HPR Evidence
Welcome to the HPR research library, where we are in the process of compiling peer-reviewed research studies and articles supporting each phase of our High Performance Routine.
Select one of the stages below to find relevant research papers, articles and tips.
Is the afternoon the best time to exercise?
This large study has 2 important findings:
This paper shows that the brain’s Default Network is causally linked to creative thinking….
LED lights have potential drawbacks on human health, particularly sleep quality, mood, productivity and long-term health effects.
We spend 15% of work in meetings, and managers spend as much as 50%. This interesting article from Ethan Mollick shares some ideas on how to have better meetings.
Sleep quality predicts day-level vigour. And: The benefits of good sleep quality decrease over the course of the day, particularly when workload is high
Sleeping between learning sessions reduces the amount of practice needed by 50%, and ensures better long-term retention.
Studies demonstrate that detachment from work as well as positive thinking improves subsequent affect, highlighting the causality underlying the association between psychological detachment from work – as a core recovery experience
Research shows that for every extra hour spent outdoors, you’re more likely to be happier, and to lower the likelihood of depression and antidepressant use.
Micro-breaks have a statistically significant effect on vigour and fatigue
Work related activities during leisure time have a negative impact on situational well-being.
Going for a walk in nature can help prevent against mental strain and potentially disease.
Disrupting your morning routine leads to higher levels of depletion and reduced calmness and work engagement.
Studies show that your morning mood can stay with you throughout the day.
A person who turns up to work in a “good” mood, can be more than 10% more productive throughout their work day than those in a “bad” mood.
Working parents experience better recovery when they psychologically distance themselves from work.
Lunchtime walks lead to better concentration and less fatigue in the afternoon.
Low social activity and absence of positive work reflection during the weekend are strong predictors of burnout and poor general well-being.
There is a strong positive relationship between the restorative properties of off-job activities and an employee’s work performance.
This study showed strong relations between sleep quality, occupational stress, fatigue, perseverative cognitions, and work motivation, which support effort-recovery theory.
Results of this study showed that participants who took part in a 1 day CBT workshop reported significantly lower levels of affective rumination and chronic fatigue at follow-up in comparison with individuals who did not attend the workshop.
Research states that social media usage negatively affects task performance and negatively affects happiness.
Light physical activity before the end of the workday is related to increased work focus.
Meditation changes the way the brain works.
This research found that even small doses of daily meditation can improve focus and performance.
Research findings show evidence for a positive effect of business planning on business performance, both for strategic planning and for individual level self-management strategies.
This research suggests that employees — from IT professionals to health care providers are interrupted from their work every 6 – 12 minutes.
In addition to deliberate practice, deliberate rest is also used by the “Top Performers” to increase their performance – an often overlooked element of this research by K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Romer.
Spending as little as 30 minutes in nature can improve your short term memory by as much as 20%, reduce mental fatigue and improve focus.
Spending as little as 10 minutes in a green or nature-filled setting reduced the effects of physical and mental stress.
Optimising recovery from work can restore energy and mental resources, which in turn could decrease the development of sleep disorders and cardiovascular disease.
Where sleep is restricted for more than four days, effects will be evident across a range of cognitive abilities, including working memory, attention, language skills and communication.
Being part of the always-on culture leads to higher stress levels, greater conflict, more distractions, and increased difficulty focusing.
55% of workers feel they can’t switch off from work (e.g. they feel pressure to check work emails or calls outside working hours).
Individuals who feel that they sufficiently recover during leisure time experience a higher level of work engagement during the subsequent work day.
This high level of work engagement in turn helps them in taking initiative and pursuing learning goals.
The findings of this study determine a positive relationship between business planning and performance.
By creating and sticking to a routine, cognitive resources aren’t wasted on small decisions, etc
Planning helps free up cognitive resources, which in turn helps identify priorities.
Recovering from work stress can restore energy and mental resources and decrease the development of fatigue, sleep disorders and cardiovascular disease.
Planning tends to up the chance of business success by between 10% and 20%.
Plans help generate agreement, surface assumptions, ensure things aren’t missed, and highlight potential dangers.
Studies consistently show that multitasking is inefficient.
Shifting between tasks can cost you up to 40% of productive time.
Rest can facilitate the consolidation of newly formed memories. Even a few minutes of rest with closed eyes can improve memory, perhaps to the same degree as a full night of sleep.
17 hours of sustained wakefulness, such as a long day in the office, has been shown to result in behavioural changes equivalent to drinking 2 glasses of wine.
After 24 hours, you may act as if you have drunk 4 glasses of wine. Diminished cognitive performance can have huge repercussions for professionals whose jobs demand critical attention to detail, such as surgeons, pilots, and drivers.
Poor quality sleep can result in bad leadership and an un-productive team.
It is associated with leader daily abusive behaviours and ego depletion, which in turn affects work engagement and performance.
Worrying about their next workday during the evening, is associated with employees’ well-being even before employees are facing it.
A University of California study found that after each interruption it takes over 23 minutes to refocus.
Chronic multitaskers perform worse on core multitasking skills: memory management, cognitive filtering and task switching, likely due to their inability to filter irrelevant stimuli.
“ Pre-performance routines condition the mind to react well to pressure ,” explains Martin Turner, Sports Psychologist.
Olympic Gold medal winner Mo Farah, for example, listens to music, sleeps, drinks coffee, and then gets himself psyched up for the race prior to his performances. This routine helps him to stay in control of his mental state.
The way you spend your time right before a big performance will influence your chance of success.
Many of us go through periods when we have to work intense and long hours and get very little time for rest. While this kind of overwork is not ideal, there are undoubtedly situations in which it becomes a necessity or makes sense. Here are some practical tips for surviving and thriving.
This article talks about how to get through an extremely busy time at work.
Interruptions are a fact of organizational life and endlessly fragment our time and thus our attention. Our brains find it difficult to switch attention between tasks…
Mornings can feel tough…there are lots of things you can do to keep yourself energised, but you might find these tips helpful if you need to hype yourself up for a busy day….
According to a study the average office worker in the U.K. is productive for just two hours and 53 minutes.
How you start your day sets the tone for everything else – here are 3 ways to prepare your brain your brain and body for a busy day.