4 Secrets of high performing teams./Eric Barker

4 Secrets Of High-Performing Teams (Click here to read on the blog) No doubt there’s a lot wrong with the modern workplace. Open-plan offices? It's like trying to work in the middle of a daycare. The cubicle? A solitary confinement cell decorated in dismal shades of practicality. And the meetings. Oh, the meetings. Time bends and distorts, leaving us trapped in an eternal now. The clock ticks so loudly you can hear the sound of your youth escaping. But this all pales in comparison to the challenge of work teams. Those glorious microcosms of corporate society, where people from different backgrounds, skill sets, and hygiene standards come together to accomplish the impossible: not murdering each other. You get to witness the full spectrum of human emotions, from "visibly hungover" to "quietly sobbing in the bathroom." So how do we improve teams at work? Research has answers. Ready to make those collaborative efforts a lot more productive – and maybe even enjoyable? Let’s get to it... Creating A Team... Or Maybe You Shouldn’t. In the modern workplace, assembling a team is the go-to solution for, well, everything. Need to change a lightbulb in the office? Form a team. Have to pick a brand of coffee? Team. There’s one question that needs to be asked more often: Do we really need a team for this? Teams are not always a great idea. Research validates what you’ve intuitively suspected – individuals become less productive once they’re part of a group. Studies frequently use words like “process loss” or even “collaborative inhibition.” According to University of North Carolina professor Bradley Staats, productivity per person can drop 40% even on a small team. How does this happen? Most of it comes from the energy wasted in email chains, organizing, logistics, etc. It's like planning an epic road trip but spending the whole time in the driveway arguing over the playlist. You waste more hours in meetings discussing what you're going to do rather than actually doing it. Everyone's so busy being a team player that they forgot to do the actual playing. As Po Bronson writes, “In studies of thousands of companies that have implemented teamwork, there’s no firm evidence that, on average, they make any more money, or are even more productive, after instituting a team-based structure.” So what if you really do need a team? It should be as small as possible to get the job done. Every person has to be able to develop a relationship with everyone else on the team. Small enough where you can actually remember everybody’s name without resorting to labeling them "Loud Guy," "Tall Lady," and "Emails Too Much." Bob Sutton, professor at Stanford University and author of “The Friction Project”, says once you get past 5 people, quality declines quickly. Overhead doesn't just expand; it explodes in a supernova of Outlook invites and PowerPoint. Every new team member is another email chain, another "quick catch-up call," another soul unwittingly drafted into the endless war on efficiency. Sometimes, the real team player is the one who avoids making a team in the first place. Okay, assuming the project does require a team, how do you make the group more effective? Believe it or not, 90% of a team’s fate is determined before they ever start working... Team Effectiveness J. Richard Hackman of Harvard studied teams ranging from airplane cockpits to symphony orchestras. What did he find? He calls it the “60/30/10 Rule.” 60 percent of a team’s success is “Who’s on the team?” 30 percent is how you organize it. And 10 percent, at most, is leadership. If you make clear what every member is responsible for, you get the most out of that 30 percent. The number one easy thing you can do to improve a team’s performance is to clarify roles. But the biggest issue is that 60%. And that means having A-players. You know the type. They don't just meet deadlines; they make deadlines sit in the corner and think about what they've done. They're the ones bringing a knife to a gunfight and still winning. Their passion for Excel borders on the erotic. Bow before their pivot table prowess. The difference between the best and worst workers is staggering. Psychologist Dean Keith Simonton, who studies top performers, found that in nearly all fields analyzed, the number of accomplishments by the top 10% will equal the number of accomplishments by the bottom 90% combined. Let that sink in. But let’s be real: you're not gonna have A-players. They're about as rare as a quiet child on a long-haul flight. You’re more likely to have coworkers whose very presence makes you question the existence of a higher power. So how do you find diamonds in the rough? We often think about the performance of individuals but we rarely consider context. How you do “Moneyball” for team