You probably know that we sleep in cycles of roughly 90 minutes, moving through five stages from light to deep sleep and back out again. It turns out that we have an awake cycle as well. When we’re awake, we move from a state of energized alertness progressively into mental and physical fatigue approximately every 90 minutes. At that point, we feel hungry, we lose focus and feel sleepy as our bodies tell us to take a break. The trap we fall into in our drive for productivity is we ignore these signals and turn to caffeine, sugar and our own emergency reserves—the stress hormones that trigger our "fight or flight" state. As a result, we become distracted, jumpy, lose sight of our purpose and become less capable of thinking clearly. We fool ourselves into thinking that we can push through and grind it out...and we expect our teams to follow suit. Sound familiar?

Our bodies are not designed to expend energy continuously. We are meant to cycle between spending and rebuilding energy. Quite simply, we perform best when we take regular breaks.

The key insight is that it’s not how long, but how you renew that matters most in terms of performance. Our ANE tools can support your energy recovery. Try quieting your mind, relaxing your body and reciting our ANE meditation. Or reflect on your Leadership purpose. Or repeat the mantra "I am God's leader" several times emphasizing a different word each time.  The Calm, Confident, Connected feeling you get will leave you energized for the next ninety minute sprint. Try it for a day or two and see if you are actually more productive.

Two more things. First, notice that many of your best ideas come to mind during these lulls. Second, consider scheduling your meetings for no more than ninety minutes. Notice the impact on meeting energy, productivity and your teams.

Gerry Dehkes hosts Inspired Leadership in 30 phone call
Tuesday, December 9, 7:30 a.m.
Call in number: 712-775-7031
Enter ID #: 251-410-597