If you were looking for some magical trick to get ahead, well I have it for you right here. It’s something we all do and have to do to survive and unfortunately most of us don’t do it enough. Sleep! Not enough sleep, especially after more than 1 night, leaves you tired, unable to concentrate, down, anxious and, eventually, way down the road leads to extremely poor health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and even heart issues. Forgetting the health issues though, let’s look at the other points and how that affects your work performance.
If you’re going to perform at your best at work every day and eventually grow your career you need to be fully functioning. In other words, you need to be able to concentrate and focus and the last thing you want to be doing is yawning all day. Here are some other things that can occur if you aren’t getting enough sleep, none of which are useful to getting through a work day or appearing ready to progress your career: Inability to focus and/or memory lapses, bad temper or being short with colleagues, inability to make clear decisions, added stress levels, moral or decision making impairment. Doesn’t sound productive, does it?
I’m not going to tell you how much sleep you need in your case, but even adults still require 8 hours of sleep on a consistent basis. Obviously if you have a new baby or perhaps other family issues, this will be difficult to get for periods of time, but speaking from someone (with a young family) who does get to sleep 8 hours a night, its achievable. Aside from the immediate benefits of better sleep on your work performance, looking after your health is important for any career growth. You need stamina to handle the rigors of increased stress and responsibility as you progress in your career, and it certainly helps to be on the top of your game when it comes to fitness.
So, go get some shut eye and position yourself to take your career and performance to new levels! There is nothing better you can do to help you perform and grow.