The 90-Minute Solution – Live like a Sprinter
Lessons Learned from SXSW
By: Brian Kearns | 03-21-2011
The SXSW (South by South West) conference I recently attended this year, for this first time visitor taught me some new and valuable personal life skill lessons. What is SXSW? SXSW is a set of interactive, Film, Music festivals and conferences held every spring in Austin, Texas, since 1987.
The interactive portion of the event this year had an attendance of nearly 20,000 people, up nearly 40% from 2010. Imagine this many geeks in one location filled with a wealth of information creating a poverty of attention.
It’s tough out there and our capacity to complete more tasks isn’t expanding but demand of our input, technology and focus is increasing at an alarming rate. We take our internal capacity for work and getting things done for granted. With demand exceeding our capacity, we must learn to convert our aptitude to do more work into greater energy and value the cultivation of energy from these four sources.
· Physical Energy (What gets you out of bed in the morning)
o Fitness, Nutrition, Sleep and Renewal
· Emotional Energy (How you Feel)
o Inspired, hopeful, self-confident and being positive
· Focus (What you are concentrating on today)
o Narrowed attention, limit distractions and reduced Interruptions
· Human Sprit (Clear sense of purpose
o Awareness, insight, understanding and judgment
o Something bigger than yourself
If you have all four of the above working in rhythmic harmony, than you are in good shape so what is the problem? Humans are not meant to operate at the same rate has our computers, running 10-12-14 hours straight without a break. The best way to get more work completed is a rhythmic method along with personal renewal.
How often should you renew, every 90 minutes using the Ultradian rhythm method, which are recurrent periods or cycles repeated throughout a 24-hour day. Great performers systematically renew their energy and research has found that focusing your energy 100% for 90 minutes increments followed by a mid-afternoon nap, run, walk or break is where the peak performers live.
Multi-tasking or moving between one task to another you are 25% less effective at everything. To substitute that lack of energy we end up looking for the quick fix with coffee and sugar, short-term energy but becomes toxic at it circulated thru our bodies. They also stimulate your heart rate, affect mood, behaviors and brain chemistry, which can compound stress.
Sleep is the most important value in our lives and you need between 7 to 8 Hours of sleep per day or you are prone to functional intoxicates. Go to sleep earlier if you can and begin to prepare for sleep 30 to 45 minutes before going to bed.
Quote from Richard Branson (founder of Virgin) when asked how to be more productive. His answer? “Working out”. He believes daily workouts give him an additional 4 hrs of extra productivity a day. Not only can this translate to more productivity at work, but also give you some additional energy after work for yard work or activities with your children or grandchildren.
90 Minutes is your magic number followed by a break, 90 minutes, break, 90 minutes + Sleep. The human body is hard-wired to pulse. To operate at our best, we need to renew our energy at 90-minute intervals – not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.
