If you were struggling, you couldn’t escape to the worlds of Facebook, YouTube and Netflix for instant relief.
How do I know?
Because I was born before 1985. I know what it feels like to be a student with and without the Internet.
While your video game was loading, you had time to think:
“Is this the best use of my time? Why am I avoiding this task? What am I scared of? Failure? Looking stupid? Am I just confused and overwhelmed?”
Pauses were built into the day to help you reflect on your behaviour (what you should and shouldn’t be doing).
But these days, with super fast Internet and mobile phones, pauses are nowhere to be seen. Most of us find ourselves in a constant state of restless idleness, switching rapidly from one task to the next.
As Michael Harris, author of The End of Absence, states:
“When teens work on their homework … a full two thirds of them are multitasking. If need be, they can simultaneously text, watch music videos, groom their Facebook page, and play Call of Duty, all while positioning up an essay on Hamlet.”
Struggling to write that Hamlet essay? No worries. You can toggle between Word and Facebook in less than a second. Boom! Instant rewards! Instant relief!
And this is how procrastination and multitasking become deeply ingrained (bad) habits.
Research shows that when you work this way …
By inserting a pause button into your life.
A pause button can help you to stop and reflect before you do something that you’ll later regret. It can help you re-focus and get back on track.
The pause button I’m talking about isn’t something you’ll be able to find on ebay or Amazon. You’ll need to create your own pause button.
The thing about your pause button is that it doesn’t need to be anything fancy. You could go on a free image site like Pixabay and print one out.
Or you could get creative and draw one on a sheet of paper. Decorate it with glitter, stickers, crayons, etc. Frame it if you want. You want to personalise it. Own it. This button (if you use it) is going to deliver you to greater productivity levels and focus.
Once you’ve got your pause button, stick it up on your wall. Make it far away enough so you need to take a few steps to get there.
Every time you feel the urge to procrastinate by switching to a more enjoyable task (e.g. Facebook), walk over to the pause button and hit it.
Now here’s the important part …
Your next small step may be:
• Have a drink of water
• Write one more sentence
• Set a timer and keep going for another five minutes
If you hit the pause button and think, “I really need a 5 minute break. I’m not getting anywhere with this …”, then no problem! Take a break. But be intentional about it and place a time limit on it (e.g. “I’m going for a 5 minute walk”).
Let me make it clear: taking breaks after doing some solid work is not procrastination. Never confuse relaxing with procrastination. You’re not a machine. You need to pace yourself. Breaks help you manage your energy levels so you can tackle your work with a refreshed, clear mind.
The act of getting up and walking over to your pause button will require a bit of willpower to start with. Initially, it may feel forced, strange and a little bit silly hitting a piece of paper on your wall. But persevere. The more times you hit that pause button, the sooner it will become a habit.
Once you kick the bad habit of multitasking and procrastination, you’ll find your brain will be less stressed. This in turn will make it easier for you to study and retain important information.
While everyone around you is freaking out because they’ve left their work until the last minute, you’ll be feeling calm and in control.
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On these days, the temptation to procrastinate and distract oneself can be strong.
I recently spent a few days with my family in the countryside, where I enjoyed reading by a crackling fire. But when I found myself back home in my office, I struggled to get back into the swing of things.
I was experiencing a full-blown holiday comedown.
For some context, I had printed out the slides for an upcoming presentation that I needed to practise, but I felt resistance every time I looked at the slides.
My mind screamed, “Nooo! I don’t want to practise!”. Without even thinking, I kept pushing the slides away like a toddler smooshing their vegetables around on their plate.
But at some point, I caught myself in the act. Without berating myself, I managed to turn things around and ease into my practice.
In this blog, I’ll share a couple of simple strategies I use to get a better handle on my procrastination and overcome resistance.
According to Procrastination scholar Tim Pychyl, procrastination isn’t a time management issue. It’s an emotion management issue. If you can get a better handle on your emotions, you’ll have a better handle on procrastination.
Let’s unpack this…
Often, when we procrastinate, it’s because we’re trying to avoid experiencing negative emotions. The task we need to do brings up feelings of discomfort (e.g., boredom, fear, guilt, anxiety, and stress), so we avoid the task to make ourselves feel better.
But avoidance makes no sense when you think about it.
