Welcome to Sunday Reads on Refocuser, a collection of weekly links from around the web to help you do incredible things.  These links span topics like creativity, performance, focus, exercise, nutrition, and positivity.  I’m posting this on Saturday this time to make sure email subscribers get this on Sunday.

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High-Performance Work and Life

Research shows that workaholism is related to many negative outcomes including burnout, job stress, work–life conflict, and decreased physical and mental health.

Checking your email too often is stressful.  There can be a significant reduction in stress when people check email less frequently.

Better posture equals less stress.  A recent study “found people who sat upright with straight shoulders coped better emotionally with a stressful task than people who were hunched over.”

Researchers compared 10 psychological strengths on their ability to predict goal attainment and the greatest changes in overall well-being using a sample of 755 people.  Which strengths won?  Curiosity and grit.

Should work be fulfilling?  If so, how do you find it?  Alain de Botton explains how in this great video (courtesy of http://ma.tt)

People who take more initiative at work have better relationships with their bosses, and a more positive outlook overall (link to 2010 study).  This relates to a tweet I saw recently: “Today you can catch up on email, go to meetings, or do real work.  Choose one.”

Leaders have to practice self-regulation and not let their emotions get the best of them, says Daniel Goleman.  Finding a state of “relaxed alertness” and deciding what you want to focus on can help you (and your team) recover more quickly from stress.

Sleeping for Focus

More on a topic that’s close to my heart: chronobiology. “Research into our internal body clocks—what’s called chronobiology—shows that people have naturally different sleep patterns and therefore work best at different times of the day.”  I covered this previously on Refocuser in How to Become a Morning Person.

The brain area which enables self-reflection is larger in lucid dreamers, which could mean they have greater ability to turn on self-reflection while awake.  I covered lucid dreaming several years back on Refocuser.

Research shows that pre-sleep alcohol acts as a sedative at first but ultimately will negatively affect overall sleep quality   So having a little scotch to help yourself fall asleep isn’t the best idea – you’d be better off managing your stress in ways that don’t hit your performance the next day.

More on the process behind the assumption that all-nighters don’t work.  If you want to ace the test the next day, you’re better off studying less and sleeping more.

People who stay up late and get less sleep also have more repetitive negative thoughts and worry more than those who go to bed early.

High-Tech Help

Evernote is like having an extended brain; it’s where I do all my research, writing, and collecting.  This post explains how to add Evernote to your iOS Today screen.

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