We live in a culture that seems obsessed with being productive. While increasing our output and doing more with our time is certainly an admirable goal, according to Tony Schwartz, author of Be Excellent at Anything , that misguided approach is actually liable to hurt your productivity. How so?
Without real restoration and rejuvenation throughout the day, people (knowingly) hold themselves back because they are worried about "pacing" their energy to make it through the day.
This is incredibly damaging to your potential, because it distributes your efforts at 25% across your whole work day instead of reaching 90% output at the moments that correspond with your body's naturally productive rhythms of alertness. The result is that you aren't able to do your best work and you aren't getting the rest you need to rejuvenate yourself either.
I know I've fallen into the trap of conventional thinking that to be productive, I just need to work harder. I spend more and more hours at the desk, but when I look back, I'm not sure where the time went.
To Schwartz, not being able to push yourself to 90% output without worry is the biggest impediment holding you back from being truly productive and producing your best work. True productivity is determined by better energy management rather than simply cranking out more hours at your desk.
We all have a sense of our energy level, whether we feel productive or not, whether we're alert and excited or tired and groggy, but most of us try to ignore it and don't know the science underlying its effect on our work. It turns out that our energy functions according to what psychophysiologist Peretz Lavie called "ultradian rhythms," or natural cycles that take place during the day.
Lavie conducted a fascinating series of experiments where he put young adults on an ultrashort 15 minute awake-5 minute sleeping schedule in 8-hour sessions, first from 4 pm until midnight, and then after 6-7 hours of sleep, he put them on the 15/5 schedule from about 7 am until early afternoon. He then observed when his test subjects fell asleep and couldn't fall asleep during this bizarre sleep schedule and came up with some surprising findings.
In the afternoon and evenings, we get sleepy at two times: at 4:30 pm and at 11:30 pm. But in the morning, we get sleepy every 90 minutes. These 90-minute cycles are our ultradian rhythms which define when we're naturally feeling awake and productive. We perform our best in between those periods of drowsiness.
(image via DeeperDish)
Those who work with instead of against their ultradian rhythm perform better, according to a study on world-class violinists. You might expect the best violinists to practice until their fingers bleed. Not so. Top-tier violinists practice no more than 4 1/2 hours a day, in 90-minute bursts, plus they got more sleep than their peers (notably, 20-30 minute afternoon naps).
It's not just about concentrating when your energy levels are high. It's also absolutely vital that you rest when your energy levels hit bottom. One piece of research that Schwartz regularly cites is a Federal Aviation Administration study of pilots on long haul flights that shows the crucial importance of resting when your energy levels are low:
One group of pilots was given an opportunity to take 40-minute naps mid-flight, and ended up getting an average of 26 minutes of actual sleep. Their median reaction time improved by 16% following their naps.
Non-napping pilots, tested at a similar halfway point in the flight, had a 34% deterioration in reaction time. They also experienced 22 micro sleeps of 2-10 seconds during the last 30 minutes of the flight. The pilots who took naps had none.
If you push yourself to continue working during periods of low energy, you risk continued grogginess and low performance. It's critical that we acknowledge our body's natural rhythms and align our periods of work and relaxation with them to work in a sustainably productive way.
In his book Outliers , Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea that 10,000 hours of "deliberate practice" is what you need to become an expert in your field. Research from psychologist Anders Ericsson on deliberate practice shows that it's true strain and "wear and tear" that helps people build expertise.
(image via K. A. Ericsson, Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363-406)
Although getting into a flow may feel good, sometimes we use the term "flow" to describe times when we're not pushing ourselves very hard. But it's the hard practice that allows us to improve. A good metaphor is weightlifting at the gym: while a good flow might involve a 30-minute walk and some light free weights, if you are looking to push yourself into chiseled, six-pack ab territory, you've gotta hurt.
