Eat Sleep Work Repeat

Eat Sleep Work Repeat Plot Summary

Introduction

Have you ever found yourself staring at your computer screen, feeling drained, uninspired, and wondering where all your enthusiasm for your job disappeared to? You're not alone. In today's hyper-connected world, many of us are experiencing unprecedented levels of workplace stress and burnout, with studies showing that over 80% of American workers report job-related stress and two-fifths have quit positions to escape it. The modern workplace has evolved in ways that often work against our natural rhythms and creative capacities. We spend our days in meetings we don't need to attend, answering emails that could wait, and multitasking ourselves into exhaustion. But it doesn't have to be this way. Through evidence-based approaches and practical strategies, you can transform your relationship with work, reclaiming both joy and productivity. The path forward isn't about working harder or longer, but about working differently – creating environments where teams thrive, innovation flourishes, and people remember why they chose their careers in the first place.

Chapter 1: Embrace Monk Mode Mornings

At its core, Monk Mode Morning is about carving out distraction-free time at the start of your day for deep, focused work. This approach recognizes that our most cognitively demanding tasks require uninterrupted concentration - something increasingly rare in our notification-filled world. By dedicating the first hours of your day to meaningful work before meetings, emails, and workplace chatter begin, you create a sanctuary for your most important thinking. Cal Newport, writer and academic, coined the term "Monk Mode Morning" after observing a pattern among successful entrepreneurs. "I'm starting to see more entrepreneurs, especially CEOs of small startups, doing what I call the Monk Mode Morning," he explained. "As far as anyone is concerned, they're reachable starting at 11 a.m. or noon, and they never answer an email or phone call before then." Their entire organization adapts to this schedule, understanding that the morning is sacred deep-work time. This approach addresses a fundamental problem in modern offices. Open-plan workspaces, designed to foster collaboration, often create constant interruptions instead. Studies show that workers in open offices take significantly more sick days than those in smaller offices, and the average worker faces interruptions every three minutes. After each interruption, it can take up to eight minutes to regain concentration - meaning many of us never enter a true state of flow. Implementing Monk Mode Morning doesn't require corporate approval or major life changes. David Wilding, a professional with a two-hour commute, adapted the concept by taking a slightly later train when seats were available. During this journey, without WiFi, he found himself completing valuable deep work before arriving at the office. Though he wasn't physically present at 9:30 on his "late train" days, he arrived having accomplished more meaningful work than many colleagues who had been in the office for hours. To start your own practice, block out two mornings per week where you won't be available until 11 a.m. Inform your team in advance, turn off notifications, and create a comfortable environment for focus. Choose your most important projects for this time - the ones requiring your full cognitive capacity. You might work from home or find a quiet space in your office where interruptions are minimal. The beauty of Monk Mode Morning lies in its simplicity and effectiveness. By reclaiming just a few hours each week for your most important work, you'll likely find yourself feeling more accomplished, creative, and satisfied. The progress you make during these focused sessions creates a positive feedback loop that can transform your entire relationship with work.

Chapter 2: Master the Art of Walking Meetings

Walking meetings represent a powerful yet underutilized approach to workplace interaction that combines physical movement with mental stimulation. Instead of sitting in a stuffy conference room staring at the same walls, walking meetings take conversations outdoors, allowing participants to think more freely while enjoying the cognitive benefits of light physical activity. The concept is simple: replace seated meetings with walking ones whenever the discussion doesn't require visual aids or extensive note-taking. The science supporting walking meetings is compelling. Researchers Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz from Stanford University conducted experiments testing creativity under different conditions. Their findings were remarkable: walking led to a 60% increase in creative output compared to sitting. Even more interesting, 81% of participants generated more creative ideas while walking. This effect persisted even after they sat down again, suggesting that walking meetings can enhance creativity throughout your workday. Charles Dickens understood this intuitively long before modern science confirmed it. Despite being heroically prolific – writing fifteen novels and countless short stories – Dickens maintained a rigid schedule that included five hours of focused writing followed by a ten to twelve-mile walk. "I could not keep my health otherwise," he argued. The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard expressed a similar sentiment: "I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it." Chris Barez-Brown, who runs leadership training company Upping Your Elvis, has formalized this approach with a process called "Walk It Out." He sends pairs of people away for short walks where one person discusses a problem they're facing while the other listens. Though participants are often skeptical beforehand, they return enthusiastic about the results. "Half an hour later they come back saying, 'Wow, revelation! I'm so much clearer,'" Barez-Brown notes. The simple act of moving and talking without the constraints of formal meeting spaces allows people to reorganize their thoughts and present them with fresh perspective. To implement walking meetings effectively, start small by suggesting a walking one-on-one with a colleague who might be receptive to the idea. Acknowledge that the first few attempts might feel awkward, but commit to trying it several times. Different durations work for different purposes – Barez-Brown finds that even seven-and-a-half minute walks can be transformative for quick problem-solving, while longer walks of 30-45 minutes work well for more complex discussions. Walking meetings offer multiple benefits beyond creativity – they reduce the sedentary nature of office work, provide exposure to natural light, and often lead to more honest conversations as the side-by-side walking format removes the confrontational aspect of facing someone across a table. By making walking meetings part of your regular routine, you'll likely find both your thinking and your relationships at work improving in unexpected ways.

