Entrepreneurship | 4 Min Read
#16 - Being a Sprinter, Not a Marathoner
It's often touted that it's better to be a marathoner and not a sprinter? But, is it? In this week's edition, I share why I think being a sprinter is good.
Hey Friends 👋
Over the last few weeks, I've spent more and more time trying to come to grips with the right work-life balance. It's been a long process and I'm definitely nowhere near having it perfected but this week I wanted to take a moment to take a step back and reflect on something I've found that works for me and hopefully might work for you.
Firstly, I'm going to come straight out and say I don't believe there is a one size fits all solution to finding the right balance. Some people enjoy working more and some people less and that's okay.
Anyway, over the last few weeks, I know for a fact I've worked more hours than I typically do, this is for a variety of reasons but I believe the chief one is I took on more work. (Possibly, more than I should've but that's a story for a different day.) 😅
Now, I'm a keen believer in pushing yourself and doing things you haven't done before as that is how we grow and develop ourselves into who we want to be. But, in the same breath, I'm also well aware of the dangers of burnout and the long term implications it can have.
So, if we want to keep pushing ourselves and working more towards our goals without burning out, we need to find a way to maintain a high level of performance over a sustained period.
In a way, a good analogy would be a sprinter. They do short bursts of high-intensity many times per day for many days at a time.
Now, you may be thinking at this point but what about the trusted saying "it's a marathon, not a sprint?"
I believe that saying holds when thinking about work on its own. But, it falls when we think about the entire picture of work and life together.
A marathoner will run one long race for a few hours and then take a week or two off before the next one. But, a sprinter will maybe do 5 or so sprints in a day, followed by resting for the day. Then the next day, they sprint again, followed by rest. In other words, they are maintaining a high level of performance over a sustained period.
And, how do they do that?
Most importantly, they rest after they do the high-intensity work.
The rest is vital if they tried to sprint the same amount as the marathoner runs in a race, burn-out is guaranteed. But, because they rest adequately they have the energy to sprint day after day.
So, this is the logic I have been trialling for the last few weeks and have to say it's worked surprisingly well so far. A couple of high-intensity hours of work, followed by a few hours rest. (Or, even the rest of the day). Then more high-intensity hours the next day, followed by rest.
By prioritising my work for that day, I can get everything I need done in a few hours and then rest up knowing I've made enough progress on my goals in my "sprints" for the day.
Now, of course, this method will not work for everyone but I do recommend trying it and seeing what happens. Only time will tell for me if it is a solid approach for the long term but I hope it is. 😅
Anyway, I hope you have had an amazing week and I look forward to writing to you again this time next Sunday. If you're interested in sharing what you've done this week I would love to hear it. Feel free to reply to this email and let me know.
Until next week,
Coner x
🏃♂️ What I've Been Up To
This week has been awesome, we had an amazing Twitter Space on learning (see below), I started to work on my new Twitter Analytics SaaS (name TBC) and wrote some more articles for companies. 🙌
In particularly I'm excited about the Twitter Analytics SaaS and sharing more about this in the coming days and weeks as I build it. If you're interested in seeing it as I develop it, I'm sharing daily updates on my Twitter, so make sure to follow me to keep up to date.
Also, if you have any name suggestions I'd love to hear them because I'm awful at coming up with names...
🎤 DevSpace
This week we had an amazing conversation on learning and how to become a more effective learner. The new recording hasn't been uploaded to Anchor yet (thank you Twitter for only letting me request an archive every 10 days)...
As soon as I get the recording I will upload it to Anchor and share it.
But, if you really can't wait (which I can't blame you, it was a great space), you can listen to it on Twitter now.
Also, feel free to check out our previous episodes here.
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Questions
If you have a question you'd like me to ask me then I'd ask you to consider publically tweeting me it so others may be able to learn from it. However, I understand not all questions are suitable for the public domain in which case you can email me at hey@conermurphy.com
