

How Interval Training Can Make You Incredibly Efficient at Work - JumpCrisscross
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/how-interval-training-can-make-you-incredibly-efficient-at-work/?nl=business&emc=edit_dlbkpm_20130719

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waster
This matches my experience. I have multiple demands on me, perhaps more so
than many: multiple contracts, startup, founder/ED of a nonprofit that though
not fully launched still takes time from my schedule every day, multiple
creative projects, and some extremely unusual personal commitments that
require that I work in smaller chunks than most people do.

The net result is extreme productivity and focus when I am working, punctuated
with breaks that, while not always relaxing in nature, are completely
different than what I'm doing when I'm working. My last employer, before I
went solo, was stunned by my productivity. I'm not saying that to compliment
myself at all, but rather to underscore what I think is the extreme
effectiveness of this approach (I have found that if my use of this approach
falls off, my productivity falls off). Focus hard for what is basically a
sprint, and then do something else, ideally that you find relaxing. Then do it
all again.

It's a modification of the work hard/play hard philosophy: Work hard, play
hard, work hard, play hard, work hard, play hard....