Oliver Burkeman explains the problems associated with avoidance in his book Meditations for Mortals. He writes:
“The more you organise your life around not addressing the things that make you anxious, the more likely they are to develop into serious problems – and even if they don’t, the longer you fail to confront them, the more unhappy time you spend being scared of what might be lurking in the places you don’t want to go. It’s ironic that this is known, in self-help circles, as ‘remaining in your comfort zone’, because there’s nothing comfortable about it. In fact, it entails accepting a constant background tug of discomfort – an undertow of worry that can sometimes feel useful or virtuous, though it isn’t – as the price you pay to avoid a more acute spike of anxiety.”
Dutch Zen Monk Paul Loomans labels the tasks we avoid as ‘gnawing rats’. He says these tasks “eat away at you under the surface”.
Have you noticed that whenever you try to avoid a task, it’s usually still on your mind, using up your precious mental resources?
That’s what Loomans means by the task eating away at you under the surface.
Why does he use the peculiar term ‘gnawing rat’? Looman’s daughter used to have pet rats that would eat loudly under his bed, keeping him awake at night.
Loomans explains that if you can befriend your gnawing rats, you can transform them into white sheep. Just like a white sheep follows you around passively, once you transform a task into a white sheep, it’s a lot easier to make a start.
The question is, how do you transform a ‘gnawing rat’ (a task you are avoiding) into a white sheep?
The key is to approach procrastination from a place of curiosity.
Loomans suggests creating a positive, open relationship with the task you’ve been avoiding. You need to sit with it or visualise the task. Instead of giving yourself a hard time, get curious about why you have such a strained relationship with this task.
Loomans advises:
“… you’re not being asked to immediately do whatever it is that’s gnawing at you. The assignment is only to establish a relationship with it. You let all the various facets sink in and then let them go again.
The rat no longer gnaws at you, and it has settled down. It’s no longer trying to get your attention, but follows quietly behind. It now has white legs and curly fleece – it’s turned into a white sheep.”
I decided to follow Looman’s advice with this presentation I had been avoiding. To begin with, I pulled out my slides and I just sat with them.
I closed my eyes, tuned into my body and asked myself:
“Why am I feeling resistance towards practising this presentation? What’s going on?”
Within 30 seconds, the answer came to me. The resistance came from how I thought I’d feel after doing my speech practice: exhausted and emotionally depleted.
You see, when I practice a presentation, I typically go into turbocharge mode. It’s like I’m delivering the real thing: I gesticulate, project my voice, pace around the room, and rely on my memory and the pictures on my slides to remember the content (I don’t refer to my notes).
All of this takes a lot of mental and physical effort.
So, naturally, when I looked at my slides for this one-hour presentation, I felt flat and heavy.
I equated one hour of presentation practice with having a fried brain by the end.
But then I had a brilliant idea. I thought, “What if this practice session didn’t have to feel like a hard slog? What if it could be fun, light and easy but still effective? What would that look like?”
It immediately occurred to me that I had to shorten my practice session, which brings me to the next strategy . . .
To keep my practice session fun, light and easy, I settled on doing just five minutes of speech practice.
Instead of pacing around my office and practising in turbocharge mode for an hour, I sat myself down with a hot chocolate. I set a timer for five minutes, pulled out a mini whiteboard and started recalling the content (scribbling out and drawing pictures of what I needed to say).
When the timer went off, I checked my notes to see how I went (What did I remember? What did I forget to say?).
Then, I checked in with myself – “How am I feeling after that mini practice session?”. Instead of feeling depleted, I was feeling good! I felt less overwhelmed by this presentation. The resistance had subsided. As Paul Loomans would say, the presentation had transformed from a gnawing rat into a white sheep!
I felt excited, even a little inspired.
I could have easily kept practising for another 10-20 minutes, but I decided to give myself a break to re-energise (I got up and walked on the treadmill for 2 minutes).
This gave me insight into the need to vary the intensity and mode of each study session, depending on my energy levels and what I have planned for the rest of the day. Sometimes it’s good to go into turbocharge mode, but not always.
Not every study/work session has to be hardcore. Work sessions that leave you feeling completely drained by the end can be counterproductive. As Professor BJ Fogg says, “Tiny is mighty”.
Firstly, tiny study sessions are less scary for your brain. Five minutes of speech practice and flashcard practice feels easy. You think, “I can do 5 minutes!”.
In contrast, one hour of study feels scary for your brain, which means you’re more likely to procrastinate.
When you go tiny, it’s also easier to give your full focus to the task at hand. Here’s the thing about focus: focusing your mind takes a lot of your brainpower. And you have a limited supply of brainpower!
