How to

Boost Your
Work IQ

Practical Strategies for

Performing at Your Best
Ro n F r i e d man P h . D.
 How to
Boost Your
Work IQ
Practical Strategies for
Performing at Your Best

Ro n F r i e d man P h . D.

2017 Ron Friedman

Contents
Introduction 4

How to Spend the First 10 Minutes of Your Day 7

Action Plan 12

Worksheet 13

The Art of Scheduling to Your Strengths 16

Action Plan 21

The Value of Chunking Activities 22

Action Plan 27

Schedule Intermissions on Your Calendar 28

Action Plan 33

View Exercise as Part of Your Job Description 34

Action Plan 39

How to Spend the Last 10 Minutes of Your Day 40

Action Plan 46

Conclusion: Three Keys to Working Smarter 47

About the Author 50

Introduction
 Introduction 5

In the summer of 1768, nearing the peak of a wildly prolific

career as a scientist, musician, publisher, inventor, and statesman,
Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter in which he quietly revealed a
curious practice that helped fuel his success.

I rise every morning and sit in my chamber without any clothes

whatever, he wrote, describing a habit that would later become
known as his daily air bath. Half an hour or an hour, according
to the season, reading or writing.

Franklin is hardly the only brilliant mind with an unusual

method of working.

Filmmaker Woody Allen, who is among Hollywoods most

productive directors, has his own unique routine. While most
writers simply sit at a desk, Allen spends significant portions of
his workday in the shower. Ill stand there with steaming hot
water coming down for thirty minutes, forty-five minutes, just
thinking out ideas and working on plot.

Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner produced his best

work in silence. To ensure that his writing was undisturbed, he
would physically remove the doorknob to his library and carry
it with him until his days work was complete.

Most of us dont have access to air baths, extended showers, or

knob-less libraries in our workplace. Yet we long to be more
productive. And with good reason. The nature of our work has
grown infinitely more complex in recent years. Technological
innovations have led to rising expectations, a 24/7 work culture,
and limitless information for us to sift through, process, and act
upon.
6 Introduction

At the same time, we face an avalanche of daily distractions,

from countless meetings and conference calls to the latest
viral videos and breaking news stories burrowing their way to
the top of our inbox. We do everything we can to maintain
our focus, but the battle for our attention escalates by the day.

Now more than ever, we need strategies for being productive.

So where do we start?

This ebook highlights key strategies for working smarter. In

the pages that follow, youll discover a variety of methods for
making better decisions, sharpening your focus, and boosting
your creativity. Unlike many works in this genre, the
suggestions in this ebook are evidence-based, leveraging
scientific studies on how people think, feel, and act when
theyre producing great work.

Given the unrelenting pace of the modern workplace, Ive

kept it brief. There are no elaborate experiments or complex
brain imaging studies to read about. My goal here is simple:
to provide you with actionable insights that you can
immediately put to use.

By the time were done about half an hour from now, youll
have a series of ideas for optimizing your workday in ways
that allow you to sustain your energy, elevate your
performance, and get more done.

Were about to raise your Work IQ. Lets get started.

 7

How to Spend the

First 10 Minutes
of Your Day
 8

If everything
is a priority
then nothing is
a priority.
AU T HOR GA R R R E Y NOL D S
 How to Spend the First 10 Minutes of Your Day 9

If youre working in the kitchen of Anthony Bourdain, legendary

chef of Brasserie Les Halles, best-selling author, and famed
television personality, you dont dare so much as boil hot water
without attending to a ritual thats essential for any self-respecting
chef: mise-en-place.

The Meez, as professionals call it, translates into everything in

its place. In practice, it involves studying a recipe, thinking
through the tools and equipment you will need, and assembling
the ingredients in the right proportion before you begin. It is the
planning phase of every mealthe moment when chefs evaluate
the totality of what they are trying to achieve and create an
action plan for the meal ahead.

For the experienced chef, mise-en-place represents more than a

quaint practice or a time-saving technique. Its a state of mind.

