With the availability of twenty-four hour news cycles, social media postings, retail stores and restaurants people can go about their business day or night.
At first glance, one might see it as a benefit; on the other hand, it could be a deceptive puzzle piece to our own undoing.
Twenty-four seven access to people, places and things strains the very nature of operations.
There’s a term for this called diminishing returns.
It’s defined as an economic principle stating that as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, cannot continue to increase if other variables remain at a constant.
Imagine a retail store during the holidays, they have additional items to sell (within a limited period), so the products must be received, unpacked, coded and placed on the shelves.
The goal is to have availability of a product on the shelves to accelerate purchasing power.
According to the Law of Diminishing Returns, the more money you spend to meet the demand, the less return you have in profit (keeping the lights on, bringing in additional workers to meet the demand).
Quality Control is on the decline when running twenty-four hours, seven days a week.
What are your Hours of Operation?
How can you measure whether you’re being affected by the principle of Diminishing Returns?
It’s easy for me to recognize the law is in effect when I roll out of bed in the morning and frighten myself coming face to face with a mirror and resembling someone that’s been run over by a truck.
Trust me, it takes a village to reconstruct my appearance so I can give the first responders a sign that there’s no need to call in Lifeflight.
All kidding aside, just because the world turns around twenty-four seven, we are not programmed to follow suit.
According to Dr. Eric Olson of the Mayo Clinic, lack of sleep can make you sick. Olson notes, “…lack of sleep can affect your immune system.
Studies show that people who don’t get quality sleep or enough sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus. Lack of sleep can affect how fast you recover if you do get sick.
So, your body needs sleep to fight infectious diseases.
Long-term lack of sleep also increases your risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) disease.”
Another option of choice when resetting your Hours of Operation, is to set boundaries at home so outside interference such as cell phones, emails, and social media don’t bleed into your relaxation and sleep time.
They should come with an automatic warning message. What appears to be an escape outlet, ends up being a thief robbing whole blocks of your time.
If you recognize this as the sermon you preach to your children, be sure you practice what you preach.
In other words, quality of life goes hand and hand with quality of self-care.
