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How to resolve AdBlock issue? Underperforming? Penelope Barr tells business leaders to ‘get enough sleep’ and ‘beware of burnout’
By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>
HOW MANY corporate executives are there who are not getting enough sleep? How many are just burnt out?
Careerpreneur Penelope Barr has the answer. Ms Barr, a startup founder, mentor, and advisor with 20-plus years expertise as a global innovation, technology, product, change and transformation executive, is in the business of leading individuals and teams to help them unlock opportunities to drive value. 
Ms Barr said she had embarked on this after realising that she had to change her work as a corporate executive five years ago. It was her last permanent role.
“I then started an idea I had many years before which I call 6-3-3,” Ms Barr told Talking Business.
“So I basically work six months of the year in interim exec roles, three months of the year I create. So I write and I paint. And then three months of the year I rejuvenate so I travel and do my passion projects.
“And I also coach others in how to live like this.”
Ms Barr has just encapsulated this in her new book Win the Night to Win the Day.
Bringing ‘transitional rituals’ into the picture
As part of this coaching, she has what she calls ‘transition rituals’ which are based on 150 experiments.
“There is a range of ways I suggest that you can re-orient your days so that you can integrate rest, get more done, make sure you get into bed still feeling alive rather than rushing to the bed and one of those things is transition rituals,” Ms Barr said.
“Basically what that means is that if you think of your day as a component of energy spaces, how you move between things rather than rush through your day really helps your integrate rest more effectively, calm your nervous system and enable your to get more done.
“So I have transition rituals for each component of the day but the key thinking behind it is that if we just rush through our days and we don’t close anything as we go, we don’t take a few moments to say what do I need top take from that – what are the key actions I need to capture, what do I need to do or not do? – and then reset for the next thing that’s happening.
“It’s just amorphous and we end up being frazzled, exhausted and that can lead to burnout and not getting anything done.
“That’s where transition rituals come from and they stem from how I run my year.”
Planning makes the difference
So that means Penelope Barr plans in November and sets up the year so that she pops them into a calendar and sequences those. She then does quarterly planning, monthly planning, weekly planning, daily planning.
“All of those work in a loop,” Ms Barr said.
”It is the same that happens in my 6-3-3 days. I am constantly in a process of resetting, doing something, reflecting and then resetting again.”
In effect, she has compartmentalised her life.
To help execs get some sleep, Ms Barr is setting up the 10pm Club.
“One of the things that’s happening is that we, as a modern society, have forgotten that we need to sleep,” she said.
“For many of us, life is busy, there’s a range of digital distractions and more and more we are pushing our sleep time out further and further.
“The thinking behind the 10Pm club is that if you can get to bed ready for sleep by 10pm, if that suits your circadian rhythm, then you are giving yourself the best chance of 8-9 hours when most of us have to wake up early in the morning.
“Sleep is when all of our background functions happen, all of our memory storing, all of the processes that help us manage our health, our weight and our minds.” 
https://au.linkedin.com/in/penelopebarr
Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness
https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-16-interview-with-penelope-barr-from-penelo
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