Chapter 3: Build Team Sync with Coffee Breaks

Coffee breaks represent far more than a simple pause in the workday – they're powerful catalysts for team cohesion and productivity. The strategic implementation of shared breaks creates what researchers call "team synchronization," a state where colleagues develop stronger bonds, communicate more effectively, and solve problems together more efficiently. Rather than viewing breaks as lost productivity, evidence shows they're essential investments in team performance. Ben Waber, CEO of workplace analytics company Humanyze, conducted a revealing experiment at a Bank of America call center that demonstrates this principle perfectly. Observing that call handlers typically took solitary breaks twice daily, his team made a simple change: colleagues would now take their fifteen-minute breaks together as a team. The results were dramatic. Not only did team cohesion improve by 18% (as expected), but stress levels fell by 19%, and most remarkably, productivity increased by 23%. This single change – taking breaks together instead of alone – produced an improvement equivalent to what the bank would expect from workers with ten years' additional experience. What happened during these breaks explains the transformation. When call handlers returned from solitary breaks, they carried the stress of difficult customer interactions back to their desks. But shared breaks allowed them to unburden themselves through conversation with colleagues who understood their challenges. "Oh, that happened to me. I answered with this." "I've had a call like that. Why don't you try this?" Through these casual exchanges, team members effectively coached each other, solving problems and developing better approaches. This phenomenon isn't unique to call centers. In Sweden, the cultural practice of "fika" – a coffee break that's more about connection than caffeine – has been institutionalized across workplaces. From Volvo manufacturing plants to small businesses, Swedes recognize that these breaks build the social fabric necessary for effective collaboration. As the IKEA website explains, "More than a coffee break, fika is a time to share, connect and relax with colleagues. Some of the best ideas and decisions happen at fika." To implement this approach in your own workplace, start by suggesting a regular team break two or three times a week. Choose a time when energy typically flags – often mid-morning or mid-afternoon. If possible, move away from workstations to a different environment, whether it's the office kitchen, a nearby coffee shop, or even a brief walk outside. Keep it voluntary but consistent, so people know when and where the break will happen. The power of shared breaks lies in their apparent simplicity masking profound benefits. As Ben Waber notes, "It's one of the most powerful things we've seen in terms of increasing productivity and decreasing stress." By creating space for natural human connection in the workday, you're not just making work more pleasant – you're building the foundations for a higher-performing, more resilient team.

Chapter 4: Create Psychological Safety Through Laughter

Psychological safety – the shared belief that team members can take interpersonal risks without fear of punishment – serves as the foundation for high-performing teams. While this concept might sound serious, one of the most powerful ways to cultivate it is surprisingly joyful: laughter. Shared humor creates an environment where people feel comfortable being themselves, voicing concerns, and contributing their best ideas. Dr. Robert Provine, a psychologist who dedicated years to studying laughter, discovered something counterintuitive through his research. After observing over a thousand "laughter episodes" in offices, he found that laughter rarely followed actual jokes or humor. Instead, it followed seemingly mundane remarks like "I'll see you guys later" or "We can handle this." Provine realized that laughter functions primarily as a social bonding mechanism – a human means to warm the room, lift the mood, and create connection. As he noted, "We tend to overlook the fact that laughter evolved because of its effect on others, not to improve our mood or health." This social synchronization through laughter explains why environments under tremendous pressure often develop distinctive humor cultures. Mark de Rond, an ethnographer who spent six weeks embedded in a field hospital in Afghanistan's Camp Bastion, observed 174 casualties in his first week alone, six of whom were dead on arrival. Despite this traumatic environment – or perhaps because of it – the medical team laughed together throughout the day. This dark humor served as what survival expert Laurence Gonzales calls a "de-escalating emotional response" that helps people move from the paralysis of fear to a more constructive state of mind. Professor Sophie Scott from University College London explains that laughter signals safety: "Rats stop laughing if they feel anxious. Humans do the same thing." When a team laughs together, it indicates they're not in an anxious state – they're in a good place psychologically. This is why teams with healthy laughter cultures typically demonstrate greater cohesion, trust, and creative problem-solving abilities. Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman noted that his most creative collaboration with partner Amos Tversky was characterized by continuous amusement: "Amos was always very funny, and in his presence I became funny as well, so we spent hours of solid work in continuous amusement." To nurture more laughter in your workplace, start by adopting what Provine calls a "laugh-ready attitude" – simply being more willing to see the humor in everyday situations. Create informal social gatherings where people can interact without the pressure of work deliverables. Celebrate team milestones with stories that highlight both achievements and amusing missteps along the way. Andy Puleston, former head of digital at BBC Radio 1, emphasized the importance of memorable send-off speeches that combined heartfelt appreciation with humor about the departing colleague's time with the team. Remember that fostering laughter isn't about forcing fun or mandating happiness – approaches that invariably backfire. Instead, it's about creating an environment where people feel safe enough to express joy, where mistakes are treated as learning opportunities rather than failures, and where human connection matters as much as professional accomplishment.