Mise-en-place is the religion of all good line cooks, Bourdain

wrote in his runaway bestseller Kitchen Confidential. As a cook,
your station, and its condition, its state of readiness, is an
extension of your nervous system The universe is in order
when your station is set

Chefs like Anthony Bourdain have long appreciated that when it

comes to exceptional cooking, the single most important
ingredient of any dish is planning. Its the Meez that forces
Bourdain to think ahead, that saves him from having to
distractedly search for items midway through, and that allows
him to channel his full attention to the dish before him.
10 How to Spend the First 10 Minutes of Your Day

Most of us do not work in kitchens. We do not interact with

ingredients that need to be collected, prepped, or measured.
And yet the value of applying a similar approach and deliberately
taking time out to plan before we begin is arguably greater.

Whats the first thing you do when you arrive at your desk? For
many of us, checking email or listening to voice mail is practically
automatic. In many ways, these are among the worst ways to
start a day. Both activities hijack our focus and put us in a reactive
mode, where other peoples priorities take center stage. They are
the equivalent of entering a kitchen and looking for a spill to
clean or a pot to scrub.

A better approach is to begin your day with a brief planning

session. An intellectual mise-en-place. Bourdain envisions the
perfect execution before starting his dish. Heres the corollary
for the enterprising business professional. Ask yourself this
question the moment you sit at your desk: The day is over and I am
leaving the office with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. What
have I achieved?

This exercise is usually effective at helping people distinguish

between tasks that simply feel urgent from those that are truly
important. Use it to determine the activities you want to focus
your energy on.

Thenand this is importantcreate a plan of attack by breaking

down complex tasks into specific actions.

Productivity guru David Allen recommends starting each item

on your list with a verb, which is useful because it makes your
intentions concrete. For example, instead of listing Mondays
presentation, identify every action item that creating Mondays
 How to Spend the First 10 Minutes of Your Day 11

presentation will involve. You may end up with: collect sales

figures, draft slides, and w images into deck.

Studies show that when it comes to goals, the more specific you
are about what youre trying to achieve, the better your chances
of success. Having each step mapped out in advance will also
minimize complex thinking later in the day and make
procrastination less likely.

Finally, prioritize your list. When possible, start your day with
tasks that require the most mental energy. Research indicates
that we have less willpower as the day progresses, which is why
its best to tackle challenging items particularly those requiring
focus and mental agility early on.

The entire exercise can take you less than 10 minutes. Yet its a
practice that yields significant dividends throughout your day.

By starting each morning with a mini-planning session, you

frontload important decisions to a time when your mind is fresh.
Youll also notice that having a list of concrete action items
(rather than a broad list of goals) is especially valuable later in
the day, when fatigue sets in and complex thinking is harder to
achieve.

Now, no longer do you have to pause and think through each

step. Instead, like a master chef, you can devote your full
attention to the execution.
Action Plan
Step 1
Devote the first 10 minutes of your
The First 10 Minutes workday to a brief strategy session.

Step 2
To identify important tasks, ask yourself
this question the moment you sit at
your desk: The day is over and I am
leaving the office with a tremendous sense of
accomplishment. What have I achieved?

Step 3
Break down each task into specific
actions.

Step 4
List the actions you plan to take,
starting each one with a verb.

Step 5
Prioritize your list, placing actions that
require the most energy first.

12
 Worksheet
Your First 10 Minutes

1.
The day is over and you are leaving the office with a
tremendous sense of accomplishment.

What tasks have you achieved?

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

13
 Worksheet Your First 10 minutes

2. Task 1

Next, break down

Action
each task into
specific actions, Action
starting each one
with a verb. Action

Action

Action

Task 2

Action

Action

Action

Action

Action

Task 3

Action

Action

Action

Action

Action
14
 Worksheet Your First 10 minutes

3.
Finally, prioritize your list. Go back to the list
above and place a number to left of each
action, with 1 representing tasks requiring a
lot of mental flexibility and willpower, and
5 representing those requiring very little
mental flexibility and willpower.

4.
Start by working on the 1s, moving on to
higher numbers as the day progresses.

15
 16

The Art of
Scheduling to
Your Strengths
17

Dont mistake
activity with
achievement.
H A L L OF FA M E BA S K E T BA L L C OAC H J OH N WO ODE N
 The Art of Scheduling to Your Strengths 18

If you work with a team, chances are your inbox is often

flooded with invitations. Internal meetings, client conference
calls, the occasional lunch request. Assuming you have some
control over your calendar, how you respond to these offers
generally depends on two factors: the value of attending the
meeting and your availability.

