WEBVTT - Boosting endurance, with Dr. James Hewitt 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:09.280 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning, 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:14.680 This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:16.959 episode is going to be a longer one part of 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:20.000 the series where I interview fascinating people about how they 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.000 take their days from great to awesome and any advice 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.599 they have for the rest of us. So today I 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.280 am delighted to welcome doctor James Hewitt to the show. 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.400 James is a human performance scientist and the author of 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.880 the book Regenerative Performance. So, James, welcome to the show. 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:36.360 Thank you, it's great to be here. 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:38.559 Yeah, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:39.280 about yourself. 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.360 So I've been fascinated with human performance for as long 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.080 as I can remember, and certainly a long time before 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.879 I called it human performance. That fascination started when I 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.760 was a kid. I was always fascinated by anything that 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:58.960 went fast, so think space, rockets, racing cars, anything with wheels. 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:03.400 And eventually that interest led me to discover this sport 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.360 called road cycling racing. And so I was enamored by 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:09.640 this idea that you can hit speeds of one hundred 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.880 kilometers an hour on tires if you centimeters thick and 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.080 It's amazing what you can convince yourself is a good 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:19.000 idea before your preference of cortex is fully developed. But 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:21.800 to cut a long story short, I moved to the 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:24.720 Santa France to pursue this dream of becoming a pro cyclist. 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:27.679 That didn't work out, so I returned to the UK 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.640 to study sports science, eventually set up a coaching business, 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.520 ended up working with what I call knowledge workers now, 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.000 so people who think for a living, because I found 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:38.520 out that as much as I wanted to work with 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.960 pro athletes, they couldn't afford to pay me, and ended 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.640 up working with these really interesting people who had very 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.040 demanding jobs in London, where I was based at the time, 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.560 who for some reason, after working eighty hours a week, 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:52.520 wanted to go and race one hundred and eighty miles 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:57.120 every weekend. And this led to this fascination with the workplace, 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:01.600 but also this revelation but the same things that were 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.559 holding them back from performing well on their bike were 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.840 also stopping them from reaching their potential in their professional life, 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.360 and this really often came down to this imbalance between 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.600 efforts and recovery, and so I ended up developing this 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.360 conceptualization of knowledge work thinking work like a cognitive endurance 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:25.760 activity where optimal performance, peak performance, sustainable performance, however you 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.799 want to frame it, emerges from this integration of effort 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.520 and recovery rather than this endless pursuit of being always on. 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.840 And that's been my area of focus and passion for 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.960 the best part of fifteen years now excellent. 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.040 So there are parallels then, between even what we're doing 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.880 sitting at our desks and someone cycling, you know, hundreds 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.760 of miles. There is a parallel there are you're saying. 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:54.639 Yeah, absolutely, I think there's several. The most fundamental I 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:58.520 think relates to a general principle that sustained performance for humans, 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:03.200 whether it's cognitive or physical, relies on us oscillating between 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:08.240 periods of deliberate effort and effective recovery where we recharge 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.480 and regenerate, and if we get that mix right, then 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:13.680 we don't just bounce back, we can actually get stronger 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.760 over time. There's this really interesting concept in sports science 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.280 that some of your listeners may have heard of called supercompensation, 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.760 and it describes how if we induce a load, we 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.639 work hard, actually following that we experience fatigue. Our performance 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.959 might drop even but it provides a stimulus for growth 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.320 that if we have the right resources available in the 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:38.320 context of sport, that might be adequate nutrition, enough sleep, 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.280 enough time, then we don't just bounce back, we actually 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.560 get stronger over time. And that general principle I think 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:46.920 applies to the workplace too. And if you think about 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:51.040 a career, for example, what at one time would have 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.800 felt overwhelming early in a career, over time actually feels 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.920 very manageable because we are super compensating. We're learning to 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.600 tolerate and grow through that load. Unfortunately, sometimes we can 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:05.080 get that relationship between effort and recovery wrong. In sport, 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:10.120 you might describe that as overtraining. Technically we call it 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.720 non functional overreaching, which isn't very memorable, is it. But 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:18.400 in a workplace we might call it burnout, and that 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:20.719 can be quite challenging to recover from. In a similar 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.400 way that for athletes, overtraining or this nonfunctional overreaching can 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.000 be difficult to recover from. So at a very fundamental level, 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.080 I think there are general principles that govern cognitive and 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.240 physical effort, and we can use those general principles to 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.080 try and design work and life in a way that 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:39.920 might enable us to achieve our goals, but do so 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:41.800 in a way that doesn't harm our health and well 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:42.760 being in the process. 