Stop life hacking your daytime and concentrate on your night time
For the last ten years, the internet and book stores have become bloated with endless number of productivity and life hacking books. Every new publication and author claiming they have got the scheme to bring it all together and boost your productivity out of this world.
Some promise success by getting your inbox to zero. Others hailing the use of folders and filing systems to get things done. What they all have in common is the ability and intent to prey on our increasing fearing of missing out (FOMO), promotions, pay rises, opportunities, and early retirement.
In the technological, hyperconnected 21st century we all feel the burden to do more and achieve more. The Instagram effect impacts all of us, including those who have never been on Instagram. We see those productivity gurus on the internet or YouTube, who seems to have it all wrapped up with a bow and churning out 28 hours worth of work per day in about 4 hours.
But just like Instagram, once you scratch below the surface you start to see that all is not as it seems. In fact, the vast majority of productivity gurus are just re-pedaling old ideas and concepts of their own, or most likely somebody else. More than once in the last couple of years have I found myself reading a book with a strange sense of deja-vu that I have seen and heard this all before.
What I want to suggest to you is that while some or all of these tips, tricks, and habits have some merit and use in certain circumstances, they all have one thing in common. They are all focusing on what goes on when we are awake. They encourage us to further try and squeeze every last drop of juice out of our already heavily compressed and overworked waking lives. And just like a well-squeezed orange, we are left weak, shattered and empty.
Study after study shows us clearly that as a whole we are less happy, suffer more mental health issues, worse health outcomes and have lower general overall life satisfaction than ever before.
It is my view that so many of us could make a huge difference to our health, mental state, success and yes, even our productivity by focusing more on what we do at night than what we do in the day. Sleep is such a crucial part of our existence, but yet studies clearly show that we are getting less and less quality sleep. Once this is factored and measured against productivity, then the problem becomes clear, as one study concludes:
Compared with at-risk and good-sleep groups, insomnia and insufficient sleep syndrome groups had significantly worse productivity, performance, and safety outcomes. The insomnia group had the highest rate of sleep medication use. The other groups were more likely to use nonmedication treatments. Fatigue-related productivity losses were estimated to cost $1967/employee annually.
Conclusion
Sleep is free. It doesn’t require any special qualifications or skills. You don’t have to read a book or go on a course to be able to perform it.
But if you are ignoring and abusing it, it can have devastating effects on the hours of the day that you are awake.
We need to stop focusing on trying to hack our days to within an inch of their lives and instead focus on giving our bodies and minds the rest they need to allow us to reach our full potential.
Thanks for reading.