Welcome Professionals…

…deprivation of sleep is a common epidemic among top management consultants. We touched on that topic in issue TNF #004. Under the title “Get the most out of your sleep”, I argued that we must ensure the highest quality of our sleep, since we have little control over the quantity of sleep we get. Now guess what: Quality and quantity matter!

Our brain needs sleep, otherwise it cannot get rid of toxic by-products of our neural activity. For a comprehensive summary of negative side effects from sleep deprivation and some general advise to sleep more and better, I suggest the following article by Dr. Travis Bradberry: “Why sleep is key to success”.

In my blog post TNF #004 I already outlined some consultant-specific tips on raising the quality of our sleep. In this issue, I want to emphasize on quantity. For most of us, we need to sleep between 7 to 9 hours to be fully rested. There are actually only very few individuals who need less. I am not one of those and you most likely neither.

When we deprive our brain of our individually required level of rest, we will fall short on performance. If we want to work at the peak of our potential, we must ensure to get enough good sleep.

Here are some consultant-specific tips:

• Reduce daily commute, live near by the office and choose a hotel very close to the client location
• Consider traveling on Sunday night instead of Monday morning
• Learn to meditate in order to fall asleep quicker after work (not having to drink alcohol to cool down or use other substances)
• Streamline daily routines (body care, dressing, packing) to the minimum time
• Do your physical work out with bodyweight exercise to skip the gym (learn how in TNF #012)
• Among team mates and superiors, promote a high performance culture that relies on healthy lifestyle such as getting enough sleep

The last point is clearly the most difficult, but also the most important.

Have a good rest!

Malte

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