Jenny Collins was collating financial reports for a large retail chain and felt increasingly lethargic. True, the summer holidays had recently passed, and she was finding it a bit hard to re-engage with her seven year position.

"The budgets will be on us soon and my part is arduous and detailed," she said. Easily distracted by the banter of co-workers, 36 year old Jenny soldiered on through the morning with several coffee breaks, which set her back on deadline.

She downed a takeaway foccaccia, fretted that she looked 'frumpy' and struggled to keep awake in the afternoon. After this pattern continued for several weeks, Jenny felt the urge to doze and once dropped off for 30 seconds in the lavatory.

"It got so bad I had to put my head down on the desk, I literally couldn't keep my eyes open," she said.

Jenny's co-workers understood her need for a power nap but Jenny's boss, who hadn't been informed, walked past and was alarmed at the sight of his top financial assistant slumped over her papers.

"I thought she'd had a heart attack," he noted. "Then I wondered if she was crying or really down in the dumps. No one bothered to tell me she was just having a nap!"

The Cost of sleep deprivation

Once upon a time, sleeping on the job could have cost you your job, particularly if you were an air traffic controller or in the military.

Now, many progressive companies are encouraging people to power nap during business hours, have a break away from their desk and, at the very least, get a bit of fresh air.

Some even provide a napping area in recognition of the cost to business of sleep deficiency, including:

• Incresed errors and accidents
• Increased absenteeism
• Decreased productivity
• Increased employee turnover

A complete lack of focus due to inadequate sleep may be affecting some 63 percent of employees in Australia, according to Sydney based corporate health specialist Health Works, who surveyed 425 employers in the field of occupational health and safety and also human resources professionals.

The 2003 survey showed that four out of five workers (78 percent) admitted to having felt too tired to perform basic duties and two thirds were operating on less than the recommended 7-8 hours sleep a night.

"Mostly the reason seems to be the pace at which people are living," said chief executive Ken Buckley. "For white collar workers, it is just as big an issue - not necessarily in terms of safety but in terms of productivity."

While getting a good night's sleep is an obvious cure to office fatigue, there may be other factors draining your 'mojo', as Austen Powers would say. If we return to Jenny's situation, a number of key areas could be addressed to enhance her energy levels.

Motivation

Jenny has held her position for seven years and, following a Christmas break, is bogged down in a project that she finds easy but monotonous. She's been griping about the work for some time and much of her mental space is dominated by negativity. Negative self-talk and emotions surrounding a job and/or project can cause more fatigue than the work itself. Resentment, impatience, anger, anxiety, envy and so on, takes us out of the present, consumes us and drains our energy. Looking at he bottle half empty is a habit, one that may be reinforced by other disgruntled workers. The sooner you retrain yourself to have a more positive outlook the better.

"We always find what we look for," says Denni Francisco, director of the Living Room Wellbeing Centre in Melbourne.

"If we're looking for something in the work environment that peeves us, we'll find it. A handy question to ask yourself when something bugs you is, 'Will it matter when I'm 80?'"

Suggested reading:
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie (1952)
The Art of Happiness by the Dali Lama (1998)

Procrastination

Jenny wasn't especially keen on her project and she was working around the clock to finish it. Another trap is to avoid certain responsibilities altogether, either because they are too difficult or too unpleasant. When we procrastinate we experience guilt, regret and fear of future consequences. The associated stress contributes to lack of energy, so even though you might not feel like it to begin with, simply making a start on something you have been avoiding will build its own momentum and enthusiasm.

Eating well

The bottom line on food is to cut out the 'whites', says Francisco. "White sugar, white flour and processed foods. They take you to a high and drop you down after that." The ideal diet consists of fruit, vegetables, grains and nuts, which take 50 percent of our energy to digest.

Heavy meals with fat and sugar can take up to 14 hours to digest, so your body will be hard at it all night and early morning if you've consumed a big, heavy dinner. You might have had a good night's sleep, but still feel exhausted from the internal processing. The same goes with over-eating; the body works over-time to digest the food and the extra weight is energy-sapping.

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