members is by looking for the obviously bright people struggling in spots where they’re all but set up to fail. Those are the people you want to steal. Rescue these misfit toys from the Island of Unappreciated Talent and watch someone else’s C-player become your A-player. Okay, you have your crew. How do the best teams deal with one another? Team Interaction A study was done of over 350 employees in 60 business units at a financial services company, and guess what they found? The secret to a team's success lies in how the members feel about one another. Team members have to like each other. You know it makes a difference. But this can’t matter as much as having smart people, right? Wrong. What makes smart individuals is not what makes smart teams. Another study found that what makes sharp groups is not their average IQ but the average of their social skills. This effect is so powerful you can even quantify it. High-performance teams averaged 5.6 positive interactions for every negative one. And that may even be something of a human universal: what do happy marriages have in common? Yup: John Gottman found it was 5 positive interactions for every negative one. There’s an old saying that “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” And this turns out to be very true. Research shows team trust is not determined by an average of the members; it hovers at the level of the least trusted member. Now some are going to hear that and immediately think, “Oh, then we should get rid of all the negative people.” To which I say: WHOA, HOLD ON A SEC. Of course, you don’t want toxic people. But this constant corporate emphasis on everyone and everything being warm and fuzzy all the time needs to stop. Simply put: You need one team member who is not a team player. You need a disagreeable person. Not a jerk -- but somebody who says the honest thing that’s not going to be popular. Yes, you need them. Desperately. Without the Non-Team Player, your group is a ticking time bomb of unchallenged ideas. Without Captain Buzzkill over there, you're two steps away from group-hugging yourselves into oblivion. You need someone who’s willing to rock the boat. Someone willing to say, “This is ridiculous. We’re screwing up.” “Oh, you’re saying we need someone to play Devil’s Advocate.” No. Wrong. Bad. Studies show playing Devil’s Advocate only works when it’s sincere. Otherwise, it becomes just another box to check, and the feedback is ignored. You need the cranky person lurking in the corner with a raised eyebrow. They're here to throw a wrench in the gears of groupthink. While everyone else is patting each other on the back so hard they're performing the Heimlich maneuver, the Non-Team Player is busy saving you all from driving off the cliff of collective stupidity. And then we have that final 10% of Hackman’s equation: what makes a great team leader? Team Leadership What do you think the best leaders in the US Navy are like? You’re probably imagining Captain Granite-Jaw, a leader so tough he uses a cactus as a stress ball. He's the kind of guy who thinks that “team morale” is achieved by yelling louder. But that’s not the case. It’s more like Captain Cheerful -- the kind of officer who probably high-fives the dolphins. The Navy annually hands out prizes for efficiency and preparedness and they most frequently go to divisions with commanding officers that are supportive. Which squadrons rarely get the award? Those with leaders that are negative and controlling. And what’s the difference between a “manager” and a “leader” – other than the latter being a lot more popular in LinkedIn bios? John Kotter of Harvard found management is about consistency and order; leadership is about fulfilling human needs and creating change. Managers keep things running smoothly. Being a leader is much harder. It’s spending your day as an unlicensed therapist, navigating through an obstacle course of egos, insecurities, and the occasional emotional outburst. Being a leader is an informal role. In other words, you don’t need to wait for a promotion to be a leader, you just need the qualities of a leader. In fact, promotions don’t create leaders nearly as often as leadership creates promotions. What should you do to become a better leader? Three things: develop your people skills, grow your network, and have a future focus that sets a course for the group. That “setting a course” part is vital: “One study of more than five hundred professionals and managers in thirty companies found that unclear objectives became the biggest barrier to effective team performance.” This can sound daunting. It doesn’t need to be. A huge part of team leadership is merely creating the right environment. Do that well and a lot of things fall into place automatically. A good team environment has 3 parts: