If You’re Busy, Is it OK to Cut Back on Sleep and Exercise?
Work is getting out of hand. You are staying back later and later. Your social calendar is bulging with commitments. There just isn’t enough time to do everything. What’s the first thing that you stop doing?
1. Getting your normal amount of sleep
2. Exercising
3. Meditation / Having thinking time to yourself
It’s a general pattern that when time is short and we need to cut back on some activities to cope with a full workload, the first thing we do is cut back on something from the list above (if you actually do them at all!).
Why?
Because there aren’t really any short term ill effects from not doing them and also because they involve commitments to no one else but yourself. Generally, no one is going to jump and down at you if you don’t go for a walk in the morning or meditate at night. On the other hand, what if you decided to skip picking up your child from school tomorrow? No doubt your child, spouse, school and child protection officer would soon be letting you know what they thought.
Not that I’m advocating leaving children waiting at the school gates, but the fact is we underestimate the importance of sleep, exercise and time to ourselves. These are not optional extras. They are actually crucial activities with profound long term effects on our health, well being and productivity.
I don’t want to sound hardline on this, but the fact is even skipping these activities for a few days (when things get busy) is a dangerous practice. I’m sure we can all recall times when we took a break for a few days from an important activity that eventually turned into a week, then a month and then a few months! We do it because the effects of not attending to these activities is not immediate. But the damage builds up over time.
Of course, it’s easy to say “I don’t have time to do everything” and insist that if you could fit these activities in, you would. But let me ask you this: if you woke up late for work, would you run out the door in your pyjamas? No, you would get dressed. Some people would insist on having a shower. Of course by taking the time to get properly dressed, you make yourself even more late. But no doubt, you believe that being properly dressed when you leave the house to go to work is a necessity. Well exercise, meditation and a decent amount of sleep are also necessities. And until you accord these three activities their due respect, they will be jettisoned from your schedule every time something else comes up.
Action Step
Consider the importance you place on exercise, sleep and thinking time/meditation. How easily do these activities get pushed off your timetable?
If you value the contribution these activities make to your life, schedule them in. Schedule the time and the place you will do them. And don’t break the appointment. Keep the promise to yourself.
Kaizan, great topic, succinctly presented.
Hmm, exercise, sleep and time to reflect - these are so critical to peak performance that any attempt to “miss out” on them fails to really understand their manifold benefits:
- explosive energy levels;
- sustained motivation;
- more joyous mood;
- higher creativity and problem solving function;
- less stress;
- less sickness/faster recovery;
- younger looking
- lighter outlook (sense of humour);
- easier to be around (better relationships)
etc
I would be increasing - ramping up the level of exercise, sleep (quality & quantity) and reflection time. Make them daily. Treat them as you would any other essential daily activity (eating, personal hygiene :), getting dressed etc). These are things we don’t need to schedule in. They just get done.
Just a few thoughts to stimulate some discussion.
Best, Robin
[Reply]
Comment by Robin Dickinson — August 31, 2009 @ 10:48 am
Interesting topic. I think one of the keys to making exercise a priority is finding a form of exercise that you truly enjoy. Most people don’t exercise because they hate going to the gym. What’s funny is all of those things are interrelated. If you exercise you tend to need less sleep and you sleep better. You also tend to have a much more meditative state of mind of you exercise.
[Reply]
Comment by Srinivas Rao — August 31, 2009 @ 4:33 pm
Great post, Kaizan. I’m currently reading John Medina’s Brain Rules, which goes into specific details of the effects of sleep and exercise on the brain. Based on that and on my own experience, my sense is that the effects of shorting ourselves on sleep and meditation ARE immediate, and the effects of stopping exercise generally make themselves well known within just a few days. And yet often we don’t take the ill effects as a cue to change our behavior, either because we don’t realize that the effects are because of lacking sleep or exercise or meditation/time to ourselves, or because we have a hard time translating general intentions to specific plans.
