“Well, good morning everybody, and welcome to day 255,642 aboard the Axiom. As always, the weather is a balmy 72 degrees and sunny.”

The Captain, WALL-E

ALL CATALANS have constant jetlag. Barcelona time should be the same as London time. Go ahead, look at both cities on the world map. Indeed, Madrid is even further west on the solar longitude scale and west of the Greenwich Meridian. The country owes its present position in Central European Time to a political construct, and specifically the Spanish military dictator Francisco Franco. In 1940 he moved the clocks forward one hour in solidarity with Nazi Germany. For Spaniards still recovering from the devastation of the Civil War, complaining about the time was the last thing on their minds. So they continued to eat at the same time, and 1pm lunches became 2pm lunches, with 8pm dinners at 9pm. To this day, primetime TV is an unusually late hour for a European country. The working day finishes late and sleep-deprived children don’t get to bed early enough, since they wait up until their parents are home.

The American author John C. Maxwell said that “you will never change your life until you change something you do daily”. After reflecting on the patterns and rhythms that make up our lifelong learning journey in the last chapter, here we look at the patterns and rhythms of our daily life, allowing us to ground some of these bigger issues as we move towards the action part of Chief Wellbeing Officer.

We believe the professional day to be the key unit of analysis in understanding deeply our working lives. The de facto view in business is often on the business quarter or financial year, maybe even the five-year-plan, but the big picture and the bold aims and objectives contained within it are built on the success of the small stuff. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, looking at the biological and social patterns of our day will allow us to retain and nurture the human element that is required for workplace wellbeing. Yet what are some of the origins of daily labour within our life? Looking at a seminal moment in the First Industrial Revolution offers some insight.

Balancing work and life

The first nursery school in the world was founded in 1816 by a Welshman in a Scottish cotton mill, among a series of pioneering initiatives that improved working conditions and even workers’ diets. Robert Owen’s management of the New Lanark mills from the year 1800 transformed the lives of the 2,000 people who lived an worked there, including 500 children, at the same time as delivering commercial success. Though New Lanark is held up as one of the model cases of socialist utopianism, some believe Owen acted as an enlightened capitalist, given his approach to balancing work and life for true progress in both areas. His approach to nursery education showcased such enlightenment: starting the day with dancing and singing, a classroom designed with high ceilings and natural sunlight, instruction outside when weather permitted, and a pedagogical focus on a world view and individual exploration are closer to innovative schools today rather than Victorian-era drudgery.

New Lanark became celebrated throughout Europe, and many leading royals, statesmen, and reformers visited the mills. In contrast with the normal working conditions of the day, they found a clean and healthy environment with a happy workforce that did not compromise a prosperous business. The work of Owen highlighted the human factor at a time when the First Industrial Revolution was treating people like machines. Rapid industrial progress resulted in the widespread adoption of a sun-up-to-sun-down workday, with many children foregoing their education to satisfy the demand for resources.

Owen first implemented a ten-hour day at the New Lanark mills and would later advocate an eight-hour workday as part of a balanced daily life that would include “eight hours’ labour, eight hours’ recreation, and eight hours’ rest”, and which would form the focus of the International Workers’ Day or Labour Day holiday on 1 May.

Figure 8.1. Robert Owen’s ‘Triple 8’

One of the first businesses in the United States to implement Owen’s eight-hour day was the Ford Motor Company. In 1914, it not only cut the standard workday to eight hours, but it also doubled its workers’ pay in the process. To the shock of many at the time, this resulted in a significant increase in productivity, and Ford’s profit margins doubled within two years of implementation. This encouraged other companies to adopt the shorter eight-hour workday as a standard for their employees.

So does Owen’s ‘Triple 8’ apply to work and life today? Most of us would clearly say no. Beyond merely considering the number of hours worked, and recognizing work as taking substantially more than eight hours per day, the additional lens is the manner in which our daily 24 hours unfolds. Long gone are the days during which labour, recreation, and rest would proceed in a serial fashion.

