All Things Performance #10
3 concepts = thoughts I've had, things that I've seen, and ideas / hopes - all in the health & performance space. Once a week.
This week:
Give jobs to busy people — but also save time for creativity.
exercising in the evening is okay — it can even be beneficial for sleep.
seasonal shift in activity levels & behaviour
thinking out loud
some of my thoughts this week
“Give jobs to busy people”
I’ve often experienced this personally, with others and in teams that I’ve worked in. Sometimes you are most productive when you are busiest. If you have 3 hours to do a task, it will take 3 hours. But if you have 30mins, you will likely get it done in that time (or at least 80:20).
In one of the environments I used to work in — we had the saying to give jobs to busy people. It wasn’t intended on overloading or overworking anyone, but we did find that productivity was super-high with a high (but not overwhelming) workload.
I don’t think this should be every day — I strongly believe in space and blocking out time for thinking & creative work too. But if you — and your peers — are disciplined, it can be a really effective strategy to bucket certain types of work to certain types of days.
Next time you have a task to do — try set yourself 30mins to get it all done. I think you’ll be surprised how much work you can get done with a little time pressure and no distractions.
through the lens
things that I’ve seen this week
I’ve seen a lot of people discussing the negative effects that late evening exercise can have on sleep — but I see so few talk about the positive effects!
we think that some of the negative effects might be driven from intensity and / or temperature, but we likely won’t be training to near max intensity every day. There is also plenty of evidence to suggest that evening exercise can help sleep. Exercise can increase deep sleep & reduce WASO (wake after sleep onset)!
Sometimes you got to self-experiment. Why not stick to your routine for 2 weeks, and change nothing?
Review your own data, and then look to change 1-2 things. See what happens.
Maybe you are one of the people who still can exercise in the evenings and sleep fine.
Maybe you notice that it does affect your sleep, then you’ve got to think about adjusting different levers — can you dial intensity down? can you do 1-2 sessions per week during the day?
the drawing board
ideas, brainstorming, etc
The impact that Spring has on people’s mood and activity levels is alarmingly positive! I cycled around London earlier in the week, and noticed paths were busier, dogs were happier, bikes were dusted off and Lime Bikes were booked up! People were outside standing staring at the sunset.
I think we often see an increase in activity levels due to better weather, but it also reminded me of something I used to hear when I lived in Vancouver:
“There’s no such thing as bad weather. Only bad gear.”
The concept is really that a lot of people just don’t own appropriate gear to let them do the activities they want to do in the winter.
Proper waterproof gear. Lighting for running / cycling. Cold weather running gear. Sufficient layers & accessories. Waterproof shoes / runners.
There are obviously other considerations (e.g., safety in darkness) — but something I am going to revisit when we enter winter this year is trying to maintain activity levels that I have built up in Spring — Summer and into Autumn / Fall.
Does weather have a massive impact on your activity levels, mood, and health?