What running everyday taught me about working better

It was shrove Tuesday, or better known as Pancake Tuesday 2018. I’ve no idea why, as I’m not particularly religious, but I decided that I should do something for Lent this year. What should I give up? Beer? Coffee? Then I thought, rather than give something up, why not do something every day instead. And so I did. I decided to run everyday of Lent, all 46(!) of them. I set off on Wednesday, ran 4.2km, and decided that was the shortest distance I would run each day. The first 6 days were great, the next 14 awful, and the rest pretty normal. In all I ran 262km in 46 days….and here is what it taught me about work.

1. Set a goal, make it vocal. Setting a goal, writing it down, and sharing it with the outside world is a great motivator to make it happen. I said I was going to run every day on twitter, so not only was I holding myself to account, others were as well.

2. Scheduling is key. Scheduling a run everyday was tough, but not impossible. I ran several times in London, Leeds, before work, after work, 11pm at night. If you don’t schedule something important in your work, chances are it won’t happen. Something else will come along, and you’ll put the unscheduled task on the backburner. At the start of 2018 I made a commitment to learn something new every week, an hour a week of scheduled learning time. I put times in my diary for the first 6 weeks, and I stuck to them. Week 7 there was nothing in my diary, I got busy, it didn’t happen. Schedule in time for important things.

3. Time to think. Running everyday gave me a great chance to just spend 30 minutes to an hour everyday just thinking. Time to think, especially for leaders is vital. I remember seeing something by Bill Gates on what he learned from Warren Buffet, “your time is the most precious thing in the world”. You must have time to think, especially as a leader. Having no time in your diary when you are not “doing” is unsustainable and will actually be a detriment to your organisation and your work. So make sure to schedule some time in your diary to just think!

4. Saving time. Having a run in my schedule and knowing the minimum amount I needed to get done, freed my mind from thinking about it. I probably would have wanted to do some kind of exercise on some of those days or felt guilty that I hadn’t. I would have wasted time and energy thinking I should do something, when instead I just did it. It actually saved me time.

5. Make progress. 46 consecutive days sounds like a lot. I took each day separately, but remembered they were part of a bigger picture. Everyday, even when the Beast from the East came, when I was running in snow up past my knees, even if it wasn’t pretty, I did a little bit on my 46 day project. Even if I didn’t feel like it, or it was hard, I did a bit. Any big piece of work, project, transformation or new business requires a lot of work. Some days will be easy, others will be hard, but just dedicate yourself to doing something, get your ideas down, make progress.