‘I sleep three times a day’
Chris McCullough is CEO of RotaGeek, a tech business that sells scheduling software
I used to be an A&E [accident and emergency] doctor so I was regularly doing night shifts. In A&E it’s important you go to work rested because when you’re fatigued you make really bad decisions. I always slept as much as possible between shifts so I wasn’t tired.
But when I moved to startup life, I found the days were much less structured and it meant I started pushing things to extremes. I’d work for 24 hours straight, then have a catnap, and then work for another 12 hours, which clearly is really bad – it’s bad for your health and your decision-making capabilities.
I thought there must be more effective ways of sleeping and found polyphasic sleeping, which some interpret as sleeping in short, multiple blocks. I take a night’s worth of sleep (usually 6-8 hours) and break it up throughout the day.
Polyphasic sleep fits naturally into my life. I sleep three and a half hours at dusk, wake up and work through the night, and then take a short nap (usually one and a half hours) before work in the morning, and then take a 30 minute nap in the afternoon.
The afternoon nap has been tricky, so I don’t always get it in. But I have a sleeping bag, camping mat, earplugs and sleeping mask at work. However, it’s not terribly practical to sleep in the office during the day (and a bit antisocial). But we’re getting sleeping pods installed into the office soon.
I have seen great results from polyphasic sleeping – I’m more alert, make better decisions and I am less fatigued. I am sure this relates to our business success: we secured $2m (£1.6m) investment recently and are working with some great clients.
‘I started cave diving as often as possible’
Rune Sovndahl is the CEO of Fantastic Services, which offers domestic services in London
It started with a holiday to Egypt; I took the standard course for open water diving, then started learning more technical diving. It was a really good way to get away from work and switch off from the internet. That’s probably my number one reason for doing it actually – no internet.
Then on a holiday in Mexico, a guy at the dive centre told me about these [nearby] cenotes – holes in the ground where you can dive. I was hooked, and now fit cave diving in as much as I can; my favourite place in the UK is Stoney Cove in Leicester.
One of my favourite business books is called Great by Choice. In it, the author Jim Collins describes people who climb Mount Everest. While I couldn’t find climbing less attractive, it does have similarities to diving; both are about the preparation – you have to make sure that all your gear is in order.
At my company, we’ve grown organically and haven’t got outside funding, which is rare in tech startups. I look at the money we make as if it’s an oxygen tank. When I got into diving, the philosophy was the same. In business I ask, “Am I prepared enough to go to the next stage?” And in diving I ask “Am I prepared to go to that cave?”
‘We pick a small fight each day, rather than getting into a war each week’
Raissa and Joyce de Haas are twin sisters and co-founders of Double Dutch Drinks
My sister and I started the company about three years ago. We work together and live together, so are just together a lot. It used to be that at least once a week everything would explode and we’d get into a big fight. Sometimes we’d have massive arguments 10 minutes before we’d walk into a really important meeting together and would have to put ourselves back to normal in one minute.
Then we said to each other, it would be better to explain our feelings and get our frustrations out every day at 5pm, rather than having one big explosion every week. So far, it’s going really well, we’re definitely having less fights.
Our resolution might be good for other business partners as well, whether they are family or not. Every day say what you think, so you can get over it quickly.
Perhaps it’s easier because we’re sisters. We can also tell each other everything, but that might be one of the reasons we have the fights in the first place. Either way, it’s better than holding all your emotions in.
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