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