Rarely, however, do we consider a third factor in our decision-

making criteriathe time of day when we are at our most
productive.

By now, youve probably noticed that the person you are midway
through the afternoon is not the same person who arrived first
thing in the morning. Research shows our cognitive functioning
fluctuates throughout the day. If youre like most people, youll
find that you can get a lot done between 9:00am and 11:00am.
Not so at 2:30pm. Later in the day, it often feels like were moving
at a fraction of our morning pace.

Thats not an illusion. Recent studies have found that on average,

people are considerably worse at absorbing new information,
planning ahead, and resisting distractions as the day progresses.

The reason this happens is not merely motivational. Its

biological. Our bodies run on a circadian rhythm that affects our
hormone production, brain wave activities, and body
temperature. Each of these variations tinker with our energy
level, impacting our alertness and productivity.
19 The Art of Scheduling to Your Strengths

Importantly, we dont all follow identical patterns. While most

people do their best work in the morning (and our preference
for mornings tends to increase with age), others are night owls
who are more productive later in the day. Research suggests that
our fondness for morning or evenings isnt simply a personal
preferenceits directly tied to the time of day when our physical
and cognitive abilities peak.

To get the most out of every day, you need to guard the hours
when you are at your most productive. Think back to yesterday
and the day before. At which points of your day did you feel at
your most energetic? Chances are, these are times with the
highest productivity potential.

Once youve identified high-potential hours, consider treating

them differentlyfor example, by blocking them off on your
calendar.
 The Art of Scheduling to Your Strengths 20

This discourages colleagues with access to your availabilities

from suggesting these times for meetings. An additional
advantage of having high-potential hours blocked off is that it
prompts you to think twice before suggesting your own non-
essential meetings at that time.

Proactively setting aside your best hours to get work done saves
you from having to scramble later on to compensate. Use these
hours for working on high-priority projects, making decisions
youve been avoiding, or initiating a difficult conversation.

And, if youre the owner of a dull, 10 a.m. staff meeting, do your

team a favor and reschedule it for after lunch. The afternoon is
when most peoples energy levels naturally dip. Lower energy
levels can be disastrous for work that requires deep focus, but is
considerably less detrimental in the context of other people.
Having others around also naturally increases our alertness
levels, helping counteract the slump in energy.

Fatigue, its worth noting, is not all bad. In fact, the findings of a
2011 study suggest that when our minds are tired, we are more
distractible and less adept at filtering out seemingly irrelevant
ideas. The free association that ensues makes off-peak hours
an ideal time for finding novel solutions.

Ultimately, the best way to schedule is to take our natural energy

fluctuations into account. You can maximize your productivity
by calibrating activities to the right time of day. If a task requires
willpower and complex thinking, plan to do it when you are at
your most alert. In contrast, if what youre after is a fresh
perspective, use fatigue to your advantage by looking for
solutions when your energy drops.

In either case, protect your best hours. If you dont do it, who will?
Action Plan
Step 1
To identify your high-potential hours,
think back to yesterday and the day
Scheduling to Your Strengths
before. At which points of the day did
you feel at your most energetic?

Step 2
Place a note on your calendar, shielding
future high-potential hours from non-
essential activities.

Step 3
Plan to do your most complex work
during high-potential hours.

Step 4
Reexamine problems in need of novel
solutions when you are tired. Off-peak
hours are when many of us are at our
most creative.

21
 22

The Value of
Chunking
Activities
 23

"You can do
anything, but not
everything."
AU T HOR DAV I D A L L E N
 The Value of Chunking Activities 24

Suppose each time you ran low on an item in your kitchen

olive oil, bananas, napkinsyour instinctive response was to
drop everything and race to the store. How much time would
you lose? How much money would you squander on gas? What
would happen to your productivity?

We all recognize the inefficiency of this approach. And yet

surprisingly, we often work in ways that are equally wasteful.

The reason we maintain a shopping list and try to keep

supermarket trips to a minimum is that its easy to see the cost
of driving to the store every time we crave a bag of potato chips.
What is less obvious to us, however, is the cognitive price we pay
each time we drop everything and switch activities to satisfy a
mental craving.