Building muscle at that level doesn't come without pushing into the territory of the uncomfortable, and this is why Schwartz and noted authors like Cal Newport are so adamant about these "hold nothing back" periods of work. During these sessions, it's vital that we challenge ourselves with increasing difficulty and focus uncompromisingly on how to fix our weaknesses.
When deliberate practice corresponds with periods of intense concentration, we suss out our weaknesses, make progress, and do our best work.
Break your work sessions into 90-minute blocks: I tested this for myself, and I noticed that the feeling of reckless abandon in being able to give your all for those 90 minute periods was incredibly useful in allowing yourself to pour out creativity without having to think, "What will I have left for the end of the day?" It's a surprising bit of mental jiujitsu, but it works: I feel energized and empowered to operate at peak levels because I know that it's only for 90 minutes.
After your 90-minute sessions, take 15 minute breaks: According to Schwartz, breaking up work periods into 90 minute sessions with the knowledge that there will be a 15 minute break at the end is a great process to get started with balancing energy and recovery throughout the day. This way, the 90 minute work period can be approached without having to worry about pacing or burnout: a scheduled break is just on the horizon. It seems strange to allow yourself these sorts of breaks if you are a person who prides themselves with being busy/productive (two very different things, actually), but on the advice of Schwartz and the complementary studies that support it, it's definitely worth a try.
Take Naps: The naps were the hardest sell for me, but after seeing the science behind napping by my buddy Leo Widrich, I was sold on at least giving them a go and was very glad I did: my productivity "dip" around 4pm is now all but gone, thanks to a quick 30-minute nap at 3pm. Schwartz gives this schedule as a sample:
Nick, by contrast, works intensely for approximately 90 minutes at a stretch, and then takes a 15-minute break before resuming work. At 12:15, he goes out for lunch for 45 minutes, or works out in a nearby gym.
At 3pm, he closes his eyes at his desk and takes a rest. Sometimes it turns into a 15- or 20-minute nap. Finally, between 4:30 and 5pm, Nick takes a 15-minute walk outside.
What did you think of the research in this post and Schwartz's approach to finding a work schedule that works with you?
Let us know in the discussion!
The science behind why better energy management is the key to peak productivity | iDoneThis blog
Gregory Ciotti is the marketing guy at Help Scout, the invisible help desk software that makes email support a breeze for you and your customers. Get more from Greg on the Help Scout customer loyalty blog.
Want to see your work on Lifehacker? Email Tessa.
What do turtles have to do with innovation? Not much, we thought, until we ran across a retail manager at a big box store in San Diego during the course of our research and clinical work for Judgment on the Front Line . That manager pulled us aside to explain that most employees--particularly those at the bottom of the hierarchy who serviced customers--were treated like turtles at many companies.
If you buy a turtle and put it into a small aquarium, it will stop growing to accommodate its limited living space, regardless of how large it might have potentially been. This is a phenomenon that often outrages animal activists because urban apartment dwellers who fancy diminutive turtles typically don’t look after them very well. In truth, the turtles stop growing because they not only have limited room to reach their potential but are also malnourished and poorly treated.
The manager’s point was more profound than a biology lesson. The companies where he had worked had boxed in frontline employees with rules, bureaucracy, and hierarchy that stunted their personal growth and organizational contribution. Those at the top of the organization not only failed to ask for ideas but were often dismissive when associates offered suggestions. When middle managers and senior leaders claim that frontline leaders lack the necessary strategic context or see criticism of organizational processes only as resistance to change, they have the same limiting effect as the turtle tank. Employees never achieve their potential and the organization misses out on great ideas and potential innovations.
In the worst cases, those who occupy senior or mid-level leadership positions become HiPPOs who quash the creativity of the people around them. Relying on gut feel, the “Highest Paid Person’s Opinion” (or HiPPO) tends to override genuine customer insight in hierarchical organizations that assume intelligence and capability are correlated to a person’s job title. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the pernicious effects that a few HiPPOs and Turtle Farmers can have on the willingness of people to contribute their ideas or engage in problem solving.
