Eat Sleep Work Repeat
30 Hacks for Bringing Joy to Your Job
Book Edition Details
Summary
In a world where work often feels more grind than gratification, Bruce Daisley, Twitter's dynamic VP of Europe, invites you to reclaim joy in the office with a toolkit of transformative tweaks. Tired of tedious meetings and burnout? Imagine sparking productivity with a simple lunch break or reshaping team energy by relocating the coffee pot. Drawing from his Silicon Valley savvy, Daisley presents thirty evidence-backed "hacks" that promise to turn the drab daily grind into a vibrant, fulfilling experience. As global surveys reveal an alarming disconnect between employees and their work, this guide emerges as a beacon for managers and team members alike. "Eat Sleep Work Repeat" isn’t just a book; it’s a rallying cry for a happier, more engaged workforce. Let’s reignite the passion and productivity we’ve been missing.
Introduction
Picture this: you wake up Monday morning and instead of dreading the day ahead, you feel a spark of anticipation. The workplace that once drained your energy now energizes you. Your colleagues have become allies rather than obstacles. The tasks that felt meaningless now connect to something bigger. This isn't a fantasy—it's entirely achievable through small, scientifically-backed changes that can revolutionize how you experience work. Today, 83 percent of American workers report that their jobs cause them stress rather than satisfaction. Two-fifths have actually quit to escape workplace misery. But here's what research reveals: the difference between thriving and surviving at work often comes down to simple adjustments anyone can make. When we understand how our brains respond to different work environments, when we learn to build genuine connections with colleagues, and when we create conditions that spark our natural creativity, work transforms from something we endure into something we genuinely enjoy. The path to loving your job again starts with understanding that small changes create profound shifts in how we feel, perform, and connect with others.
Recharge Yourself: 12 Energy-Boosting Habits
Your energy is your most precious resource at work, yet most of us treat it carelessly. Recharging isn't about working harder—it's about working smarter by honoring how your brain and body actually function. Think of yourself as a high-performance athlete who needs strategic recovery to perform at peak levels. Consider Alexandra Michel's nine-year study of investment bankers who worked grueling 130-hour weeks. Despite earning enormous salaries, these high achievers experienced dramatic health breakdowns within three to four years. The relentless pace didn't just exhaust their bodies—it rewired their brains for stress, anxiety, and poor decision-making. What started as career ambition became a destructive cycle that left even the most disciplined individuals feeling completely out of control. The turning point came when firms like Goldman Sachs introduced mandatory rest periods. By simply prohibiting work on Saturdays, they discovered that productivity actually increased. Workers accomplished more in fewer hours because their brains had time to recover and reset. This wasn't just about preventing burnout—it was about optimizing human performance through strategic energy management. Start by protecting your peak energy hours with "Monk Mode" mornings—block out the first two hours of your day for focused, uninterrupted work. Turn off all notifications during this time. Take real lunch breaks away from your desk. Establish clear boundaries around weekend work. Schedule brief walking meetings to combine movement with collaboration. Most importantly, recognize that saying no to energy drains allows you to say yes to what truly matters. Your future self will thank you for treating your energy as the finite, valuable resource it is.
Build Team Connection: 8 Sync Strategies
Humans are wired for connection, and this fundamental need doesn't disappear when we walk into the office. Sync is what happens when teams move beyond mere cooperation to genuine collaboration—when individual efforts amplify each other rather than compete. It's the difference between a group of people working in the same space and a team that creates something none of them could achieve alone. MIT professor Alex Pentland revolutionized our understanding of workplace dynamics through his sociometric badge studies. By tracking thousands of workplace interactions, he discovered that up to 40 percent of team productivity came from informal conversations—the casual chats by the coffee machine, brief check-ins between meetings, spontaneous problem-solving sessions. Email, despite consuming hours of our day, contributed almost nothing to meaningful collaboration. Ben Waber's research at a Bank of America call center provided stunning proof of sync's power. When the company changed break schedules so team members took their 15-minute coffee breaks together instead of individually, productivity jumped 23 percent. Stress levels dropped 19 percent as colleagues could now share difficult customer experiences and learn from each other's solutions. This simple scheduling change was equivalent to giving each worker ten years of additional experience. Create sync by moving your coffee machine to encourage cross-team interactions. Suggest coordinated breaks where your team steps away together for brief conversations. Introduce "social meetings" that prioritize relationship-building over agenda items. Share meals when possible—research shows that eating alone is one of the strongest predictors of workplace unhappiness. Most importantly, make space for laughter and genuine human moments. These aren't distractions from work—they're the foundation that makes everything else possible.