I think the hardest thing is that getting more sleep or exercise or recharge time, especially when our schedules are strained to the limit, usually means giving something up, and that something usually has to come out of our recreation, which we tend to be very resistant to changing. Certain my own number one cause of getting to sleep too late is because I wanted to finish (or start) watching a movie.
Robin, I’m with Kaizan about the need to schedule these things: it’s easy to let them slip if we don’t create a clear, effective way about thinking how to change our existing habits.
[Reply]
Comment by Luc Reid at The Willpower Engine — August 31, 2009 @ 4:55 pm
Great to get the interaction, Luc. Brain Rules is an excellent book. Have you read any of Richard Restak’s brain maximization material?
SCHEDULING PLUS LEVERAGE
I certainly agree with the need to schedule these things initially. The real point I’m making is that the key to making them ‘automatic’ (non-negotiable in a scheduling sense) is to have compelling enough reasons to MUST do them.
For example, when I wake up, I wash, exercise, eat etc as part of ‘living the morning’. In this situation, to NOT exercise would be like to not eat - and that wouldn’t make sense. Eating is essential, as is exercise (IF you have enough leverage on yourself to MUST to do it). With enough leverage, the brain seems to always find a way to get it done. Generally speaking of course, I guess that’s why people always seem to manage to pay their rent on-time, make it to work, watch their favorite TV show, read their favorite blog (Kaizan Blog!
) etc
Scheduling plus leverage means no longer having to ‘fit things in’ or ‘balance’. Of course, to do this means bothering to spend (i.e. schedule) the time and focus to get that leverage. As you say in your latest blog post, Luc “we have to choose one and only one thing to concentrate on”. Wise words.
Best Luc, and congratulations on your excellent blog (and Kaizan for stimulating this interaction). Maybe we should all do a “round table” discussion/debate on this topic sometime. Would be fun.
Robin
[Reply]
Comment by Robin Dickinson — August 31, 2009 @ 9:37 pm
Not exercising or meditating regularly is like not changing the oil in your car:
You can skip it in the short-run when you’re really in a time crunch, but it’s not something you should ignore for long. In fact the longer one ignores it, the larger the problem gets… not only does performance decrease, but the engine is much less likely to last as long.
Good post Kaizan
[Reply]
Comment by Karthik Kumar | Between a Breath — September 1, 2009 @ 3:02 am
@Robin
Thanks for the comment. I hadn’t really thought of doing the opposite, i.e. increasing exercise and sleep when you get busy, but it’s an excellent suggestion. I agree with you that exercise needs to attain the priority of eating etc.
Can I ask you though, if you woke up late for a meeting, would you still exercise before leaving the house?
[Reply]
Comment by Kaizan — September 1, 2009 @ 8:45 am
@Luc
Thanks for the book suggestion.
I think the effects of cutting sleep and meditation are immediate but not (perceived as) serious enough to warrant concern. On the contrary if you went to work in your pyjamas, you’d probably get some serious feedback very soon.
@Srinivas
I agree its all inter-related. I think its easier to maintain a good habit like meditation if you’re also maintaining the habit of exercise. They support each other.
@Karthik
Your car example reminds me of the Stephen Covey example of a man sawing a tree with a blunt saw, and refusing to take the time to sharpen the saw because he is too busy trying to cut down the tree.
[Reply]
Comment by Kaizan — September 1, 2009 @ 8:58 am
Kaizan,
Love your response. BANG! You’re right on to it.
Well, you hit the nail on the head. I’ve developed a daily workout that takes 7mins to complete. This is my minimum standard every day, 365 days per year, no excuses. It is based on the 5-BX Program developed by the Canadian Airforce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5BX). Lots of flexibility, core strength and using your own body weight.
It’s like a spark plug that turbo charges me into the day, and helps keep me in top mental and physical shape. The evenings are when I do a minimum of 30mins of cardiovascular exercise - either swimming, running, mountain bike riding or a combination set.
