How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the "Good Enough" Nap
“Optimizing” vs. “satisficing”
The subject of today’s post goes by many names: the “non-loss of consh” nap; the “fade;”1 restorative eyes-closed moments (RECMs);2 the “body only” nap.3 I think I’ve come up with a new name that encapsulates all of these, inspired by a recent episode of
’s excellent podcast: the “good enough” nap.
As I review some of what we’ve said about this before,456789 I submit that as we work to carry out the purpose of TND — to appreciate, celebrate, and encourage napping — we’re wrestling with “optimizing” vs. “satisficing,” a distinction introduced to me years ago by my executive coach and discussed in the context of work on a recent episode of the Portfolio Career podcast. More on that tomorrow.
In the meantime, to set the table here, we all know what “optimizing” means: making or getting the best out of something. “Satisficing,” on the other hand,” is a portmanteau of the words “satisfying” (i.e., meeting expectations) and “sufficing” (i.e., being enough or adequate). To my ear, sounds like accepting that something is “good enough,” as compared with being the “best” it could be.
How does this distinction come into play in the world of work? How about the world of napping? Is one better than the other? More tomorrow.
“[N]ot quite a sleep, but drifting very close to it; cleared the mind of some nagging thoughts; and came away, energized and ready for a busy afternoon.” Lazy Sunday, Hen, March 26
See Napping in Public 2, Me, June 14
“There was no doubt that my body was asleep – that bed was fully supporting my physical being and the feeling of sleep paralysis was quite real. But my mind wasn’t tired at all since I had slept in that morning and gotten a really good night’s sleep. After the initial frustration of not losing consciousness faded, I embraced the Body Only nap and had a really nice meditation session which ended just a few moments before the alarm went off. I allowed myself to move again and found that the Body Only nap served me well – I felt refreshed and ready for the rest of the day’s activities.” Embrace the Body Only Nap, Grizz, June 16
“Hotly debated, but we ultimately say you don’t have to lose consciousness for an eyes-closed session to constitute a nap. That said, a nap is almost always better with loss of consh.” Foundations 1, Me, January 2
“Much of the time, when I lie down to nap, I’m not sure I’m going to lose consh, a key element to what I define (for myself) as a successful nap.” Can’t Sleep 1, Me, March 17
“I didn’t lose consh — at least I don’t think so. At best, I may have had a few Dalí-esque moments of light loss of consh, but this was a mostly conscious adventure. And you know what? It was awesome — just what I needed.” Foundations 3.5, Me, April 16
“Before TND, and before TAE, I thought that not losing consh was a “miss” when it came to napping. . . . , I know that the act of simply lying down and giving it a shot has its own benefit. . . .” The Action Is the Juice, Hen, April 17
“[T]he SLF astutely reminded me that there are benefits to attempting the nap even without achieving lost consh.” To Everything There Is a Season, Hen, May 16
While I did have some restorative eyes-closed moments that Thursday, I found myself unable to lose consh in my hour of greatest need. Napping in Public 2, Me, June 14
Enjoyed the distinction between optimizing and satisficing. This concept is utilized outside the RECM discipline by technology product managers as well. Here is one framework I particularly like by John Cutler: https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-1953-drivers-constraints-and
Either way, the work seems to be in the introspection required to define what is "good enough" in advance :)