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.479 Well, that whole idea of effective recovery, I think a 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:50.359 lot of people are unclear what that would actually mean, 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.720 right that, what does it mean to have rest that 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.200 has a function as opposed to just being when you 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.080 stop doing whatever you are doing. 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:04.080 So I often think about this in three dimensions, and 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:05.960 anyone who speaks to me for any length of time 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.160 soon picks up on the fact that I think in 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.919 frameworks for better or worse, and maybe too much. So 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.839 sometimes when I think about recovery, I'm often thinking about 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:20.800 the replenishment of three at three dimensions, three of resources 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:22.840 or three types of resources. You could think about it. 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.280 So we've got physical resources, we've got emotional resources, we've 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:30.719 got cognitive resources. So there is an aspect of recovery 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.560 from both physical and cognitive effort that is physical. We know, 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:39.800 for example, during sleep, that adequate quality sleep actually involves 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:43.720 some physiological processes, some physical processes in our brain. They 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.000 think it might even be associated with some type of 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.440 cleaning process associated with something called the glymphatic system, which 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.520 you can almost think about as the plumbing for your brain. 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:56.240 And we also know that recovery has this emotional component. 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:01.680 Many of us will have experienced this. Imagine your typical workday. 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.000 We hold it together with our colleagues. For the most part. 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.880 You might be in a difficult meeting. You hold your tongue, 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:10.680 you stay quiet. There's a difficult interaction with a colleague, 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.640 but you're self regulated and you're calm and you say 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:15.800 the right thing, and you get home and you're with 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.359 loved ones, family friends. They often get the worst of 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.960 us because we're emotionally depleted and we need environments that 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:27.000 will help us to emotionally recover, to restore those emotional resources. 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.800 For some people, that might be people who recharge them. 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.560 For others, it might be time on your own. And 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.039 then finally, we've got these cognitive resources that need to 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.880 be restored. You know, we're deploying cognitive resources all day. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.960 We're solving complex problems, we're switching between tasks, we're under 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.600 time pressure, and at the end of the day, we 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:49.479 need time. We need space where cognitive load decreases so 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.000 that we can restore those cognitive resources. And again, you've 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.240 probably experienced this. You know, you get to the end 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.600 of the day and you've been making difficult decisions, you've 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.599 been solving complex problems, you've been pulled in more directions, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:01.920 but you're on top of it. And you get home 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:03.719 and someone says, well, what do you want for dinner? 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.080 And he said, I've got no idea. That feels like 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:12.680 an insurmountable decision. And because we're cognitively depleted and so 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:14.720 we need to be in environments where we can restore 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.160 those cognitive resources. But unfortunately many of us live and 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.960 work in a way where that recovery doesn't happen, where 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.360 you know, we're under emotional stress. Sometimes that's out of 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.880 our control outside of work. Sometimes though, it's within our control, 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.920 because we end up doom scrolling social media and seeing 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:33.640 all the terrible things that are happening in the world. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:35.960 Not to say that we want to ignore those things, 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.520 but the access that we have to this constant stream 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.800 of terrible news is very unnatural for a human. For 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.040 most of human history, that wasn't possible. Similarly, cognitively, we 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.240 sometimes engage in kind of pseudo work. You open our 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.440 laptop and are we really productive or are you just 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.200 trying to distract ourselves from something else or make ourselves 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:01.000 feel better because we're still working and finally, physically, sometimes 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.840 inadvertently we end up compromising our physical recovery without realizing it. 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:06.960 And the classic example of that for many knowledge workers 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:08.600 is you get to the end of the day, you 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:10.960 have a glass of wine. You think it relaxes you, 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.960 and it might do psychologically in the short term, but 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.760 even a single glass of wine can impair your physical 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.360 recovery by about ten percent because of its disrupting the 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.600 effect on sleep. So I hope think that gives you 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.320 a bit of an idea and a framework to think 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:25.080 about recovery. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.600 Absolutely, Well, we're going to take a quick ad break 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:29.240 and then we'll be back talking about how we can 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:39.120 use this knowledge during an average work day. Well, I 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.679 am back talking with doctor James Hewitt, who is a 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:46.040 human performance scientist and the author of the book Regenerative Performance. So, James, 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.000 we've been talking about the various things that you know 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.040 we need to recover on these various dimensions. I would 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.040 imagine even during the course of a work day. It 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:54.480 doesn't need to just be at the end of a 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.199 work day that we build in how these moments of regeneration. 