How to save energy and perform better

(an unlikely lesson from a 100-mile run)

Author

Eric Hinman
August 21, 2024

read time: 5 minutes 

Welcome to The Movement Memo, a bi-weekly newsletter where I share actionable tips to help you live your best day ever, every day.

Today's Programming 

Today's Movement 

Complete as fast as possible: 

  • 20 Burpee Box Jump Over

  • 400 Meter Run

  • 5k row

  • 400 Meter Run 

  • 20 Burpee Box Jump Over

Your friends either raise your ceiling or lower your floor. Choose wisely.

Today's Quote

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

— Stephen Covey

Most of us become a slave to our schedules.

Our time is our most precious resource.

It is up to us to choose how we use it.

If you don’t create your priorities, you will become a tool to accomplish someone else’s. 

Today's Lesson Learned

The one line that kept going through my head when I was watching the Leadville 100-mile run this past weekend:

How do these runners make it look so easy? 

It seems like an oxymoron but let me explain.

When you’re a type-A, high-performer, (and if you’re reading this you’re like me) you often make things harder than they need to be.

You like working hard.

You genuinely enjoy the work that goes into achieving big goals.

This is your greatest asset in many ways.

You won’t get anywhere in life without working hard.

But often that is your Achilles heel: if things are “too easy”, you start making them more complicated than they must be.

You work hard for the sake of working hard, which doesn’t benefit your highest leverage goals.

You begin to get in your way.

So rather than gritting your teeth, putting your head down, and working harder pick your head up and ask yourself, how can I make this easier?

  • How can I save energy now to be able to perform better later? 

  • How can I 2x my output but maintain the same input? 

  • How can I double down on the areas that feel like play? 

Watching the best ultra-runners in the world was a master class in this. When they passed through the checkpoints, hours before the rest of the field, they looked like they weren’t even trying.

In reality, they were pushing their bodies to the absolute limit, but their perceived effort was low.

They were relaxed, running tall, and only extending as much energy as the course demanded at that time.

They were efficient and did not waste any extra effort. 

But this got me thinking, how can I apply this to my own life and work?

The first move in taking control of your effort is understanding where it’s slipping away.

For the next seven days, document how you spend each 60-minute portion of your day. Use a spreadsheet or notebook to track this information.

Then, reflect by answering the following questions:

1) Value Analysis

  • Top-tier tasks (Actions that require minimal perceived effort and generate a high ROT return on time)

  • Mid-level tasks (Actions that require moderate perceived effort and generate an average ROT return on time

  • Lower-priority tasks (Actions that require maximal perceived effort and generate a low ROT return on time)

2) Effort Analysis

Evaluate how each activity affects your energy levels and the perceived effort to complete these tasks. 

(A great tip for this is to use Google Calendar and add corresponding colors to each time block in your schedule. At the end of the week you have a very accurate picture of where your energy and effort go). 

3) Streamlining Analysis

Before jumping into delegation, cut the fat. Ask yourself:

“Is this meeting, action item, or work block 100% necessary?”

If not remove it from your calendar and no longer accept these types of meetings or assignments. 

4) Automation Analysis

For the tasks that remain, consider: “Can this task be automated?”

If you find yourself doing the same thing more than twice, odds are you can automate it. Hire someone to build automations for routine tasks.

5) Delegation Analysis

For the remaining tasks, determine: “Can I pass this off to someone else?”

If so, write down the name of the person who can take it over.

If a task is taking energy from you, or you find yourself gritting your teeth to get it done, hire someone. They will be more excited about the work, and do a better job, and you can reinvest your effort into higher-leverage activities. 

Here is my reflection, after performing this thought experiment: 

Personal Commitment Statement: I will drop some of the balls I am currently juggling through: 

  • Delegation

  • Automation

  • Elimination

Action Items:

 Delegation: 

  1. Hire a team to help with content strategy and editing  

  2. Hire a virtual assistant to help execute emails and action items from meetings

 Automation: 

  1. Use AI to take notes from meetings

  2. Leverage AI for assistance in script creation

 Elimination: 

  1. Save and share responses to FAQ

  2. Create systems for connecting people who will benefit from knowing one another.

The best in the world at their craft are specialists at one specific thing (ex: ultra-marathon runners). They make it look easy because they are operating in their zone of genius.

Where are you wasting your energy and effort working harder than you have to be? 

 Today's Optimization

When I was in my late twenties, I was out of shape. I had no education about healthy eating, exercise, and their effects on energy, mental
clarity & well-being. I hired a personal trainer and started competing in triathlons. I started to recognize that movement was medicine for me. It was fueling my well-being.

So I now live by the moniker Movement is Medicine and that's what these Kane x Eric Hinman 2 collab kicks are all about. If you are wearing these you are living by the motto of “movement is medicine".

Know friends, training partners, or co-workers who would take value from weekly tips on a healthier lifestyle, enhanced accountability, and improved routines? Thanks for sharing!

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Publisher: Eric Hinman

Editor-in-chief: Bobby Ryan