As you sit there and study, your brainpower gets depleted. But research shows one way to boost your attentional resources (i.e. your brainpower) is by taking regular breaks. If you study in short focused bursts and then take a break, you can stay refreshed and ensure your study sessions are effective.
But most importantly, tiny study sessions help to create momentum, and they leave you feeling good!
I tend to push myself to the point of exhaustion when I practise my talks. But I can see now that this makes it hard for me to want to practise in the future.
By dedicating just 5–10 minutes to the task and enjoying it, I’m more likely to do another 5 minutes (or more) of practice tomorrow. Doing five minutes of practice every day is infinitely better than doing no practice or cramming a long practice session in the day before.
You’re not going to go from good to great in one tiny study session. But you can make meaningful progress and create the momentum you need to keep going.
So, don’t turn your nose up at five minutes of flashcard practice or 10 minutes of doing a practice test. If done with focus and intention, that’s a solid study session that can set you on the path to success.
Image credit:
Toddler (featured in image 2): “Skeptical” by quinn.anya is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Rat: “Fancy rat blaze” by AlexK100 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
I didn’t know how to relax. I had one speed and one speed only . . . GO!
When I started dating my husband, he made a comment I never forgot. He said, “You’re intense.”
I laughed it off, thinking, “How ridiculous!”. But looking back, he was right.
Over the last few years, I’ve learnt to live life at multiple speeds and different intensities.
I’ve also learnt how to manage my energy better and pace myself. One thing the pandemic taught me was the importance of slowing down and taking regenerative breaks.
For many years, even though I intellectually understood the importance of rest, I struggled to do it.
For some reason, I thought I had to be always working.
My to-do list was something I had to power through. One thing after another. Got that thing done? Quick! Cross it off the list! Onto the next task.
As a student, I developed a bad habit of staying back late at university. As an undergrad, I’d hang out with my psychology friends in the computer labs until nearly midnight (I had to call the university security service to escort me to my car!).
Then, as a PhD student, I’d be in my office working late when everyone else had gone home. I’d buy takeaway that I’d eat alone at my desk. I’d get home late. I’d get to bed late.
How did I feel the next day?
Not great.
The problem with this approach is now glaringly obvious to me: because I was getting less sleep, I started to feel run down, which made it hard for me to focus, do my best thinking, and work efficiently.
Going fast all the time was actually slowing me down.
Then, I met a Brazilian PhD student called Carlos.
Carlos showed me there was a different way to work. A better way. A more sustainable way.
When I first met Carlos, I was taken aback by his beaming smile and infectious laugh.
He seemed genuinely happy, which wasn’t the case for many PhD students.
It wasn’t uncommon to see PhD students glued to their seats for hours with a 2-litre bottle of Coke on their desks. But this was not Carlos’s style.
I learnt that Carlos rode his bike to university every day (partly to save money and partly to clear his mind). He’d take breaks to play soccer and go rock climbing.
With all this activity, you might be wondering whether Carlos was managing to get any work done on his PhD.
He certainly was.
Carlos was super productive as a PhD student.
He was publishing papers and on track to finish his PhD on time, all with a big smile.
Here’s the really interesting thing about Carlos . . .
When he started working on his PhD, he was like me: pushing himself to work long, ridiculous hours.
As an International student, Carlos had a strict deadline for submitting his PhD thesis. At the beginning of his PhD, he told me he was driven by fear that he might not finish the work in time, so working nonstop seemed like the only path forward.
But then Carlos had an epiphany.
He realised he was just as productive when he allowed himself to engage in fun activities (e.g., rock climbing and playing soccer) as when he insisted on pushing himself to work crazy hours without taking any breaks.
This made Carlos realise that he needed to get serious about these fun rest breaks and prioritise them.
Whether Carlos realised it or not, he was emulating the behaviour of top research scientists.
In one longitudinal study, 40 scientists in their 40s were followed for 30 years. These scientists had attended top universities and showed promise in their careers.
The researchers wanted to know the difference between the people who had become top scientists and those who became mediocre scientists.
In other words, what were the top scientists doing that the mediocre scientists weren’t doing?
One of the key differences that stood out was movement.
The top scientists moved a lot more than the mediocre scientists. They engaged in activities such as skiing, hiking, swimming, surfing and playing tennis.
In contrast, the mediocre scientists did a lot less physical activity.
