Statistics (thou shall not ask which one, just wanted to sound authentic...) show that sleep between work actually increases and improves productivity especially a short 10 minute nap. These are called power naps. Japanese or was it the Chinese? , well whoever it was, insist that this practice is a must in regular work schedule to keep things going. With the KT phase over and the project in the steady state, we work in shifts providing production support for our client’s test environment (shouldn’t it be test support then?!!!). Ever since talks of shifts and working in the nights were round the corner, I began bragging about how I can stay for almost 72 hours without a wink et al. I, being a li’l more nocturnal and active at that as well, than any of my team mates, was more than eager to get into the groove. When everyone else was whining and cribbing about the nights I was happily distributing the extra hours of daytime between gymming and driving lessons. All the sessions of time management came alive in front of me and I was frantically calculating how much of value addition I would be making at the end of the first month. Without much ado my first night shift began yesterday. My partner was a very chirpy, very lively girl who just didn’t seem to run out of topics to talk. So we managed to stay put on the vigil till about 12.00 am. Then I began to feel rumbles in my tummy. I have never been able to identify the feeling of hunger from an upset stomach or an aching stomach. So I assumed I was hungry as there was no reason for either of the other two. We do not have a round the clock pantry yet we had to feed me without which I might even die. So we set out , took the office cab to find one of those open-thru-the-night hangouts and got chowmein , got it back to our desks. And after a plate of hot chowmein especially when you were near about dead barely an hour ago, it is only natural and human to feel a wee bit drowsy. So I yielded to temptation. I slept, not in terms of a comfortable stretching sleep but just a small nap. After issuing my partner strict orders to wake me up in case the world came tumbling down, otherwise not to budge, I took my position between chairs , tilting the pedestal fan just about the right angle and ....ZZZZZZZZZ...
Suddenly, alarms went on. Someone was staring at me. I could actually feel the looks piercing through my tightly shut eyelids. And I woke up with a start only to return the amicable gaze of my APM with a nonchalant “Hi!” Little did I know that he had dropped in a while ago...(an hour and a half to be precise) to check if we girls were comfy enough... and he had been staring at me not exactly like the prince in Sleeping beauty but more or less the same way hoping I would rise and shine. And the rest my friends, is history....
And as history has it, that single power nap has kept me going for the last week and this week as well. It definitely works you know. I highly recommend it to all but you better have a good answer when in the lift your APM bids you good day, walks out n then as if struck by some invisible lightning comes back and remarks “That was some snoring big time!!!” The lift closes on you giving u enough time to choose between strangling the shit out of your partner for not waking you up and gathering the last iota of your wits in trying a disappearing act.
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