I am a runner. Which is to say that I like running and I run a lot. I am not competitive. Actually that is not true: I am competitive, I’m just not a good enough runner to be considered competitive. Anyway, I have been thinking recently about the link between running and productivity and what I have learned from the world of running to make me more productive.

Most runners are middle-of-the-road runners. They take all of their runs at the same pace. They run too slowly to get faster and too fast to recover properly between runs. They don’t improve and they don’t recover. They risk over-training and are injury prone as a result. I was one of these runners for a long time. I focused on quantity not quality. For a long time my work habits were similar. Yes, I was diligent and yes I got a lot done but mostly because I put in the hours. A lot of hours. But it often felt, well hard, and it didn’t leave much time for other things. It seemed to me that there must be a better way.

Over the past few years exercise and running have become an increasingly important part of my life. Maybe that is natural as you get older, especially when kids arrive on the scene: you want to do everything you can to make sure you can spend time with them and keep up with them! As running became more important (and enjoyable) I started to enter races, mostly for the buzz of the event (there is nothing better), but also as a way to benchmark my performance over time. And with races came a more deliberate approach to my training as I ‘fell in’ with far better runners than I and started to read more and more about the sport.

I learned that there are three important types of training session that every runner should do every week, and that a high performance training routine could be built around just these three sessions. They each focus on different aspects of running, specifically speed, strength, and endurance.

Speed sessions are made up of short, intense bursts of speed punctuated by brief recover periods. For example, I might do a set of 5x100m sprints with a 2 minute recovery period between each. Or I might go for 3x1km intervals at my 5km pace with a 3 minute recovery period. I can’t say that I look forward to these particular sessions – they are intense to say the least – but they are important when it comes to getting my body used to more speed; they teach the legs to move more quickly and they help to produce good technique.

Strength sessions are about hills. Lots of hills. I usually aim for 6 repeats of a fairly steady, steep-hill (it’s probably about 100–200m at a 12% incline) at faster than my 5k pace, followed by a slow jog back down. All of this is followed by a 30–40 minute run over rolling hills to complete the session. These sessions are satisfying. The hills generate maximum force during running. For building running strength hill repeats are second to none.

And then there are the long-runs. My favourite; I like to head off on a Sunday for about 2 hours at a steady pace. Current thinking holds that long-runs are required running, regardless of the runner’s target distance. Why? Because long-runs produce a unique set of physiological changes that are beneficial over all distances. Long runs cause our muscles to grow more capillaries. They strengthen muscles, ligaments, and tendons. They increase the enzymes in our muscle cells. All of this improves oxygen transport and musculoskeletal efficiency. And. as well as these physical adaptations, they help to build mental endurance.

Of course I also learned about the importance of warm-up and cool-down periods before and after each run. How they help to get my body ready for the rigours of a good workout or to prepare for recovery. And I even reluctantly came to terms with the need for maintenance activities like stretching, a bit of strength training, and of course the dreaded foam roller.

Enough about all this running, what has it got to do with productivity? Well first it’s worth saying that, like most people, my week is generally split into a mixture of meetings (or other fixed events such as lectures) and work sessions. In what follows I am talking about the latter. Work sessions are those periods when I am actually working on a task or project; I don’t mean to suggest that meetings are not work but you know what I mean.

In a typical week then I might have 10 — 15 hours of ‘work time’ so it’s important for me to spend it wisely; since I don’t have the quantity of time that I would like I need to make sure that what is available becomes quality time. So, as with my running, each week I like to plan different types of work sessions which, when taken together, ensure I get things done and help to improve my productivity over time.

For example, I like to stack a lot of smaller tasks together into a single session. These might include some general admin (paying a bill, booking a flight, or maybe filing some expenses) or emails or making calls. They are short-focused tasks, typically not very creative, but tasks that nonetheless require a certain level of concentration and focus. This is my speed-work and I typically schedule a session near the start and the end of the week. I don’t find this work particularly enjoyable, but it has to be done. The sessions are mercifully short (typically just an hour) and in the end there is something very satisfying about ticking off half a dozen tasks from my list in one go. I also usually schedule this work as early in the day as possible as I find it to be a good way to warm-up my productivity muscle for the day ahead.

As a professor of computer science I’m fortunate that the core of my work is interesting and challenging. I am an active researcher with my own group, and the scientific leader for a much larger team of researchers. So I spend a lot of my time reviewing the research of others (scientific papers, grant proposals etc), writing up my own research or ideas, and creating and delivering presentations. I like to thing of this as my strength work and I will typically schedule one (maybe two) sessions a week to work on these types of task. Each session will be 90 minutes to 2 hours in duration and I tend to focus on just one task. This week I was completing a camera-ready version of new book chapter. Next week I have a thesis to review and paper to plan. This work keeps me strong as a researcher. It is how I keep abreast of new developments in the field and it is how I carve out time to write up my own work and ideas.

My favourite runs are my long-runs just as the corresponding sessions in my work week are my favourite too. These sessions are my free-thinking time, where I can set aside a couple of hours for some creative work. I might be reading a new research paper, working on a tough research problem, or simply letting my mind wander around a new idea. Gone are the days when I could find time for free-thinking on most days. Now I am happy to settle for one or two such sessions in a typical week. But it is vital work for me, on a personal and a professional level. It is why I became an academic and why I still love being an academic. And just like every runner needs their long run, come rain or shine, I will always do my best to include free thinking time every week.

‘Speed work’, my ‘strength training’, and ‘long runs’. Together they all play a role in making my work week as productive as possible while helping me to increase my productivity endurance over time. A good week has a healthy mix of all 3 and brings with it that elusive producivity high.

Of course each day also has my ‘warm-up’ and ‘cool-down’ time in the form of reflective review period. . A review session at the start and end of each day helps to prepare for the tasks that lay ahead, or review the progress that has been made and plan for tomorrow’s efforts. Likewise we need to build in some maintenance tasks. I aim for at least a weekly review and enjoy planning and preparing for the week ahead on a Sunday evening.

Life is not always so cooperative however and every so often I will fall off the productivity wagon – some weeks things just get out of hand and life interrupts – just as I sometimes get injured when running. Depending on the severity of the problem it may take some time to get back on track. Just as in injury recovery it is important to start small and gradually build back up to full productivity over a period of weeks. Practicing my daily reviews as drills helps but I will also build in some extra time to properly label and organise my tasks. After a while my good productivity habits kick back in again and all is well. For a while …