George Washington and his Revolutionary War victories. Robert Frost and the composition of 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.' Bill Gates and the founding of Microsoft. Steve Wozniak and the invention of color computer monitors. Tom Stemberg and the launch of the Staples company. Each is a great American success story. But do such stories share a common ingredient, one that you can incorporate into your career strategy in order to maximize your professional success?
They do - but it's likely not what you would expect. In each case, an all-nighter a work session of 24 hours or more made all the difference.
Take Washington, for example. Before he became President, war was his profession, and all-nighters were the way he outwitted his enemy. The British, despite their technological and organizational superiority, took an orthodox approach to battle, one that assumed that major engagements would take place in open fields at fixed times. Washington, on the other hand, used the nighttime hours to plot, plan, and maneuver.
Thus, in 1776, Washington and his troops were pinned down by the British army and navy in northern *lyn, New York City. The destruction of the colonial army seemed inevitable. Yet, in one night, under cover of darkness, Washington evacuated his men across the river to Manhattan, undetected and without a single casualty.
Washington used a similar gambit that winter in his successful ambush of the Hessian encampment near Trenton, New Jersey, immortalized by the famous painting 'Washington Crossing the Delaware.' Here, too, the general and his troops abstained from sleep for a full night to surprise the enemy and turn the tide of the war.
When it comes to your career, all-nighters are not just about working when others are sleeping. They also can improve the quality of your creative work product. Consider Frost's 'Stopping by Woods.' One morning, after working all night, Frost was struck by a flash of inspiration, and wrote the poem in a matter of minutes. Or consider Wozniak's vision of monitors that could display color. As Wozniak has explained, in order to meet a deadline on another project, he had to stay up for days on end. His delirious exhaustion became a catalyst for uninhibited creativity, where ideas could flow without rigid conscious control, leading to an innovation that changed the computer industry.
From a scientific perspective, why do all-nighters work? Why are they an effective tool for purposes of career advancement? After all, conventional wisdom says that sleep is good, and that lack of sleep can lead to sloppy mistakes.
In fact, while sleep is a vital element in a professional life, all-nighters, when employed wisely, also can play a unique role. For instance, in a 2011 study, 'Time of Day Effects on Problem Solving: When the Non-Optimal Is Optimal,' by researchers at Michigan State University and Albion College (Michigan), two groups of adults were presented with riddles that required the use of creative insight. The first group attempted to tackle these problems at the 'high point' in their circadian rhythm. The other group had to do so when feeling less awake and alert. The tired subjects were significantly better at solving these problems, while just as effective at solving other, less creative tasks.
What is the explanation for this phenomenon? When well-rested, we tend to marshal our executive-level cognitive resources to focus efficiently on narrowly defined tasks. But creativity often mandates that we do the opposite namely, to give expression to ideas that are 'outside the box,' ideas that we might normally dismiss as silly or irrational. During an all-nighter, the walls of that 'box' can break down, to your benefit.
What about projects that are not creative in nature, and that simply require sustained attention, patience, and linear thinking? If you go into an all-nighter well-rested, this type of cognitive horsepower also can keep up for a surprisingly long time. For instance, a 2009 study out of Harvard Medical School, 'Failure to Find Executive Function Deficits Following One Night's Total Sleep Deprivation in University Students Under Naturalistic Conditions,' found that, despite being subjected to over 30 hours of sleep deprivation, young adults were no less effective than their well-rested counterparts at a variety of cognitive tests having to do with language, logic, and comprehension.
So what's the bottom line? If you want to take your career to the next level by improving the quality or quantity of your work, the occasional all-nighter, properly planned and executed in time-tested American tradition, may be the perfect prescription.