I’ve written a couple posts discussing chapters from Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This one is about Working Your Ass Off, probably my favorite because I love doing the work for my goals. I love that grind where you are making progress.
I think everyone has heard the saying “work smarter, not harder” and I hate it. I think it should be “work smarter and harder”. The whole smarter not harder concept is about finding better and more efficient ways to get things done. However, these efficiencies don’t mean you don’t have to work as hard. Figuring out a better way to do something means you can operate at a higher level; you can do more and make more progress towards your goals, your vision.
Habit stacking is a way for you to make better use of your time by doing two or more things, that make progress, at the same time. There is only so much time in the day to get things done. Habit stacking is maximizing the use of that time. That’s when you’re really working your ass off. Not wasting time is the easy stuff. We all know what a waste of time looks like and committing to not doing them is how you deal with it. Habit stacking is trickier because you are already doing something productive with your time. Now you are trying to find something else to do at the same time without screwing that up.
That is why I love hot yoga so much. It is by far my favorite habit stack for running.
Heat and mobility
I added hot yoga to my training almost a year ago and have been super happy with it. I tried it before a few times and enjoyed it but it never stuck; it wasn’t something I was considering for running. This time around, I saw it as a habit stack and it immediately snapped into focus.
It’s a no brainer that mobility is important for running.
- Helps stride efficiency
- Reduces risk of injury
- Improves balance and body awareness
Yoga is a great source for mobility exercises.
Heat training is also surprisingly very helpful. Sauna sessions is a way to do it however hot yoga gets me both in a single session; that is a huge time saver. I have always been able to justify the time spent on mobility; I could never fit in regular sauna time though.
Heat gives you runner’s blood
Heat exposure, whether from a sauna or a hot yoga room, drives real adaptations that matter for runners. The biggest win is that it will increase plasma volume by 4-15%. That is the liquid part of your blood. Bumping it up improves cardiovascular efficiency. In other words, your body is more effective at delivering oxygen throughout your system.
So by changing the location of where I do stretching, I get this win for free. That is why I love hot yoga as a running habit stack.
Make more space with habit stacking
The bigger idea here isn’t just hot yoga. It’s where else you can stack two or more habits that align with your vision. Don’t forget that what you do needs to support at least one of your goals otherwise you won’t be stacking; that means watching cartoons while on the treadmill doesn’t count.
I have two main areas where I try to habit stack. The first, of course, is my running. Here my body is engaged but my mind is relatively free. I’ll pretty frequently plug into an audiobook or podcast for professional development. I also love working my way through language phrase books which I have ambitions of helping me have deeper experiences when traveling.
The second is at work. When working on a project, I am always looking to create mentorship moments at the same time. I mean if I am going to get something done, I want others to learn at the same time. That helps engineers grow while at the same time empowers teams to deal with similar projects and challenges in the future. It’s a win win for everyone involved and ultimately helps build a stronger engineering community.
Being successful at working your ass off isn’t just about banging out hours. It’s about maximizing the value of each hour you’re putting in.
Find your habit stack
If you take a look at the things you regularly do, you’ll find lots of opportunities to habit stack. A key to getting started is that it needs to be a thing you enjoy doing. Trying to learn to habit stack with something you hate is hard because you’ll get distracted by hating it and probably won’t end up doing it regularly; it probably doesn’t aligned with your vision either.
Pick a thing you do regularly and think what else can you do at the same time that aligns with your vision. Easy things to pick are ones where your mind is relatively free, like exercise, running in my case. Then it is about picking content that engages your mind that helps you make progress to one of your goals. It is okay if you can’t pay complete attention to that content; I often have to re-listen to audiobook chapters for them to sink in; it’s more for phrasebooks.
We all want more time in the day to get important things done. Habit stacking is a way to make that time. It might not be perfect but you end up making better use of the time you have. Making more progress is still making more progress than you were before.
Push Pace 