Despite all the cries for more innovation we routinely hear in many companies, the truth we too often find is that most organizations have overlaid a pastiche of initiatives on top of a command-and-control structure designed for a mass production era. Most companies lack a blueprint for how to truly arm frontline leaders to better serve their customers and generate ideas that can reap potential windfalls when applied across the enterprise.
As opposed to treating frontline employees as their most valuable asset, many companies fail to engage them at all. Several studies have asked employees to self-identify the percent of their potential contribution they actually give to their organizations. Not surprising, the figures range as low as 30% and tend toward 50%. Put that in the context of the average payroll and HR budgets, particularly of larger companies spending tens of millions annually, and you have to ask how any self-respecting businessperson can live with that level of inefficiency. Imagine the value that would be destroyed and waste created if every manufacturing organization simply accepted 50% productivity. There is an idea-generating engine and innovation factory that remains untapped in most organizations simply because leaders do not know how to connect the experiences and insights of their front line to solving customer problems.
It’s the paradox of all organizations that they require control yet succeed most spectacularly when they unleash the imagination and energy of their employees. Companies cannot afford to give up either one but their perceived inability to manage the operational risk of putting more power in the hands of rank-and-file employees tends to tilt the balance strongly in favor of control.
Yet, consider some of these examples of organizations that actively encourage and solicit frontline innovation:
Our research identified a five-step process, extracted from over 20 benchmark organizations, that can serve as a blueprint for leaders to build or, more likely, rebuild their companies from the front line so that the ingenuity, innovation, and emotion of their largest group of employees can be harnessed.
Companies that ask themselves how they can empower and embolden their customer-facing employees to convert their insights into practice will discover an untapped reservoir of innovation hiding in their organizations. Our research found definitively that there is no singular initiative or management practice that will achieve this. Organizational leaders need to build a frontline-focused culture that unleashes the collective brain trust of their largest group of employees--killing off the HiPPOs and Turtle Farmers along the way. No organization can claim to be genuinely customer centric without being equally dedicated to getting the greatest insight and contribution from those who serve the customer.
--Chris DeRose and Noel Tichy are co-authors of Judgment on the Front Line: How Smart Companies Win By Trusting Their People.
[Image: Flickr user Andrea Janda ]
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Normally drops of water are automatically ‘absorbed’ into a larger pool of water when contact is made, but there is one way to stop those water drops from coalescing with the rest: vibration. This awesome video shows the process in action as drops of water remain on top of the pool of water and even form groups of drops!
Drops on Drops on Drops Article [Physics Buzz Blog]
Drops on Drops on Drops Video [YouTube]
[via Neatorama]
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App-automating is awesome. We love IFTTT for its cool integration of popular tools like Gmail, Dropbox, and Facebook, but if there's a webapp not on IFTTT, you should check out Zapier. Zapier includes many more webapps, particularly productivity and professional apps (e.g., Basecamp, MS Exchange, and Google Tasks).
Right now, Zapier offers 111 services to create connections between—almost twice the number on IFTTT. (Most of the ones offered on IFTTT are also on Zapier.) Besides the apps mentioned above, Zapier integrates with collaborative task manager Asana, Twitter posting service Buffer, invoicing tool Freshbooks, code-sharing site GitHub, time tracking app Harvest, mass emailing service MailChimp, online syncing and storage tool SugarSync...you get the picture.
The catch is that the free plan only allows 5 integrations (5 "Zaps") and syncing is only done every 5 hours. So if you need instant notifications, IFTTT is a better choice (if your desired services are offered). Or you could pay for Zapier's basic plan ($15/month) for 10 integrations and syncing every 15 minutes. For the fastest syncing every 5 minutes, you'll need a business plan ($30/month).
Also, Zapier doesn't have shared "recipes" like IFTTT does, but it will recommend Zaps for you.
