Lately, I've found myself struggling to focus for any length of time.  I get bored or distracted easily.  And I feel like I am not making much progress on anything.  Which makes me feel even worse.  What's going on?

For one, I'm not sleeping well, or at least as well or as long as I should.  That's because my dog has taken up residence in my bed.  And when I say "take up", I mean take up my whole side of the bed.  And she likes to get right up close to me, not her daddy.  And her body must generate 1000 watts of heat, causing me to wake up feeling like I'm having a hot flash (which is a whole other story) even though I know I'm not.

According to experts, we need between 8 and 9 hours of sleep a day.  That sleep should come in 90-minute cycles so we get the full effect of deep or dream sleep. That is the most restorative sleep we get.  When we don't get this amount of sleep, we lose mental focus and clarity.  Our emotional health suffers.  

For another, I'm trying to do many different things, and often find I forget to take breaks.  That's a problem, too. In his new book, "The Way We're Working Isn't Working",  Tony Schwartz says we should work in 90-minute pulses and take breaks in between.  And he is living proof it makes a difference.  His last book took more than a year to write even though he wrote from 12-14 hours a day.  His latest literacy achievement took only 6 months.  Now, that's impressive.

I'm going to try and think and work and sleep in 90-minute intervals and see if I feel better.  Let me know if you try it and how it works for you.