Best Productivity Habit of 2007

The best Productivity Habit that I managed to establish in 2007 was walking or running every day.

This started out as a drug-free way to lower my cholesterol, which was a bit high. I wasn’t especially overweight or unhealthy – I was seeing a personal trainer once a week. But still, a blood test showed my cholesterol at 6.7. Mind you, the HDL/LDL ratio was right in the middle of the normal range, so it wasn’t a tragedy…

Regardless, it came as a shock to the system, so I thought I’d do something about it.

The question was of course, when would I find time for that? I was already having trouble fitting everything in.

I figured that the best way to make sure it happened was to DO IT FIRST. So I started getting up 30 minutes earlier, at 5:30.

This was a bit difficult the first week, but I committed to myself to stick it out for the week. In that 30 minutes I could walk about 2km and I was happy with that.

The surprising thing was that by the end of the first week I was feeling pretty good. I started to feel part of an elite group (there’s not many people that you run in to at 5:30am – but you do see the same people every day!). I really liked that I was doing something positive while most people were still sleeping.

Successful people do what unsuccessful people won’t do…

By the second week, I was running a little. Where I live is VERY hilly, and I struggled with the uphills.

By the third week, I was running more, and I started to notice that even though I was getting up earlier, I had MORE energy during the day! Also, I was chuffed that the habit was starting to feel like it was sticking.

About a month in, I was running 3.2km (2 miles) non-stop, and that was taking about 23 minutes. I found that if I missed a day, I would feel quite bad, and this would motivate me to make sure I never missed 2 days in a row. I’ve seen this trick on other blogs. It works.

In 365 days that year, I probably missed less than 10 days. On rainy days, I would walk with an umbrella, or just run anyway. It really doesn’t make much difference. I felt a bit like Forest Gump – I was run-ning…

Quite accidentally, I lost about 6kg (I think that’s about 13.5 pounds). Wow, that felt good – I wasn’t even trying. I also found that running is better for my back that walking. Sometimes if I walked I’d end up with a sore back – I must have dodgy posture. Running seems to hold everything in the right place.

A lot of people say they can’t run because of their knees, and after about 2 months my knees started to complain. I talked this over with my chiro, and he said it’s usually because of tight ITB muscles. He gave me a stretch to do before and after and it’s been fine since. This isn’t the stretch he gave me, but I’m sure it’s just as good.

Anyway, I’m please to say that this habit has stuck for almost a year and a half now. I’m now running 5km almost every morning, and I’ve started getting up even earlier so I can get more distance. Interestingly, I had NO TROUBLE getting up earlier, I just decided to do it and it happened.

I had a very demanding working year last year, and I just know that being physically fit really helped me get through it. It has also given me a perspective on getting older that I never had before. When I see people only a few years older than me with limited movement, limited capabilities, I think “what is your retirement going to be like?” My vision of ‘retirement’ involves a lot of travel and just a lot of doing stuff; I figure that being fit is an important pre-requisite for that.

The best part of this habit is that most of it happens now before I’m even fully awake J And really, the hardest part of it is getting out of bed. The rest just happens – and getting out of bed isn’t really that hard.