Shifting our attention from one task to another, as we do when

were monitoring email while trying to read a report or craft a
presentation, disrupts our concentration and saps our focus.
Each time we return to our initial task, we use up valuable
cognitive resources reorienting ourselves. And all those
transitional costs add up. Research shows that when we are
deeply engrossed in an activity, even minor distractions can
have a profound effect. According to a University of California-
Irvine study, regaining our initial momentum following an
interruption can take, on average, upwards of 20 minutes.

Multitasking, as many studies have shown, is a myth. A more

accurate account of what happens when we tell ourselves were
multitasking is that were rapidly switching between activities,
degrading our clarity and depleting our mental energy. And the
25 The Value of Chunking Activities

consequences can be surprisingly serious. An experiment

conducted at the University of London found that we lose as
many as 10 IQ points when we allow our work to be interrupted
by seemingly benign distractions like emails and text messages.

The trouble, of course, is that multitasking is enjoyable. Its fun

to indulge your curiosity. Who knows what that next email, tweet
or text message holds in store? Finding out provides immediate
gratification. In contrast, resisting distraction and staying on-
task requires discipline and mental effort.

And yet each time we shift our focus, its as if were taking a trip
to the store. Creativity expert Todd Henry calls it a task-shifting
penalty. We pay a mental tax that diminishes our ability to
produce high-level work.

So what are we to do?

One tactic is to change our environment to move temptation

further away: shut down your email program or silence your
phone. Its a lot easier to stay on task when youre not continuously
fending off mental cravings. This approach doesnt require
going off the grid for a full day. Even as little as 30 minutes can
have a major impact on your productivity.

The alternative, which most of us consider the norm, is the

cognitive equivalent of dieting in a pastry shop. We can all
muster the willpower to resist the temptations, but doing so
comes with considerable costs to our limited supply of willpower.

Another worthwhile approach is to cluster similar activities

together, keeping ramp-up time to a minimum. Instead of
 The Value of Chunking Activities 26

scattering phone calls, meetings, administrative work, and

emails throughout your day, try grouping related tasks so that
there are fewer transitions. Read reports, memos and articles
one after another. Schedule meetings back-to-back. Keep a list
of administrative tasks and do them all in a single weekly session.
If possible, try limiting email to 2 or 3 predetermined times
for example 8:30, 12:00 and 4:30instead of responding to
them the moment they arrive.

In some jobs, multitasking is unavoidable. Some of us truly do

need to stay connected to our clients, colleagues, and managers.
Here, its worth noting that limiting disruptions is not an all or
nothing proposition. Even small changes can make a big
difference.

Remember: its up to you to protect your cognitive resources.

The more you do to minimize task-switching over the course of
the day, the more mental bandwidth youll have for activities
that actually matter.
Action Plan
Step 1
Review the tasks you need to
Chunking Activities accomplish over the next few days.
Look for similar activities that can be
chunked together (for example, phone
calls to make, or paperwork to
complete) and schedule them for a
single session.

Step 2
If possible, respond to emails at
designated times instead of allowing
each message to disrupt your focus.

Step 3
Alternatively, reduce the strain of
constant communication by
programming your email to refresh
every 30 minutes, or disabling the pop-
up feature.

Step 4
When your work requires
concentration, schedule brief sessions
during which you are electronically
inaccessible.

27
 28

Schedule
Intermissions
on Your
Calendar
 29

What is without
periods of rest
will not endure.
OV I D
 Schedule Intermissions on Your Calendar 30

When youre racing 90 miles an hour, the last thing you

want to do is slow down.

Thats how it feels on those exhilarating days when youre

completely focused, tearing through your to-do list, racking up
accomplishments. You just want to keep going.

You might also worry that if you take a break, youll lose
momentum and find it impossible to regain your stride.

But the research tells us otherwise. Studies show we have a

limited capacity for concentrating over extended time periods,
and though we may not be practiced at recognizing the symptoms
of fatigue, they unavoidably derail our work. No matter how
engaged we are in an activity, our brains inevitably tire. And
when they do, the symptoms are not necessarily obvious. We
dont always yawn or feel ourselves nodding off. Instead,
we become more vulnerable to distractions.

