All of the things.

Whilst life is short and time fleeting, it’s important to remember that the more things we have in our lives, the faster that time ticks away, and often, as I see it, a whole bunch of stress comes with it. 

We talk of life balance. And whilst in the past I have been a big proponent of making sure things are well balanced, and still do to a point, I’m also a firm believer in life being a see saw. But, we don’t have the capacity to do all the things, all of the time, all at once. When one thing gets more of our attention, another thing fades, it has to, or we run the gauntlet and inevitably spread ourselves too thin and end up fried. 

Whilst I’m no expert by any means, I am half decent at managing my time and workload. And while I’m far from perfect, I thought I would share some tips on things I do within my days to help ease the load across the all the things and make life run smoothly (most of the time).

Train early wherever possible - leaving sessions to the afternoon or evening often results in missed sessions. By getting it done early, it’s ticked off, and we can get on with being our productive A type selves for the rest of the day.

Batch and focus  - Instead of answering every email that comes through, as they come through, allocate some time each day, maybe twice a day, to answer emails. When I’m in my workflow, I’ll close my email browser and only have Training Peaks open. I’ll even turn my phone on silent and leave it in another room. One thing gets my focus at a time. This is what we call batching. I have to do this or I get scattered and frazzled and can’t get into deep focus. 

If you run a tight ship and a very busy schedule, OUTSOURCE all the things you don’t like doing and can pay someone less than your hourly rate to get it done. Otherwise, work less, have less things and more time ;-)

Spend time in nature - it’s like a battery charger for humans. I’m pretty sure there’s some good science to back up what happens to our brain waves when we spend time in nature. I sure as anything know that if I’ve been out on/in the ocean, or out in the bush running around, I’m buzzing with energy. Nature heals. This might actually take some time, but the payoffs are ten fold ;-)

Say no to things - you can’t be the best parent, friend, aunty, brother etc, unless you look after yourself and value your time. If you don’t have the time to do something, don’t do it, pass. 

In the name of performance in any area, especially achieving your endurance goals, you need to remember that all stress has an effect on the body in some way shape or form. Mental load from work or family stress impacts our ability to recover, sleep, make good decisions, and perform well physically. And vice versa. I hope the above tips can help in some way. Like anything though, we can only lead a horse to water, it’s up to you to take a drink and look after yourself.