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.800 What might it look like a workday to build in regeneration, 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.400 so we aren't reaching the point where you know, by 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:07.959 three pm people have kind of lost it and are 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:09.560 having nothing else good happen after that. 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.280 So my number one tip would be to tackle what 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:19.959 it's sometimes described as productivity theater, and this describes this 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.760 challenge that many of us have that we feel a 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.920 need to look busy rather than being able to focus 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:30.320 on being productive. And that might look like meetings that 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:33.200 you attend because of fear of missing out rather than 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.679 feeling that you truly add value, or trying to make 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.640 sure that your kind of status in your communication channels 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:43.880 is active and responding to chat messages continually just to 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.920 show that you're online, rather than being able to focus 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.720 on your highest priority tasks, and as a result of that, 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.640 we end up in this state of continuous what you 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:57.240 might call constant partial attention, rather than being able to 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.880 really focus when it matters and then properly recover. So 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:03.120 my number one tip would be to try and tackle 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.480 some of that, to really think carefully about when we're 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:09.439 falling into this pattern of pseudo work of partial attention 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:14.000 and try and create opportunities where your focused in periods 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.160 of more deliberate attention, and then you have time to recharge. 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.680 And those recharge moments can be effective even if they're 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.200 only five or ten minutes long. Sometimes they're called micro breaks, 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:25.800 And to give you a practical example of that, it 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.319 might be that you reduce your default meeting length down 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.280 from thirty minutes to twenty five or from sixty to 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:36.920 fifty to create these little microbreaks in between, rather than 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.600 having kind of the intensity and the utility of the 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.400 meeting just drift off at the end and fall into 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.800 that kind of pseudo work pattern. Or maybe because the 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.119 meeting's only half an hour versus sixty, instead of everyone multitasking, 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.520 everyone's fully present and engaged, which creates a bit of 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.480 time for people to take breaks. So it's really about 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.920 being deliberate about those microbreaks, and it might be that 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:58.240 you even put them in your calendar, if we put 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:02.120 everything often in our current except for time to recharge. 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.560 But I often encourage people to think about it like 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:06.439 a pit stop. I've worked quite a lot in most 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.240 sport in Formula one over the years, and I often 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:15.160 talk about microbreaks like cognitive, emotional, even physical pit stops 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.559 that you introduce at brief periods throughout. 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:22.000 The day, absolutely, and if I'm managing a team, what 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.480 can I do to create an environment where people are 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:29.480 not as tempted to do these bits of productivity theater. 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.120 I think the fundamental driver of a culture which enables 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:39.840 people to work effectively and also rest efficiently is that 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.880 the leader creates an environment where there's people experience psychological safety, 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.280 which is underpinned by trust fundamentally, because the data would 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:52.400 indicate that a significant portion of this productivity theater is 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:57.120 driven by the gap between how productive employees feel and 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.080 how productive leaders think their team their teams are being, 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:05.320 and that trust gap often ends up getting filled with 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:10.400 this productivity theater. So I think leaders need to really 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.640 think carefully about whether they're creating environments where people feel 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:18.800 supported or surveiled. And unfortunately, in remote and hybrid settings, 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.720 we're seeing this trend towards time monitoring activity monitoring software, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:27.320 which in my view is really counterproductive because you're eroding 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:30.480 that psychological safety. This is all part of a bigger 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.400 topic around how do you truly measure productivity in knowledge 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.360 work where we think for a living. I think there's 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:41.520 a bigger conversation about perhaps needing a shift towards focusing 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:46.320 on outcomes rather than hours worked. You know. Unfortunately, there 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:50.960 was a survey published which suggested that many HR executives 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.120 still believe that high performers work longer hours, which indicates 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.400 that there's still this general belief that hours worked are 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.840 a good proxy for productivity. That may be the case, 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.320 but often it isn't. So as a leader, are you 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.640 creating an environment of psychological safety? Are you trusting people 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.200 to produce the outcomes you've asked them to produce, regardless 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.199 of how long that takes. But the third thing I 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.720 would say to leaders is what behaviors are you modeling? 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.319 So you might choose to schedule those micro breaks in 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.800 your calendar and make that visible to your team so 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.320 that there's implicit permission for them to do that too. 