Consider what happens over the course of a typical day at the

office. The early morning hours are when most of us are at our
sharpest, but as the day wears on, we inevitably lose steam. And
its at this point that we become more easily seduced by the lure
of viral videos, celebrity gossip, and social media. A recent study
examined the time of day Facebook users are more likely to post
updates. The finding? Facebook usage builds from 9:00am
through noon, dips slightly during lunch, and then peaks at
3:00pm, the precise hour when many of us are at our most
fatigued.
31 Schedule Intermissions on Your Calendar

While tiring over the course of the workday cant be prevented,

it can be mitigated. Studies show that sporadic breaks replenish
our energy, improve self-control and decision-making, and fuel
productivity. Depending on how we spend them, breaks can also
heighten our attention and make us more creative.

A 2011 study published in Cognition highlights another upside to

sporadic breaks that we rarely consider: goal reactivation. When
you work on a task continuously, its easy to lose focus and get
lost in the weeds. In contrast, following a brief intermission,
picking up where you left off forces you to take a few seconds to
think globally about what youre ultimately trying to achieve. Its
a practice that encourages us to stay mindful of our objectives,
and, as the authors of the study report, reliably contributes to
better performance.

The challenge, of course, is finding the time to step away for 15

minutes, oreven when we have the timegetting good at
dragging ourselves away from our computers preemptively,
before were depleted. One approach that can help involves
blocking out a couple of planned 15-minute intermissions on
your calendar, one in the mid-morning and the other in the
mid-afternoon.

Next, find something active you can do with this time and put it
on your calendar. Take a walk, stretch while listening to a song,
or go out with a coworker for a snack. If these activities strike
you as too passive, use the time to run an errand. The critical
thing is to step away from your computer so that your focus is
relaxed and your mind drifts. (So no, checking Facebook does
not count.)
 Schedule Intermissions on Your Calendar 32

Finally, note your energy level when you return. You are bound
to feel invigorated, both because youve allowed your brain
some rest and because the physical movement has elevated your
heart rate.

If this feels like a dereliction of duty, remind yourself that the

human brain was not built for extended focus. Through much of
our evolutionary history, heightened concentration was needed
in short bursts, not daylong marathons. Our minds evolved to
snap to attention when we encountered a predator, keeping us
vigilant just long enough to ensure our survival. Yet today, we
expect far more from ourselves than centuries of evolution have
designed us to do.

Ultimately, the question we should be asking is not whether

breaks are worth taking we know they are. Its how we can
better ensure that they actually take place.
Action Plan Step 1
Schedule two times a dayone in the
Schedule Intermissions morning and one in the afternoonfor
a 15 minute intermission.

Step 2
Devote these breaks to non-computer
based, physical activities that are
enjoyable and distancing from your
work.

Step 3
Observe which tasks benefit the most
from intermissions. In my experience,
breaks are especially helpful when a task
require deep concentration.

Step 4
Consider adjusting the number of
breaks on your calendar to the type of
work you are doing. For example, you
might need three breaks on Mondays to
keep you focused on a writing deadline,
and only one on Tuesday when you are
in meetings all day.

33
 34

View Exercise
as Part of Your
Job Description
 35

The real reason we

feel so good when we
get our blood pumping
is that it makes the
brain function at its
best.
JOH N J. R AT E Y, M D
Au t h o r o f S p a r k : T h e R evo l u t i o n a r y New S c i e n c e o f E xe r c i s e a n d t h e B r a i n
 View Exercise as Part of Your Job Description 36

When we think about the value of exercise, we tend to focus

on the physical benefits. Lower blood pressure, a healthier heart,
an attractive physique. But over the past decade, researchers
have slowly collected a compelling body of evidence suggesting
that the larger, more immediate benefit of regular exercise is the
impact it has on our thinking.