safety, vulnerability, purpose. Safety Alex Pentland at MIT says the thing that’s critical is “belonging cues.” Pentland found they were the number one predictor of team performance — more predictive than intelligence, skill or leadership. So make sure everyone is getting a chance to speak. That people are paying attention to one another and making eye contact. That body language is respectful and everyone feels heard. Vulnerability No, it’s not easy to be as open and raw as a daytime talk show guest. But making ourselves vulnerable builds connection and trust. And research by Jeff Polzer at Harvard shows there’s a vital other side to that as well — how team members respond to vulnerability. Admitting weakness is so powerful that it’s even done by the last group you’d ever expect to show vulnerability: Navy SEALs. After SEALs complete a mission they do what’s called an “After-Action Review.” And the words most encouraged in the meeting are: “I screwed that up.” By admitting weakness group members learn to trust, to be honest, and to ask for help. And by reviewing their mistakes they improve. Purpose Good leaders create a story: This is who we are. This is what we do. This is what we stand for. These are our goals. Might sound silly for a group that’s auditing insurance contracts but it can be the difference between team spirit and feeling like a loose group forced together by bureaucracy. Okay, we’ve covered a lot. Time to round it all up – and learn what it takes to inspire and motivate a team... Sum Up Here are the secrets of high-performing teams... Creating A Team. (Or Maybe You Shouldn’t.):Ask the unasked question: do you really need a team? And if you have more members than a 90’s boy band, you're in trouble. Every time a team is unnecessarily expanded, a productivity fairy dies. Team Effectiveness: 60 percent of a team’s success is “Who’s on the team?” 30 percent is clarifying roles. And 10 percent is leadership. So get A-Players. The difference between the best and worst performers is the difference between a firecracker and the Big Bang. Team Interaction: They need to like each other. Social skills, not average IQ, is what makes smart teams. And you need a disagreeable person. Somebody more Wednesday Addams than Mary Poppins. They might not be the hero you want, but they're the hero you need; the one who'll pull the emergency brake on the runaway train of groupthink. Team Leadership: Even in the Navy, the best squadrons are led by commanders who are less like Captain Bligh and more like Mr. Rogers. Create an environment with safety (Does everyone feel they can speak?), vulnerability (good old-fashioned emotional nudity) and purpose (“This is who we are. This is what we stand for.”) and you’re most of the way there. Research shows you inspire people by reminding them why their jobs are important. What positive effect are they having? Find a way to make this visible. Similarly, Teresa Amabile at Harvard found what really motivates people is a feeling of progress toward important goals. Like points in a video game or completed miles in a marathon, when we see we’re making progress, we keep going. Implement some of the above and it might be more than fear of living under a bridge that gets you moving at the office. When you’re working with a great team, every day feels like you've hit the jackpot in the lottery of office life. It’s less of a never-ending slog and more like a sitcom where everyone's quirky but lovable. You half expect a laugh track to play every time someone makes a joke in a meeting. You start to wonder if you're actually at work or if you've accidentally joined a cult... But it's a nice cult, with great dental and a 401(k) plan. ***If you are one of those lovely people who bought "Plays Well With Others" please leave a review on Amazon here. Thanks!*** Email Extras Findings from around the internet... + Want to know a cheap pill that can make you smarter? Click here. + Want to know the best way to brag in a job interview? Click here. + Want to know an underdiscussed thing that can make you more attractive? Click here. + Miss my prior post? Here you go: This Is How To Spend Your Money To Maximize Happiness. + Want to know a easy way to improve your relationship? Click here. + You read to the end of the email. Obviously, we make a great team. And thank you for perfectly executing your half of the project. Yes -- it's Crackerjack time: Sometimes we all feel weird, alone, or ashamed. Truth is, most of what we feel everyone deals with. It's reassuring to understand that we're not alone. So what are the most common things people are ashamed to tell their therapists -- that are actually very normal? For the answers, click here. Thanks for reading! Eric PS: If a friend forwarded this to you, you can sign up to get the weekly email yourself here.