Chapter 5: Focus on One Thing at a Time

Singletasking – focusing completely on one activity before moving to another – represents a powerful antidote to the fragmented attention that characterizes modern work. While multitasking might feel productive, cognitive science reveals it dramatically reduces both the quality of our work and our enjoyment of it. By reclaiming our ability to focus deeply on individual tasks, we can transform both our productivity and our experience of work. Harvard researchers discovered a profound connection between mind-wandering and unhappiness. Using smartphone prompts to check what people were thinking and doing throughout the day, they found that for 46.9% of waking hours, people weren't focused on their current activity. This mental fog was strongly associated with reduced happiness – those most prone to distraction were 17.7% less happy than their more focused colleagues. As the researchers concluded, "A wandering mind is an unhappy mind." The impact of fragmented attention on work quality is equally significant. Software engineers working on five simultaneous projects lost approximately 75% of their productive time to mental context switching, leaving just 5% of attention for each project. This helps explain why projects often take far longer than necessary and why workers feel perpetually behind despite long hours. As professor Sophie Leroy explains, "People need to stop thinking about one task to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet results indicate it is difficult for people to transition their attention away from an unfinished task." Teresa Amabile, who tracked office workers' daily routines through work diaries, found that people feel most satisfied when they make clear progress on meaningful work. These moments of satisfaction typically come during periods of uninterrupted focus – what psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi calls "flow." As one study participant noted, "The event of the day was that I was able to concentrate on the project at hand without interruptions. There were so many interruptions for chit-chat that I couldn't get any decent work accomplished. I eventually had to go work very quietly in another room to get some of it done." To reclaim your focus, start by identifying your most important work – tasks that require deep thought or creative energy. Block specific time for these activities, ideally during your peak energy hours (typically morning for most people). During these focus sessions, implement protective measures: silence your phone, close email, use noise-canceling headphones if needed, and consider working in a different location if your usual workspace is distracting. For teams, consider establishing shared norms around focus time. Some organizations designate certain hours or days as "meeting-free" to ensure everyone has blocks of uninterrupted work time. Others use visual signals (like a small flag on a desk) to indicate when someone shouldn't be interrupted except for genuine emergencies. The paradox of singletasking is that by doing less simultaneously, you accomplish more overall. You also experience greater satisfaction and engagement with your work. In a workplace culture that often celebrates busyness over productivity, reclaiming your attention may require courage – but the benefits to both your work quality and wellbeing make it well worth the effort.

Chapter 6: Champion Diversity for Better Ideas

Diversity in teams – spanning backgrounds, perspectives, experiences, and thinking styles – serves as a powerful catalyst for innovation and problem-solving. While homogeneous groups might feel more comfortable, research consistently shows that diverse teams produce superior outcomes when psychological safety is present. This combination of varied viewpoints with an environment where everyone feels free to contribute creates the conditions for breakthrough thinking. A fascinating experiment conducted at several American fraternities illustrates this principle perfectly. Researchers presented groups of fraternity members with a murder mystery puzzle to solve. First, each student spent twenty minutes alone with evidence, then joined two other fraternity brothers to discuss the case. Five minutes into their discussion, either another member from the same fraternity or someone unknown to them joined to help. The results were striking: groups composed entirely of fraternity brothers enjoyed the experience more and felt more confident about their conclusions. However, the groups joined by an outsider were twice as likely to solve the mystery correctly – 60% versus just 29% for the homogeneous groups. This pattern appears consistently across domains. Psychologist Sam Sommers studied the impact of racial diversity on jury deliberations by creating mock juries of either all-white members or mixed racial composition, then showing them a video of a trial with a Black defendant. The diverse juries spent 11 minutes longer discussing the case, made fewer factual errors, and were 10% less likely to presume guilt before deliberation. The presence of different perspectives led to more thorough and accurate analysis of the evidence. These findings extend to workplace performance. A 2015 McKinsey study found that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry median, while those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to outperform. While correlation doesn't prove causation, the pattern is consistent across industries and geographies. To champion diversity effectively, start by examining your team's composition across multiple dimensions – not just visible differences like gender and ethnicity, but also educational backgrounds, thinking styles, and life experiences. During hiring, focus on expanding your candidate pool rather than lowering standards, as the latter approach can inadvertently reinforce stereotypes. For existing teams, create structures that ensure all voices are heard. This might include rotating meeting facilitation, implementing a "no-interruption" rule, or using written brainstorming techniques that prevent extroverts from dominating discussions. Be particularly attentive to whose ideas get implemented and credited – unconscious bias often appears in these moments. The philosopher John Stuart Mill captured the essence of diversity's value in 1848: "It is hardly possible to overrate the value of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar." In today's complex, rapidly changing world, diversity isn't just a moral imperative – it's a competitive advantage that allows teams to see possibilities others miss.