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:31.480 You know, John Maxwell, Leadership Gury, said decades ago, leaders 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.679 reproduce who they are, and I think that is incredibly 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:40.079 pertinent to many leadership behaviors, but perhaps particularly to this 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.880 balanced between effort and recovery, where if leaders aren't visibly 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.720 recovering taking these micro breaks showing that we want people 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.360 to work really hard but also to rest, well, it's 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.599 very unlikely that their teams are going to do that independently. 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:56.680 So what advice do you have for I mean, a 0:13:56.679 --> 0:14:00.920 lot of my listeners are people who have kids at home, 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.920 for instance, which means that time off work is not 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.080 automatically going to be rejuvenating right like that. There's going 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.000 to be a million things going on over the weekend. 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:16.199 The evening is spent getting people fed, make sure they 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.800 do their homework, go to bed, all that stuff. It's 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.080 not exactly naturally going to be rejuvenating activity. What can 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:26.040 people in those situations do to make time off work 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.480 still feel restorative given that you still do have to 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:31.480 go in and put in your time the next day. 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.160 I mean, it's going to sound pretty obvious, but for me, 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.920 it's about trying to find ways to emphasize the quality 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.280 of the recovery and accepting that the quantity is probably 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.120 going to be compromised. I mean, I can relate my 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.200 wife and I've got two kids. They're a bit older 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.160 now their teenage at where they're eleven and fourteen, we've 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:51.560 got a teenager, but we have had many years of 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.480 when you're not working outside of work, it's kind of 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.600 a different kind of labor often a lot of emotional labor, 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:00.560 if not physical labor of having to just do you stuff. 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.560 So I get it. You know that the life can 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.480 be tough inside and outside of work. But what I'd 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:08.600 often encourage people to do, and certainly we've tried to do, 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.320 is to find these moments where you can do at 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.720 least something to restore you, even if it's only brief. 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:20.840 So there's a really interesting framework called the Recovery Experiences framework, 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.600 and it describes four different experiences which can be really 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:29.120 helpful for restoring those resources cognitive, emotional, physical, even The 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.160 first aspect is that we try and find an opportunity 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:36.680 where a cognitive and physical load does decrease. That might 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.040 involve five minutes where you literally put your feet up 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.040 and change your posture. Inevitably you'll be interrupted by someone 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.840 wanting something, but try and enjoy those five minutes while 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:51.800 you're doing it. So relaxing. In contrast, some type of 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.880 activity can be really helpful. Now you might not have 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.120 time to go to the gym, you might have time 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.960 to do something structured, but could you may be shift 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:02.720 you can meet around so that you can integrate a 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.440 ten minute walk, so park slightly further away from the 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:07.920 office if you're driving, so you have to walk to 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.040 your car. Might not be possible for everyone, but it 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:14.400 may be possible for some integrate these micro movements, these 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.440 bits of activity post work, and that can have quite 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:21.880 a significant positive effect. The third component is regis something 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:26.560 called mastery mastery experiences, and this describes the restorative effect 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.440 of doing something ideally non work related, where we can 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.840 experience a sense of progress and achievement. Now for some 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.440 people that might be hobbies, but for people who are 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.560 really time constrained, I can suggest have you thought about 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.760 trying to find a book that you like and it 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.280 could be fiction, maybe not, but many people find that 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.960 even five minutes of reading each day gives them this 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.360 sense of progress, and particularly it's something they're interested in 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:57.080 that engages them. And the fourth component is control, being 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.840 able to experience something where you've got a sense of 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:06.920 autonomy over your time. So you're doing something where you're 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.000 choosing to invest that time and energy in the way 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:10.879 that you want to again, even if it's only for 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.920 a short time. So we've got relaxation, we've got these 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:19.880 mastery experiences, control experiences, and then ideally we should experience 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.200 a sense of detachment where hopefully we get this sense 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.120 of mental distance and there's even for a brief period 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:29.640 an ability to experience some time away from those work 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.359 related thoughts. So try and find those little opportunities in 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:35.520 your pace work, even if it's five or ten minutes, 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.800 and empersise quality over quantity, and you might find that 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:40.520 your experience some benefits. 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.280 Absolutely. Well, We're going to take a word more quick 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:44.840 ad break and then I'll be back with more from 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:54.040 James Hewitt. Well, we are back. I am talking with 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.879 doctor James Hewitt, who is a human performance scientist and 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.480 author of the book Regenerative Performance. We've been talking about 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.399 ways to have little micro breaks during the workday and 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:05.840 also maybe seese moments of rejuvenation even if we have 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.560 a busy personal life, kids at home and things like that. 