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau:

In Canada's wilderness, only one spotted owl remains—a stark symbol of a crisis. [1] This heartbreaking reality is directly linked to your inaction to create a nation-wide nature protection law. This morning, a friend on behalf of the lone spotted owl took a message to your doorstep: "Nature is in crisis, and your words are empty without action. Pass a biodiversity protection law before the next Nature COP negotiations; the clock is ticking! "

The spotted owl's decline to a solitary individual in Canada is intricately tied to the absence of adequate measures, during almost a decade in power, from your Liberal government. But the spotted owl is not an isolated case: with over 2000 species at risk in Canada, current laws are failing nature. [2] We need legislation that holds the government accountable and ensures that Canada actually meets biodiversity targets, especially after chronic failures to deliver on previous ones. [3]

The plight of dwindling species like the spotted owl has not gone unnoticed: over 60,000 people across the country have raised a red flag by signing our petition calling for the swift passage of new nature legislation. [4] Today, alongside activists, volunteers, and supporters from every part of Canada, we are reminding you, prime minister Trudeau, that inaction is no longer an option. You need to hear us loud and clear and help to pass a strong Nature & Biodiversity Act before this year’s Convention on Biological Diversity negotiations in October. Will you help the spotted owl deliver her message to all government politicians on both sides of the political spectrum?

Yes, I will help the owl deliver her message.

Over a year ago, your government actually signed a global biodiversity agreement then committed to passing nature protection legislation to make it a reality here in Canada. The Liberal government recently reaffirmed that commitment at the end of 2023. [5, 6] But words upon words and “formal announcements” amount to blah blah blah as the clock keeps ticking. It’s time for real action from you AND YOUR GOVERNMENT PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU, not just words.

Urge your government to pass a law to protect nature.

If a lone spotted owl is a reminder of anything, it's this: we don't need to wait until species are on the brink to act. A strong nature protection law for Canada means preventing further losses. It's up to us to speak the words they cannot and bring those to the ears of our elected representatives.

Thank you for being a crucial part of this movement,   Léanne, Digital Campaigner, Greenpeace Canada

Sources: [1] ‘There’s Only One Spotted Owl Left in the Canadian Wild. Can She Be Saved?’, June 2 2023, The Walrus [2] ‘More than 2,000 wild species face a high risk of being wiped out in Canada, report warns’, November 30 2022, CBC [3] Report: Protecting Nature, Protecting Life, Greenpeace Canada, June 2022 [4] Petition: ‘Protect biodiversity in Canada: Urge Justin Trudeau to pass a law to protect nature before Nature COP this year’, Greenpeace Canada [5] Government of Canada takes action to restore and protect nature with commitment to introduce a nature accountability bill in 2024, Government of Canada, 9 Dec 2023 [6] Nature groups give high marks for Canada’s new commitment to a high ambition action plan to halt and reverse nature loss, Greenpeace Canada, 15 December 2022

This email was sent to: human4usbillions@gmail.com. You are receiving this email because you have signed up for the Greenpeace Canada mailing list.

Greenpeace, 33 Cecil Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1N1 Unsubscribe Manage preferences

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau.   Thank you for joining us in our campaign to urge the Canadian government to be a leader in ratifying the Global Ocean Treaty – you are officially an ocean protector    The ocean faces many threats – from overfishing to extractive deep sea mining to climate change – and signing the Treaty into law is the next crucial step to giving the oceans the break they need: the creation of Global Sanctuaries.

Here's what you can do now:   Please share this petition with your friends and family by clicking on the buttons below:

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Does money make you happy?

