Quiet time

Quiet time would be a designated part of the day in which engineers could work alone, confident that they would not be interrupted—because everyone else would be doing quiet work, too. The rest of the day would be available for “everything else.” Quiet time was set three days a week, from morning until noon. The engineers loved it. Some reported that their productivity had increased by as much as 65 percent.

Margaret Heffernan: Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes

Working eleven or more hours a day had at least doubled the risk of depression

Working eleven or more hours a day had at least doubled the risk of depression. Those working fifty-five hours a week or more began, in midlife, to suffer cognitive loss. Their performance was poorer when tested for vocabulary, reasoning, information processing, problem solving, creativity, and reaction times. Such mild cognitive impairment also predicted earlier dementia and death.

Margaret Heffernan: Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes

Tired and overwhelmed, we want problems to go away

It is common for a person experiencing fatigue to be more rigid in thinking, have greater difficulty responding to changing or abnormal circumstances, and take longer to reason correctly. Tired and overwhelmed, we want problems to go away—we don’t care how—because we lack the capacity to analyze or solve them.

Margaret Heffernan: Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes

Nobody stops to consider that exhausted brains might be the culprits

Working through the night is heroic; long hours are interpreted as commitment. When companies fail or big deals don’t deliver (mergers and acquisitions have a failure rate of 40 to 80 percent), nobody stops to consider that exhausted brains might be the culprits.

Margaret Heffernan: Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes

When we focus, we get better at concentrating

The more attention we try to pay to everything, the less discerning we become. But when we focus, we get better at concentrating—and remembering what we did. We feel less exhausted. So monotasking—focusing on one task at a time—isn’t only more efficient; it also leaves us better able to use the knowledge we have gained.

Margaret Heffernan: Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes

Whatever is retained is harder for the multitasker to recall

Those who consistently attempt multitasking find it harder to ignore irrelevant information and take longer moving between tasks—in other words, for all their frantic activity, they’re actually wasting time. And because the brain’s competing memory systems store information differently, whatever is retained is harder for the multitasker to recall. While these energetic minds might feel that they’re on top of the world of information, in reality they are at its mercy.

Margaret Heffernan: Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes