Balanced Life Tip: A Short Nap Can Go A Long Way

During my first semester in college I met an fine arts major named Beth who believed sleep was a waste of time. She slept in 20 minute chunks diligently working on projects in between several naps a day. She was perpetually fatigued, lethargic and lived in a dream-like fog that many of her friends took for being “cool.”

Beth was an extreme case but she typifies a common American mistake: When it comes to sleep, we’ve got better things to do. Consequently, so many of us are so sleep deprived that sleep disorders are common.

Just look around:

Advertising media bombard us with commercials for both prescription and over the counter sleep aids.

We see as many commercials and advertisements for mattresses promising better rest. How many of us haven’t walked into a store at the mall to find out what our “sleep number” is and who can resist finding out what the Tempur-Pedic mattress feels like? If you haven’t done this yet, admit that you’ve been tempted.

Convenience store shelves are stocked with vitamin packs and energy drinks.

Coffee is now an American obsession, commonly consumed even among teenagers. ($18 Billion of coffee a year is consumed in the US.)

Just twenty years ago, it would have been difficult to find someone who had undergone a sleep test. And if you actually knew someone who had experienced a test, chances were that he or she had travelled quite a distance, perhaps even by air, to be tested at a sleep center. Now, a simple count of the directory at sleepcenters.org reveals that there are at least 945 sleep test centers across the country. According to Sleep Centers of America, more than 70 million Americans have a sleep disorder and more than 10 million people a year consult their physicians regarding sleep-related issues.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsy driving in America kills more than 1,500 people a year and causes 71,000 injuries in an estimated 100,000 sleep-related crashes a year.

If you ask me, America could do with a nap.

Winston Churchill put it eloquently when he wrote, “Nature had not intended mankind to work from 8 in the morning until midnight without the refreshment of blessed oblivion which, even if it lasts only 20 minutes, is sufficient to renew all vital forces.”

A Short Nap Can Go A Long Way!

Research has demonstrated that even a brief nap of between 20 to 45 minutes, will rejuvenate you, and increase your ability to concentrate making you more productive.

Until a few years ago, I pushed myself as hard as any other baby-boomer in the work force. I got up early, went into the office, worked late, came home and had trouble sleeping because I was so wound up. One day, I arrived an hour early for a meeting and I waited in my car.

The next time I glanced at the clock, it was 20 minutes later, a snore and awakened me. Apart from the slight self-conscious embarrassment of the snore, I felt terrific and my meeting went really well. I had recently read an article on power naps and had scoffed at the idea of companies putting in power nap facilities. Who is going to pay someone to take a nap? But, I was so impressed with by my own experience; I tried it again, this time on purpose. The difference was amazing. I began planning my appointments so that I could find half an hour a day for a nap. I purchased a sleep mask and a small travel pillow and kept them in the car. Since then, napping has become part of my regular routine. While others are socializing in the lunchroom, you’ll find me reclined in my car taking Winston Churchill’s recommended 20 minutes.

There are lots of people take naps. They don’t talk about it. It’s a secret because on some level, I think it embarrasses them. I admit, I nap in my car because I don’t think I could stand the ribbing I’d get if someone were to hear snoring behind my office door. I’ve met quite a number of people who say that they could never nap for just twenty minutes. They confess that they would be out for hours. Well, that just makes a stronger argument for the fact that most of us are sleep deprived.

Sleep researchers have discovered that sleep deprivation makes it difficult for us to learn and concentrate. Sleep deprived people are less productive, more forgetful and more prone to both error and accidents. It also causes weight gain, impairs our immune system, reduces our ability to handle stress and leaves us cranky.

Any one of these side-effects can set our work-life balance off kilter. By not getting enough sleep; we increase our exposure to all of them. Getting enough sleep is one of the most effective steps we can take to improving the quality of our lives. Here are ten simple things you can do to improve your sleep:

1. Save time to unwind. Give yourself more than an hour of mindless activity at the end of the day so that you do not spend half the night reliving the events of the day or rehearsing what might happen the next day. Read something frivolous. Watch TV. Pray or meditate.

2. Don’t eat late. In sleep, you body wants to heal and rejuvenate. If it is spending half the night digesting food, you are not reaping the full benefit of your sleep. Don’t eat less than two or three hours before going to sleep.

3. Avoid drinking a lot of fluids before bedtime if you often find yourself waking up to visit the bathroom.

4. Avoid caffeine after 2 pm. I know this may go against everything you hold dear and Starbucks stockholder may scoff, but the effects of caffeine can last a long time. If you need a picker-upper in the afternoon, rather than reaching for a cup of coffee or an energy drink, consider the humble nap or some physical exercise to get your energy flowing.

