mashable.

Be More Productive. Take Time Off.
Mental rest is just as important as physical rest. Jason Fried from 37Signals goes over the importance of taking time off from work entirely, as well as just shaking up the routine a little bit. They take three-day weekends during the summer months, and still get just as much done. They also encourage creativity by breaking up their routines and giving their employees prolonged periods to work on whatever they feel like.

On a related note, here’s a post from our CEO about how we use RescueTime to build creativity into our work day. (It totally works.)

What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day
Once you’ve gotten that good night’s rest, here are a few ways to make the most of the next few hours.

Race Against the Machine: Andrew McAfee at TEDxBoston
This one may actually keep you up with nightmares of dystopian futures, but check out this thought-provoking talk by Andrew McAfee about the coming age of artificial intelligence and it’s impact on knowledge workers. Spoiler alert: the future will get crazy, everything will change, but it will probably end up being awesome.

US teen invents advanced cancer test using Google
To give yourself some motivation to get out of bed in the morning, take a look at how a fifteen year old kid is developing a screening test for pancreatic cancer that’s 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive, and 400 times more sensitive than current diagnostic methods. Yeah, so what did you get done today?

You Probably (Really) Work Way Less Than You Assume
Even if you’re staying up late working all-nighters, you’re probably not getting that much real work done. At least not by this guy’s standards, although I’m not totally sure it’s that helpful to discount all the work time not spent in a ‘hard-focus’ state.

Here’s to a productive, happy, and well-rested week!

2 comments

  1. I really do like what you folks have to say. When my book is out, Unload Email Overload, I will send you a complimentary copy. Bb

    1. Thanks Bob! Sounds interesting. Email overload is a tough problem to solve. We’d love to check it out!

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