Any of us who have ever been in school remember that stressed-out ”I MUST REMEMBER THIS” feeling. Now I am comforted to know that I may have been doing myself some good by triggering those thoughts. A group of German scientists recently published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing that certain activations in your brain (theta waves) actually do precede better recall. See the  Neurophilosophy blog for study design and details. But don’t stay up too late reading it — adequate, uninterrupted sleep is still crucial in laying down memories.

During World War II, Winston Churchill took nearly two hours to nap every day, even going so far as to get undressed and crawl under the covers. He insisted that his nap was essential, and allowed him to fit two days into every one.

Sleep is essential to stamina, and to good decision-making. And what better day to ponder these facts than National Nap Day? 

Having a little trouble justifying that extra sleep to others? If your most cheery disposition isn’t enough inducement, you could cite the NASA study showing its pilots improved their performance by 34% with just a 26-minute nap. Or if you’d like more entertainment with that same high data quality, spend a few minutes reading up on the benefits of sleep from Dr. John Medina, author of Brain Rules. 

And when is the best time for your nap? Generally 3pm will give you the most relief and largest performance boost, but any time is good. Zzzzzzzzz

“Elegance delivers the power to cut through the noise. It can shake markets. It can change minds, and mindsets.” 

– Matthew May, In Pursuit of Elegance, Why The Best Ideas Have Something Missing

Elegance is about what we leave out. The crucial pieces that enhance meaning with their absence.

A couple of days ago Garr Reynolds (Presentation Zen) Tweeted a link to Matt May‘s article on elegance.  

At branes we have a constant emphasis on the Peter Drucker truism that about 10% of efforts and resources usually generate about 90% of results. For our clients, and in our own work, we focus on redirecting resources devoted to the 90% of low-contributing efforts to high-contribution activities. In this piece May will draw you in with demonstrations of elegance and stories of lives and organizations changed because of it. In line with Peter Drucker, Jim Collins, Marshall Goldsmith and many others, May emphasizes that so much of success is about what we need to stop doing.

So stop what you’re doing just a little longer, and check it out.

In difficult times we see a lot of advice about what to do, and a lot of that involves setting goals to do whatever it is the author is advising. While goals can be inspiring and useful for managing the tactical day-to-day, they have a dark side too. A dark side we spend too little time talking about.

As crafters of even the most successful and sophisticated sales compensation plans can attest, even the most carefully thought out goals carry hidden imbalances and unintended consequences. Or as the authors of Goals Gone Wild, a recently-published Harvard Working Paper, put it, common dark side effects include, “a narrow focus that neglects non-goal areas, a rise in unethical behavior, distorted risk preferences, corrosion of organizational culture, and reduced intrinsic motivation.”

Like anything that gets out of balance, it’s common sense. Hammers work well on nails, but they’re not so great with screws, glue and more, and not everything can be fixed with nail. Implement with caution.