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Speaker 1: You're tackling a huge project, something that will take you

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Speaker 1: multiple months, if not years. Maybe you're writing a book,

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Speaker 1: learning a new skill, or trying to build a workout routine,

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Speaker 1: So how often should you work on it? Common sense

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Speaker 1: might suggest you take it easy, space out your sessions,

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Speaker 1: make sure you don't get burnt out. But what if

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Speaker 1: the opposite is true. My name is doctor amanthe Imba.

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Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science

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Speaker 1: consultancy Inventium, and this is how I work a show

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Speaker 1: about how to help you do your best work. On

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Speaker 1: today's My Favorite Tip episode, we go back to an

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Speaker 1: interview from the past and I pick out my favorite

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Speaker 1: tip from the interview. In today's show, I speak with

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Speaker 1: Sam Wood, who you've probably heard of, and maybe you're

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Speaker 1: even one of the half a million people who have

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Speaker 1: used his health and fitness program twenty eight by Sam Now.

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Speaker 1: Sam is not surprisingly incredibly fit, but even Sam has

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Speaker 1: mornings where he doesn't feel like exercising, So how does

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Speaker 1: he overcome that inertia?

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Speaker 2: Do you have.

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Speaker 1: Mornings where you just don't feel like exercising or moving?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Lots, Yeah, how.

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Speaker 1: Do you push through that? What strategies are you using.

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Speaker 2: I'm quite good at bottling in a weird way.

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Speaker 3: The feeling I have when I finish, you know, like

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Speaker 3: whenever I finish a hard workout in particular, I'll take

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Speaker 3: a little moment of reflection, God, I feel so good

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Speaker 3: right now, Like I hated that and I was dreading that,

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Speaker 3: and I nearly didn't do that, but I did it,

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Speaker 3: and I'm kind of proud of myself for doing it.

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Speaker 3: And I sort of bottle that feeling and that's and

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Speaker 3: I then draw on that feeling when I need it

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Speaker 3: in the mornings. But again, I'll listen to my body

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Speaker 3: a bit. You know, I'm pretty flexible with it. You know,

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Speaker 3: I'll know if I'm really not feeling it, i might

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Speaker 3: just take the dog for a walk, you know, which

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Speaker 3: to me is completely pleasurable and there's no real discomfort there.

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Speaker 3: I enjoy every second of it. Get a coffee, go

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Speaker 3: for a walk, whatever it might be. Whereas, if I'm

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Speaker 3: feeling a bit more motivated, I'll challenge myself with one

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Speaker 3: of those harder workouts that we spoke about. But you know,

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Speaker 3: one of the bits of advice I give to tens

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Speaker 3: of thousands of people nearly weekly. Is it's the workouts

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Speaker 3: you do on the days that you don't feel like

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Speaker 3: at the count the most.

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Speaker 2: And I almost you know, have that imprinted on my

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Speaker 2: own brain. But I also it just gets easier over time.

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Speaker 3: I genuinely believe that, you know, once this does become

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Speaker 3: a habit, I don't there's not too much thought involved.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I don't wake up and have this you know,

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Speaker 3: bait with myself, or there's not too much toing and throwing.

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Speaker 3: You know, you know you need to do this, but

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Speaker 3: do you really It's kind of just like, yeah, this

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Speaker 3: is just what I do now, and and you know,

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Speaker 3: I really do feel it mentally. You know, the physical

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Speaker 3: side of things is great, but there wouldn't be that

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Speaker 3: much of a different physical benefit if I'm trained at midday.

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Speaker 3: It would just be less likely to happen and the

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Speaker 3: world gets chaotic and all these crazy things happen and

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Speaker 3: then disrupts your working day and all these other things,

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Speaker 3: so and I wouldn't feel as good mentally.

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Speaker 2: I just I'm a bit grumpy.

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Speaker 3: In the mornings, you know, when I say I go

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Speaker 3: and exercise and then I get back with the rest

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Speaker 3: of my family. That's to everyone's benefit. I'm a bit,

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Speaker 3: you know, I'm a bit of a slow waker opera.

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Speaker 3: And I think, you know, getting some water in and

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Speaker 3: having a black coffee and getting some exercise in and

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Speaker 3: then and then having the energy to tackle for crazy

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Speaker 3: kids and a wife trying to juggle it at all

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Speaker 3: is a good thing for all involved.

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Speaker 1: I like it. I dear that it's every day and

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Speaker 1: it's just what you do. It reminds me. I've had

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Speaker 1: me a freedman on a couple of times, and for her,

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Speaker 1: she exercises every day. And one of the reasons why

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Speaker 1: she does that is there's no room to negotiate.

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Speaker 2: It's not like.

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Speaker 1: Should I exercise because of course you exercise because it's

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Speaker 1: an everyday routine. And I thought that was quite interesting.

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Speaker 3: I love that black and white rules are much better.

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Speaker 3: Gray rules are dangerous, I think, and I see that

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Speaker 3: with lots of people that I work with every day,

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Speaker 3: work with in the office, but work with to help

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Speaker 3: them get into good habits. And I agree with me.

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Speaker 3: I think, if you can tell yourself, no, let's just

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Speaker 3: make today one of the two days I don't exercise,

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Speaker 3: it's very easy for that argument to sneak into your

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Speaker 3: head almost daily, whereas if that argument doesn't exist because

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Speaker 3: there's seven days in a week and you move your

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Speaker 3: body seven times, I think that I can understand exactly

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Speaker 3: where she's coming from, and I agree with it totally.

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Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this excerpt from my chat with Sam,

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Speaker 1: you might want to hop into the show notes and

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Speaker 1: click on the link to listen to the full interview.

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Speaker 1: If you're looking for more tips to improve the way

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Speaker 1: that you work, I write a short fortnightly newsletter that

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Speaker 1: contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me

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Speaker 1: work better, ranging from software and gadgets that I'm loving

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Speaker 1: through the interesting research findings. You can sign up for

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Speaker 1: that at Howiwork dot com. That's how I Work dot co.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing part of your day with me

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Speaker 1: by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for

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Speaker 1: more tips on how to work better, connect with me

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Speaker 1: via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just

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Speaker 1: search for Amanthaimba. How I Work was recorded on the

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Speaker 1: traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the Cool

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Speaker 1: and Nation. I am so grateful for being able to

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Speaker 1: work and live on this beautiful land, and I want

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Speaker 1: to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging.

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Speaker 1: How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support

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Speaker 1: from Dead Set Studios, and thank you to Martin Nimba

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Speaker 1: who did the audio mix and makes everything sound better

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Speaker 1: than it would have otherwise