Barking Up The Wrong Tree January 22nd, 2024 Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my new book become a bestseller! To check it out, click here. This Is How To Spend Your Money To Maximize Happiness (Click here to read on the blog) Money can't buy happiness? Please. We all know that's just something rich people say to stop us from robbing them. Money might not buy lasting, profound joy, but it can undoubtedly rent some pretty good times. We all fantasize about the kind of happiness that comes with six zeroes, a gated community and a butler to iron your money for you. Even if vast wealth doesn’t buy happiness, it’s better to have a Birkin bag to keep your sadness in. But seriously -- can money really buy happiness? The latest research shows, yeah, more money = more happy… usually. The effect varies but there are some people who are rich and unhappy and more money doesn’t fix it for them. Plenty of things could contribute to the inconsistency but we’ll focus on one here that’s well established by the research, and something we can use: how you spend your money. Some things we buy make us very happy, other less so. We may not have limitless piles of green rectangles but we can all spend what we have in better ways to increase our joy. We’ll get scientific insight on the type of spending that increases smiles from the books “The Myths of Happiness” and “Happy Money”, along with the study, “If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It Right” by Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert. Let’s get to it... Buy Many Small Pleasures Versus Fewer Large Ones You save up for the big TV or the big vacation thinking, “Yes, I’ll take the Costco-sized bundle of joy, please.” But turns out the pleasure we get from these things has the shelf life of an open carton of milk. The research here is consistent: when it comes to happiness, frequency beats intensity. It's like someone finally looked at life's instruction manual and said, "Wait a minute, we've been assembling this happiness thing all wrong!" Small pleasures? They're the unsung, miniature heroes of joy. Why? We’re less likely to adapt and take for granted all these little things than we are the one, big rare event. Splurging on a string of small delights is like giving your mood a constant, gentle nudge upwards. Okay, you’re turning life into a series of mini-Christmas mornings. But what kind of stuff should you purchase? Buy Experiences Instead Of Stuff It's long been said that experiences are the spice of life, with material goods trailing behind like a bored sibling on a family road trip. This is true. When studied, 57% of people derived greater happiness from experiential purchases while only 34% got more joy from buying things. Why? We quickly take material goods for granted. Research shows this happens more slowly with experiences. Also, we anticipate and remember experiences more, savoring them for longer and squeezing more enjoyment from them. You share photos and stories from vacations. Do that with a 4K TV and you’ll seem insane. Now nobody’s saying you need to shun the material world like a monk with a trust fund. And there’s an exception worth noting here. Material purchases can make you very happy – if you turn them into experiences. Use that TV as the centerpiece for an awesome Super Bowl party, and you get better returns. If buying that new car means more roadtrips with friends, it might be an excellent happiness investment. This next one may sound uncomfortable, but you know it works... Delay Consumption, Increase Anticipation Planning a vacation is like scripting your own fairy tale. You're the star of your own travel show, where everything goes perfectly, you always look fantastic in photos, and the locals find your inability to pronounce street names endearing. The reality often involves sunburns, flight delays, and lost luggage. The vacation is still good, but it's no match for the blockbuster you directed in your head. In the dark comedy that is our pursuit of happiness, there's a twisted little truth: the joy of anticipation often eclipses the actual enjoyment of whatever we've spent our hard-earned money on. It's like our brains are the ultimate bait-and-switch artists, hyping up future pleasures only to shrug nonchalantly when they finally arrive. Study after study demonstrates this effect and we can extract two clear lessons: extend the anticipation period, and take more mini-vacations vs fewer big vacations. Simply put, structure your life so you’re always looking forward to something. This next one is often ignored... Consider The *Full* Effects of Your Purchases Maybe you want to buy a new TV. Oh, and it’s not just a TV; it’s a gateway to other worlds, a window into the lives of more attractive people with more interesting problems. You imagine a sleek, shiny behemoth of technology gracing your living room. But here's the kicker: that TV, as magnificent as it is, might just turn you into a hermit. Your social life dwindles to the point where your most meaningful conversation is