Though we may have moved significantly from the origins of the working day, many of the same challenges that existed at the dawn of the First Industrial Revolution are in play today, and will likely become more acute in the near future. The topic of work-life balance has been of particular interest, with the work-life integration term receiving attention. In a nutshell, employees have more flexibility in their workday, being able to leave at 4pm to watch their children’s school play, but can expect work demands to come out of the normal work hours also. Ruth Whippman on the The Pool blog[1] offered a refreshing, slightly cynical view:

“Somehow, all the ‘integrating’ only ever seems to flow in one direction… taking time off in the middle of the workday for a kid’s concert or a haircut never quite materializes. Instead, we answer emails crouching behind a bush, playing hide and seek with a four-year-old.”

This is why a Chief Wellbeing Officer is required to help navigate through an increasingly complex working environment, so that potentially valuable ideas like work-life integration don’t simply mean more work and less balance.

So what do you do every day?

So what about you? Have you reflected on your own work-life balance or integration? How do you spend the minutes and hours of your day? The following exercise is a worthwhile initial reflection.

Table 8.1. What is work anyway?

‘Work’ activity	Daily TIME spent on activity (Hours, minutes OR high-medium-low)	WHERE does it take place? (Office, park, home, commuting, long-haul travel, in the shower, etc.)
Meetings
Reading
Writing
Thinking
Planning
Emails
Anything else?

We often use this exercise in the context of the MOVE element of the Sustaining Executive Performance (SEP) programme, highlighting that quality work need not be confined to the sedentary office time that characterizes most workplaces, and which compromises both health and performance. AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong considered the key metric for his executives as ‘10% thinking time’. They had to formally commit to 10% of their weekly time as being dedicated to thinking. How much time do you spend thinking through tough problems? How much time are you spending on other, perhaps less value-added, activities?

A common takeaway from the above exercise is that people discover their best thinking occurs in places other than the office. We conclude that leaving the office to take a shower when confronted with a tough problem may be taking things a little far, but stress the importance of moving and giving ourselves permission that work, especially quality work, need not be sedentary office time.

Figure 8.2. Scenario storyboard for a typical busy professional

And how does this way of working manifest itself throughout the day? Based on our design-thinking experience, we ask people to map out their typical day on the template below. We stress the importance of noting the small actions, which they may feel incidental, but which can have large ramifications. How they spend the first minutes of their day, for example, or their last, can impact heavily on their productivity and wellbeing that morning or the quality of their sleep, respectively. How they move between the main locations of their day, and the time spent at the office and home. The timing of meals and of course the quantity of work, rest, and play. The level of balance or integration becomes clear, and though many may have lived such a reality for years, it is interesting to note how impactful it can be for them – with a common takeaway being that they have no time for themselves – when it is on the paper in front of them. Having it on paper tends to make it more real.

Figure 8.3. Your typical working day. Try it!

“I don’t have time!” is a frequent refrain in a modern-day professional life. Yet a reflection such as this will help you identify if you are spending the time you do have wisely. Perhaps change will include cutting away the unimportant tasks, delegating others, or simply finding a new time to do things so as to be more efficient. We have yet to find a case in our coaching work where a close look at the 168 hours available in a week does not offer the space to live a productive professional life that optimizes wellbeing. American author Laura Vanderkam tested her own limits as a working mother of four children in the New York Times article ‘The Busy Person’s Lies’. She logged over 17,000 half-hour blocks in a full year to analyse exactly how she was spending her time, finding that she was indeed busy, but that there was plenty of space also. She concluded there is no contradiction between a full life that also has space.

Your perfect productive day

Publications including Fast Company and BBC Future have looked at the topic of optimizing one’s day in recent years, including the timing of different activities. Social media is awash with productivity info-graphics and other list-laden clickbait articles, yet some of the better tips include:

1. Try free writing immediately upon waking for best creativity (before your inner critic fully wakens up).

2. Drink coffee a couple of hours after waking instead of straight away (we are naturally alert after waking, given the body’s release of cortisol which then dips a couple of hours later).