They were more likely to say, “I’m too busy to go hiking this weekend. There’s work I need to catch up on.” They saw physical movement as eating into the time they could be working.
The top scientists thought differently about movement. Moving their bodies was critical to doing good scientific work. It was something they needed to prioritise in their lives.
When I first read about this study, I immediately thought about Carlos. Riding his bike, playing soccer, and rock climbing were all activities that helped him work effectively on his PhD. These weren’t time-wasting activities; they were necessities.
Movement gets you out of your head and grounds you in your body. It also gives you space away from your work, which our minds need when doing complex and challenging tasks.
In addition, as you move your body, your brain is bathed in feel-good chemicals. It’s easier to get things done when you feel good and less stressed. You can have more fun. You come back into balance.
But do all breaks need to involve movement?
Not always. But you should try to find fun activities that you can do away from your desk, phone, or computer.
Do something that lets your mind loose and requires little to no mental effort to execute.
Here are some of my favourite fun break activities:
These fun break activities may not seem like much fun to you. I understand if steaming your clothes sounds boring (I’m even surprised by how much fun this is).
Your job is to discover your own fun break activities. But how do you do this? It’s simple – you follow the Rules of Fun.
Psychologist Risa Williams lays out the Rules of Fun in her brilliant book The Ultimate Anxiety Toolkit.
The Rules of Fun are as follows:
What was fun for you yesterday may not be fun today. That’s okay. Focus on what you find fun today. Only you know what that is.
The activity isn’t something you should find fun. It’s actually fun for you (it brings a smile to your face and a sense of calm).
For example, many Australians love watching the footy, but I don’t enjoy it. I’d much rather head outside, run around, kick a footy, or throw a frisbee. This is fun for me!
Risa Williams also points out that your list of fun activities will need to be updated regularly. She explains that we are constantly changing and evolving, so naturally, what we find fun will change and evolve, too.
Stay flexible and trust your intuition when it comes to the activities you find fun.
Start to listen to your body. Begin to notice what activities leave you feeling good.
The break activity shouldn’t leave you feeling mentally fried or emotionally wrecked. If it does, you’ve violated this rule.
For example, I never feel good when binge-watching a Netflix series or sitting for long periods. In contrast, I nearly always feel good after a walk.
As I mentioned, you need to get out of your head and get grounded in your body.
If you’re stuck in an anxiety loop about a comment or post a friend made on social media, the last thing you want to do is go online. You need to calm down by engaging in a fun activity (away from screens) that brings you back into balance.
You don’t need to fly to Bali or have an expensive massage to take a fun break. You can engage in many free and cheap activities at home and on your own.
Going for a walk around the block is free and easy. Drawing some silly faces on a scrap of paper is free and fun.
In contrast, travelling to the gym to take a cardio class (and getting there on time) feels much harder.
Let’s face it: if the break activity feels difficult or requires a lot of mental or physical effort, time, or money, you’re probably not going to do it.
However, when your fun break activities are easy, you’re more likely to do them again and again.
Little kids know how to have fun. They will happily and instinctively pick up some crayons to draw. They’ll nap without guilt. But as we grow older, many of us lose our sense of fun and our ability to rest. We start to take ourselves too seriously.
But no matter your age, it’s time to get serious about taking fun breaks.
I’ve discovered that the key to feeling satisfied and content is to feel calm and grounded. But you can’t feel calm and grounded if you constantly push yourself to do more and more.
To keep your body and mind in balance, you need to insert fun breaks into your day. These fun breaks are not a waste of time. They are essential for feeling good, fully alive, and doing your best work.
So, in the spirit of fun, what will you do to give yourself a fun break? Follow the rules of fun and experiment with different activities. Be playful!
Finally, do you know what happened to Carlos? He’s gone on to become a respected Senior Lecturer at a top university in Australia . . . and he still enjoys going rock climbing.
In our modern world, overwhelm and distraction threaten to constantly derail us.
As artist Austin Kleon states in his book Keep Going:
“Your attention is one of the most valuable things you possess, which is why everyone wants to steal it from you. First you must protect it, and then you must point it in the right direction.”
In this article, I share a powerful practice that can help you protect your attention and point it in the right direction: working like a sprinter.
As a teenager, I remember watching Australian Aboriginal athlete Cathy Freeman run in the 400-metre race at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
In that incredible race, Cathy did one thing and one thing only: she ran as fast as she could in a focused, intense burst.
