CFOs make all kinds of investments, but how about investing in more down time for employees? That may sound like a recipe for creating a bunch of slackers, but in fact the idea of optimal slack in a system is as fundamental to talent optimization as it is to engineering. Planned and mindful slacking off may help optimize talent performance.

Do you sleep with your cell phone? A 2010 Pew Research Center study found that 65% of American adults did, and the numbers were, naturally, even higher for young adults. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health cited a report suggesting that longer working hours and overtime are higher in tough economic times, that the United States is near the top globally in hours employees devote to work, and that long hours can carry significant costs and risks. In Investing in People, Wayne Cascio and I offer frameworks for calculating the tangible results of improved workplace health and safety.

Janice Marturano, founder and executive director of the Institute for Mindful Leadership, suggests that we might approach our ever-filling schedules as a “mindful calendar practice,” in which leaders examine their physical reactions to their calendar entries (tight stomach?) and create more space to lead. Should you invest in programs that teach your leaders and employees to meditate and do yoga? Medical research on mindfulness-based stress reduction shows that taking time to meditate and attend to physical and emotional responses has measurable effects on stress-related symptoms. . . . Read the full article at CFO.com!