The key to efficiency: limit cereal choice, take a nap
Justin Fox, the admittedly harried editorial director at the Harvard Business Review Group, noticed that Robert C. Pozen, chairman emeritus of MFS Investment Management--he was chairman till July--never seemed frazzled, even though, on top of his work for MFS, he lectures at Harvard, serves on corporate boards, advises government agencies, and "does a prodigious amount of writing and speaking."
Here's a condensed version of what Fox found in his conversations and email exchanges with Pozen on the subject of efficiency. (No doubt you are too frazzled on this Friday to read the whole thing.)
1. Each night, Pozen reviews his schedule for the following day and makes a to-do list. (Usual GTD stuff.)
2. He wakes, showers, shaves and dresses in 15 minutes.
3. He limits himself to "five winter outfits and five summer outfits."
4. Every day, for breakfast, it's either Cheerios or Life and a banana.
5. Ditto for lunch: same sandwich each day, with a Diet Coke. ("And I obviously don't drink martinis ...")
6. In the afternoon, he takes a nap: "Just close the door, put up my feet and I am out like a light for almost exactly 30 minutes....I feel refreshed with a lot more energy for the rest of the day."
Another opinion leader endorses naps!
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