All in all, this could be a great tool to add to your arsenal of automating apps.
If you think about it, each one of us has different natural and acquired capabilities. Some of us learn new languages quickly, some are more social than others, and some remember the face of each person they've come across. These strengths determine how we think and make decisions. Yes, this is probably obvious—different people think in different ways. And yet the consequences of this couldn't be any more powerful: It means that people interpret what you're saying in different ways, based on the way they think.
To put differently: the important thing is not what you say—it's what others hear. A truth Dale Carnegie knew a long time ago:
"There is only one way… to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it."
Communicating well with the people around us and managing to convince them is a daily challenge. Now, here's an interesting paradox—while looking to convince others we rely on our own thinking tools and strengths. It doesn't matter if you're trying to persuade your manager to adopt a new idea, or your teenage daughter to take school more seriously. When we need to persuade others most of us focus on what we do best—some are very eloquent, others give great examples.
Now, switch chairs with your listener and ask yourself what his or her strength is. Sure, you take into consideration what's important to them, but—how about understanding how they actually think?
To make the best out of this read, pick someone you work with, live or spend time with. Try to fit this person into the different thinking categories. You'll find that you'll be able to better understand their way of thinking.
Think back for a second—where did most of your eureka moments occur? By yourself, in the shower, sitting silently at your desk or walking? Or maybe with other people, brainstorming with your teammates?
Identifying whether one thinks well by himself or as part of a group will uncover how that person makes decisions, and when he's most productive. Do you need to start a conversation with him or her to spark their best ideas, or maybe it's better to simply give them some time by themselves?
To quickly identify if someone thinks better individually or in a group, I ask two simple questions:
1. In high school/ university—did you prefer studying by yourself or in a group?
2. After a long and exhausting day at work, how do you prefer to relax—by reading a book by yourself or meeting friends?
You'll find out that most people will answer within a blink of an eye.
Choose your presentation strategy: Individual thinkers need some time by themselves to digest a new idea, try sending them suggestions by e-mail or introduce a new idea and then giving them some time to think about it. Group thinkers will react much better when talking about a new idea – so start a real conversation and give them opportunity to voice their thoughts. When group thinkers ask to talk about something, they're actually asking you to brainstorm with them to help find a solution using conversation.
Use meetings wisely: Meetings are a great place for group thinkers to express themselves, but not so much for individual thinkers. To get the best results out of everyone, try to raise the main issues before the meeting itself, so individual thinkers will have time to deal with it using their own tools.
In this fascinating article on the rise of the New Groupthink, Susan Cain deals with how society encourages working in groups while most people are more productive when working alone:
"What distinguished programmers at the top-performing companies wasn't greater experience or better pay. It was how much privacy, personal workspace and freedom from interruption they enjoyed. 62 percent of the best performers said their workspace was sufficiently private compared with only 19 percent of the worst performers."
Do you think mostly in words or images? When you observe a new product (like, say the new iOS 6) do you read about it first, or rush straight to the images?
In advertising campaigns, where convincing people is everything, you'll always see both languages used together—strong copy which goes hand in hand with an interesting image. Some will remember what they've read, others will remember what they've seen. The segmentation between these categories originally came from researchers exploring different learning styles to improve the ways students are taught by understanding how different minds work.
How to identify if someone thinks in an auditory or visual way? I usually ask people to describe a certain event—like the last party they attended or the worst flight they were on. You'll soon notice that some use names of people and places, times and phrases, while others describe an image—the size of the room, the colors and how people looked. Notice the different verbs they use. Auditory thinkers will tend to use verbs such hear, listen, explain. Visual thinkers are much more likely to describe a situation using see, look, watch. You can find out which category you belong to here.
Use both languages: When I pitch a new idea, much like in advertising, I try to balance between the text and visual. It can be an email with a written suggestion and a screenshot, or a presentation slide with an important message complemented by an image representing the same idea.
