Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King’s College London University, found the IQ of those trying to respond to messages and fulfill work obligations fell by 10 points. That IQ drop is equivalent to losing a night’s sleep or twice the drop seen by those who just smoked marijuana! If you don’t want to appear sleep-deprived or stoned, try these three steps to boost your IQ:
- Don’t respond to e-mails immediately. This will lower expectations of those who you communicate with regularly. If you typically respond in minutes then you are training all those around you that you will respond quickly to all e-mails.
- Break your day into chunks of time and only respond to e-mail during certain periods. Your brain needs a hiatus from disruptions in order to do deep thinking.
- Purchase a “Please Do Not Disturb” sign for everyone in your organization, so they can do uninterrupted work, too. Bear in mind that it can take as much as 15 minutes to comeback to focus after being interrupted.
If you want to appear as smart as you really are, restrict your messaging and interruptions. Add ten point back to your IQ.
