The No. 1 Brain Hack for Maximizing Productivity

BY Margaret Heffernan

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Being an entrepreneur does give you great flexibility--but most business owners work almost all the time. And that's worrying, because vast amounts of research show that prolonged overwork is unproductive at least--and destructive at worst.

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Working for 11 or more hours a day more than doubles the risk of depression and a loss in cognitive function. You may have difficulty finding the right words, thought processes and problem-solving abilities become impaired, you're slower to react, and the ability to be creative gets harder to retrieve. Executives who work three or more hours longer than a normal, seven-hour day run a 60% higher risk of heart-related problems.

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Engineers responsible for important machinery talk about asset integrity: maintaining and repairing vital equipment before it breaks. In the work that most of us do, that equipment is our brains. Seen from this perspective, it's every business owner's most precious asset. Doesn't that mean you should look after it?