Chapter 7: Replace Presenting with Reading

The traditional PowerPoint presentation has become a staple of corporate life despite overwhelming evidence of its ineffectiveness. Meetings dominated by slides often favor confident speakers over thoughtful ideas, reward style over substance, and create passive audiences rather than engaged participants. A simple but powerful alternative pioneered by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos offers a refreshing approach: replace presenting with reading. At Amazon, every meeting begins with participants silently reading a thoroughly prepared document about the topic at hand. "We don't do PowerPoint presentations at Amazon," Bezos explained in a letter to shareholders. "Instead we write narratively structured six-page memos. It has real sentences, and verbs, and nouns—it's not just bullet points." These memos often take days or weeks to prepare and are never circulated in advance. "We read those memos, silently, during the meeting," Bezos says. "It's like a study hall. Everybody sits around the table, and we read silently, for usually about half an hour, however long it takes us to read the document. And then we discuss it." This approach might initially seem strange or uncomfortable – reminiscent of school exams rather than professional collaboration. However, the evidence for its effectiveness is compelling. A team from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Union College studying collective intelligence discovered that the most successful groups were characterized by equal participation from all members rather than domination by one or two voices. They described this pattern as "equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking." Traditional presentations privilege confident speakers and can intimidate quieter team members. The silent reading approach levels the playing field, ensuring everyone has absorbed the same information before discussion begins. It eliminates the common scenario where attendees pretend to follow along while actually checking email or half-listening. Since the memo isn't distributed beforehand, everyone engages with it simultaneously without preconceptions, creating a shared foundation for productive discussion. Amazon's silent reading approach also addresses another critical problem: the tendency for meetings to favor style over substance. Complex ideas require nuanced explanation that bullet points simply can't provide. By forcing the presenter to articulate their thinking fully in writing, the method eliminates the shortcut of impressive-looking slides that mask incomplete reasoning. To implement this approach, start with a single meeting as an experiment. Prepare a clear, detailed document (2-5 pages is typically sufficient) that presents the problem, relevant data, proposed solutions, and key questions. At the meeting, distribute copies and allow 15-30 minutes for silent reading. Then open the floor for discussion, asking specific questions to guide the conversation. While this method requires more preparation than throwing together a last-minute slide deck, it produces dramatically better outcomes. Teams make more informed decisions, quieter voices contribute valuable insights, and the quality of thinking improves. As Anita Williams Woolley, the lead researcher on collective intelligence, noted: "As long as everyone got a chance to talk, the team did well. But if only one person or a small group spoke all the time, the collective intelligence declined."

Summary

The modern workplace has been transformed by technology and shifting expectations, often leaving us disconnected from the joy and purpose that first drew us to our careers. The strategies explored throughout these chapters offer practical paths to reclaiming that sense of engagement – from carving out distraction-free time for deep work to embracing diversity and reimagining how meetings function. The research consistently shows that better work doesn't come from longer hours or constant connectivity, but from intentional practices that honor our cognitive and social needs. As author Bruce Daisley reminds us, "Our jobs—no matter what they are—can help give meaning to our lives. While we might be reluctant to profess our fondness for them, we should never be ashamed of feeling proud of being made happy by our work." The journey begins with a single step – choosing one practice from this book and implementing it this week. Whether you start with a walking meeting, a team coffee break, or a notification-free morning, each small change builds momentum toward a more fulfilling and productive work life. The path to joy at work isn't found in grand transformations but in these daily choices that gradually reshape our experience of professional life.

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Bruce Daisley

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