LeBron James can show you a thing or two about efficiency, productivity, and burnout.
During the 2017–2018 NBA campaign, LeBron James — largely considered the best basketball player on planet Earth at the time of writing — accomplished his openly stated goal of playing all 82 regular season games.
The NBA season is notoriously grueling, with “back-to-backs” (two games played in consecutive days, sometimes in different cities) and stretches of four games in five nights. Not to mention, regular regional and cross-country travel for eight-to-nine months a year, starting with the preseason in October, through the NBA Finals in June, which James’ teams have played in since 2011.
With all the minutes and strain LeBron James has put on his body since entering the league in 2003, you might think he’s especially fatigued and injury-prone. But James figured out what many players learn the hard way: He doesn’t run as much as his peers.
In other words, LeBron deliberately rests when he’s on the court, despite leading the league in minutes per game during the 2017–2018 season. You see, even though he led the league in minutes per game, James was 30th in miles per game (2.4), a third of a mile less than the league leader.
“It’s just about growing, maturing and understanding that you play smarter,” James told ESPN.
Yeah, you’ve heard it a billion times before: Work smarter, not harder. But this isn’t just about working smarter; it’s more about pacing yourself, or what James calls “picking your spots” and “trying to save pockets of energy.”
As sports writer Chris Hine observed:
“If you watch James, you’ll notice he does a lot of walking on the floor. He is trying to conserve as many energy bursts as possible for when he absolutely has to deploy them.”
‘Picking your spots’
In athletics, “picking your spot” means making a calculated decision to be extra-assertive, according to what’s needed or presumably most beneficial in the game at hand.
At work, and even in your personal life, “picking your spots” can mean a multitude of things, such as:
- Turning “no” into your default, and making seldom exceptions for saying “yes,” so you can focus on your most urgent and important tasks
- Planning time slots for completely interruption-free, highly focused production (Deep Work)
- Using periods of downtime to check more items off your “I want to do” list
By doing so, you’ll “conserve as many energy bursts as possible” for when you absolutely need (or want) to deploy them.
‘Saving pockets of energy’
Most people go through their workdays sprinting from the morning until the late afternoon or early evening (and sometimes later), trying to cram as much as possible into this timeframe, while becoming exponentially less efficient and productive in the process.
In sports, this is the equivalent of competitive suicide, since everyone knows: It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish. Games are rarely won in the first quarter, half, set, inning, et cetera.
Hence why Mark Twain’s quote about “eating a frog” first thing in the morning — that is, doing your most difficult task(s) to start the day — is just plain wrong. Why burn most of your fuel at the beginning?
Instead, during the start of a workday, or at the outset of an activity (e.g. exercise), “warm up” and develop some early momentum by knocking out easy-to-do tasks. And, when you experience lulls in energy during your day, try one of two things:
- Circle back to easier-to-do tasks — the equivalent of LeBron walking instead of running — rather than drudging through more difficult ones.
- Take longer breaks during your workday (e.g. exercising, going for a long walk, getting a haircut, meeting family or friends).
Recap
- Learn how to “pick your spots” by exerting extra energy, or more consciously applying calculated focus to certain areas, or during certain times of the day.
- “Save pockets of energy” by pacing yourself throughout the entire day, rather than trying to sprint through the colloquial 9-to-5.
There’s more where that came from at Hack My Time.
