Sophanigans: March 2013

Hope everyone had the loveliest Spring Break! Spent mine at home in Chicagoland alternating between sleeping, eating, and catching up with the friends that happened to be home. Went to yoga classes with my Mama and took advantage of our March birthday coupons by doing some shopping. Wandered the city during and post-blizzard. The two weeks of awful that happened before break have been pretty much forgotten but now it's Monday...

This is kinda a delayed post (what's new?) but I've wanted to share an article that expresses some of my thoughts in a better and less rambly way than I am capable. Recently (as in a month ago), I ran across an opinion article in the New York Times titled "Relax! You'll Be More Productive". In a nutshell, the writer is claiming that you can be more productive by both doing less and increasing your energy. Here are some direct quotes/points from the article to give you an idea of what he talks about if you're too lazy/busy to read the article on your own:

A new and growing body of multidisciplinary research shows that strategic renewal - including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office and longer, more frequent vacations - boosts productivity, job performance and, of course, health.
Although many of us can't increase the working hours in the day, we can measurably increase our energy...Like time, energy is finite; but unlike time, it is renewable. Taking more time off is counterintuitive for most of us.
Spending more hours at work often leads to less time for sleep and insufficient sleep takes a substantial toll on performance...A recent Harvard study estimated that sleep deprivation costs American companies $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity.
Our basic idea is that the energy employees bring to their jobs is far more important in terms of the value of their work than is the number of hours they work. By managing energy more skillfully, it's possible to get more done, in less time, more sustainably...When we're renewing, we're truly renewing, so when we're working, we can really work.

The weeks before Spring Break were a mix of exams, cases, event-planning for my student organizations, and interviews. However, I've realized taking planned study breaks and working out have not only helped me become more efficient and productive but also kept me more relaxed and less stressed. Okay, that's basically it. Some examples of these study breaks include ice skating at Yost and eating with friends (see: my adventures at The Prickly Pear with The Coffee Breaker and Zingerman's with Shanghai Girl Eats).