The pic above is of my buddy Justin Daerr . He raced Ironman Florida this past weekend where he had a personal breakthrough, finishing 10th in 8:40 amongst the largest pro field ever in an Ironman North America race. His over-all time was a significant PR for him, but is most notable feat of the day was running a sub 3 hour marathon.
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I recently wrote about the funk that a lot of athletes get in during some point of the season. For many, this will happen a couple of times throughout the year. A few of the things that I did to help me get rolling again was to create a schedule or an unstructured basic week and to complete a session first thing in the morning.
With my basic week, I'm not ready to start anything structured at this time, but as a working athlete, I'm reading for a structured schedule with time put aside specifically for training. My schedule is very flexible and I have found that it is my responsibility to stay true and protect "my time."
Another thing I decided to do was complete a session first thing in the morning. This seems to do a few things for me. First, getting up in the morning and starting out with a very self fulfilling action sets the tone for the rest of the day. Another thing this does for me is in regards to my diet. I'm less likely to eat poorly once I've started the day off so well. If I were to get up and eat doughnuts and pancakes for breakfast, I'm probably more likely to write the day off right from the start.
Now that I'm starting to get back into the flow of things on the training front, my next goal to ensure all things are rolling at Endurance Corner. My main work goal for 2008 is a big push for more productivity.
Gordo shared a newspaper article by free-lance writer Leo Babauta that discussed ways to be most productive with your time while working. The philosophy or practice was called haiku productivity
Haiku poetry is a type of poetry limited to a small number of lines and syllables. Leo Babauta suggests we apply this concept to organizing ourselves. "The key to haiku productivity is to limit yourself to an arbitrary but smaller number of things, forcing yourself to focus on the important stuff and eliminate all else."
Here are Leo's 7 steps for productivity.
1. Goal: He loses focus and energy when he has more than one goal at a time so he limits himself to just one.
2. Times To Process E-Mail: If he restricts himself to checking e-mail only twice a day, it doesn't control his life.
3. Most Important Tasks: He chooses three most important tasks for each day, and focuses completely on them. If he tries for more, he might not get them all done.
4. Batch Tasks: Aside from his three most important tasks, he also gives himself four smaller tasks that he tries to batch together at one time, usually 30 to 60 minutes at the end of the day.
5. Sentence E-Mails: He keeps his e-mails to no more than five sentences. 'It forces you to write only what's essential,' he says, noting it took him a while to adapt. 'This rule also limits the amount of time you spend replying to e-mail.'
6. Posts: His Google RSS reader bombards him with an array of online postings he can read, but he limits himself to just six.
7. Minutes Of Wasted Time: When he has completed a task, he rewards himself with seven minutes of being able to do anything he wants (including sneaking a look at another blog posting that caught his fancy).
For me, steps one and three are keys for my productivity. Having one goal at a time keeps me focused on the task at hand. Once I start the task, seeing it through to completion is the primary focus. If I pause to do something else, like checking email, something that requires attention may stop my progress on the initial goal.
I've also started making a list before I leave the office each day. I have a book where I keep a "master copy" of my long list of projects. To make my list, I run through the master and decide which items are a priority. I then schedule the 3 to 5 most important tasks. Once I have my most important tasks for that day, that is all I'll focus on. Trying to work off the master leaves me a bit over-whelmed with no real plan of attack.
My reason for seeking an approach like this makes a lot of sense for me. In my circumstance, my list of tasks is never ending. What I'm seeking to change is the way I handle them. I have a tendency to tackle a little bit of everything, but rarely finishing anything. With this pattern my list continues to grow with little being finished.
Just like in creating a basic week for training, I have found that scheduling a little less than I think is achievable works best for me. I have always struggled with time management. My mom always tells me that I try and squeeze too much into one day. I am still having trouble with this. At the beginning of the the day, my list of "things to do" looks great on paper, but something always seems to come up and derail me from it's completion. This is just like training. You may have every minute of your day planned, but can it hold-up if something takes ten minutes longer than you thought?
I very much enjoy the work I do, but when I'm in the office I'm trying to accomplish something. I find happiness and satisfaction by moving forward, enhancing my worth to the company. I know not all jobs work this way. In some you can just do what's necessary to keep your job or possibly a little less and your sub par performance will go unnoticed. I know growing up, I've had many jobs that fit this description. In other jobs, your salary or promotional opportunities are directly linked to your productivity or output.
Focus on the significant,
Mat
