Just take a nap
Just imagine. It’s 3pm. You’re working at your desk like every day. Feeling a little bit tired, you yawn and stretch. You find it hard to focus on your work, and decide to get to the water fountain. On your way, you saw him. It never happened before. This guy is new in the company. You are shocked. He is sleeping on his desk.
Whoa, he even doesn’t get ashamed for this. He’s sleeping while the company is paying him to work. We’d better fire him, we would spare money for stuff that matters.
Would you react this way if you see someone taking a nap in the middle of the day? Well, it would be natural to think so. After all, he’s doing nothing useful while you are killing yourself at work.
Yeah, but are you 100% of your time productive, focused on your task, and at the maximum effectiveness you can all day along? Oh, really? Even when you get to the coffee machine with John and staying 15 minutes there just to rant against your boss? Even when you take secretly these 5 minutes to get on that travel website to see what’s there? Even when you take your smartphone to answer a message to your sweetie 10 times a day? Meh.
Let’s think about the benefits of taking a nap. Just a short nap. Let’s say 10 or 15 minutes. No need for more. Let’s think back to that afternoon. It was 3pm, you were tired, yawning, stretching, fighting against fatigue. You were rolling your eyes, getting up, doing three steps and get back to your seat. You were staring at your screen, forcing you to focus on your work. You were… just doing nothing productive, in fact. No more than the guy who was sleeping. But he, at least, was recovering energy.
After a nap, you get a boost of vitality. You get the benefit of living a second morning in the day. Just tell me, when are you the most efficient in the day? I bet this is between 10 and 11am. Or maybe early in the day, between 8 and 9am. There are few chances you tell me you’re at your maximum at 3pm. And that’s perfectly normal.
Have you ever heard about circadian rhythm? This is related to how full of energy you are at each hour of the day. Guess what? Naturally, human body get an energy fall between 2 and 3pm. Everybody. And that’s not directly related to what you’ve eaten for the lunch. That’s just related to genetics.
You may try to fight the fatigue with your fifth cup of coffee, but that won’t do miracle. The best way to replenish your energy is just sleeping a few minutes. After this nap, you’ll be at your 100% and I bet you’ll have completed as much work after two hours as if you were just fighting against fatigue. The bonus is you won’t leave your work completely exhausted on the evening. You’ll be just good, with the satisfaction to have been efficient and productive.
Come on, just take a nap!
