Nap your way to success

Asleep is the new awake ... Well-rested brains work better, studies have shown.

Getting a business off the ground is hard work. That’s part of why not everyone is cut out for the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

But Investor Pitch Clinic founder and former attorney Martin Soorjoo cautions that slogging it out for hours on end isn’t the only path to success for start-up founders.

In a blog post that highlights the Japanese phenomenon of ‘karoshi’ – that’s working yourself to death – Soorjoo points out a number of clinical findings that can help people in business stay at the top of their game.

Among them:

• Take regular breaks – Every 90 minutes, step away from the desk and go for a walk or listen to music. Studies have shown walking helps people think. “The objective is to change your physical and mental state,” Soorjoo writes.
• Ignore emails, phone calls and social media – Not all the time, just for key periods so you can improve focus and efficiency. Soorjoo points readers at another of his posts, ‘How social media destroys an entrepreneur’s ability to succeed’, which highlights Hewlett-Packard backed research that highlights how overexposure to information has the same affect as smoking two joints of marijuana.
• Take cap naps – Every afternoon have a 20-40 minute snooze to up your capacity to work effectively during the remainder of the day.
• Look after your body and your mind will follow – “Using nutrition as high octane fuel, exercise as a way to increase mental and physical performance capacity and rest to fully recharge,” Soorjoo says.

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