Training vs. Testing

I have a rare day with no scheduled meetings today. No internal discussions, no team member one on ones, no prospective customer presentations, no travel for conferences or events. I like activity, and days like this can drag on and feel unstructured. So, I like to combine focused work on my task list with a quick physical break after each completed item - a little exercise reward and a reset for my brain.

Today I'm doing two pull ups after each task completed or email sent. Sometimes that means two pull ups in a minute, then two more in another minute, then two more in another minute. Then I find a longer task to complete to give myself a breather, like writing this article. :)

And just like my tasks today - most of which are hygiene for our sales funnel, or reaching out to industry friends, or checking in on a prospective customer - a set of two pull ups isn't going to make me that much stronger. When I go for my annual physical my doctor isn't going to say, "Wow, you're so much stronger and healthier now than last year!" because I did two pull ups today. And we're not going to help dozens of colleges & universities create better experiences for their students, and help those students be more successful, and increase those universities' retention and student success rates all because of the contacts I make today or the preparation I'm making to on-board two new Account Executives at RahRah.

But that's not the point. A fitness trainer friend of mine once said most people usually exercise too hard and they have a mindset of testing when they should be training. I've certainly been guilty of this too often in the past. I go for a run and feel like I need to go farther and faster than last time. If I don't try to set a PR, what's even the point? So then I finish my run, and I'm in agony, and the next day I'm sore, and the day after that I'm even more sore, which makes me dread going for another run. Next thing I know it's been a week or two since I went for a run, and by then I'm out of the habit. My foolish attempts to hustle and grind and maximize today's workout come at the expense of daily consistency.

And because productivity is really important to me, for my team, and for my company's success, I'm trying to keep that training mentality especially on days like today. Put the work in and build the house brick by brick. It doesn't mean taking it easy (today has been really productive), but it means recognizing the right pace that will maximize productivity in the long-term, not falling into a cycle of sprinting and crashing.

And now this is another item checked off my list, and it's time for two more pull ups.