So “Yes”, if I’m running late for a meeting, I will take a 3 min shower and definitely do my 7 min exercise set. It just means that I can give my best possible value at the meeting (then buy a new alarm clock!).
Best, Robin
[Reply]
Kaizan Reply:
September 1st, 2009 at 10:52 am
@Robin
Very impressive! I love the idea of a 7 minute exercise routine. So I feel compelled to give the 5BX a try.
And well done, for living up to your ideals!
[Reply]
Comment by Robin Dickinson — September 1, 2009 @ 10:21 am
Well done. Once you get into the groove and start to experience the results it becomes very easy to maintain.
Thanks for your encouragement.
Robin
[Reply]
Comment by Robin Dickinson — September 1, 2009 @ 11:31 am
Once again you have hit the nail on the head. I’m not sure about meditation but you are correct in saying about sleep and exercise. Is it the Stephen Covey book talking about important things and urgent things? The important things are put away when urgent topics are on the table.
[Reply]
Comment by Gerald — September 1, 2009 @ 2:26 pm
Exercise, sleep and thinking time/meditation.
They involve commitments to no one else but yourself.
I am going to write this down right now on a post it
This is so true! yet we seem to let things slip and say to ourselves, it doesn’t really matter
Once a gain another great article. Thank you! I await your next..
[Reply]
Comment by Jessica — September 1, 2009 @ 10:32 pm
Great post, Kaizan. In addition to checklists of things to do, I have to schedule in the exercise, coffee breaks, making grocery lists, meal preps, gardening, and even reading the sunday paper. If I don’t, I find myself slacking on all of the above activities.
[Reply]
Comment by Lisa M — September 2, 2009 @ 2:35 am
@Gerald
Yes it is that Stephen Covey book - 7 habits of Highly Successful People. Thanks for the comment.
@Jessica
Thanks for your comment. It’s ironic that we would never let down others, but we so readily break commitments to ourselves.
@Lisa M
As mentioned in the post, the best way to guarantee that something gets done is to schedule the time you will do it, but also the place. And get in the habit of making promises and keeping them. That’s often where people fall down. They set a schedule and then press the snooze button on their alarm clock.
Thanks for the comment!
[Reply]
Comment by Kaizan — September 2, 2009 @ 10:00 am
You must have been using me as an example to write this post!
I’ve started a weight training regiment a year back and kept at it without fail, but just recently, I gave myself slack. That 1 day turned into a week, then now a month. I always tell myself that I need to get back to it, but no action.
Thanks for the post, I’m going for a run.
[Reply]
Comment by Ken Kurosawa | Wasabi Burger — September 3, 2009 @ 3:42 am
Nice post. People forget that if you don’t put yourself first and keep fit and healthy very soon you won’t be any help to anyone.
Right im going back to bed….Kidding, ill get myself out for a run. Slavedriver.
[Reply]
Comment by Jonny | thelifething.com — September 3, 2009 @ 7:27 am
This is very relevant post. We are all faced with that squeeze play from time to time. I loved seeing your refernce to thinking/meditation time, the time that Covey refers to as Q2 time. That is that very first thing that we most often drop, and yet it is the most critical if we are going to find a way thru to the next level. Good work!
[Reply]
Comment by Wayne Key — September 3, 2009 @ 4:07 pm
@Ken Kurosawa
I’ve actually had a few people email me saying that they felt like it was about them!
Thanks for the comment
@Jonny
You’d better have gone for that run!
Thanks for the comment
@Wayne
I knew sleep and exercise were pretty universal, but wasnt sure if mentioning meditation / thinking time was going to strike a chord with everyone. As it turns out the readership of this blog is a very enlightened group!
Thanks for the comment.