Heres a brief overview of just some of the cognitive changes you

can expect when you incorporate daily exercise into your
routine:

Improved concentration

Sharper memory

Faster learning

Prolonged stamina

Lower stress

Happier mood

Enhanced creativity

We now have incontrovertible proof that our mental firepower

is directly linked to our physical regimen. And nowhere are the
implications more relevant than to workplace performance.
One recent study found that employees who exercise are
significantly better at managing their time, collaborating, and
getting work done than their sedentary colleagues.
37 View Exercise as Part of Your Job Description

What keeps us from exercising more often? For many of us, the
answer is simple: we dont have the time. In fairness, this is a
legitimate explanation. There are weeks when work is
overwhelming and deadlines outside of our control need to be
met. But lets be clear. What we really mean when we say we
dont have time for an activity is that we dont consider it a
priority given the time we have available.

This is why the research illuminating the cognitive benefits of

exercise is so compelling. Exercise enables us to soak in more
information, work more efficiently, and be more productive.
And yet many of us continue to perceive it as a luxury; an activity
wed like to do more of if only we had the time.

Instead of viewing exercise as something we do for ourselvesa

personal indulgence that takes us away from our workwe need
to start viewing physical activity as part of the work itself. The
alternativewhich involves processing information more
slowly, forgetting more often, and getting easily frustrated
makes us less effective at our job and harder to get along with for
our colleagues.

How do you successfully incorporate exercise into your daily

routine? Here are a few research-based suggestions.

Identify a physical activity that you actually like. There are

many ways to work out other than boring yourself senseless on a
treadmill. Find a physical activity you can look forward to doing,
like tennis, swimming, dancing, softball, or playing the drums.
You are far more likely to stick with an activity if you genuinely
enjoy doing it.
 View Exercise as Part of Your Job Description 38

A series of recent studies also suggest that how we feel while

exercising can influence the degree to which it ultimately
benefits our health. When we view exercise as something we do
for fun, were better at resisting unhealthy foods afterwards,
during subsequent meals. But when the same physical activity is
perceived as a chore, we have a much harder time saying no to
fattening foods, presumably because weve used up all our
willpower exercising.

Invest in improving your performance. Instead of settling for

getting some exercise, focus on mastering an activity instead.
Hire a coach, enroll in a class, and buy yourself the right clothing
and equipment. The additional investment will enhance your
level of commitment, while the steady gains in performance will
help sustain your interest over the long term.

Dont go it alone. Youre a lot more likely to stick with an exercise

regimen if it involves other people. The reason? Its harder to
cancel on a friend or a trainer than to convince yourself that one
night off wont hurt. Working out while socializing also makes
exercise more fun, which improves the chances youll continue
doing it. Find a friend or colleague who enjoys your activity of
choice and see if theyd like to join. Better yet, tap into an existing
community of exercisers and expand your network.

Reframing exercise as part of your job makes it a lot easier to

leave at 5:00pm. Remember, youre not abandoning work.
Youre simply taking your thinking elsewhere.
 Step 1
Action Plan Find a physical activity that you genuinely
Exercise as Part of enjoy. If nothing immediately comes to
Your Job Description
mind, try this exercise: Think back to when
you were twelve. What physical activities were
you most fond of? If you liked doing it when
you were younger, chances are youll still
enjoy doing it today.

Step 2
Purchase high-level exercise clothing,
sneakers, and equipment. This will entice
you to want to do the activity.

Step 3
Search for someone who shares your
enthusiasm for the activity and make a
plan for going together.

Step 4
Locate a trainer, instructor, or course that
can help you and your partner improve
your performance.

Step 5
Set a specific goal for measuring your
progress. For example, bench-pressing 125
pounds, running a 6 minute mile, or acing
your tennis opponent twice in one match.

39
 40

How to Spend the

Last 10 Minutes
of Your Day
 41

A rested will is
a strong will.
P S YC HOL O G I S T ROY F. BAU M E I S T E R
A N D JOH N T I E R N E Y
Au t h o r s o f Wi l l p owe r : Re d i s c o v e r i n g t h e G re a t e s t Hu m a n St re n g t h
 How to Spend the Last 10 Minutes of Your Day 42

How much sleep did you get last night? If the answer is not
enough youre hardly alone. According to Gallups estimates,
nearly half the people youll run into today are suffering from
some level of sleep deprivation.

We often dismiss a little morning fatigue as an inconvenience,

but heres the reality. Lacking sleep diminishes our mood,
weakens our memory, and harms our decision-making all day
long. It scatters our focus, prevents us from thinking flexibly,
and makes us more susceptible to anxiety.