with the pizza delivery guy, and even he's starting to look worried for you. The farther things are in the future, the more abstractly we view them. But we often do better when we consider how our purchases will affect our future use of time and day-to-day lives. The idea of going camping can inspire adventurous fantasies in the gorgeous wilderness. But a little self-awareness might tell you that the great outdoors, uh, is only great in theory. Because nothing beats spending a week pretending you’re homeless, fighting off insects, and discovering new, exciting ways to burn food over an open fire. Sleep on the ground outside? I can do that for free if I forget my keys after a night out. It's less “Walden” and more “Why am I doing this to myself?” Know thyself and think concretely about the future results of your purchase. (I prefer my wildlife in HD and my bathrooms not to be synonymous with “behind that large bush.”) Time for a tip that you don’t hear encouraged very often... Following The Crowd Can Be A Great Idea Sorry, you’re not always the unique snowflake you think you are. Popular things are often popular for a reasonand we do ourselves a disservice by ignoring what brings others pleasure. Study after study shows the best way to predict how much one person will like something is to see how much other people enjoyed it. Hardly shocking, but all too often we think we’re special, and that’s not the safe bet when it comes to happiness. Usually, the secret to happiness isn't in some esoteric, hard-to-find experience, but in the shared joy of humanity's greatest hits. But what about when we have a few choices in front of us? What’s a good litmus test to find the joy-optimizing option? Spend Money On Fundamental Feelings We spend a lot of money “keeping up with the Joneses.” Buying things to impress others. The research shows the happiness this brings isn’t very lasting. It's a never-ending cycle of "Look at me, I have things!" And let's be real, the only person who's actually paying attention to your new things is you, while you lie awake at night, wondering why your credit card bill looks like a phone number. The spending that really pays emotional dividends fulfills deep emotional needs like competence, relatedness, or autonomy. Pay money to develop a skill you’re passionate about. Or use that cash to buy a bunch of tacos and share them with your friends in the park. Or spend that money to get your life in order and feel like you’ve got control over your world. Speaking of autonomy, that leads us to our next insight... Buy Time Maybe money can't buy happiness, but it sure can outsource some misery. Working fewer hours or paying someone to handle errands can free up time for things that really make you happy. The key issue is how you spend that new free time. If you just watch mindless TV or scroll social media, the happiness benefits will be miniscule. But use that time for wiser activities and life can be grand. You can start picking up interesting hobbies like you’re an 18th-century aristocrat. Learn to play jazz, read classic literature, go Salsa dancing, take cooking classes. You attend operas and only fall asleep twice. You're turning into the most interesting person at any party, and you don't even have to exaggerate your hobbies anymore. Paying someone to clean your home can be a wiser purchase than a new computer. It's about embracing the fact that life is short, weekends are shorter, and you don't want to spend either wrestling with a vacuum cleaner. And our final tip is one that you don’t want to do but makes life so much more enjoyable... Make It A Treat Remember when a trip to the ice cream shop was a monumental event? Now, as an adult, you can stroll into any store and buy a tub of ice cream. You can eat it for breakfast if you want. But does it feel special? No. It feels like you're an adult who's given up. It’s the oldest lesson in the book: we want what we can’t have. And when we’re denied something for a while, we appreciate it so much more when we finally have it. This strategy turns every little joy into a mini celebration. You're not just living; you're an event planner for the exclusive party that is your life. Eating your favorite food is no longer just “Tuesday night dinner”; it's “I Haven't Had This In Ages And Oh My God I Missed It So Much”. Bingeing TV is fun but, as we discussed earlier, there’s a perverse fun in anticipating the next episode. Yeah, this might sound like an exercise in self-inflicted psychological torture or an adult version of the marshmallow test, but you know it works. It’s about finding that sweet spot where you appreciate the things you love by not overindulging in them. Okay, time to round it all up – and we’ll learn one more way that spending can boost smiles. And it may be the most important of them all... Sum Up Here’s how to spend your money to maximize happiness... Buy Many Small Pleasures Vs Fewer Large Ones: Don’t save up all year to buy one colossal, wallet-destroying item. Spread the cash around for lots of little boosts. Buy