Eat Sleep Work Repeat: 30 Hacks for Bringing Joy to Your Job

by Bruce Daisley

Overview

“An important reminder of simple everyday practices to improve how we all work together, which will lead to greater team and individual happiness and performance. Great results will follow.”—Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square

“With just 30 changes, you can transform your work experience from bland and boring (or worse) to fulfilling, fun, and even joyful.”—Daniel Pink, author of When and Drive

The vice president of Twitter Europe and host of the top business podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat offers thirty smart, research-based hacks for bringing joy and fun back into our burned out, uninspired work lives.

How does a lunch break spark a burst of productivity? Can a team’s performance be improved simply by moving the location of the coffee maker? Why are meetings so often a waste of time, and how can a walking meeting actually get decisions made?

As an executive with decades of management experience at top Silicon Valley companies including YouTube, Google, and Twitter, Bruce Daisley has given a lot of thought to what makes a workforce productive and what factors can improve the workplace to benefit a company’s employees, customers, and bottom line. In his debut book, he shares what he’s discovered, offering practical, often counterintuitive, insights and solutions for reinvigorating work to give us more meaning, productivity, and joy at the office.

A Gallup survey of global workers revealed shocking news: only 13% of employees are engaged in their jobs. This means that burn out and unhappiness at work are a reality for the vast majority of workers. Managers—and employees themselves—can make work better. Eat Sleep Work Repeat shows them how, offering more than two dozen research-backed, user-friendly strategies, including:

Go to Lunch (it makes you less tired over the weekend)
Suggest a Tea Break (it increases team cohesiveness and productivity)
Conduct a Pre-Mortem (foreseeing possible issues can prevent problems and creates a spirit of curiosity and inquisitiveness)

“Let’s start enjoying our jobs again,” Daisley insists. “It’s time to rediscover the joy of work.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062944511
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,087,257
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Bruce Daisley is host of top business podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat; was Twitter's most senior employee outside of the US in his role of vice president across Europe, Middle East, and Africa; and before that he ran YouTube UK at Google. Bruce's passion for improving work led him to create his podcast where he interviews top business and thought leaders on making work better. This, his first book, was a number-one bestseller in the UK and a bestseller across Europe. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Author's Note vii

Introduction 1

Part 1 Recharge

Twelve Performance-Enhancing Actions to Make Work Less Awful

Introduction 17

Recharge 1 Have a Monk Mode Morning 23

Recharge 2 Go for a Walking Meeting 31

Recharge 3 Celebrate Headphones 37

Recharge 4 Eliminate Hurry Sickness 47

Recharge 5 Shorten Your Workweek 53

Recharge 6 Overthrow the Evil Mill Owner Who Lives Inside You 61

Recharge 7 Turn Off Your Notifications 67

Recharge 8 Go to Lunch 75

Recharge 9 Define Your Norms 83

Recharge 10 Have a Digital Sabbath 91

Recharge 11 Get a Good Night's Sleep 97

Recharge 12 Focus on One Thing at a Time 101

Part 2 Sync

Eight Fixes to Make Teams Closer

Introduction 107

Sync 1 Move the Coffee Machine 129

Sync 2 Suggest a Coffee Break 135

Sync 3 Halve Your Meetings 141

Sync 4 Create a Social Meeting 151

Sync 5 Laugh 161

Sync 6 Energize Onboardings 171

Sync 7 Don't Be a Bad Boss 175

Sync 8 Know When to Leave People Alone 185

Part 3 Buzz

The Ten Secrets of Energized Teams

Introduction 193

Buzz 1 Frame Work as a Problem You're Solving 219

Buzz 2 Admit When You've Messed Up 225

Buzz 3 Keep Teams Lean 229

Buzz 4 Focus on the Issue, Not the People 237

Buzz 5 Introduce a Hack Week 243

Buzz 6 Ban Phones from Meetings 251

Buzz 7 Champion Diversity 257

Buzz 8 Replace Presenting with Reading 261

Buzz 9 Conduct a Pre-mortem 267

Buzz 10 Relax 273

Epilogue: #LoveWhereYouWork 279

Bibliography 285

Notes 289

Index 304

Editorial Reviews

Bruce Daisley translates the best of workplace psychology research into practical ways of establishing creative and livable cultures at work—a must read for all of us 9-5ers!” 

Sir Cary Cooper

"Don't quit yet! In this book, Bruce shares remarkable advice that may well have you laughing while you work and truly loving your job." 

Biz Stone

"Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat tells people to work less and have more fun in order to be more productive."

Forbes

An important reminder of simple everyday practices to improve how we all work together, which will lead to greater team and individual happiness and performance. Great results will follow.

Jack Dorsey

"This is a warm, wise and funny book which provides a terrific summary of some of the science - and stories - behind what makes work a positive part of people’s lives. From the importance of lunch to the value of laughter, this book gives witty and practical advice. I loved it and I’ve already started changing some of the things I do at work as a result!" 

Professor Sophie Scott

10/28/2019

“Modern work is getting worse,” laments Daisley, European vice president for Twitter and creator of the Eat Sleep Work Repeat podcast, in this limp edition of the U.K. bestseller The Joy of Work. With 83% of Americans reporting being stressed out by their jobs, Daisley sees a situation that isn’t good for anyone, either labor or management: overwork doesn’t lead to higher profit, and companies would do well to remember that treating employees well is good business. With a surplus of enthusiasm but a dearth of data, Daisley argues that “the evidence on working is about to transform the way we work,” and guides readers through 30 ideas for improving their work, their workplaces, and their teams. As presented in three categories—recharge to unplug and perform self-care, sync to build relationships offline, and create buzz to encourage a “sense of engagement and positive energy” that will inspire one’s team—the advice given (“halve your meetings”; “keep teams lean”; “suggest a coffee break”) is too stale to ever escape cliché. His complaints, too, about the drain of constant connectivity and the threat of artificial intelligence feel old hat. Readers facing burnout should stick with the podcast and avoid its tepid print analog. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat tells people to work less and have more fun in order to be more productive." — Forbes

“With just 30 changes, you can transform your work experience from bland and boring (or worse) to fulfilling, fun, and even joyful. Bruce Daisley has pulled together threads of research and woven them into a tapestry of strategies that actually work, and that don’t depend on the CEO’s sign-off.” — Daniel Pink, author of When and Drive

“An important reminder of simple everyday practices to improve how we all work together, which will lead to greater team and individual happiness and performance. Great results will follow.” — Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square

"Don't quit yet! In this book, Bruce shares remarkable advice that may well have you laughing while you work and truly loving your job."  — Biz Stone, cofounder of Twitter

"This is a warm, wise and funny book which provides a terrific summary of some of the science - and stories - behind what makes work a positive part of people’s lives. From the importance of lunch to the value of laughter, this book gives witty and practical advice. I loved it and I’ve already started changing some of the things I do at work as a result!"  — Professor Sophie Scott, neuroscientist and stand-up comic

“Bruce Daisley translates the best of workplace psychology research into practical ways of establishing creative and livable cultures at work?a must read for all of us 9-5ers!”  — Sir Cary Cooper, author of Myths of Management

From the Publisher

With just 30 changes, you can transform your work experience from bland and boring (or worse) to fulfilling, fun, and even joyful. Bruce Daisley has pulled together threads of research and woven them into a tapestry of strategies that actually work, and that don’t depend on the CEO’s sign-off.

Daniel Pink