Ever wonder why problems seem that much more overwhelming

at midnight than in the first light of day? Its because our brains
amplify fear when were tired.

When we arrive at work sleepy, everything feels harder. Simple

tasks take longer, distractions become more difficult to filter out,
and inevitably, motivation suffers. According to one study, we
are no more effective working sleep-deprived than we are when
were legally drunk.

Its worth noting that no amount of caffeine can fully compensate

for lack of sleep. While a double shot latte can make you more
alert, it also elevates your level of anxiety and puts you on edge,
damaging your ability to connect with others. Coffee can also
constrain creative thinking.

To perform at our best, our bodies require restplain and

simple. Which underscores an important point: on days when
we flourish, the seed has almost always been planted the night
before.
43 How to Spend the Last 10 Minutes of Your Day

But lets face it. Most of us would love more sleep. The problem
is we cant seem to get ourselves to bed on time. In part, its
because were so busy during the day that the only time we have
to ourselves is late in the evening. Combine that with the fact
that we have less willpower when were tired to force ourselves
into bed and you have the perfect recipe for continued sleep
deprivation.

So, how do you get to bed earlier? Here are a few suggestions.

Start by identifying an exact time when you want to be in bed.

Be specific. Trying to go to bed as early as possible is hard to
achieve because it doesnt give you a clear idea of what success
looks like. Instead, think about when you need to get up in the
morning and work backwards. Try to give yourself 8 hours,
meaning that if youd like to be up by 6:45am, aim to be under
the covers no later than 10:45pm.

Next, do a nighttime audit of how you spend your time after

work. For one evening, dont try to change anythingsimply log
everything that happens from the moment you arrive home
until you go to bed. What you may discover is that instead of
eliminating activities that you enjoy and are keeping you up late
(say, watching television between 11:00pm and 11:30pm), you
can start doing them earlier by cutting back on something
unproductive thats eating up your time earlier on (like mindlessly
scanning Facebook between 8:30pm and 9:00pm).

Once youve established a specific bedtime goal and found ways

of rooting out timesinks, turn your attention to creating a pre-
sleep ritual that helps you relax and look forward to going to
bed. A major reason we resist getting to bed when we should is
because by the time 11:00pm rolls around, the prospect of lying
in bed is not as appealing as watching Netflix or squeezing in a
quick game on our smartphone. Logically, we know we should
be resting, but emotionally wed prefer to be doing something
else.
 How to Spend the Last 10 Minutes of Your Day 44

To counteract this, its useful to create an enjoyable routine; one

that entices you to wind down and helps your body transition
between periods of activity and period of rest. Being tired does
not always guarantee falling asleep quickly; first we need to feel
relaxed.

How do you get in the right mindset before bed?

The answer is ultimately a personal one. What relaxes one

person can exasperate another. Here is a menu of ideas to help
you identify a bedtime ritual thats right for you:

Think spa.
Create a tranquil environment. Dim the lights, play soothing
music, light a candle.

Read something that makes you happy.

Novels, poetry, comics. The key is to find material that sustains
your attention without much effort and puts you in a good
mood. (Never read anything related to work in bed.)

Handwrite a note.
One of the most effective ways of boosting happiness is
expressing gratitude. You can experience gratitude while
writing a thank-you note to someone you care about, or
privately, by listing a few of your days highlights in a diary.

Lower the temperature.

Cooler temperatures help us fall asleep and make the prospect
of lying under the cover more appealing. The National Sleep
Foundation recommends keeping your thermostat between 60
and 67 degrees.
45 How to Spend the Last 10 Minutes of Your Day

Banish all screens.

Bright light stimulates our mind and raises our alertness. Turn
off your phone, avoid your iPad, and resist watching TV.

Meditate.
Studies show that practicing mindfulness lowers stress and
elevates mood.

Take a quiet walk.

If the weathers right, an evening walk can be deeply relaxing.

Experts recommend giving yourself at least 30 minutes each

night to wind down before attempting to sleep. You might also
try setting a reminder on your phone letting you know when its
time to begin, so that the process becomes automatic.

However you choose to use the time before bed, do your best to
keep this time free of negative energy. Dont set your morning
alarm right before going to beddo it when you first wake up so
that you dont feel pressured to fall asleep. Avoid raising delicate
topics with your spouse.