5. Consider non-chemical sleep aids. Buy a sleep mask and/or ear-plugs if you are a light sleeper. Pull the drapes closed. Cover LED lights. And if you live on a busy street or in a noisy building, white background noise may help--a recording of waves or rain or even the hum of a fan. (My dishwasher puts me right under.)

6. Invest in a good mattress. You spend a third of your life in bed, invest in a high-quality mattress that meets your needs.

7. Set your internal clock. Try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day whether you are working or not. You’ll know you are getting enough sleep when you wake up right before your alarm feeling refreshed and ready for the day.

8. Regulate your alcohol consumption. While alcohol can relax, it also has a dehydrating effect and reduces the quality of your sleep.

9. Consider power napping in the middle of the day but more than 8 hours before you go to bed. Napping later may make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep.

10. Get more physical exercise during the day. If our work is not physically taxing, chances are, we aren’t working our bodies as hard as we work our minds. A little exercise can set things right.

For more balanced life tips or to subscribe to my Balanced Life Tips please visit my website at www.integrityhpi.com

Kudos for a Job Well Done: Two Exceptional Work-Life Balance Efforts

This blog entry is all about kudos. So often I find myself telling others how to improve their work life balance, and this week I’ve got two examples of things I never thought of.

One of the companies where I do some training is a call center in Pittsburgh. The company does telemarketing and with they way many people treat telemarketers, the job itself can be quite negative. It takes a lot of effort not to let that negativity spill over into the workplace.

While there are a number of restaurants in the area, the available choices are monotonous and repetitive and not very health conscious. The other day, I was walking through the call center and noticed someone eating what looked like a delicious meal, a real meal, out of a plastic lunch box.

“That looks great,” I commented.

“It is. I got it from Joan,” was the response. The person then proceeded to explain to me that a fellow employee, Joan had organized a sort of co-op for lunches. Joan likes to cook and clearly has considerable talent and skill in the kitchen. She collects a nominal amount of money ($25 for 5 meals) from all her participants and provides what could easily be called a gourmet lunch to the members of the co-op.

I take my hat off to Joan, who in her own very creative way, has contributed to making that call center a place to look forward to going. If I weren’t diabetic and a vegetarian, I’d consider joining the co-op. Kudos Joan for a job well done and much appreciated. Thanks for making work a better place to be.

A client I coach told me about another outstanding effort by one of our local hospitals. One of the managers has had considerable problems. Apparently her husband is out of work after hip replacement surgery. The manager herself had already had one bout with cancer and now it was back. Because of having already used up her sick time and vacation time, she was looking at unpaid leave for treatment and recovery.

Fellow employees are being allowed to “donate” accrued paid time off in order to give this co-worker some income while she is in treatment and recovery. Many of her coworkers gladly have sacrificed a day or two of PTO to helping her through this difficult time. Of course it would be even better if the employer stepped up to the plate and matched the gift.

The sense of community there is laudable and the flexibility of the Human Resources/Payroll office to allow the transfer of earned PTO is commendable. Well done. Well done. Well done.

Please help make work better for everyone! My company, Integrity HPI is conducting a work-life balance survey. It takes about 15 minutes and you can remain completely anonymous if you choose. Your information will be used to establish base-line data for future work-life balance analysis and program design and implementation. You'll also receive a free copy of my e-book, "102 Tips to a Balanced Life", when it is published this fall. Visit the website and follow the survey link. Thanks for your help!

www.integrityhpi.com

Look forward to going to work?

I wonder how many people get up every day dreading the fact that they have to go to work. Years ago, there were mattress commercials on TV that boasted, "You spend a third of your life in bed. How comfortable is your mattress?" Well, let me take a twist on that. YOU SPEND MORE THAN A THIRD OF YOUR LIFE AT WORK; HOW COMFORTABLE IS YOUR JOB?

If you think your job isn't comfortable, ask yourself some questions.

1. Do you like what you do? If you don't, what are you doing about that? Are you going to school, exploring other options, talking to your boss about other opportunities? If you are doing work that you don't like, you are doing the wrong work--no matter how much it pays.

2. Are you doing your best? A lot of job dissatisfaction can be rooted in the fact that we aren't invested in our job. If we don't believe the work we do is important, we probably aren't doing our best work. Try doing the best job you can, even if you think your job isn't so important and you just might find the passion for your work that is lacking. Consider the myriad of hobbies with which people amuse themselves. People collect things and make things and study things that comparatively few people think are important. They are passionate and in most cases, the hobby COSTS them money rather than adding to their bank balance. Put a little passion into your job and might well see some changes in your attitude!

3. Does the company you work for support or undermine your values? OK, money is money but are you willing to compromise important parts of your personality just to make a buck? For example: If you are a person who wishes to lead a green life and your company doesn't even bother to recycle, you are probably frustrated. You have two choice. Try and get the company to gradually go greener or to find a greener company to work for.

