Friday, September 5, 2014

I can’t sleep…should I be more productive?


By: Scott Stein, VP of Client Services, Leonard & Finco Public Relations

 
I’m not sure why, but I’ve been having some trouble sleeping lately. I find that I wake up during the night and I’m wide awake. Then I came across a blog from marketing and public relations guru Peter Shankman on the very subject…“Five ways to turn occasional insomnia into productivity.”
Shankman’s five include:

  1. Listen to the other side of the world 
  2. Learn some new things  
  3.  Workout 
  4.  Meet new friends 
  5.  Handle annoying tasks

Let me tell you right off the top, I won’t be looking to do a workout when I wake up and can’t sleep during the night and probably won’t be heading out to meet new friends at 3 a.m.

But “listening to the other side of the world” holds some interest. In fact, my Instagram account includes a number of photographers from around the world and there are always some interesting posts that pop up while I’m sleeping or at least trying to sleep. Shankman suggests going on Twitter and looking for people who are currently tweeting using hashtags within your industry or other items of interest.

Shankman also suggests using this new free time to try out new things that might improve productivity, including checking out ProductHunt.com to “get the latest apps, programs and browser extensions to make you more productive.”

As for handling those annoying tasks, we all know what they are; from cleaning out your inbox to filing papers to updating your checkbook log.

My hope, of course, is that, starting tonight, I’ll be able to sleep through the night. If that doesn’t happen, maybe I’ll try some of these suggestions.

How about you? Would you consider increasing productivity when you should be sleeping?

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