Want to be more effective? Here's one of the best ways.

Are you ready for the answer? Ok, here it is. All you have to do is take a nap. Yep, that it, just take a nap. Somewhere between 20 & 40 minutes is all you need to refresh and recharge.

NASA found that military pilots and astronauts who took a 40-minute nap improved alertness by 100 percent and performance by 34 percent, and recent Harvard University research also revealed that college students who napped between tasks performed better than those who stayed awake.

A couple of cautions, you should not nap within 4 hours of your normal bet time and you should not nap for more than 40 minutes. You don't want to enter deep sleep.

Why not give a nap a try sometime this week. If you get 30 minutes for lunch at work, take the first 20 for a nap and the last 10 to eat a light lunch. If you try it, leave me a comment and let me know how it went.