4. Do you like the people at your job? Look at the people around you. Are they sour, complaining whiners who never have a positive thing to say? Do they respect you and your opinions? Do you feel comfortable, pleasantly surprised and do you greet them if you see them say, at the mall or in the park? Or, do you look the other way and hope they don't see you?

5. What about next year? Can you see yourself in the same job or even the same company in a year? If not, what should you change? Now, changing jobs often isn't good for your resume, no matter how easy it might or might not be for you. Consider changing something about your job that will make it better. It could be as simple as your attitude and as complicated as looking for opportunities to add dimension to your duties. If you see your job as temporary, you'll not be able to see all the potential it probably offers you.

Take my Work-Life Balance survey! It only takes about 15 minutes. You can remain completely anonymous but if you choose to use a valid e-mail address, you can receive a copy of the survey results, and/or a free subscription to weekly work-life balance tips and a copy of our e-book "102 Tips for Living a Balanced Life" Visit www.integrityhpi.com to take the survey. (Tell your friends.)

The Balanced Life

For years we have been talking about work-life balance. Corporations have spent millions of dollars, often demonstrating solid return on their investment, on establishing work/life balance programs. Yet that balance seems to elude us.

Just the other day, I was speaking with a coaching client who recently became unemployed and she was telling me about how she is spending her days. "I thought I'd have some time to do a decent job search and maybe even catch up on some of my reading but honestly, I don't know how I got anything done at all when I was working. I barely have enough time to just do the chores!"

She's not the first person to experience how busy life can be even without work. How much time is enough? Forget the question. It the wrong question to ask.

People don't naturally balance their lives if given sufficient time. It is true that balance is highly individual but there are some general principals we can all apply to achieve a greater sense of balance in our lives.

Balance happens both internally and externally. The working world looks at the external factors in a person's life and tries to accommodate it. Responsibilities, Obligations and commitments take up hours in a day and work/life balance programs try to accommodate them. Got to pick up the kids, go to the grocery store for Mom, take Dad to the doctor's office, then go to the dry-cleaners, order dinner from the restaurant, take Daughter to her soccer game and Son to his Scout meeting. But without internal balance, you really don't have a chance at balancing the external.

Internal balance is composed of five aspects: physical; intellectual; social; emotional and spiritual. (Order doesn't intend significance.) Each has their place and if we can accommodate them, find our internal balance, we are very likely to be able to more effectively cope with and balance the external factors in our lives.

Over the next five weeks, I'll be talking about each of these aspects individually and I hope to get some real input from you. So subscribe to the blog if you want to be reminded of new entries or send me an email and I'll put you on my update list.

Cell Phone Slave Declares Freedom

In 1986, I was sitting with an elderly lady of society in New York City when her telephone rang. The telephone was located on the chairside table where she sat. There was no answering machine attached. I asked her if she wanted to take the call fearing she might have thought it impolite to answer while we chatted. (I also admit that the ringing anoyed me but that's another story.)

"I had the telephone installed for my convenience. It is not convenient right now for me to answer it." We waited and the phone stopped ringing.

Flash forward, 1998, I'm sitting in an outdoor cafe in Santa Monica California with my friend Micheleangelo. (Yes there are living people today with that name.) His cell phone rang for the third time during our brief visit and yet again, I wait several minutes, listening to his side of what I consider an inane conversation. I'm getting pretty ticked off. Not only are these people interrupting him but they are interrupting me. I drop some money on the table, pretend to look at my watch and mouth the words, "I gotta go. I'm going to be late" and I cut out.

Flash forward another 9 years, it's 2007 and I am sitting in a Thai restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA. I've been working endlessly on my career, building my work-life balance consulting practice. I'm with my partner Elihu, someone I've barely seen in the last two weeks. Between his work schedule and mine, these moments alone are rare. My cell phone rings. I had been waiting all day for a call from a potential client. As I reach for my cell phone, I feel like I'm outside my body watching the scene unfold. As I pull the cell phone from my pocket, I remeber that society lady and Michelangelo and without looking to see who was calling, I press the button on the side of phone ignoring the call and tossing it back into my pocket.

Elihu asks me why I didn't take the call and I tell him, "You are the most important person in my life. There is no one I want to or need to talk to right now more than you."

The server, who had been waiting to take our order, was stunned. She actually had a tear in her eye. "That is so sweet," she said. Elihu beamed and we had a fantastic meal.

Part of finding bliss and balancing all of the things that go on in our lives is understanding what is and what is not important and when it's important. Think about how often you answer your phone and it isn't anyting important at all. Think how many times you have to stop doing something that is important in order to take a call that is not.

Bliss
Joseph