[Reply]
Comment by Kaizan — September 3, 2009 @ 9:00 pm
Hi Kaizan. Great post as usual. Some years ago (maybe 15) I performed a little experiment on myself. You might liken it to a self-lobotomy. Somewhere I read that everybody can train themselves to get by on less sleep. So….complete waakko that I am…. I pared my sleep back to four hours a night. And? Worked perfectly. Except for the “Zombie effect”. If you’ve never been there, here’s a description. You wander around working at 20% efficiency while feeling awful. I therefore have some good advice for aspiring automatons. Don’t. But here’s something neat to think about. Everyone reading your posts is obviously confronted by the same dilemma. Namely, way too many things to do and far too little time. Rather than lobotomizing ourselves with lack of sleep to get things done though, I’d recommend something else. Learning how to be ourselves. Why? In short, it brings a profoundly Natural ability to prioritize. When being ourslves we know what’s important to us. Then it’s easy to fit our real priorities into our lives and let the gazillion other things fall away. How do you learn to be yourself? That’s too long a story for this post. Cheers. John Duffield
[Reply]
Comment by John Duffield — September 4, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
Well said. It seems like a common practice to cut back on exercise when we are busy minding other things. Cutting work out a day will soon lead to a week, and eventually the habit of exercising will die out.
[Reply]
Comment by Karlil — September 4, 2009 @ 1:39 pm
[...] about how essential habits like meditation and exercise can so easily get cut out of your schedule when things get busy. Most of the people who commented on that post agreed that they had times when essential habits had [...]
Pingback by How to Make Sure That Nothing Gets Between You and Your Good Habits | Kaizan Blog — September 7, 2009 @ 7:28 am
Kaizan, I love your posts, and your thoughts. They are so inline with what I’m often thinking about.
I think the key to this is schedule and planning. I’m 100% sure that if i didn’t plan out my week on Sunday morning, adding some buffers, looking at what needs to be done, and looking for possible things that could offset things like gym and reading, they wouldn’t get done. That’s why one of the single most important things we can do is schedule and plan. It’s the only way to get everything done. *especially* when it comes to things like sleep and exercise.
[Reply]
Comment by Russ Smith — September 7, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
[...] The Kaizan Blog offers some great advice in their post If You’re Busy, Is it OK to Cut Back on Sleep and Exercise? | Kaizan Blog [...]
Pingback by Stay healthy when you are overworked | Brain Friendly Trainer — October 16, 2009 @ 8:28 pm
sawbnvvu…
sawbnvvu…
Trackback by sawbnvvu — January 26, 2010 @ 1:54 am
Buy:Zocor.Lasix.Amoxicillin.Lipitor.Female Pink Viagra.Acomplia.Ventolin.Nymphomax.Cozaar.Buspar.Wellbutrin SR.Lipothin.Seroquel.Aricept.SleepWell.Female Cialis.Zetia.Advair.Benicar.Prozac….
Trackback by DARREN — July 2, 2010 @ 5:19 am
Buy:VPXL.Levitra.Soma.Zithromax.Cialis Super Active+.Super Active ED Pack.Cialis.Viagra Soft Tabs.Viagra Professional.Viagra.Viagra Super Force.Cialis Soft Tabs.Tramadol.Propecia.Maxaman.Viagra Super Active+.Cialis Professional….
Trackback by DAVE — July 21, 2010 @ 4:05 am
[...] If You’re Busy, Is it OK to Cut Back on Sleep and Exercise 31 Aug 2009. No doubt your child, spouse, school and child protection officer would soon be letting.. Love your response. BANG! You’re right on to it.. This is my minimum standard every day, 365 days per year, no excuses… Pingback by How to Make Sure That Nothing Gets Between You and Your Good Habits.www.kaizan.co.uk/…/if-youre-busy-is-it-ok-to-cut-back-on-sleep-and- exercise/ - If You’re Busy, Is it OK to Cut Back on Sleep and Exercise [...]
Pingback by Web site of the state - Web site - California state government web site — August 14, 2010 @ 8:07 pm
Center http://ubuilt-ini79.05KIAPARTS.US/tag/Miele+Center+coffee+built/ : coffee…
Center…
Trackback by Miele — August 30, 2010 @ 4:29 am