Create Workplace Buzz: 10 Engagement Secrets
Buzz represents the pinnacle of workplace experience—when teams operate in a state of both psychological safety and positive energy. It's what happens when people feel completely safe to speak up, take risks, and be authentically themselves while simultaneously feeling energized and optimistic about their work. In buzz environments, creativity flows naturally, problems get solved faster, and people genuinely enjoy being there. Amy Edmondson's groundbreaking research began with a puzzling discovery: the best hospital teams reported more medical errors than worse-performing teams. Initially, this seemed impossible. Further investigation revealed that better teams weren't making more mistakes—they were more willing to discuss and learn from them. They had created psychological safety where admitting problems was seen as strength, not weakness. This openness led to better patient outcomes and stronger team performance. Frances Frei's transformation of Uber after its toxic cultural crisis demonstrates buzz in action. Her first move was banning phones from meetings to restore genuine human connection. She established "hot debrief" sessions where team leaders began by admitting their own mistakes before inviting feedback from others. By combining radical honesty with authentic care for people's wellbeing, she rebuilt trust and created an environment where innovation could flourish again. Frame challenges as problems the whole team needs to solve together rather than individual performance issues. Start meetings by acknowledging what you don't know rather than what you do know. Replace presentations with shared reading time so everyone arrives at discussions equally prepared. Conduct "pre-mortems" to identify potential problems before they occur. Champion diversity not just for fairness, but because different perspectives lead to better solutions. Remember that buzz isn't maintained through grand gestures—it's built through daily choices to create safety, share vulnerability, and celebrate collective wins.
Take Action: Your Path to Work Joy
The journey to loving your work again begins with a single decision: choosing to see your workplace not as something that happens to you, but as something you can actively shape. Every interaction, every boundary you set, every moment you choose connection over isolation moves you closer to the work experience you deserve. Research consistently shows that happiness at work isn't about finding the perfect job—it's about bringing your best self to the job you have. When you implement even a few of these evidence-based strategies, you create ripple effects that extend far beyond your own experience. Your renewed energy inspires colleagues. Your willingness to be vulnerable gives others permission to be authentic. Your commitment to genuine breaks and boundaries models sustainable success. Start small but start today. Choose one energy-boosting habit from the recharge strategies and commit to it for one week. Suggest a walking meeting or coordinate break time with a colleague to begin building sync. Look for one opportunity to admit uncertainty or ask for input to foster psychological safety. The transformation won't happen overnight, but it will happen if you stay consistent with small, positive changes. Remember that loving where you work isn't about pretending every day is perfect—it's about creating an environment where you can do meaningful work with people you trust and respect. You have more power to shape this experience than you realize. Your work can become a source of energy rather than a drain, a place of growth rather than stagnation, a community rather than just a job. The choice to begin is yours.
Summary
Work doesn't have to be something we endure—it can become something we genuinely love. Through 30 research-backed strategies spanning personal energy management, team connection, and workplace culture, we've seen how small changes create profound transformations. As the evidence clearly shows, "teams that have a more equal distribution of communication tend to have higher collective intelligence because you're hearing from everybody, getting information and input and effort from everybody if they're all contributing." The path forward is clear: start with recharging your own energy through strategic breaks and boundaries, build genuine connections with colleagues through shared experiences and vulnerability, and contribute to a workplace culture where both honesty and optimism can flourish. Your workplace transformation begins the moment you decide to take the first step—choose one strategy and implement it this week.
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By Bruce Daisley
