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One thing leads to another, in this case a visit to Denver led to reading Josh Waitzkin’s The Art of Learning, which in turn led to reading Loehr and Schwartz The Power of Full Engagement.

Loehr and Schwartz describe how to maintain high energy (physical, spiritual, mental, etc) for purposes of personal and professional performance. The authors argue that time management is not our modern challenge, but energy management. To continuously recharge throughout the day, they recommend taking a short nap or other mental relaxation spell after every 90-120 minutes of hard mental work. I opted for the nap, naturally. In my case, a 10 minute nap. Other relaxation spells might include quiet meditation or a brisk walk.

So I set a 10-minute timer, lay down, and focus on my breathing to quickly clear my thoughts, relax, and get to sleep. Now I have never timed my to-sleep like this before, but it seems that after about 3-5 minutes, dreamlike images begin to float by, and I sort of consciously note that, hey, that was a weird dreamlike image (I must be getting close to sleep). By 7-8 minutes, I seem to be sleeping. At 10 minutes I can barely hear the timer go off.

I wonder what those dreamlike images are and where they come from? I swear they seem totally random and in no way connected to what I had been thinking, my deep knowledge (not) of my own subconscious notwithstanding.

Update 1: Yes, the 10 minute nap does seem to dispel the fog that sets in after a period of work. Your mileage may vary, but I expect to see good results from this over time. In some cases, after the nap, the day doesn’t seem to be the same one I lay down to. It seems like a different period of time, not contiguous in anything but the logical sense with the pre-nap period. Not sure what this effect is, but there seems to be something to it.

Update 2: If you are at work and cannot take the nap, close the door to your office and do 15 minutes of yoga to clear the mind and reset the body. The point is to develop a ritual resetting of your energy level. Work, recover, work, recover.

[tags]sleep,personal performance[/tags]