Be an EggHead!

A coworker of mine recommended a book to me a few weeks ago.  The Power of Full Engagement.  It’s primary message is that full engagement, maximizing production and efficiency in anything you do, requires not the management of time, as we have all been programmed to believe.  Instead, success in life and relationships is dependent upon efficient energy management.   This energy management is important along four dimensions: Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual.

I’ll blog more about it later, but I like to get tools that I learn out to those around me as fast as possible.  So we can all help one another- every day.  So, how can this help you today, tomorrow, the next day?  Well, contrary to what I’ve always thought about life, about work, about relationships- that it is a marathon- I’ve learned the opposite may be true.  That life is a series of sprints, at least for those who are successful.  In fact, the more I read, I think life mirrors interval training where athletes expend tremendous amounts of physical, emotional, mental, and sometimes spiritual energy when they play a game or practice.  They are trained and conditioned, then, to recover.  To allow their bodies to heal, their minds to rest.  To even get away from the game for a day or two to recharge the battery.

As “corporate” athletes, as the book calls us, we run a steady marathon.  Seldom are we fully engaged, in large part because we are energy deficient.  There needs to be a balance between energy depletion and energy restoration, something our work culture makes hard to accomplish.  But, the results are common sense.  If we train the biceps every day, we aren’t adequately recovering so that the muscle will grow to meet the new demands.  If, on the other hand, we do biceps once every four months, our muscles use a little energy to grow, but then recuperate too much to the point of atrophy.

In the workplace, the interval ‘training’ method might be a more effective way of getting things done and, more importantly, staying fueled and energized.  Pick a duration of time that you will sprint through work, addressing one or two key projects or assignments at a time.  A block of 1 to 1 1/2 hours works best.  Without disruption, complete the task from start to finish.  Upon Completion, take a break to recover.  Walk around the building.  Sit outside in your car for ten minutes to listen to music.  Close your office door and stretch.  However you do it, take several minutes to regain energy and enthusiasm.

Then, refreshed, return for your next interval.  Approaching work like an athlete will increase your enjoyment level, decrease your anxiety and stress, and help keep you rested, motivated, encouraging, and, most importantly, productive.

Try it out and let me know what you think.  To help keep you on task, here’s a cool tool.  It’s a computer countdown that accepts any time limit you wish.

http://e.ggtimer.com/