3. Do the hardest task of the day first when your energy and attention should be high.

4. Check emails in batches throughout the day, instead of being responsive to emails as you receive them.

5. Maximize the chances of your email being read by sending it between 10am and midday on weekdays.

6. Get away from your (uncluttered – keep it clean for better wellbeing) desk for lunch.

7. Call a loved one in the afternoon as an effective way of boosting your energy and mood.

8. Set priorities for the following day on the afternoon or evening before.

LINNAEUS FLOWER CLOCK, CARL LINNAEUS (1707-1780)

6am Spotted Cat’s Ear opens 7am African Marigold opens 8am Mouse Ear Hawkweed opens 9am Prickly Sowthistle closes 10am Common Nipple Wort closes 11am Star of Bethlehem opens 12pm Passion Flower opens

1pm Childing Pink closes 2pm Scarlet Pimpernel closes 3pm Hawkbit closes 4pm Small Bindweed closes 5pm White Water Lily closes 6pm Evening Primrose opens

It is hard to argue for the universality of all of the above, yet many are worthy of experimentation. Our coaching work includes the consideration of these and others within a process that includes personal reflection, and time and energy audits.

The circadian rhythm

A human-based view of work needs to consider our biology, especially if considering energy. Productivity is reflective of a machine-based view of the world, but we are not machines, and the circadian rhythm (the biological process at play each day of our lives) offers valuable lessons for optimum health, wellbeing, and performance.

Figure 8.4. Thinking about our daily rhythms

The origins of circadian rhythm science can be traced to the fields of chronobiology and chronobiochemistry. In particular, the German botanists who formed a leading school of thought in these areas in the early 20th century. The rhythms that were so evident in nature, dating back to concepts such as the Linnaeus flower clock from 1751, provided inspiration for looking at those same rhythms in ourselves, with much of that focus taking place in the medical field to tackle disease – including cancer.

We find it fascinating and illuminating to uncover the work of such pioneers so far in advance of today’s world of big data and the quantified self. Chronobiology, according to Professor Hugh Simpson is “the science of quantifying and investigating mechanisms of biological time structure, including the rhythmic manifestations of life”.[2] Rhythms with different frequencies are found at all levels of the biological system, from the ecosystem, group, and individual to even the organ, tissue, cell, and sub-cellular levels. Such patterns are critical to the survival of the matter in question, and some of these manifestations on a human level are surprising:

1. We are taller in the morning than in the evening (up to 2cm). Over the course of a day our cartilage compresses, mostly within our spinal column, as a result of our physical actions. Sleep allows everything to relax and fully decompress.

2. We are physically stronger later in the day. Most athletics world records are broken in the afternoon or evening, when body temperature is highest, blood pressure is lowest, and lung function is more efficient.

3. Our core temperature varies during the day, dipping towards bedtime. Taking a hot shower or bath before bed can aid sleep, and researchers believe that the natural dip in temperature when we get out provides an additional signal to the brain that it is time to go to sleep. Our lowest temperature occurs around 5am – does pulling the covers over in those pre-dawn hours sound familiar?

In all cases, our connection with the natural environment is key, with the energy and cycles of the sun dictating our own daily pattern – principally that we are awake during the day when the sun is shining, and asleep at night when the sun has set. Though fluctuating height, strength, and temperature may not have much of a direct impact on work and wellbeing, other daily patterns do, including mood and energy. For example, doctors have long been aware of the link between sleep, sunlight, and mood, with research showing earlier discharge of hospitalized bipolar patients who were assigned to rooms with views of the east – presumably because the early morning light had an antidepressant effect. Research published in Science, which analysed 509 million tweets, found users more likely to tweet upbeat, enthusiastic messages between 6am and 9am.[3] Having our circadian rhythms out of balance can have a variety of physiological and psychological effects. Research has shown long-term night-shift workers to have a series of health issues, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. The most common experience of this for many of us, certainly for the well-travelled business person, is jet-lag – essentially displacing our principal light-and-dark cycle. Physical tiredness and a lack of mental clarity may compromise performance and wellbeing, with cases even being found of severe depression. Many of the symptoms of jetlag are being replicated in our daily lives. Spending an excessive amount of time indoors without sufficient natural light during the day, followed by shining an excessive amount of digital devices into our heads at night, results in a constant ‘social jetlag’. The pineal gland, positioned between our eyes, secretes melatonin, the hormone necessary for healthy sleep towards bedtime (normally starting around 9pm) with the fading of the day. Shining light into the pineal gland at night can suppress the production of that melatonin.

