CoolTimeLife

Sleep: Our Most Underrated Productivity Tool – CoolTimeLife

How understanding sleep can improve your career. Sleep is often treated like a luxury: something we sacrifice in the name of productivity, responsiveness, and “being available.” But what if that thinking is exactly backward? In this episode of CoolTimeLife, I explore why sleep is the hidden engine behind clear thinking, emotional regulation, creativity, and effective leadership. From the myth of catching up on lost sleep to the real impact of late-night emails, stress, and screen time, we look at what healthy sleep actually does for the brain—and what happens when we don’t protect it. If you care about performance, decision-making, and sustainable success at work, this conversation starts at bedtime.Key Takeaways:Sleep is a biological necessity, not a lifestyle choice. Sleep powers clear thinking, emotional regulation, creativity, and decision-making. Treating it as optional undermines both health and performance.You can’t “catch up” on lost sleep. Sleep debt doesn’t work like a bank account. Interrupting sleep or running short during the week creates cognitive and emotional deficits that can’t be fully repaid on the weekend. Constant availability harms performance, not productivity. Late-night emails and always-on work culture reward exhaustion while quietly increasing errors, poor judgment, and burnout.Sleep is when the brain does its most important work. During sleep, the brain cleans itself, consolidates memories, regulates emotions, and connects ideas—making sleep essential for learning and creativity.Sleep quality is a leadership issue. Sleep-deprived leaders are perceived as less fair, less empathetic, and less effective. Protecting sleep improves not only personal performance, but team culture and sustainability.A full listing and descriptions of our episodes is available at https://cooltimelife.com.                                                                                If you're interested in supporting the CoolTimeLife podcast series, visit https://patreon.com/cooltimelife Connect with me and join the conversation at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenprentice/

Note: The material below is paraphrased from publicly available media stories. The original sources are cited in the URLs below each story.

Looking for work-life balance? How about sharing your job?

An article in Time magazine this week describes two senior marketing directors who work at Unilever, who have chosen to share a single job on alternate weeks. They each receive 60% of their original pay cheque, but state that they feel far more productive and the “light at the end of the tunnel” provides great relief. The article says that Ford is doing a similar thing, launching “a matchmaking tool to help employees find compatible people within the company with whom to job share.” and some police departments are looking to do the same.

The causes for this interest in shared jobs are many: the aftereffects of the 2020 pandemic, a desire for more time with family and less time commuting and a re-thinking of what work means and where and when it can happen.

(Time)

The four-day workweek grows in popularity

A similar story in the Vancouver Sun shows that the four-day workweek, an idea that has been floating around for decades, is becoming slightly more popular. It addresses the conundrum of how people can get the same amount of work done in 32 hours as they could in 40. Highlighted in the story is a report published by an organization called 4 Day Week Global that stated, “analyzed the outcomes of year-long pilot projects run by 41 companies in the United States and Canada. At the end of the year, 90 per cent of the companies planned to continue the four-day week, with the rest leaning toward continuing.”

(The Vancouver Sun)

Britons least likely to say work is important to them, world study finds

A joint study published by a number of UK-based work and governmental organizations, entitled the World Values Survey, included a piece that showed, “of 24 countries, the UK public are least likely to say work is important in their life and among the least likely to say work should always come first.” The countries for whom 99% of respondents said work was most important to them are the Philippines, Indonesia, and Nigeria. The US, Canada, Russia, and the UK occupied the lowest rankings, with 80%, 75%, 74% and 73% respectively. According to The Guardian, “The analysis was carried out as part of the World Values Survey (WVS), one of the largest and most widely used academic social surveys in the world, which has run since 1981.”

(The Guardian)

Treat yourself: one way people are finding back-to-the-office motivation

Writer Callum Borchers posted a piece in the Wall Street Journal on how people who are returning to the office are making that return a little easier by splurging. From buying a new car to survive the commute, to installing modular furniture in the office, to replacing earbuds with a vinyl record player, some employees are finding an opportunity – and presumably permission – to upgrade their surroundings. Ian Cain, co-founder of startup incubator Qubic Labs in Quincy, Mass., and owner of the record player says it’s more than just the music: “’To have somebody come into your office and pick out a record is an experience that you get to share, whether you’ve known them for five minutes or years,’ he said.”

(Wall Street Journal)

Late for your meeting? Zoom’s new ‘AI companion’ has your back

The video chat technology that everyone got to know during the pandemic, is putting AI to good use across the board in its platform, one service of which will allow latecomers to the meeting to quickly catch up by getting summary feedback from an AI module in the chat panel. Those who miss the entire meeting can access the recording of the meeting with highlights, smart chapters broken out, and auto-generated meeting summaries, but as CNET adds, “this is as long as the meeting host enables these features.” (CNET)

So anyway…

These are just some of the stories we found interesting about the workweek this week. If you like this, please consider subscribing to the CoolTimeLife podcast on your podcast platform of choice. We will continue to deliver useful information and insight for your busy working life. Be sure to leave your comments below – let’s have a conversation about what these stories mean to you. Look for another full-length episode of CoolTimeLife every Tuesday, and we’ll be back next Friday with another news roundup. Thanks for listening.