sahar yousef
status quo
- today we can work anytime, anywhere, on any device, with anyone around the world
- productivity has dipped and stagnated in the past 10 years
- hypothesis was the more we connect people, the more productive they would become
- we struggle to get things done more than ever
- feeling overwhelmed, busy
- we work constantly, but don't feel like we are working forward
- spinning wheels
- high impact projects tend to get sidelined
workday hijacked
- constant interruptions
- excessive email
- unpropductive meetings
deteriating reality
- 3.5 hours or less average portion of workday that is actually considered productive (Atlassian)
- 90 seconds avg amount of time between knowledge worker interruptions (UC irvine)
- 11 minutes in 2008
- 96% senior leaders report feeling on the verge of burnout (american institute of stress)
- does not feel good
- the human brain needs time to deep work enter the flow state
- strategic thinking, flow
- feel hyperconnected, feel tethered to our devices, feel hyper busy but going nowhere
- people don't have "work days" anymore, but instead "work moments"
- like walking through a blender
- day is shredded to bits
- pockets in between meetings, calls
how did we get here?
- what changed / what didn't
- nature of work has radically shifted (picture)
- not bad things, but things have changed without thinking of impact
- human brains have not changed
- operating in a modern world with ancient bodies / minds
- no such thing as Adobe, it's a social construct
- only exists because of the people in it
we need to stop fighting our biology
- learning the principles of our own biology to use to our advantage
- feel more energetic, creative, less stressed, get more done in less time
- we will have more: time, focus, energy
- they are all scarce and finite
sustainable peak performance
- jargon? gotta unpack
- perform: the ability to efficiently and effectively execute
- peak: on the core of priorities, keenly aware
- what to do on a daily basis to push career / team forward
- sustainable: over the long term, year after year
today's overview
- sustainable peak performance index (SPPI) results
- from the group in the room
the good:
- spending enough time with family and friends (65%)
- awareness of peak performance hours (61%)
- mentally and physically at best, energetic and clear-headed
- exercise 3x / week (51%)
improvement:
- continouous inbox monitoring (83%)
- FOMO
- reative workflow (80%)
- what work is being thrown at you, opposed to what needs to be done
- feeling drained at the end of the day (75%)
- it is good to talk about, others are feeling this way
- difficulty focusing and managing distraction (71%)
internal meetings:
- (picture)
- could an email be sent instead
- think strongly about who needs to be there
distraction is #1 effectiveness killer
- productivity dipped 10 years ago, but was linearly increasing since the 50s
- smartphone's seem to be the culprit
- cognitive capacity vs phone location
- healthy high performing young adults
- go into a cognitive testing booth
- small rooms, all black, crappy desktop computer, sit with a mouse
- memory, attention
- once normally, then again with a prop cellphone face down in the room
- within eyesight near the computer, does not ring or vibrate
- is not their phone!
- the mere presence of a smartphone reduces brain power, even if it's not yours and evn if it's off
- every single test significant decrease, across the board
- how many phones are in meetings? how often are they on our person?