Resetting our natural rhythm, and therefore improving wellbeing and the many benefits that result, doesn’t take long. Researchers from the University of Colorado found that a weekend of camping outdoors with no exposure to artificial light, reset the circadian rhythm, allowing the subjects to follow better sleep cycles on their return home.[4]

Many may be aware of the main energy fluctuations during a day as a result of our circadian rhythm; the siesta or nap zone in the mid-afternoon is now taken seriously at some leading companies who have installed nap-pods and rooms. The need to nap is not actually due to a large lunch (although it certainly can be compounded by one), but due to the fact that 3pm and 3am are the lowest energy points of our day. It’s no coincidence that most suicides occur just after 3am. Being aware of our higher energy states is just as important. How do you spend the pockets of time between 10am and midday, and 4pm and 6pm when we are at our most alert? Most business cultures and individual habits result in email and heavy administrative work taking up the first peak period and a home commute taking up the second. Try recording your own ‘energy audit’ over the course of a week. When do you feel most alert and when do you have your best ideas? Are you making the most of that time?

Research in different fields points to the impact of such daily fluctuations. On average, people are worse at processing new information, planning, and resisting distractions as the day progresses. Decision fatigue theory points to the lower quality of our decisions as the day advances, with good decisions also dependent on mealtimes and eating the right food. Have you ever had a ‘hangry’ child? What makes you think lack of food would have a different effect on an adult?

Ethics are also at the mercy of our biology. When energy is low, people are more likely to behave unethically with others, having a greater tendency to lie in the afternoon than in the evening. Researchers call this ‘psychological depletion’, reflecting our experience of being cognitively weaker as the day wears on.

Figure 8.5. Fluctuating levels of alertness through the day

The best version of ourselves, as we have mentioned at several points in Chief Wellbeing Officer, is therefore a highly attainable concept that depends on daily biological variables as well as bigger-picture thinking, including purpose. Understanding our biochemistry and chronotype analysis allows us to fine-tune this endeavour.

Understanding our biochemistry

We believe ourselves to be rational beings, acting on the logic of any given situation, yet research such as psychological depletion, noted above, says otherwise. We are also at the mercy of our body’s chemistry. Chemicals may rise and fall at different parts of the day in accordance with our circadian rhythm or as a result of different habitual actions, which helps to reinforce such habits. By understanding the processes at play we may better control such impulses when they arrive. The Stoic school of philosophy, which counted on high-profile proponents such as Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, often highlights how our impulses can derail our best intentions. An overview of the main chemicals in our working lives now follows.

Cortisol

Cortisol is the stress hormone which is produced naturally as part of our circadian rhythm. Levels peak shortly after waking, giving us the necessary ‘oomph’ to get going. Stress can be positive or negative – Canadian biochemist Hans Selye first defined two types of stress in 1936: eustress (good stress) and distress (bad stress). We need stress to learn and perform, and we also produce it in response to a perceived threat, as part of the ‘fight-or-flight’ mechanism. Once the alarm to release cortisol has been sounded, your body becomes mobilized and ready for action (supported also by the release of adrenaline, which increases heart rate and blood pressure). If there is no physical release of this fight-or-flight response – typical within a sedentary working environment, where threats are information-based and psychological – a build up of cortisol can cause a variety of physical and mental problems.

In our research we have found the benefits of simple coping mechanisms such as controlled diaphragmatic breathing. Fight-or-flight, the sympathetic part of our nervous system, characterizes many busy professionals who go through their days in a heightened state of arousal – responding to crises, eating poorly, taking stimulants, and being constantly online. We have used heart rate variability (HRV) analysis to show a return to the parasympathetic (or recovery) part of the nervous system.

Individual exercise to de-stress If you feel that ‘getting off the hamster wheel’ is required, try the following. Lie flat on your back in a quiet room, bend your knees and keep your feet flat on the floor. Place both hands on your belly and breathe in through your nose to the count of six (use a timer like the MyCalmBeat app). Aim to raise your hands as high as possible through focusing that inhalation on your belly. Exhale to the count of six through your mouth, lowering your hands and belly once again. Repeat for three minutes, after which you will have moved from fight-or-flight mode to rest-and-digest, feeling more relaxed and in control.

