I’m at conference this week and as I was listening to a monologue on creativity vs productivity, the speaker started to talk about recovery and I started to think about triathlon.
“…to do lists, life hacks and morning routines are making us less productive.”
Easily converts to training plans, stealth training, and the 5am starts.
Yes 
“To Do Lists” are utterly garbage.
“Life Hacks” aren’t hacks at all, they’re just knowledge 
Morning routines are also horrific.
I don’t have an alarm any more.
Just wake up whenever (…that’s whenever the damn puppy starts howling for a pee 
)
There’s been loads written about this.
I get loads done each and every day without a list.
Don’t have anything saved on Netflix, Amazon either.
There is no “must watch” or “must read” in this house 
It’s a dumb premise really. Productivity and creativity are two distinct things. In business they are both required but by their nature, can’t play well together.
If the premise is ‘how to be more creative about being productive’, well then that’s different.
Most people with kids at home have to make friends with 5am, or be out at 10pm. I don’t hold with the ‘everything training wise has to be invisible to the family’ and thankfully neither does Mrs FP.
People do what works from them though and most of us adjust as we go. There is no law to say that ‘you have to do it this way forever’.
Sometimes schedules work, sometimes they don’t. Mainly it depends on what you’re training for and what’s going in life.
You put a list up just yesterday 
Most weeks we see a Poet list 
I find to do lists are best written after you’ve done some stuff. That way you’re always on track.
That wasn’t a “To do” list
That was a “list of things I’ve done” and “stuff to keep me entertained this afternoon”
With a caveat that some of it may be moved to 2023 
I’m just reading a book called “4000 weeks- Time Management for Mortals” which is about this stuff. 4000 weeks being a human life time. Only so much you can do, choose the things you want to do, don’t sweat so much about the stuff you never get round to etc.
Verdict out for me on the book at the moment, not sure if I like/ recommend it or not yet. Has the feel of an airport read - which is in fact where I saw it.
Well as far as work is concerned I already encourage my staff to keep regular hours and not work late, now maybe putting breaks between meetings.
“Cognitive load” is what destroys me, switching from one subject to a completely different one every 30mins.
As far as training goes we already have the concept of recovery front and centre. Maybe simpler workouts, simpler weekly structures could be a good idea too.
I recently changed so every day is either a (double) run day or a (double) bike day. Office days are bike days. If I miss a workout there’s no more catching up, it’s simply the next day run or bike.
I find to do lists useful for work. We use team ones for different pieces of work whether more long or short term and break them down into smaller peices as appropriate, currently using DevOps. But I find writing what I am going to do that day useful. I write it at the end of work with what I need to do next. If I am coding I will also comment where I was, what issues if any I have and what I think I need to do too resolve them.
Life hacks are nonsense though.
What are the morning routines they are on about?
This feels like another thread which would get a lot more confessionals in the lounge 
At work I use one big thing, three little things not a shitty to do list.
Write that out before you check emails and have other people’s priorities distract yours. Unless other people is your boss and they are telling you to do something different.
Well yes, but I was trying to make it about triathlon not work! 
Let me know. Heard it referenced a few times. He talks quite well about the idea of it being a question of what you want to not do and willing to miss out on, rather than chasing everything that feels like it would be good.
Career advice to me was what do you want to do on a bad day/what still gives satisfaction when it goes wrong. Rather than automatically thinking being a brain surgeon (insert other perceived glamorous speciality) would be cool.
OK - the ironic thing is I’m a pretty slow reader & would probably use up 1 of those 4000 weeks just reading his book. So that leaves 3999 & frankly I’m doubtful whether this is the best use of life. That said, got another flight soon so maybe will read the rest of it then.
Big Thing: go to work
Little things: have a coffee, take lunch, have an afternoon stroll.
There
Like it. Easy to remember too- same as how you make an an apple and blackcurrant smoothie
Specifically about training, one thing that stood out to me recently was that article in the papers about the ?Dutch guy who set a new WR for age 70+ marathon, was it about 2h48 or something really impressive.
He said he felt the secret of his longevity in the sport was training by feel. Not following a programme or trying to get more in, but listening to his body and figuring out what was needed day by day & adjusting to that.
Kind of made sense, especially as I get older & realise that at some point the body is going to say “no thanks” to a long run or interval session, and that will probably be worth listening to. Think I can understand what he means at nearly 50, in a way I would not have done at say 30.
Things you need to ToDo?
Our list always starts with “which will cost us most if it doesn’t get created/delievered” and work our way down