And finally, keep a notepad nearby. If you think of something

you need to do the next day, write it down instead of reaching
for your phone. Do the same for any thought that pops into your
head while you are trying to fall asleep. Once youve written it
down, youll find its a lot easier to let go.
Action Plan
Step 1
Conduct a nighttime audit. Over the course
The Last 10 Minutes of one typical evening, write down
everything you do from the time you get
home until you go to bed.

Step 2
Identify time sinks that can be eliminated
or minimized as part of your nighttime
routine.

Step 3
Choose a specific time you want to be in bed.

Step 4
Set an alarm to go off at least 30-60 minutes
before that time, reminding you to wind
down.

Step 5
Program your thermostat to lower the
temperature before bedtime.

Step 6
Do something relaxing before going to sleep.
(Resist electronics.)

Step 7
Use a pen and notepad to jot down work-
related thoughts, so that you can clear your
head.

Step 8
Set the next days alarm first thing in the
morning not just before you are getting
ready to fall sleep.
46
 47

Conclusion:
Three Keys to
Working
Smarter
 Conclusion: Three Keys to Working Smarter 48

Walk into any airport bookstore and youre bound to

encounter a staggering collection of self-help titles. The last time
I visited JFK, I counted well over seventy. Then I turned around
and realized there were three more aisles.

Scientists like to grumble about the validity of self-help literature,

half-jokingly pointing out that the fact that so many of these
books exist is proof they dont work. If they did, no one would
ever need to read more than one.

In my experience, self-help books frequently do offer useful

suggestions, but what makes them popular is rarely the value of
their advice. Its the hopeful feeling they inspire in readers that
tells them success is within their reach.

In this ebook, I have tried to satisfy both the scientist and the
self-help enthusiast.

Over the course of the past 6 blogs, weve explored evidence-

based strategies for elevating your performance at work. Weve
covered everything from smarter planning, to rooting out
distractions, to sustaining our physical energy throughout the
day.

While much of this ebook has focused on actionable strategies

you can apply immediately, if you take a step back, youll notice
three surprisingly counterintuitive principles we uncovered
along the way:
49 Conclusion: Three Keys to Working Smarter

The First Principle

Slowing down allows us to speed up.
Often, what gets in the way of our productivity is that we try to
do too much. Multitasking, working continuously without a
break, tackling email first thing in the morning. Ironically,
getting more done requires that you deliberately slow things
down, allowing you to bring more focus to your work.

The Second Principle

Feeling good fosters smarter thinking.
When deadlines loom, its tempting to skip the gym, grab a
cheeseburger, and work past midnight. As it turns out, all of
these decisions can actually undermine productivity rather than
enhance it. Its important to realize that investing in your
personal health is not something you do for yourselfits what
allows you to be more effective in all aspects of life.

The Third Principle

Staying focused requires planning.
We live in a world with infinite distractions, and remaining on
task is a constant battle. To produce your best work, you need to
become disciplined about protecting your cognitive resources
and avoiding energy drains that can derail your day. Shielding
high-potential hours, batching emails, and frontloading
important decisions all serve to direct your attention to the work
that matters.

No matter what you do for a living, finding ways of applying

these principles is likely to make you more effective.

The nature of work is changing. Its getting faster, more urgent,

and infinitely more complex. And yet theres reason to be
optimistic. We now have more insight into the factors that
contribute to working smarter than ever before.

Now all we have to do is put them to use.

 About the Author 50

Ro n F r i e d man P h . D.

About the Author

Ron Friedman, Ph.D. is an award-winning psychologist and
founder of ignite80, a consulting firm that helps smart leaders
build extraordinary workplaces.

An expert on human motivation, Friedman has served on the

faculty of the University of Rochester, Nazareth College, and
Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Popular accounts of his
research have appeared on NPR and in major newspapers,
including The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe,
Vancouver Post, the Globe and Mail, The Guardian, as well as
magazines such as Mens Health, Shape, and Allure.

He contributes to the blogs of Harvard Business Review, Fast

Company, Forbes, 99u, and Psychology Today. To learn more
about his work, visit ignite80.com and connect with him on
Twitter @RonFriedman.