She was 27 years old and had been training for this event for 17 years. Having won silver at the previous Olympics, the pressure was on. The entire nation was watching Cathy.
To this day, I still get goosebumps when I watch the footage of this race (you can watch it here).
Cathy was in the zone. She was completely focused on the task at hand. She knew what she needed to do: run.
Shortly after crossing the finish line, Cathy sat down to catch her breath and process what she had just accomplished (she had won gold). The crowd went wild and was completely absorbed in the moment, too.
Back in the year 2000, during the Sydney Olympics, smartphones and social media didn’t exist. Not everyone had access to the internet (my family did, but it was slow, expensive, and could only be used at home on a computer). In this environment, it was much easier to focus.
It’s fair to say that the early 2000s were simpler times.
Some scholars (e.g., Dr Jonathan Haidt, and Dr Anna Lembke) argue that smartphones and social media have caused several harms to society, including a reduced capacity to pay attention and an inability to tolerate discomfort.
Despite the noise and chaos of the modern world, it’s possible to train yourself to focus better.
How do we cultivate better focus?
One way is to tackle our work like sprinters.
The practice of working like a sprinter is refreshingly simple: You work in a short, focused burst (25-45 minutes), then take a break to rest and recover (5-15 minutes). After that, you repeat the process a few times before taking a much longer break (30 minutes).
I usually work this way for about 3 – 4 hours a day.
But I’m not fixed and rigid about this practice. This technique is adaptable. The key is to listen to your body and tune into what it needs. Make this practice work for you.
If you develop the habit of working in this focused way, you’ll be amazed by how much you can get done. More importantly, instead of feeling mentally fried at the end of the day, you’ll feel energised. You’ll also experience a delightful sense of calm and peace.
In short, this is a practice well worth cultivating.
In a nutshell, working like a sprinter involves three distinct phases:
It’s simple, but it’s a practice that takes practise.
Below, I delve into each phase in more detail and share some things that help me work in focused sprints.
I do my best work sprints in the morning between 9am and 12noon. But these focused sprints don’t just magically happen. It’s not like I roll out of bed and dive straight into a work sprint. First, I need to warm up.
The warm-up phase allows me to get in the right headspace and set up my environment to be focus-friendly. It has a dramatic impact on my brain’s performance, affecting my ability to focus, creativity, productivity, and mood.
Just to be clear, the stars don’t have to align, and the conditions don’t need to be perfect to kick off a work sprint. I’ve simply noticed that I can work better after engaging in a few behaviours and morning practices.
Here’s what I’ve found makes a difference . . .
What distracts you when you’re trying to work? What things frequently derail you?
Take note of the things that hijack your attention and throw you off track.
In one of my favourite books on getting organised, Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD, Susan Pinsky writes:
“The more you explore the distractions that keep you from working, as well as the tools that help you to focus, the more organized and productive you will become.”
Once you know what distracts you, you can figure out ways to deal with those distractions, which brings me to the next point . . .
For each distraction, think of ways to make it harder to engage with it. What barriers or strategies could you put in place? Are there any tools that could help you focus better?
For example:
Dealing with distractions from the outset (before you sit down to do your work sprints) makes it easier to stay focused and on track.
Many of us have become used to constant stimulation; without it, we feel anxious. This is why we reach for our phones and scroll through our feeds as soon as we experience a slight pang of boredom.
If you can relate to this, you will benefit from engaging in a daily meditation practice.
If you’re new to meditation, I recommend starting with the following tiny habit of doing a micro-meditation:
After I put on my shoes, I will pause and breathe in and out three times.
Not sure how to meditate? Close your eyes and focus on your breath, going in and out. If a random thought enters your mind (and it will), notice it and let it go. Then, return your focus to your breath.
Alternatively, you could listen to a guided meditation using an app such Insight Timer.
Clinical psychiatrist Dr John Ratey describes exercise as “like a little bit of Ritalin and a little bit of Prozac”. It’s powerful stuff.
Research shows that physical movement can help us focus better and learn faster. In terms of counteracting stress and boosting our mood, movement is like getting a biochemical massage.
This is one reason getting on my treadmill and doing interval training has become a non-negotiable part of my day. In the words of Tara Schuster:
“[Working out] is my preventative measure against the anxiety that lurks in my mind. I must throw myself out of bed in the morning and make it to the gym because I will always, always feel better for it.”
By warming up my body through physical movement, I’m able to warm up my brain by bathing it in feel good chemicals.