Experiences Instead Of More Stuff: More amusement parks and vacations. Fewer gadgets and TV’s. Delay Consumption, Increase Anticipation: Looking forward to something is often more satisfying than actually getting it. The anticipation, it turns out, was the main event. The actual product is just the merch you buy on the way out of the concert. Consider The *Full* Effects of Your Purchases: Going on a hot air balloon ride looks great on Instagram, but they don’t show the part where you’re praying to every deity you can think of because you’re essentially in a wicker basket 10,000 feet in the air with a giant flame above your head. Next time you're about to make a big purchase, consider the full picture. Following The Crowd Can Be A Great Idea: In our quest for happiness, we often forget a simple truth: looking at what makes others happy can be a cheat sheet for our own bliss. Spend Money On Fundamental Feelings: Forget the suburban gladiator arena known as "keeping up with the Joneses." Instead of status, buy competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Buy Time: The sweet paradox of modern living: we hustle for those almighty dollars, yet find ourselves too strapped for time to enjoy them. (And if you do want to inspire envy in others, lots of free time can have a far greater effect than money.) Make It A Treat: We're living in a world of instant gratification, where pleasures are as easy to come by as bad decisions at a high school reunion. So create artificial scarcity. It’s like playing hard to get with yourself. Suddenly, those simple pleasures become as tantalizing as a forbidden romance in a Victorian novel. You're about to splurge on the latest, shiniest thing you definitely don't need when suddenly, a wild idea appears: "What if I buy something for someone else?" It's a thought so alien, your brain almost files a restraining order against it. We're supposed to spend our hard-earned cash on other people? What is this, opposite day? Yes, research confirms the old saw: it’s better to give than to receive. A 2008 study found, “Although personal spending was unrelated to happiness, people who devoted more money to prosocial spending were happier, even after controlling for their income.” Why? Giving improves relationships and our relationships are the bedrock of happiness. And then there's the joy of watching them open that gift. It's like a real-life unboxing video, minus the monetization. They’re excited and you get to watch with the smug satisfaction of a cat who's just knocked a vase off a shelf. So go buy something for someone who is not you. Altruism is the express lane on the happiness highway. It’s like playing Santa Claus, but without the breaking and entering. ***If you are one of those lovely people who bought "Plays Well With Others" please leave a review on Amazon here. Thanks!*** Email Extras Findings from around the internet... + Want to know if "love languages" are real? Click here. + Want to learn how helpful those workplace wellness programs are? Click here. + Want to know a fun way to keep your brain young? Click here. + Miss my prior post? Here you go: This Is How To Keep Your Brain Sharp As You Age: 5 Secrets From Research. + Want to know which behaviors increase and decrease your social status? Click here. + You read to the end of the email. I don't know how you're spending your money, but I'm flattered you've spent that much time here. OH BOY, OH BOY, OH BOY -- it's Crackerjack time: The wise and wonderful Bob Sutton of Stanford has a new book out January 30th. If you're curious about leadership in the modern age, definitely check it out here. Thanks for reading! Eric PS: If a friend forwarded this to you, you can sign up to get the weekly email yourself here.

How To Get The Best Sleep Of Your Life: Six Secrets From Research/ By Eric Barker.

Sum Up

Here’s how to get the best sleep of your life:

• How much sleep do you need?: Aim for eight hours. Yes, sleep is a twisted game of freeze tag where you're “it” for an entire third of your life.
• Consistency: Want a blissful journey to the Land of Nod? Wake at the same time and go to bed at the same time every day. This is the single most important tip.
• Substances: Alcohol, sleeping pills, and caffeine all reduce sleep quality. Booze is the worst. Trying to perform at your best after a night of drinking is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, except the needle is also made of hay, and you're not entirely certain what a needle is.
• Light: I know, the digitally addicted Gollum inside your head is clutching your phone and whispering, "Precious. We needs it." Sorry. Avoid screens and darken your home before bed.
• Temperature: A room that’s a little chilly helps you pass out. You’ll sleep so hard you’ll wake up in positions the Kama Sutra doesn’t cover.
• Naps: There's nothing quite like the pure decadence of a fully clothed, middle-of-the-day, under-the-covers bed nap. That's right, full bed. Not messing around here. Keep it short so it doesn’t stop you from getting to sleep that night.