Adequate and consistent sleep will increase the value of your work far more than the extra hours you put in. It’s simple but powerful: we need to be at our best to perform our best—our true 100%. In fact, research shows that a single night of poor sleep can reduce productivity by up to 32%, according to world metrics.org.
It took me nine years of software development and countless jokes from my wife about being a “Zombie” to realize that sleep is one of the most effective tools in our toolkit.
We often believe that working longer hours boosts productivity. Why wouldn’t we, when managers, bosses, and even school seem to promote that idea? But what isn’t always taught is that your working hours don’t directly equate to the value you produce. You can be groggy all day not feeling your 100% and put 10 hours to complete something or you can have a good amount of consistent sleep everyday and complete the same thing in 5 because you feel good and it’s the best day to be alive.
You need to live well to work well and achieve great things, and that starts with consistent, quality sleep. Find the number of hours that works best for you—six, seven, eight? My magic number is exactly 7.5 hours. When I get that, I don’t feel like throwing my laptop out the window because I’m stuck on something as small as naming a variable while writing code.
Deliver great value by increasing your work hours, but deliver immense value by prioritizing sleep consistently.