The need for quality sleep has been established as important in helping us process information, resting our overburdened minds from either hyper-focus or the juggling that incessant multitasking can become. Rest and work each have their own respective places in our lives as international citizen ambassadors or as global businesspeople. We know that sleep is a necessity, but in dealing globally, across various timezones, our sleep is becoming increasingly disrupted.
For example, if I live in Sacramento, California in the United States, and I want to conduct business in Kuala Lumpur, I must bear in mind that my KL counterpart is 16 hours ahead of me.
If I have an associate in London, that person might be five to six hours ahead of me.
Our diversely-situated global contacts and the differences in time zones worldwide (refer to THE GLOBAL FUTURIST Blog) have made conducting an international business enterprise into a 24 hour per day, 7 day per week affair. Many of us are either suffering from sleep deprivation or poor sleep quality. The effect is not unlike being on a constant watch or standby alert, and it fatigues us emotionally and judgmentally.
Persons trading in international securities, currencies, commodities and other assets either on overseas bourses and exchanges, or dealing in arbitrage between multiple markets in multiple geographical locations have the potential for a 24 hour, seven day non-stop work week.
Because of VoIP, Agile, Scrum, Citrix, Google, GTD enterprise solutions and a plethora of communications and collaboration solutions for decentralized organizations, the complexity and costliness of conducting global transactions has declined dramatically over these past ten years. However, this doesn't solve the problem of dealing with a contorted sleep schedule. Inadequate quality or quantity of sleep leads to perceptual distortions of circumstances, impaired business judgment, moodiness and a multitude of health problems, especially if this persists over a prolonged period of time.
Combine this 24 hour "on call" status/ feeling with the economic worries which many individuals, businesses, bankers and investment managers have (the poor and volatile global economy has disrupted sleep and has created a pandemic of insomnia), and we have a recipe for fiscal and physiological disaster.
Time management, realistic scheduling and predictability are the best ways of addressing this growing problem.
If I may offer a few suggestions for your consideration as Fellow Internationalists:
1) Take turns accommodating your overseas counterparts when it comes to scheduling conferencing times;
2) Try to fix established, regular times for conference calls, with periods of low energy activities in between them;
3) Conduct as much business as possible using communications and collaboration software and facilities instead of just engaging in ongoing, informal conversations;
4) Establish a clear agenda and time limit for each verbal communication - and adhere to them;
5) Appoint some person to be the communications liaison officer at each geographical location; this individual's responsibility is to keep his or here team (at their geological position) fully informed;
6) Have the minimum amount of "need-to-know" parties on any scheduled conversation;
7) Be certain to have at least 7 - 9 hours of sleep in every 24-hour period. This sleep should be in intervals of not less than 3 hours each, and should not be interrupted. The periods of sleep should be consistent from week to week (i.e., Monday's schedule is set, Tuesday's schedule is set, etc.). Develop a pace and a pattern to which your baody and mind can become attuned.
Lastly, try to reserve two days per week to have a full 8- to 9-hours of uninterrupted 'deep recovery' sleep.
In a global time working environment, you must create your own schedule, your own rules, your own rest times, and enforce them consistently. Develop a viable routine to survive and thrive through the rigors of international business and global markets.
Douglas E. Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]
The Internationalist Page
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