- help people finish what they need to finish so they can go home from work and have a personal life
- if working from home, only work at a designated work station, do not do personal tasks in that area
- same while at work, if thinking about personal life things at work, leave the work area and then come back when mentally ready
- human beings are pack animals, can come together and share information even with strangers
- cellphones are computers
- even when it is off, it is an indication of a connection to the outside world
- feelings of value tracked in metal
- our identity
- every time the phone vibrates you get dopamine
- you are valued enough to receive connection
- notifications were created to make apps sticky / addictive
- old apps didn't have this feature
- we begin to anticipate the notification, and it makes us dumber
- ask people to place phones away since it is lowering IQ
- at least you are not being made dumber by someone else's phone
- distracted brains vs undistracted brains
- took high performing young healthy folks
- split them based on distractability
- different cognitive tests, need to be paying attention difficult computations
- controlled for performance
- every individual is performing at 80% accuracy and kept them there
- more activity in brain scans means more distractible
- more brain is not always better
- use less brain to do the same things
- more efficient brains
- jeep vs prius driving model
- distractability can be untrained in 7-10 weeks
- do not allow yourself to be distracted
- brain anticipates distraction, begin to distract yourself
- impacts conginitive performance, cannot help other areas of brain being turned on
- open offices have caused a net decline in productivity
- constant noise, constant movement, all potentially relevant
- lowered immune systems
- hypothesis of open office was noble
- if you take walls down, people would collaborate more
- also MUCH cheaper in costs
- emails increased by 30% across the board
- people talking less, jammed into space together
- everyone walks around with headphones in, exceedingly difficult to focus
- we constantly scan the environment for lions, tigers, bears
- anything in visual field, especially when things are relevant to you
- salient noise
- can be more distracted at work office instead of at a random coffee office
- impacts stress levels fight distraction:
- turn off (almost) all notifications (most impactful)
- can set VIP notifications in outlook
- utilize noise-cancelling headphones
- music with words you do not understand, if has words
multitasking is physically impossible
- not physically possible, not a real thing
- we are focus machinesl
- multitask example (notebook needed)
- multitasking = context-switching
- there is a cost, called "switch-cost"
- brain goes through an off-boarding process to on-boarding process between the two tasks
- it adds up in time and energy, will fatigue you by end of day
- can add up to 2-3 hours a day
- does not feel good
- improve focus:
- schedule intentional times to focus on accomplishing a clear task (answering emails, Focus Sprint)
- meditation (attention regulation) training
- improvement over long run, it is a muscle that requires flexing
- will hurt in the beggining, will be sore, frustrating
- will notice distraction, mind will wander, redirect and it is like a bicep curl
- start with 5-10 minutes
- batch process email
- schedule office hours for impromput interruptions
- other parts of the day will be inaccessable
focus sprint
- set aside a block of time
- body will prepare to do deep work if you place on a calendar
- schedule a call with "bob"
- write down with your hand on a piece of paper what you hope to accomplish
- break down into subtasks
- you cannot get feelings of accomplishment without well-defined goals
- "im going to make a sandwich", will get a dopamine release at the end
- turn off notifications, set a timer, GO!
- time-boxing works very well, even with children
- pomodoro technique, warn co-workers about doing this
the hours of the day are not equal
- periods of the day when we are at our best, others when we are not
- peak performance hours 2-3 hours physiologically at our best
- mentally clear and energetic
- energetic profile, rate yourself
- what gives rise to exceptional executive performance?
- executives and managers repoprt being 5x more productive during their peak performance hours
- most report being in this state of deep engagement less than 5%of the time
- claendar block your 2-3 peak performance hours for strategic, congnitively intensive, high-value work
- move meetings out from those hours
- know when you are not at your best, schedule less impactful meetings / emails
every decision you make depletes your energy
- parole vs meal time (picture)
- we are all susceptible to our biology
- less about meal time, more about decision fatigue
- every decision depletes will-power for next decision
- do a daily choice audit
- finite amount of choice energy
- run out of self-regulatory strength
- no more self-dicipline / willplower
- automate one decision
- same breakfast every day
- same route to work
we are not designed to run like machines
- ultradian rhythms (picture)
- stress hormones that dictate arousal and stress in the body
- will start to feel tired
- if you do not enter a break after 90 minutes, body and brain are not replenishing
- next peak will be lower and lower
- break
- body and brain cease to process
- walk, look at outdoors, use the restroom
- nutrition
- calendar based nutrition
- if outside of ideal blood glucose level, not peak performing
- eat too much if hungry
- small meals throughout the day, never feel hungry
- sugar pushes out of ideal range
- protein / healthy fats
- cutting sleep = drunkness
- loss of sleep is equivalent to drinking alcohol
- folks in hours of wakefulness group did not percieve their decrease in cognitiion
- brain goes into a different mode (child rearing)
- convinces you that you are fine (but you are not)
- when drung, are aware of it
- no not skip on sleep
- sleep at least 7 hours per not
- take periodic work breaks
- use caffeine strategically as opposed to first thing (couple hours after awake, then after lunch)
- maintain more stable blood glucose