Deliberately exposing myself to the discomfort of running also helps me sit with the unpleasant feelings that arise when faced with difficult work. As Alex Soojung-Kim Pang states in his book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less:
“Exposing yourself to predictable, incremental physical stressors in the gym or the playing field increases your capacity to be calm and clear headed in stressful real world situations.”
On the days when I skip my morning run or a weightlifting session, my wellbeing and productivity take a hit. I don’t feel as mentally sharp or confident about tackling my work. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to get distracted and give in to instant gratification during a work sprint.
Can you do anything in the evening to prepare for your morning work sprints? Completing a few quick tasks before bed can help you conserve energy the next day.
Here are a few simple things I like to do in the evening to get ready for the day ahead:
Doing these simple things allows me to carry out my morning routine with ease. Then, I can hit the ground running with a clear, focused mind for my first work sprint.
If I check my phone for messages and engage in frivolous texting first thing, I crave distraction and the dopamine hits that come with it for the rest of the day.
For these reasons, I have implemented the following tech rules:
This may sound extreme, but these restrictions are incredibly liberating. As the author of the book Stand Out of Our Light, James Williams states:
“Reason, relationships, racetracks, rules of games, sunglasses, walls of buildings, lines on a page: our lives are full of useful constraints to which we freely submit so that we can achieve otherwise unachievable ends.”
By blocking myself from digital distractions and all the noise that comes with it, I can focus on chipping away at the projects that are most important to me.
Just like a chef prepares all the ingredients before cooking a dish (i.e. they create the mise en place), set yourself up with everything you need to do your work. The last thing you want is to get a few minutes into a work sprint and realise you need to go find a pen that works.
If you have everything you need within arm’s reach, it’s easier to stay focused on the task and get into a flow state.
Once the warm-up phase is complete, we move into the sprint phase. Now, it’s time to do the work.
If you’ve done the work in the warm-up phase, the sprint phase is a lot easier. All you need to do is:
There’s no need to feel rushed as you work. You’re not competing with anyone else. This is not a race. It’s totally fine to take things slow.
Don’t expect the sprint phase to be pleasant. Even after a fabulous warm-up, you will most likely feel some discomfort and resistance about doing the work. This is normal.
You’ll feel the urge to run from this discomfort. But instead of running from it, befriend it. Remind yourself that the point of these work sprints is to move the needle on the things that really matter to you.
When the timer goes off, take a moment to acknowledge yourself for showing up to do the work. Remember, this practice takes practise, and you just got some reps in.
Now it’s time to rest. You’ll probably have some momentum by now, so you’ll feel like pushing on but stop what you’re doing and step away from your work. As Ali Abdaal mentions in his book Feel-Good Productivity:
“Rest breaks are not special treats. They are necessities.”
I’m not going to lie: this phase has been the hardest for me to master. As someone with workaholic tendencies, I’ve had to work hard at getting rest.
Why is the rest phase so important?
Because the longer you focus, the harder it is to maintain your focus. The act of focusing depletes your brainpower.
The best way to recharge a depleted brain is to rest.
Like focus, rest is a skill. It takes practise. You have to be able to resist the lure of busyness and our fast-paced, always-on culture.
Here are some of my favourite ways to rest and recharge at the moment:
Whenever I find myself wondering whether to keep working or take a break, I ask myself:
“What kind of boss do I want to be for myself? A mean-spirited, hard taskmaster? Or a generous, caring boss who looks out for their employees’ wellbeing?”
The answer is simple: I choose to be a generous boss to myself. Therefore, I give myself permission to rest.
I’ve come to see each of the phases of working like a sprinter (Warm-up, Sprint, and Rest and Recovery) as critical to staying healthy and balanced. Through trial and error, I’ve learned that skipping the warm-up or rest phase or going too hard in the sprint phase can lead to chaos and exhaustion.
As you cultivate the practice of working like a sprinter, significant things will happen to you. Not only will you notice that your productivity goes through the roof, but you’ll experience mental calm and clarity like never before.
As digital distractions no longer dominate your day, the noise of the world gets dialled down. You’ll find it easier to tune into what you need and what matters most to you.
I cannot stress enough that this is a practice that takes practise! One or two sprints won’t cut it. You need to persevere for long enough to experience the incredible benefits of this powerful practice.
Dr Jane Genovese delivers interactive and engaging study skills sessions for Australian secondary schools. She has worked with thousands of secondary students, parents, teachers and lifelong learners over the past 15 years.
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