Too much to read, too little time. (Too much span, too little filtering.)

Once upon a time I had 60 seconds to make my point on radio. Only 60 seconds, no more, no less. Sixty seconds translates to about 160 words, depending on how well I enunciated at speed.

Ten years later, no more radio submission, no more 60 second constraint. Instead, faced a blank screen capable of framing many more words than a measly 160.

It took me some time, I’m embarrassed to admit, to remember that quantity seldom equals quality. I wrote as if the bigger the heap of ore, the larger the cache of gold. I assumed the larger the quantity of nonsense, the greater the chance of reading some sense.

Which is why I am pruning my posts to be closer to that 60 second constraint.

(See what happens when I have no 60 second constraint? It took me 140 words to say “From now on I will send you shorter posts.”)

And what better why of introducing “I shrunk the newsletter” than with a piece about sleeping on the job? (Less reading, more snoozing. What’s not to like?)

Please sleep at work

Oh, these lazy, hazy days of summer. The perfect time to sleep at work. You’ve never done that? Not even while working from home?

Well, learn from me. In the good old days, back when I had a normal job, I often napped at work. (I used to lie under my desk, the one in my own office, the one with my own door.) I was a bachelor then, but that’s not why I needed sleep. Even back then I was wise enough to know that napping improved productivity.

Recent research backs up what I knew instinctively. Taking a nap does indeed increase your performance. It’s good for you and good for your employer.

But note this. Companies don’t need to spend money on frills like nap-rooms or sleep-pods to get the benefits. The only thing that is required is a change in attitude to sleeping on the job. Your manager’s attitude, if you are doing the napping; your attitude if you are the wakeful manager.

And also note this. People will always sleep on the job. It’s up to you whether they waste their creativity on napping surreptitiously for their own benefit. Or whether they focus their creativity for your benefit because you support napping at work.

Now be quiet. I’m zzzzoo… napping here.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.