Do you sleep work?

Have you ever gone to bed wondering how you would solve a difficult problem and dreamt up the answer? Apparently you are not alone. A recent survey found that 51% of those surveyed dreamed about work and nearly 70% of those put those dreams into action.

I have always slept with a notebook and pen on my night stand so that I could write down what I thought up while not sleeping or dreamed about. It is interesting to me how many people apparently do the same.

This is of even more interest when you think about it in terms of the "work 40 hours" credo in Extreme Programming. (Really more of a manage your spikes in hours and avoid death marches but I digress). The core of the reason behind that is if you are well rested and fresh you do your best thinking and are best equipped to handle what gets thrown at you.

So next time you have a tricky problem to work out, think about it before bed, write it down as a checklist to complete (leave it on the paper so you can actually sleep) then dream up an answer. (Remember you are still limited by the fact that you won't sprout wings extra heads or anything along those lines so it is likely best to discard those dreams... in fact probably best not to talk about them either.)

Having forgotten my phone today and not having constant access to email made me remember an article I ran into and had to share. Several key things contribute to burn out but one of the major ones of today's business world is email. So here is a fun little exercise.

1. Think about the number of emails that you receive in a day...


2. Now think about your average response time to those emails...


3. Now think about how many of those emails are really critical, high value things that need immediate responses...

Scary isn't it? Recent findings even shown how the level of access provided by things like Blackberry's and other email devices actually make you dumber by as much as 10 IQ points with close to drug addiction levels.

To address this immediate brain drain one of the things suggested is to set aside specific times to answer emails. Don't let your email be a task list. There are emails that are urgent and there are ones that can wait. Prioritize.

How do you get work life balance?

I was reading through some blog posts and stumbled onto a presentation I wanted to share. Stuart Levine, author of "Cut to the Chase," provides a downloadable PDF manifesto entitled Reclaim Your Life: A Two-Week Challenge to Help You Regain Time It has 11 great tips on how to get to the point, and get the time you need to really make a difference. He starts with a quick review of work life balance and how it's easy to say and not so easy to do. Check it out... make the time.