How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

YOUR “PIT STRATEGY”
All of this means we make better use of our mental energy if we carve out a little
time to recharge and reflect during the day, rather than pushing ourselves from
appointment to appointment without any breathing space in between.
There’s a car racing metaphor I find helpful when I’m trying to remind myself
to look up from my laptop and take a break. When I was a child, I visited the
maintenance pit of the famous Silverstone Formula One racetrack, and of course
it was fascinating to learn about the tire switches and refueling that mechanics
were able to do in just a few seconds. But what stayed with me most was the
idea that success was determined not only by the car’s speed on the track, but
also by the “pit strategy”—the race team’s scheduled pit stops. Each stop was a
tactical investment in performance, a deliberate slowing down, to enable the car
to speed up afterward. Pit stops are not wasted time—they’re an essential part of

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an efficient, well-planned race. And your brain is like that race car. Downtime is
as important to your work as every other part of your day, and you need to make
sure you get enough of that time throughout the day. Plan for it, protect it,
respect it.
Now, let’s get specific on the components of a good daily pit strategy: smart
breaks and reflection time.
SMART BREAKS
In the last chapter, I talked about zoning your day, by grouping together similar
types of tasks. Now, as you look at your schedule:
Plan to take a brief break between the different task “zones” in your day. For
example, if you’re spending an hour catching up on email, give yourself a
few minutes to stand up and clear your head before you jump into a meeting
or a spell of analytical or creative work.
Never let more than ninety minutes pass without doing something to refresh
your mind and body—if possible, by stretching your legs and getting a brief
change of scene.
Why do I suggest ninety minutes? Florida State psychologist K. Anders
Ericsson has spent years examining the characteristics and daily routines of deep
experts—including world-class athletes, chess players, and musicians—to
understand the patterns underpinning their elite performance. Ericsson found that
the highest performers typically work in focused blocks of ninety minutes, with
breaks in between.
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That rings true to me. In the last fifteen years, I’ve spent a lot of time
designing agendas for board meetings, and observing what happens when I
facilitate those sessions. Beyond the ninety-minute mark—sooner, if people are
coming into the meeting already tired—attention scatters and energy peters out.
If I ignore the need for a break, smartphones take control of the room as
everyone looks for a stimulus to wake up their weary brains. But I’ve found that
if I give people a fifteen-minute break at that point, they return full of resolve
and focus, making it possible for us to continue productively for another ninety
minutes.

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Anthony, our digital marketing expert, now makes sure to get up and have a
snack, a drink, or a short walk between tasks and meetings. The productivity
benefits are obvious to him—and to his colleagues. “It’s become a collective
thing in the office, to go for a walk and talk about things. We’ve decided it’s a
legitimate use of time because we often get so much done when we’ve had a
change of scenery.” Anthony is in no doubt about the processing his brain seems
to do when he steps away from a challenging task. “If I’m working hard on
something, and then I bugger off and go for a walk, I find I can ace it in thirty
minutes or less when I return. If I try to push straight through without a break, it
takes me much longer overall.” Anthony even has a name for the quietly
productive time he spends away from his tasks—he calls it his “liminal state,”
the state of being in-between. Result: more insight for less work.