Let’s face it, you’re capable of typing a darn good email. You can craft an effective communique, or to assemble a commanding presentation, or to close a sale.
No, instead, I have found my greatest challenge is plain and simple: the tough days. I don’t know about you, but on my best days, I notice my productivity is stronger for obvious reasons. I am rested. I am clear-headed. I am energized. These are good days. They are too rare.
It isn’t that professionals in relationship-focused roles can’t afford to have tough days. We can afford to strive for more good days. To everyone’s benefit, right?
So, to be more efficient on the job, more often, one must also be efficient at recharging in life.
How do we achieve this?
I studied up. A little digging yielded a research piece by the Harvard Business Review on Corporate Athletes, and an inspirational mantra called Ideal Performance State.
The HBR piece studied a series of overworked executives pulling 10-14 hours days. It posited that in our best moment, when we’re flying high on a workout high, or full of caffeine, or fresh off a vacation, we operate precisely how we’re meant to. It is sustaining that optimal condition that is difficult. I wondered if I could embody this?
I faced this like any other challenge.
If I recognize I am not functioning optimally and holistically, and all of my professional skills suffer for it, what am I doing to fix this?
I re-read the HBR report a few times. I isolated its main points. Then I took a hard look at my own habits.
Not long after, I had a spreadsheet charting how well I was doing in six categories with accompanying questions and goals. Chances were that if I could better train myself across all six like a proper athlete trains for gameday, I would operate at a higher professional level, with greater regularity.
- RITUAL - How to use routines as a positive performance influencer?
- PHYSICALITY - Can consistent exercise enhance my productivity?
- FOOD - Is Cinnamon Toast Crunch the best choice?
- EMOTION - What role can emotional intelligence play at work?
- MIND - Is it possible to temper and balance a mind?
- SPIRIT - What are my deepest values?
After two weeks, let’s see what I achieved, shall we?
no. 1 - RITUAL - How to use routines as a positive performance influencer?
Before we get started, you can follow along with what I ended up calling the Corporate Athlete Playbook [ANCHOR TEXT]. Perhaps my greatest unifier for this was the first task: the RITUAL. At the HBR piece’s advice, I made sure I set up appropriate timers and calendar blocks for myself, more effectively prioritized my hours (I formerly only had one alarm clock and no other moments set aside). Ticking off boxes in the sheet and tracking progress became a pathological habit for me. It also ensured regular, rhythmic oscillation between active and resting states, a proven tactic for a human body to achieve peak operation.
no. 2 - PHYSICALITY - Can consistent exercise enhance my productivity?
I personally use athletics as a time to be independent and attack a physical challenge alone. I grew up ski racing, playing golf, and most recently, rock climbing, all solitary sports. In the past, I could only really muster a few push-up or sit-up routines squeezed in while watching TV. RITUAL taught me that it must be divisible from other activities.
I needed to rest my brain muscle, to let it heal, to grow stronger. I began going back to the climbing wall after work at 6pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and then Saturdays at 10am. I found it to be restorative beyond measure, and was amazed why I ever stopped climbing in the first place.
no. 3 - FOOD - Is Cinnamon Toast Crunch the best choice?
Diet. That old standby. During my self-assessment stage in the beginning, I fared pretty well here, to my surprise. Still space to improve. I substituted sugary cereals (sorry, CT-Crunch) offered at HubSpot’s kitchens for oatmeal. I doubled-down on super-foods at dinner like broccoli, quinoa, beans, lentils, and avocado, making sure to also incorporate daily vitamins.
Energy consistency rose and my caffeine dependency waned from four cups of coffee to just one. I felt the regular workouts provide a metabolic boost and meditation helped reduce impulse-snacking, which we’ll touch on in a moment.
Lunch was still tough though. That company kitchen, man! Not willing to compromise, I ended up cooking lunches for the week on Sundays and supplementing them with fruit, water, and almonds from the kitchen instead of granola bars and saltier mixed nuts.
As an aside, I will add that having an open-minded significant other with a penchant for Googling: “healthy [FOOD] recipes,” helped make this task exciting to engage.
no. 4 - EMOTION - What role can emotional intelligence play at work?
Now we get into the more intangible aspects. The HBR piece inferred that innumerable hard workers’ emotional capacity dwindles as we hit the formless routine-rut. Focus and deep thought is given less frequently to almost all tasks. This happens when we are emotionally unchallenged, and I agree. How can I accurately convey my intent in a project, a task, or even a basic conversation, when my passion and emotion go underutilized?
To me, I draw emotion from creativity—my own and from others. While I am lucky that my PHYSICALITY task is a workout that also requires me to outsmart both my own body and gravity, I still felt it wasn’t enough. I blocked an hour at 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays for creative writing sprints (a tactic borrowed from TV-writer Jane Espenson). I also made sure I always (ALWAYS!) had a book beside my bed before going to sleep, and I loaded my phone with audiobooks through the Audible app to listen to on my commute, in addition to music.
Emotional intelligence starts with me. Then I can carry it over into the workplace.
no. 5 - MIND - Is it possible to temper and balance a mind?
Somehow tougher and easier than the EMOTION task. I realized I did nothing to center my mind before.
The answer was simple. Dip back into my hippie roots (Vermont never leaves you) and start meditating. Every day at 10pm, for at least 15 minutes. It’s a little silly to some people, so I’ll share my own “meditation” “regimen.”
- I sit cross-legged.
- I keep my back straight, like I’m posting on a horse.
- I allow the ebb and flow of countless thoughts while always focusing on long breaths.
- I describe the feeling of my clothes textures and the sensation of gravity to myself.
Weird, right? It isn’t approved by a certified yogi, but it clears my thoughts. That’s all that should matter. However you’re most comfortable clearing your thoughts and unlocking your right brain—knitting, playing music, model trains—schedule time to do it regularly. Remember how much we need to oscillate our minds. To rest and re-invigorate.
no. 6 - SPIRIT - What are my deepest values?
The toughest of all. It requires total self-reflection and honesty. It is the biggest “why?” of all the “why’s?” I still asserted it was important and different from the EMOTION and MIND items because I wrote down at the start of the the 2 weeks: “I’m not sure?”
While it can be a sticky subject to draw into the life of a corporate athlete, just know that I recognize it will be different for everyone. I understand SPIRIT as one’s deepest values.
Love for your family. Love for your silly little hobbies. Love for something you aren’t quite sure of yet. It needs to be addressed though. I didn’t know how to approach the SPIRIT. I still haven’t. I am committed to trying though.
Instead of doing nothing, I did something: I write something by hand every day. It is formless. It isn’t secret. It’s different every day. Sometimes it’s notes. Sometimes it’s silly, full of jokes, some good, mostly bad. I still feel it will reveal something to me someday.
That’s all there is to it. After two weeks, I now I’m staying on schedule, thanks to my RITUAL of tracking it in the playbook. I feel inspired by my self-challenge and the unexplored sections of mind and spirit.
Jerry Seinfeld once said that to become a comedian, you need to write a joke every day, and mark your calendar every day with a red X. Don’t break the streak, no matter what. It worked out pretty well for him.
I want more red X’s on my sheet.
-- Alex Crumb (originally published 11/18/14)
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