Brighten the Place and Mix the Work
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Make the atmosphere ideal for your work. Grab a superload of work assignments fit for your assorted skills and alertness levels and finish them all, but beware of dangerous machines and sports. Compensate for sleeping too little. Even when you’re duller than last year’s penny, you should be abundantly useful.
Light and Music
Create your own work ambiance. Even something little, like posting your favorite pictures, can make a huge difference. Add music. Tune to taste. I played CDs as background. I didn’t choose drums just for a racket; I chose fun music, with energy I liked. Back rooms have powerful advantages.
Lighting should be more than bright. It should be very bright, especially when you need to be at your peak and well before. It helps your work.
Lights can stay on when you sleep briefly, although they won’t always wake you.
Driving, Sports, and Danger
Don’t plan on driving, operating machinery, doing dangerous work, or playing tight sports where bones collide. Your judgment will occasionally be impaired. One microsleep of less than a second is enough for a speed collision. Driving for hours gets boring and boredom induces sleep. Undersleep works only where you can compensate by how you structure your work and where you’re in control. For instance, I handled roughly a million and a half dollars because I checked our deposits a bit more.
Probably, taxpayers of Utah paid for too many accidents that were likely due to drivers falling asleep while driving. (Image credit.)
Too Little to Do
Get plenty to do. If you’re not given enough to do, go ye forth and pester, bug, and hassle. If still no one comes through with enough, go to the top, and don’t ask for permission (or threaten) to go there. Don’t wait for absolute turndowns; ask above before they happen. You have service you can perform.
Mix Task Priorities
Have enough work for every minute, but don’t overcommit yourself. If that sounds contradictory, do this: Get some back-burner projects. These are tasks you can do when there’s time, that no one will miss if not done very soon, but that will be useful if done well. Be self-directed and save other people time. Do critical priorities first. Do your back-burner projects whenever you have idle minutes.
Swap Tasks and Skills
Have several tasks you schedule yourself, so that you can switch between challenge and routine, between inventiveness and fun, according to your effectiveness levels. Alternate between your frames of mind. Swap skill sets that you use. Don’t wait for anyone to tell you to switch. Be sensitive to your needs and strengths and exchange as befits your moment. You’re responsible for results.
Deal with Sleep Shortage
Sleep deprivation is kind of like a disability. You deal with it. If you’re missing two legs, you find another way to get around. Same with the impairments from sleep shortage. If you don’t need a nap, work. Just don’t do what’s a bad idea at the moment. Take advantage of your strengths. You’re differently abled. Go produce value they’ll admire.