Create a visual using words: The same applies when talking about an idea. You don't usually have enough time to prepare a visual, but you can construct it with words. Creating a vivid picture in someone's head—the time of day, the location, the colors, is one of the best ways to have a visual thinker remember and understand your ideas.
Give visual thinkers something to doodle on : I've noticed that the larger the whiteboards we use in meetings, the better the outcome. I always have papers, a whiteboard or an iPad handy when brainstorming with others. At one point we've replaced all the tables at the office to glass ones, which can be doodled on. This small step has increased everyone's productivity. Here's an interesting finding based on study published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology: "subjects given a doodling task while listening to a dull phone message had a 29% improved recall compared to their non-doodling counterparts."
This picture was taken at my office this week:
Unlike others, it's much simpler to recognize this pattern from the outside. Try asking people where they fit—the common answer is "both." Talking vs. listening habits affect our state of mind while communicating and change how one absorbs what others say. When you talk, some find it very easy to concentrate, while others are more challenged by thinking of their response as you talk. While it sounds like listeners are your best audience, they have their downsides as well as they tend to focus too much on what you have to say, instead of giving their own feedback.
Keep the talker in the center while you speak: Don't try to resist talkers, they really do struggle to keep up their concentration as you talk. Talkers find it easier to listen if you place them in your flow. Start paragraphs by saying—"based on the question you asked before" or "this is one issue I know you'll find interesting."
Use writing instead of talking: It might take more time, but sometimes it's easier to express your ideas in writing when communicating with talkers. Most of them will like it better as well. It's a sure way to have them going over all you have to say in a coherent order.
Ask Listeners questions they have to answer: To encourage a conversation with listeners try asking questions with no easy way out. For example, instead of asking "do you have any concerns?" where you're likely to get a standard ‘no', try asking "if you had to choose one thing you're worried about or disagree on, what would it be?". It can also go on the other direction—"what did you like best about the idea?"
Why we buy into ideas: How to convince others of our thoughts | Buffer
Iris Shoor is co-founder at Takipi, where she's looking to improve the way developers work in the cloud. Previously, Iris was co-founder at VisualTao, which was acquired by Autodesk. You can follow her on Twitter @irisshoor and hit her up any time, she is a super nice person.
Want to see your work on Lifehacker? Email Tessa.
Android: Keymonk is a new Android keyboard replacement that takes the idea of swiping your fingers across letters to input text up a notch. Turn your phone sideways and use both thumbs to input text, or put it in portrait mode and use one—either way it's fast, accurate, and best of all, free.
We love Swype, the Android keyboard that pioneered the idea of drawing your words instead of tapping them, and even though it recently updated, it's not for everyone. If your don't like the idea of drawing your words, Keymonk won't appeal to you, but if you miss being able to use your thumbs, Keymonk combines the best of both worlds: fast landscape input with your thumbs, and fast portrait input with one or two fingers.
You can see how the app works in the video above. The developers say that the app was designed for speed, and it showed when we tested the app. Overall, it felt faster at recognizing the words I typed, even if some of them were wrong, and even though using my thumbs in landscape mode felt awkward at first, eventually I stopped whacking my thumbs into one another. Still, it took some getting used to.
Keymonk is free and available now at Google Play. There is a $4 "full version" available that allows you to add custom words to the dictionary, hide the suggestions list if you're just that accurate, unlocks the settings screen, and lets you auto-add spaces after punctuation marks so you don't have to. Grab the free version if you're interested in giving it a shot.
Keymonk | Google Play via #tips
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We have featured some awesome life hacks, tips, and tricks here before on HTG ETC, but today we are back with a super compilation full of geeky ingenuity! Get ready to increase your problem solving repertoire with this terrific collection of 99 life hacks.
99 Life Hacks to make your life easier! [via BoingBoing]
| How Hackers Can Disguise Malicious Programs With Fake File Extensions | Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? | What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer |
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