We finished our preliminary valuation of 300 Below around 4 PM yesterday and left work immediately afterwards to head back to the cabin. With the possible exception of Gabe (who doesn’t like to sleep during the day), we all crashed for a solid round of napping. It’s funny how easily sleep is cut out of the equation for a productive day. When the going gets busy, sleep is often the first to go. Throughout high school and college, pulling all-nighters seemed to be a competition of sorts.
“This week has been so brutal. I’ve only gotten 8 hours of sleep in the last three days.”
“Oh yeah? Well I just pulled two all-nighters in a row... I win!”
Granted, that is an exaggerated and extremely pathetic snapshot of college life today, but there was a subtle stigma attached to getting a full eight to nine hours of sleep a day. Because if you’re sleeping that much, you can’t possibly be working hard or making the most of your time.
But with those conversations on how little we sleep also come trading tips on how to fall asleep in class without the professor noticing, swapping tales of waking up from a nice nap to find yourself the center of attention (having snored, drooled, etc), and laughing over illegible notes that taper off to a squiggle.
Ironically, in all our calculations of productivity, the lack of productivity that results from little sleep is rarely factored in. When you’re handed the reins to a firm and made CEO for eight weeks, it’s hard to not want to hit the ground running and use up every second of your day to the fullest extent. But understanding our physical limitations and being able to view productivity from a long-term perspective is an important lesson to learn.
Looking around at the sleepy faces around the conference table yesterday, we consciously made the decision to put sleep back on the agenda.
“This week has been so brutal. I’ve only gotten 8 hours of sleep in the last three days.”
“Oh yeah? Well I just pulled two all-nighters in a row... I win!”
Granted, that is an exaggerated and extremely pathetic snapshot of college life today, but there was a subtle stigma attached to getting a full eight to nine hours of sleep a day. Because if you’re sleeping that much, you can’t possibly be working hard or making the most of your time.
But with those conversations on how little we sleep also come trading tips on how to fall asleep in class without the professor noticing, swapping tales of waking up from a nice nap to find yourself the center of attention (having snored, drooled, etc), and laughing over illegible notes that taper off to a squiggle.
Ironically, in all our calculations of productivity, the lack of productivity that results from little sleep is rarely factored in. When you’re handed the reins to a firm and made CEO for eight weeks, it’s hard to not want to hit the ground running and use up every second of your day to the fullest extent. But understanding our physical limitations and being able to view productivity from a long-term perspective is an important lesson to learn.
Looking around at the sleepy faces around the conference table yesterday, we consciously made the decision to put sleep back on the agenda.
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