27 Apr A no-nonsense approach to Recovery for High Performers
When you look at High Performers and what prevents them from unleashing their full potential, you will rarely find that they are not working hard enough. They might not always work on the right things, but they are usually working as hard as they can.
What they usually don’t do, is paying enough attention to their Recovery. Often high performing entrepreneurs or executives think of Recovery as something only the weak need. This ingrained belief has played a huge part in the exponential rising burnout rates and decreasing effectiveness in companies and teams.
But since the definition of High Performance we use is ‘Succeeding beyond standard norms, consistently over the long term’, it is imperative that we do implement effective Recovery strategies so that those companies and teams can evolve from occasional successes to sustainable High Performance.
When you hear the word Recovery, you may think of taking a vacation, working less hours or perhaps it means a program people go through when they have an addiction and want to get better. But Recovery is much more than that. It is an essential component of High Performance and a strategic must-do if you want to succeed of the long term.
So how do we improve our Recovery?
As with the other High Performance Pillars, I created 4 steps that you can go through to master your Recovery. These are:
1. Routine
Creating a powerful routine will help you save energy and be more efficient throughout the day. The problem, however, is that most people have routines that will keep them stuck in place. Since I could write a whole bog post on that topic alone, let me just share with you what works really well for my clients and myself.
Every day I do 3 things. First of all, every morning I write down 5 things I’m grateful for. This will bring my focus on things that are going well in my life and that allows me to see more possibilities and positive things throughout the day.
The second step in the morning routine is writing down a Power List. Simply put, this is a list of 3 things that must be done today, no matter what! I will not go to sleep before these are done. This allows me to keep my focus on what is truly important and not get side tracked during the day.
At the end of every day, I highly suggest you take all the thoughts that are in your head and write them down. This is called a Brain dump. Not only will this bring peace of mind, because now your thoughts are in the real world where they can get dealt with, but it will also allow you to plan your days ahead so you can be as effective as possible.
2. Recharge
When you have your ideal routine down, things will go much more smoothly and you will find you have more time available to spend on things that matter to you.
However, some days will require more of your time and attention. That’s why it helps to plan ahead, not only for those taxing activities, but also your time to recharge afterwards.
For example, if you know May and June are the busiest months in your business, you can plan a week of vacation in July to recharge. Just like an athlete uses the off-season to recharge, you need to plan in your time to recover as well.
If all else fails and it’s impossible to plan ahead, just make sure you do one weekly activity just for you. This should be something you truly enjoy, something that energizes you and leaves you ready to take on the week ahead!
3. Reserve Time
Now that we have the basics down, it’s time to look a little deeper at where you are spending your time.
What I’ve found out after 15+ years of coaching High Performers is, that many will go to great lengths to save or make a buck, but don’t think twice about wasting their time in doing so. But let me tell you this…you can always make more money, but you can’t get back your time!
That’s where Reserving Time comes in. At this level of the game we will take a look at every 30 minute block of your day and see what exactly you are spending them on. Chances are that you are wasting a ton of time doing things that might seem like a good idea, but don’t bring any kind of ROI.
This exercise might seem overwhelming at first, but I guarantee you it will be worth your time! If you want to be more effective in what you do, you need to slow down first.
4. Rejuvenate
The final stage of Recovery is keeping your body mobile, energized and healthy. Of course this goes hand in hand with the High Performance Pillars Movement and Nutrition, but there are some things we can do to specifically increase our Recovery. Some great options could be a weekly sauna, a full body massage, frequent ice baths or active release techniques … As you can see these are all things that will help your body recover from the physical and/or mental stress it goes through every day.
I hope this blog post convinced you of the importance of Recovery and gave you some practical information you can start implementing in your daily life right now. If you like to know more about creating powerful Routines and Reserving time, check out my free video course on Time Management.
Following these tips and techniques, I guarantee you it will free up at least 90 minutes each day!
90 minutes each day which you can spend on things that are truly important to you, your business or your relationships. Not a bad deal right? So start implementing and as always, if you need help feel free to contact me. I’ll gladly help you on your road to sustainable High Performance.
Kennard Van Messem
High Performance Coach
Lieven
Posted at 14:45h, 02 MayPersonally I like to finish my day by writing down the 3 MIT (Most Important Tasks) for the next day. That way, I can stop working and shut my systems down, knowing that next morning my future self will pick it up. Then he doesn’t have to spend any brainpower in the morning (which is a time when that severely lacking anyway) trying to figure out what to do. It also avoids that I’m to easy on myself in the morning and cans tart crackin’ right away.
Interesting idea to add a brain dump though. Although it might be good to do that throughout the day on a piece of paper and then review in the evening?
Kennard Van Messem
Posted at 19:10h, 03 MayThat’s a great routine, Lieven!
It definitely makes sense if you know that you’re not much of a morning person to do these things in the evening.
As for the brain dump, it could be.
The systems should always be tweaked to the persons style or needs.
Personally I wouldn’t review these items during the evening, because then it will fire up my brain, get me thinking and before I know it I’m working again. So I like to use it more as a list of “raw thoughts” which I will review the next day during the time I blocked off for my creative processes.