Figure 8.6. Controlled diaphragmatic breathing exercise

Serotonin

Serotonin is the wellbeing hormone and one of the key neurotransmitters – the chemical ‘messengers’ in our brain. It is responsible for the regulation of mood, aggression, appetite, and sleep. On an evolutionary level serotonin gave an organism good feelings towards its environment, and low levels of serotonin sparked dissatisfaction, urging the organism to relocate and/or change habits. Low serotonin levels result in increased appetite and vice versa. Depression, which is often caused by low serotonin levels, may lead to augmented food consumption, while exposure to light can increase serotonin.

Stanford marketing professor Baba Shiv highlights the importance of serotonin in decision-making, creativity, and leadership.[5] He values its role in providing a calm, relaxed state, as well as minimizing the negative effects of stress, believing it to support an opportunity-centric Type II mindset (as opposed to a Type I mindset that focuses on risk and failure). He highlights the decrease of serotonin throughout the day and also when we reach the age of 50, advising that organizations should design teams to include different ages in order to balance this. His principal recommendations come in the areas of exercise, diet, and sleep, which we covered in chapter six.

Dopamine

Dopamine is the reward hormone and plays a role in many forms of addiction, from drugs and food to modern-day addictions such as social media and smartphones. It is more than the pleasure chemical, a common misconception, as it represents the first part in the process, where reward is noticeable or better than expected. The brain is told to pay attention to the stimulant in question as it may be important for survival in the future, prioritizing it over older, more predictable rewards. Many researchers believe it is more about drug wanting than liking. The anticipation and unpredictability of the drug in question – say social media use through red bubble notifications – is therefore the main reason for persistent use in spite of negative consequences. The negative consequences of heroin or alcohol are of course well known, with greater understanding beginning to emerge on digital device addiction – compromised wellbeing being the main result. Social media designers play on the brain function associated with dopamine, with features such as notifications appearing after a short delay (likened by some as playing a slot machine) in order to maximize the brain’s anticipation and levels of dopamine.

Figure 8.7. Find your chemical balance[6]

Chronotype analysis

The chemical responses of our habits therefore personalize our circadian rhythm, with our individual chronotype adding to that personalisation. We either have a natural propensity to rise early in the day, meaning we prefer to go to sleep early (termed ‘lark’) or rise later, with the corresponding later time to go to bed (termed ‘owl’). The natural population distribution applies, so many of us will be neither a lark or an owl.

ARE YOU A LARK, AN OWL, OR NEITHER? (Adapted from the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire MEQ)
1. How’s your appetite in the first half hour after you wake up in the morning? (a) Very poor (b) Fairly poor (c) Fairly good (d) Very good 2. For the first half hour after you wake up in the morning, how do you feel? (a) Very sleepy (b) Fairly sleepy (c) Fairly alert (d) Very alert 3. You have no commitments the next day; at what time would you go to bed compared with your usual bedtime? (a) Seldom or never later (b) Less than one hour later (c) One to two hours later (d) More than two hours later
4. You are going to get fit. A friend suggests joining their fitness class between 7am and 8am. How do you think you’d perform? (a) Would be on good form (b) Would be on reasonable form (c) Would find it difficult (d) Would find it very difficult 5. At what time do you feel sleepy and need to go to bed? (a) 8-9pm (b) 9-10.15pm (c) 10.15pm-12.45am (d) 12.45-2am (e) 2-3am
6. If you went to bed at 11pm, how sleepy would you be? (a) Not at all sleepy (b) A little sleepy (c) Fairly sleepy (d) Very sleepy 7. One night you have to remain awake between 4am and 6am. You have no commitments the next day. Which suits you best? (a) Not go to bed until 6am (b) Nap before 4am and nap after 6am (c) Sleep before 4am and nap after 6am (d) Sleep before 4am and remain awake after 6am
8. Suppose you can choose your own work hours, but have to work five hours in the day. When would you like to start work? (a) Between midnight and 5am (b) 3-8am (c) 8-10am (d) 10am-2pm (e) 2-4pm (e) 4pm-midnight 9. At what time of day do you feel your best? (a) Midnight-5am (b) 5am-9am (c) 9am-11am (d) 11am-5pm (e) 5pm-10pm (f) 10pm-midnight 10. Do you think of yourself as a morning or evening person? (a) Morning type (b) More morning than evening (c) More evening than morning (d) Evening type
QUESTION SCORES 1. (a) [1] (b) [2] (c) [3] (d) [4] 2. (a) [1] (b) [2] (c) [3] (d) [4] 3. (a) [4] (b) [3] (c) [2] (d) [1] 4. (a) [4] (b) [3] (c) [2] (d) [1] 5. (a) [5] (b) [4] (c) [3] (d) [2] (e) [1] 6. (a) [0] (b) [2] (c) [3] (d) [5] 7. (a) [1] (b) [2] (c) [3] (d) [4] 8. (a) [1] (b) [5] (c) [4] (d) [3] (e) [2] (e) [1] 9. (a) [1] (b) [5] (c) [4] (d) [3] (e) [2] (f) [1] 10. (a) [6] (b) [4] (c) [2] (d) [0]
SCORING 8-12: Strong owl 13-20: Moderate owl 21-33: Neither owl nor lark	34-41: Moderate lark 42-46: Strong lark