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:15.080 So we often talk about productivity routines on this show, 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.720 and I really enjoyed your sort of making fun a 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.919 little bit of morning routines in your book that you 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:28.080 mentioned that few morning routines survive the first contact with Monday. 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.040 I'm curious if you have any morning routines now that 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.880 you've do now or have tried in the past ones 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:39.320 that are more sort of sustainable or realistic for busy people. 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.800 To my morning routine. The only thing that is really 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.080 pretty much non negotiable for me is that first coffee 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:52.080 of the day and trying to be mindful and present 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.600 when I'm making and drinking that coffee. So I'm a 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.400 big coffee fan, and I've got a really over elaborate 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.520 orange neared espresso machine at home, which I love, and 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:04.840 one of the things I love about it is that 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:09.680 it's a very manual and involved process. The grinding, the distributing, 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.280 the grinds, the kind of the tamping, all that kind 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:14.639 of stuff that anyone who's obsessed with espresso like I 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:17.240 am will know. But that process of just being present, 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:21.560 of making it, of drinking it for me has a 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.560 grounding effect each morning, and obviously the caffeine helps a 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.000 bit as well. And so what it encourage people to 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:29.359 do is, if you do find that some type of 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:34.120 morning routine is helpful, try to find the minimum viable 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.080 expression of that routine, because many people do find that 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:42.119 having something consistent is helpful. My challenge is when people 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:45.640 believe that you need this super elaborate kind of five 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:49.120 step routine and because the problem is it ends up, 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.399 instead of supporting peak performance, which is what a lot 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.840 of these influencers would say, actually ends up reinforcing fragility 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:58.440 because when life gets in the way and you can't 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.600 follow this elaborate morning routine that influencer has told you must, 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:04.399 suddenly you start the day feeling bad that you failed. 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:07.760 So try and find that thing for you. Maybe for 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:09.760 you it is coffee. For other people, I know, it's 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:11.680 like again, maybe reading a little bit of a book, 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:13.760 might be going for a walk, might be walking the dog. 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.320 But can you find a five minute practice that grounds 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.000 you and provides that level of consistency so at least 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.639 you start the day on your schedule, which I think 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.479 is the key really, rather than feeling like you're always 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:28.120 starting it on someone else's. 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.440 Yeah, well, having something that you can actually succeed at 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:33.120 doing is a good way to start the day, because 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:35.720 there's nothing worse than starting the day feeling like a 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.879 failure already and it's not even seven am. So we 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.600 don't want to do that to anyone. So James I 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.439 always ask my guests a question, which is, what is 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.600 something you have done recently to take a day from 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:48.680 great to awesome. 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:56.400 So for me, it's about rediscovering the value of time blocking. Now. 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.560 The funny thing is is I've realized that a lot 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.200 of the things that I write about and speak about 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.639 are probably related to the things I really struggle with. 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.240 And a lot of people think I'm a really organized person, 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.600 and I really aspire to be, but I think my 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.280 default state is actually quite chaotic, and so I've had 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.080 to create all these routines and systems and processes to 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:24.120 try and deal with my underlying chaos. And I fell 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.800 out their habit of something that I always used to do, 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:28.560 which was to plan my day and look at her 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.600 to do list in a very action oriented way and 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.000 give myself specific time blocks for the things that I 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:36.400 needed to do. And it was because ironically I had 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:38.880 so much to do. It felt overwhelming that I felt 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:41.120 like I didn't have time to do that little planning process, 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:43.760 which is just ridiculous because it's probably when I most 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:46.959 need to do it. But I've reintroduced that and it 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:49.400 not only has it made me feel calmer and more 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:52.360 in control, it's actually helped me stay focused because these 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.679 time blocks giving myself a target I need to achieve 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:59.000 X in fifteen minutes helps me to avoid getting distracted 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:02.520 and pulled into other things. So that has helped me 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:04.639 shift from a good day, which is I get a 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:06.720 few things done, to a great day, which is not 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:08.119 only do I get things done, I do it in 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.640 a way that feels efficient, effective, decisive, focused, and I've 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:13.560 got time for other things outside of that as well. 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:18.000 Absolutely, time spent planning is almost always returned back to 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:21.440