How to make more while working less?

An experiment. Take two identical people working on the same work in the same offices. For the purity of the experiment, for example, they both come to the office by 9 am and finish work at 7 pm. In truth, the 10-hour working day - too long to talk about efficiency, but for many large companies today it has become the norm. Therefore, we will still consider the 10-hour working day.

Oleg is working 10 hours a day without stopping, juggling tasks and running between meetings all day. He even eats at his desk. You are nothing like?

Alex, on the other hand, works with multiple interruptions: 90 minutes of hard work, followed by 15-minute breaks before again to plunge headlong into work. At 12:15 pm Alex is sent to a 45-minute dinner or go to a nearby gym.

At 15:00 - rest just behind a desk with eyes closed. Sometimes it turns into a 15- or 20-minute sleep. And the most recent break Alex makes between 16:30 and 17:00, going on a 15 minute hike.

Oleg spends 10 hours a day on the job. He starts work at 80% of its capacity, instinctively stimulating himself, because he knows that he is waiting for a long time.

By one o'clock Oleg bit tired. Its productivity is reduced to 60%. Between 4 and 7 pm, the average productivity even reduced - up to 40%.

It is called law of diminishing returns. Average productivity Oleg throughout the working day - 60%, which means that in fact, Oleg works effectively only 6 hours a day.

Alex works the same 10 hours and feels great, laying out 90%. He knows that after a certain time will break. Over time, Alexei productivity falls quite a bit, and after lunch and afternoon resting his productivity remains high - 70% for the last three hours working day.

On average, it turns out that Alexei of the working day departs 2:00. During the remaining 8 hours, he keeps an average productivity of 80%. Thus it turns out that Alex is working effectively 6.5 hours per day, more than half an hour than similar meaning Oleg.

Due to the fact that Alex is more focused and generally more cheerful than Oleg, he also makes fewer mistakes, and returning home, spending more energy and strength to his family.

Problem is not the number of hours that we sit at a desk, it's the value that we create.

Let's recall the natural rhythms of man. Our bodies are used to generate and use energy rhythmically. So we are working best.
Our reservoir energy (physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual) periodically requires refueling.

Work as Alex, and you will get a lot more done in less time and at the best quality and all this with an enviable stability.

Create jobs where there is a balance between hard work and the ability to relax and upgrade. You will not only get better performance from employees, but also higher commitment from them. Pleasant "side effect" - a big job satisfaction among your employees.

There is some evidence that the increase in opportunities for rest and recovery at work is a noble goal of improving performance.

Examples and studies

Let's look at real-life examples. The Federal Aviation Administration United States conducted a study of pilots on long-haul flights. One group of pilots was given the opportunity to do a 40-minute break to sleep in the middle of the flight (eventually turned out, on average, 26 minutes of actual sleep). Their average response time after sleep increased by 16%!

The group of pilots flying without a break for sleep, reaction times deteriorated by 34%.
During the last 30 minutes of the flight, they also experienced 22 micro-sleep 2-10 seconds long. Pilots who fully asleep, were not observed.

Or consider a study that proivodit expert Anders Eriksson at the Berlin Academy of Music. The best violinist of the Academy practice no more than 90 minutes and make the breaks between each session.

Most violinists almost never practiced more than 4 and a half hours during the day. What they knew instinctively it was the law of diminishing returns, which we wrote above.

The best violinists in average slept more than 8 hours at night and take a break after lunch to sleep for 20-30 minutes. For a week they slept for 16 hours more than the average American.

Summary

Stress is not the enemy in the workplace. In fact, stress is the only means by which we can improve and develop our abilities.
Just think of weightlifting. Stressing the muscles, and then recovering, you gradually build up strength. Our real enemy is at work - the absence of periodic updates and recreation!