So what did you get?

Strong or moderate owl

Owls have the hardest time fitting into the business and wider social convention of starting work early in the morning and getting to bed at a time that allows them to rise early, which is much easier for larks. For natural owls, gaining the maximum amount of sunlight (getting outside, even on a cloudy day, still makes a significant difference) during the first half of the day will help to ensure your natural ‘clock’ begins to wind down a little sooner each day.

Strong or moderate lark

Larks may experience difficulties coping with late-night activities such as business dinners, parties, or late-night deadlines. The same hack holds as for owls but in reverse – aim to stay indoors during the first half of the day and gain as much outdoor light exposure during the afternoon to improve alertness toward the second half of the day.

Neither owl nor lark

You could be right down the middle (most of us will be) or this could be the result of conditioning over many years of following the same schedule, even if this is non-optimal for you. Take an experimental approach; try and get a little more natural daylight during the day and take care with light at night. See what happens.

Paying greater attention to your natural light and dark cycles has many benefits for health, wellbeing, and performance, improved sleep being chief among them, with other research pointing to benefits for weight management. Artificial light does not give us the necessary effects, reaching an average of around 5,000 lux in the brightest office environment, with outdoor natural light in the region of 100,000 lux.

Understanding your own chronotype is useful, with value also in being able to empathize with other people. We have coached many executives who have a strong preference for one type, yet assuming the rest of their team has the same profile leads to inefficient meetings and poorly managed expectations. It is better to hold those key meetings when everyone is performing at their best. Think also about your home environment. Finding it difficult to have that important conversation with your partner early in the morning or late at night? Your chronotypes may be vastly different!

When does your team get their best ideas? Highest energy? A lark working a late schedule or an owl working an early schedule is a chronotype mismatch that can be problematic. Leaders should understand that employees are not being lazy or disinterested in the work, simply that their biology doesn’t support their working patterns.

Society tends to regard larks as hard-working conscientious types and owls as slightly work-shy mavericks. Such beliefs are a result of the societal structures we have built around the typical working day, which may be less prevalent as we move further into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Though a 24-7-hour society is not in everyone’s interests for optimal wellbeing, the 9-5 working pattern is surely loosening. By providing the right structure and designing the right teams – for example, by choosing people who are near their circadian peak at times in the day when you want that team to perform – we may impact greatly on business value and the wellbeing of individuals, since they will be well-matched to their working environment.

Jim Rohn, regarded my many as the pioneer of self-help management said that, “either you run the day or the day runs you”. Regardless of what you want from the day in question, understanding the main biological patterns will allow greater balance, productivity, and wellbeing, for you and your teams. We are all governed by such rhythms, yet are unique at the same time. We call this ‘circadian diagnostics’ and see it as a crucial step in fulfilling the vision of Chief Wellbeing Officer. Though the Spanish Government has started a consultation on the country’s timezone it could be that the political issues of late 2017 will again mean it is forgotten. Yet the awarding of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research on the circadian rhythm shows its great importance for our modern world. It is an area we believe will become even more significant as we move further into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.