A Great Day at the Office: 10 Simple Strategies for Maximizing Your Energy and Getting the Best Out of Yourself and Your Day
And I was very glad I did, because the impact this had on me was profound. My sense of wellbeing improved quickly and steadily to the extent that, within two weeks, I felt I had more energy than ever before in my adult life. However, the benefits did not end there, because just a few days into adopting my new diet, the itchy, red rash under my arms and on my torso that had plagued me on and off for many years disappeared (never to return).
Another happy side effect of my new diet was that the additional weight I’d acquired through six years’ worth of a pretty rubbish diet (I was a typical student, and no stranger to fast food like KFC, kebabs and Kronenbourg 1664 in those days) was shed in about six weeks. This happened, by the way, without hunger or deprivation, nor any increase in my activity levels. If you’re wondering what sort of dietary changes could possibly have led to this transformation in my energy, wellbeing and weight, all is revealed in Chapter 1.
So changed was I by all this that I ended up leaving the traditional career path I was on to devote myself to helping people take their health into their own hands using natural self-applied means. In the beginning, I was principally interested in dietary approaches, but quickly my interest expanded into other areas too, including sleep, activity, light exposure and psychology. I witnessed countless individuals liberate themselves from long-term health issues such as fatigue, anxiety and depression, weight issues, joint and muscle pain, skin conditions, digestive discomfort and headaches – and all without recourse to medication or conventional means.
But I discovered something else too: when individuals took approaches that addressed the underlying nature of their health issues (rather than merely treat their symptoms), not only would these issues often resolve, but they would usually experience benefits in terms of their energy, general wellbeing and mental functioning too. Many would report that they felt more mentally and physically alive than they had in years (just as I had).
I began to wonder if there existed people who, although not sick enough to be called truly sick, were not well enough to be called truly well either. Might many people be wandering around in a sub-par state as a result of lifestyle factors that could be simply rectified?
My curiosity was satisfied when, in 1996, I was asked to facilitate on a wellness programme for a global professional services firm. The delegates were senior members of the organization, almost all of whom suffered from the sorts of wellbeing and performance issues that I now realize are endemic in the corporate arena. Some simple, sustainable changes in areas such as diet, activity, psychology and sleep reaped significant dividends for them in terms of enhanced vitality and performance. The results from the early programmes were so good that the initiative was rolled out nationally and, subsequently, internationally. The programme became part of the culture of the organization and continues to run to this day.
Since the mid-1990s, I’ve been privileged to work with many different organizations in the UK and abroad. While there are certainly things that set businesses apart from each other, I have found the issues that this book addresses are common the world over and in all settings in which I have worked.
Uncommon Knowledge
If you read this book from cover to cover you will find in it many examples of information and advice that run counter to conventional opinion. You’ll discover, for instance, evidence that challenges the ideas that starchy carbohydrates are ideal for ensuring sustained energy, that saturated fat causes heart disease, that sunlight causes melanoma, that controlling cholesterol levels is inherently important, and that the key to losing weight is simply to ‘eat less and exercise more’.
While some of the concepts presented here may come as a surprise or even a shock, I will present the evidence that supports them (the numbers in the text refer to specific scientific studies that are listed at the back of the book). If it’s any consolation, every myth I explode in this book I previously believed myself. Only by taking nothing at face value (however seemingly credible the source) and going back to published research have I discovered that much of what is described as conventional ‘wisdom’ is anything but.
But, how could it be that we have managed to have been so misled about health – something that affects not just our lives, but our livelihoods? How do things so often get stated as fact, even though the facts don’t stack up at all?
A Great Day at the Office is not political or a polemic, but I do think it is worth bearing in mind that health information and advice can be influenced by economic and commercial concerns. Quite simply, there is often money to be made in misinformation (be it deliberate or unwitting). A classic example of this includes low-fat and cholesterol-reducing foods, for which there is not a scrap of evidence that they benefit health (see Chapter 1).
The commercial aspects of health advice can, unfortunately, have another unwanted side effect: they can keep useful and important information from our attention. Just as some erroneous ideas become popularized because there’s money in them, some highly valuable ideas and strategies may not get the attention they deserve because there isn’t.
For example, you’ll see that sunlight exposure, overall, is linked with significant health benefits and relative protection from many conditions including heart disease and several different forms of cancer. However, these facts are often drowned out by relentless stories about the supposed hazards of sunlight with regard to skin cancer. At the risk of sounding unduly cynical, could the explanation for this disparity be due, at least in part, to the fact that while sunlight is free, considerable commercial potential exists in sunlight protection (particularly sunscreens)? In Chapter 5, you can find evidence that suggests this is exactly how it is.
Other aspects of health that have limited potential for commercial exploitation and are therefore perhaps similarly neglected include certain breathing techniques, the impact of music on our mental state and performance, walking as an activity, and many of the tips that will help you get sound, restorative sleep. In fact, the great majority of the strategies contained in this book can be yours for little or no cost, but they have tremendous power to transform your health and efficiency.
Make It Easy on Yourself
For some of us, the idea of lifestyle adjustment and ‘being healthy’ conjures up images of restricted eating and exhausting and unsustainable exercise regimes. Relax: the recommendations in this book are not of that nature at all. For example, you will discover approaches that will enable you to be functionally fit and strong with relatively little effort and minimal time investment. You’ll also see how hunger actually jeopardizes weight loss, and also makes practically every aspect of life harder to boot.
Not only are the methods here generally easy and sustainable, many are downright enjoyable. You will see how some activities that you may have hitherto regarded as the height of indulgence and perhaps laziness, like getting an early night, taking a nap, listening to music, or snoozing in the sun, have the capacity to help you be fitter, healthier and more productive.
Sometimes, people imagine that putting even a little time and effort into their work–life balance and wellbeing just cuts into work time and detracts from their productivity. Let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. Each of the many strategies in this book is designed to optimize your energy and effectiveness in a way that ensures you are significantly more productive than you are right now. What you put in is likely to be returned to you many times over in terms of enhanced output and the satisfaction you derive from your job. The potential ‘return on investment’ of these strategies is enormous.
A Great Day at the Office is about how to incorporate some simple tips, tricks and tools in your life that will enable you to get more done more quickly, but with less effort – and who wouldn’t like that?
How to Use This Book
There’s a lot of information in A Great Day at the Office, and some parts will be inevitably more relevant to you than others. One way to approach this book, therefore, is to go first to the chapters that pique your interest. The short descriptions of each chapter in the next section are there to help guide you to the parts of the book that you feel you’ll get the most out of.
As you read, you’ll see that many of the areas covered interconnect. For example, what we eat can affect our sleep. Sleep can also be influenced by light exposure, and both of these can have an impact on our mood. Certain mood states can affect sleep, of course, and lack of sleep can actually drive hunger and food choices. And these are just a few examples.
I’ve added cross-references throughout the book, so starting in one place may point you to other information that perhaps had no special interest for you to begin with. However, if you have been led somewhere by the text, then the chances are you’ll find something useful for you there, so I suggest ‘going with it’.
Another approach, of course, is just to read the book from cover to cover. Even if you feel ‘sorted’ in a particular area, it would be unusual if you did not gain a tip or two in each chapter that could make all the difference.
Each chapter includes a summary in bullet-point form. These are designed to help you remember key learning points. If you like, you might return to these summaries from time to time so that they may serve as useful reminders.
Do bear in mind, though, that you do not need to do everything suggested in this book and get it all right to derive major benefits in terms of your energy and effectiveness. I recommend starting with the things that seem most relevant to you and that you feel inspired to act on. You could, if you wish, always add new strategies later.
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