Sleep-Exercise-Sun comes with no side effects as the variables involved are natural.
By Amit Mishra
Hyderabad: What do you call a process which makes a balance between all factors of production that will give the maximum output with the smallest effort? If you were living in the 1960s and ever bumped upon the writings of a gentleman named Peter Drucker, you would surmise nothing other than the notion of employee productivity being elicited here. But as times changed, the definition of employee productivity evolved to suit the colour of its times.
And if a movie buff in you ever chanced upon a flick that featured a struggling writer called Eddie Morra (played by Bradley Cooper) who unlocked the highest of human potential through a nootropic called NZT, you would ruminate on the idea of productivity very differently than the contemporaries of neo-classical management era. When the idea of employee productivity walks the lanes of the laity, it exudes a definition that simply means “the amount of work that an employee can do at a given amount of time”.
Science of Motivation
But the inherent simplicity of the definition hides the intricacies that the denotation holds, and that the productivity of an employee depends on a multitude of factors. Among the plethora of variables that makes an employee productive is the motivation level of the employee. The science of motivation validates that the monoamine neurotransmitter called Dopamine is essentially responsible for keeping our motivation level up to get work done or achieve a goal.
As we go a little deeper to understand the importance of hormonal balance in the stability of the body and the mind, we realise that there is another monoamine neurotransmitter that is responsible for stabilising our mood and controlling anxiety, called Serotonin. Similarly, we have a couple of other neurotransmitters like Norepinephrine, Glutamate, GABA, Endorphin whose optimal balance in our body is of paramount importance for the healthy functioning of our mind which eventually leads to enhancement of mood, mitigating anxiousness and increasing productivity at the workplace.
Work Stress
Today, we live at an age where employees experience stress and depression at work more than ever. According to Gallup’s 2021 survey, 57% of American and Canadian employees said they experience stress daily, an increase of eight percentage points from the previous year and higher than the global average of 43% (2020). In all the developed economies, there seems to be a rise in the usage of anti-depressants. In 2018, as per the NHS data, 70.9 million prescriptions for anti-depressants were prescribed in the UK, up from 36 million in 2008. Similarly, the United States has witnessed a spike in the use of anti-depressants in recent times.
We also have another category of people who use nootropics or smart drugs to enhance their cognitive performance and productivity, Just like Eddie Morra, from the movie Limitless, transformed his life with a miracle drug, likewise, people look for ways that could elevate their efficiency at work and help them feel better. The use of these smart drugs for non-medical reasons has exponentially risen among all age groups, and many use them to remain productive while turning a blind eye to the side effects that these drugs entail.
Promising Find
Among the clatter of the utility of smart drugs, there is a method that finds its significance in the promise of turning a dejected soul into a productive being. A recent research in the field of Sleep, Exercise (Workout), and exposure to Sunlight provides enough shreds of evidence to ensure that practising the method optimally leads to a higher level of productivity, heightened motivation, and stability of mind. The three variables of Sleep-Exercise-Sun are important for remaining healthy and living a productive lifestyle.
According to the Lancet research based on a survey of more than 4,00,000 Taiwanese citizens, just 15 minutes of moderate activity per day or 90 minutes per week — such as brisk walking — can add three years to your life. Not only does a workout of 15 minutes come with tonnes of health benefits, it also improves our mental well-being, lowers the effect of stress and helps in neural growth which leads to enhanced cognitive performance and higher productivity at the workplace. Exercise also causes the release of two important neurotransmitters called Endorphins and Dopamine which are responsible for making us feel good, energetic, and motivated.
The other important variable for higher productivity is quality sleep. Poor sleeping patterns affect the overall health of the individual and also plummets the efficacy of the work. A recent Gallup study inferred that an estimated 7% of American employee report sleeping poorly on a regular basis, and they report more than double the rate of unscheduled absences compared with non-sleep-deprived employees. Poor sleepers reported 2.29 days in a month of unexpected absences from work owing to illness, compared with 0.91 days for all other workers. Healthy sleeping patterns improve psychological well-being and lower stress and depression eventually leading to improved concentration and efficiency at the workplace.
The last and the most ignored, also deemed inconsequential by many, is exposure to Sunlight. In today’s age when people work remotely at their homes and have access to all the resources at the tip of their fingers they seldom get exposed to natural light.
Research corroborates that the brain releases more of the hormone called serotonin when exposed to sunlight. Serotonin has been linked to mood enhancement and, improvement in mental calmness and concentration. Exposure to an adequate amount of sunlight leads to the enhancement of cognitive functions, and it also alleviates depression and mental pain. A 5 to 15 minutes of natural light every day has several key benefits like it uplifts the mood, improves sleeping patterns and lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome.
Thus, for being productive, it is necessary to improve our sleeping patterns, work out adequately and get exposed to optimal sunlight on a daily basis. The three necessary variables not only help increase our effectiveness at work but also make our lives better. We at our research call it the S-E-S cycle as the processes have to be tried every day and repeated. No drug in the world can guarantee prolonged productivity without any adverse effects but the S-E-S comes with no side effects as the variables involved are natural.
Going back to the simple definition of getting things done at a given time, it’s evident that when the mind is at peace whatever work you touch upon will consequently be of high quality than the work of the mind which is stressed and distraught. Ergo, productivity can never be a result of an accident drug but of a planned lifestyle.
(The author is Academic Associate, Indian School of Business)