Time to (Re)Tune Your Clock Speed?

In a world where speed, competition and results often determine our “default” mode of operation, is it time to examine how well, or not, such a default mode is serving us, our families, our careers/businesses and our society?

?There is longstanding and irrefutable evidence (1) that lifestyle choices and the evolution of how we life and work is placing a significant economic, and personal health burden, on an increasing number of people, businesses and society in general.

Based on this mounting evidence, is it not incumbent on our current leaders and ourselves, to critically assess, what we have habitually come to accept as “best (performance) practice”.

In preparing this short reflection piece, I came to think about a term called “Overclocking”? that could be usefully employed as a great metaphor for how an increasing number of people are operating (often striving) in our modern busy world.

Overclocking is a term often used in the Computing industry (and also automotive industry). It is a process by which a microprocessor (or automotive engine) is tweaked to perform beyond its normal or design parameters. I am sure you can see the parallel with how many people may have become accustomed to operating in an “overclocked” mode, as their default. This is a fundamentally dangerous practice. The attached “overclocking” glossary (2) from Lenovo acts as a fun and novel way for us to better appreciate the impact of “overclocking” in our lives? By simply replacing “computer/CPU” with “person/I/me” will serve as a nice reminder of the potential benefits and pitfalls of overclocking.

Do you think you “overclock” in your daily life?

What does “being overclocked” feel like? (hint: feeling tired, angry, frustrated, short-tempered, other?)

How much time do you feel you are spending in overclock mode?

Are there days when you feel you are better prepared to overclock over other days?

Are you open to accepting this as a valuable metaphor for taking more responsibility for your performance, your health and the health and performance of your family and colleagues?

Do you feel there is merit in taking time to assess how much of your day (including evening/night hours) that is spent in “overclock” mode? Can you imagine the benefits of making small dynamic tweaks and tunes you can make to achieve more runtime within your optimal personal “design spec”?

Can you identify one practical step that you can build into your daily practice that will help you perform better, within your unique design spec? Every person possesses a unique set of skills and talents honed over a lifetime. Additionally, an individual's ability to perform at his/her optimal level is often highly variable from one day to the next, depending on a multitude of differing factors (including task complexity, sleep/rest quality, conflicting demands, to name but 3 among many daily life challenges)

Habitual “overclocking” comes with a heavy price and I would encourage you to reflect where you can make adjustments that assist you make better performance choices in your life (home and workplace).

Taking the time to answer the questions above could be a great door-opener for you, your family and your team to deliberately select a more sustainable and dynamically selectable pace (clock speed) that better serves you and everyone around you. Try it and see.

In the next few week’s I will be building on what I have invited you to consider here and outline some concrete steps you could consider and take to help you dynamically select a “clock speed” that best serves you, your family and your team, from your inside out.

I would love to hear your stories, experiences and ideas that you are considering as a result of this initial invitation to stop, notice and act in a way that you might not have allowed, or forgotten how to allow for.

I have included two additional resources (3,4) that I will be delving into in more detail in the coming weeks. The focus on these articles will be invitations to explore and take concrete steps that help you (and those near and dear to you) perform better and feel better, today and for years to come.

?References

?1. Lifestyle Diseases: An Economic Burden on the Health Services: https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/lifestyle-diseases-economic-burden-health-services

2. What is Clock Speed?

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/glossary/what-is-clock-speed/

3. How to Harness the Power of Reference Points – A Practical Guide To Pushing Your Limits

https://impossiblehq.com/reference-points/

4. From the necessity of Being Human to the possibility of pursuing a good life: Cognitive Enhancement and the emergence of personhood (Lopes and Stancioli, 2021) ?(https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/ethic/article/download/80030/46047/295685