Speaker 1: You're tackling a huge project, something that will take you
Speaker 1: multiple months, if not years. Maybe you're writing a book,
Speaker 1: learning a new skill, or trying to build a workout routine,
Speaker 1: So how often should you work on it? Common sense
Speaker 1: might suggest you take it easy, space out your sessions,
Speaker 1: make sure you don't get burnt out. But what if
Speaker 1: the opposite is true. My name is doctor amanthe Imba.
Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science
Speaker 1: consultancy Inventium, and this is how I work a show
Speaker 1: about how to help you do your best work. On
Speaker 1: today's My Favorite Tip episode, we go back to an
Speaker 1: interview from the past and I pick out my favorite
Speaker 1: tip from the interview. In today's show, I speak with
Speaker 1: Sam Wood, who you've probably heard of, and maybe you're
Speaker 1: even one of the half a million people who have
Speaker 1: used his health and fitness program twenty eight by Sam Now.
Speaker 1: Sam is not surprisingly incredibly fit, but even Sam has
Speaker 1: mornings where he doesn't feel like exercising, So how does
Speaker 1: he overcome that inertia?
Speaker 2: Do you have.
Speaker 1: Mornings where you just don't feel like exercising or moving?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Lots, Yeah, how.
Speaker 1: Do you push through that? What strategies are you using.
Speaker 2: I'm quite good at bottling in a weird way.
Speaker 3: The feeling I have when I finish, you know, like
Speaker 3: whenever I finish a hard workout in particular, I'll take
Speaker 3: a little moment of reflection, God, I feel so good
Speaker 3: right now, Like I hated that and I was dreading that,
Speaker 3: and I nearly didn't do that, but I did it,
Speaker 3: and I'm kind of proud of myself for doing it.
Speaker 3: And I sort of bottle that feeling and that's and
Speaker 3: I then draw on that feeling when I need it
Speaker 3: in the mornings. But again, I'll listen to my body
Speaker 3: a bit. You know, I'm pretty flexible with it. You know,
Speaker 3: I'll know if I'm really not feeling it, i might
Speaker 3: just take the dog for a walk, you know, which
Speaker 3: to me is completely pleasurable and there's no real discomfort there.
Speaker 3: I enjoy every second of it. Get a coffee, go
Speaker 3: for a walk, whatever it might be. Whereas, if I'm
Speaker 3: feeling a bit more motivated, I'll challenge myself with one
Speaker 3: of those harder workouts that we spoke about. But you know,
Speaker 3: one of the bits of advice I give to tens
Speaker 3: of thousands of people nearly weekly. Is it's the workouts
Speaker 3: you do on the days that you don't feel like
Speaker 3: at the count the most.
Speaker 2: And I almost you know, have that imprinted on my
Speaker 2: own brain. But I also it just gets easier over time.
Speaker 3: I genuinely believe that, you know, once this does become
Speaker 3: a habit, I don't there's not too much thought involved.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't wake up and have this you know,
Speaker 3: bait with myself, or there's not too much toing and throwing.
Speaker 3: You know, you know you need to do this, but
Speaker 3: do you really It's kind of just like, yeah, this
Speaker 3: is just what I do now, and and you know,
Speaker 3: I really do feel it mentally. You know, the physical
Speaker 3: side of things is great, but there wouldn't be that
Speaker 3: much of a different physical benefit if I'm trained at midday.
Speaker 3: It would just be less likely to happen and the
Speaker 3: world gets chaotic and all these crazy things happen and
Speaker 3: then disrupts your working day and all these other things,
Speaker 3: so and I wouldn't feel as good mentally.
Speaker 2: I just I'm a bit grumpy.
Speaker 3: In the mornings, you know, when I say I go
Speaker 3: and exercise and then I get back with the rest
Speaker 3: of my family. That's to everyone's benefit. I'm a bit,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a bit of a slow waker opera.
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, getting some water in and
Speaker 3: having a black coffee and getting some exercise in and
Speaker 3: then and then having the energy to tackle for crazy
Speaker 3: kids and a wife trying to juggle it at all
Speaker 3: is a good thing for all involved.
Speaker 1: I like it. I dear that it's every day and
Speaker 1: it's just what you do. It reminds me. I've had
Speaker 1: me a freedman on a couple of times, and for her,
Speaker 1: she exercises every day. And one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: she does that is there's no room to negotiate.
Speaker 2: It's not like.
Speaker 1: Should I exercise because of course you exercise because it's
Speaker 1: an everyday routine. And I thought that was quite interesting.
Speaker 3: I love that black and white rules are much better.
Speaker 3: Gray rules are dangerous, I think, and I see that
Speaker 3: with lots of people that I work with every day,
Speaker 3: work with in the office, but work with to help
Speaker 3: them get into good habits. And I agree with me.
Speaker 3: I think, if you can tell yourself, no, let's just
Speaker 3: make today one of the two days I don't exercise,
Speaker 3: it's very easy for that argument to sneak into your
Speaker 3: head almost daily, whereas if that argument doesn't exist because
Speaker 3: there's seven days in a week and you move your
Speaker 3: body seven times, I think that I can understand exactly
Speaker 3: where she's coming from, and I agree with it totally.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this excerpt from my chat with Sam,
Speaker 1: you might want to hop into the show notes and
Speaker 1: click on the link to listen to the full interview.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for more tips to improve the way
Speaker 1: that you work, I write a short fortnightly newsletter that
Speaker 1: contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me
Speaker 1: work better, ranging from software and gadgets that I'm loving
Speaker 1: through the interesting research findings. You can sign up for
Speaker 1: that at Howiwork dot com. That's how I Work dot co.
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing part of your day with me
Speaker 1: by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for
Speaker 1: more tips on how to work better, connect with me
Speaker 1: via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just
Speaker 1: search for Amanthaimba. How I Work was recorded on the
Speaker 1: traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the Cool
Speaker 1: and Nation. I am so grateful for being able to
Speaker 1: work and live on this beautiful land, and I want
Speaker 1: to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging.
Speaker 1: How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support
Speaker 1: from Dead Set Studios, and thank you to Martin Nimba
Speaker 1: who did the audio mix and makes everything sound better
Speaker 1: than it would have otherwise