Starting and Quitting Like a Pro
Steven Pressfield has written several great (and short) books on being an artist. A major theme across the books is being a professional, including a whole book called Turning Pro.
In particular, Pressfield believes that persistence is a mark of being a professional. He writes:
“Our role on tough-nut days is to maintain our composure and keep chipping away. We’re pros. We’re not amateurs. We have patience. We can handle adversity.”
And in his list of “Qualities of a Professional,” the first two items are:
“The professional shows up every day”
“The professional stays on the job all day”
In many respects, this mirrors a wider cultural value for working hard. As a naturally lazy person, the idea of staying on the job all day rubs me the wrong way. And when I see my coaching clients, a common theme is that they don’t have a counter-story to “work hard.”
So here are some narratives that might help:
Start on time...
Pressfield includes this anecdote in his book Turning Pro: “Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. ‘I write only when inspiration strikes,’ he replied. ‘Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.’ That’s a pro.”
I’m totally down with that concept. The Muse doesn’t show up unless we show up first.
...but recognize that breaks are needed to maintain energy.
In The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, Tony Schwartz argues that our bodies and minds aren’t built to work all day, straight out. Instead, he argues for focused sprints of about 90 minutes, followed by periods of renewal—e.g., napping, exercise, meditation.
“...[W]e can’t perform at our best when we’re not in the Performance Zone. Put another way, any time you’re not feeling optimistic, engaged, upbeat, focused, enthusiastic, and committed, you’re suboptimal.”
This is especially true when your job is to be creative, be insightful, and to find better approaches—in other words, when your job is to lead.
So find ways to recognize that you need a break...
At one level, it’s having a general monitor of your wellbeing. But I’ve found it helpful to develop signals. For example, if I’m reading a book and realize that I’ve spaced out on a paragraph, I’ll stop immediately. The same for making more than two spelling errors in close proximity while writing.
Both are signals that additional effort is unproductive and that the highest-leverage use of that time is to not work.
On the reverse side, Jim Collins has a rule that if he wakes up at night and can’t get back to sleep within 20 minutes—usually because there’s an idea brewing—the most productive thing is to just get up and work on it.
The goal is to find a signal that makes you check in with yourself, and then to have a rule that helps you avoid trying to fight your own body and mind.
...and know when to stop.
When I see clients in or nearing burnout, they frequently have a story about “I just need to get past this project” or “things will be better after we reach this goal.”
The problem, of course, is that there’s always something else around the corner. Our organizations are insatiable. The to-do list will never be completed.
In Effortless, which I’ve mentioned here before, Greg McKeown argues for pushing back at this dynamic by writing a “Done for the Day” list. Basically, once you’ve done enough, that’s good enough.
So start like a pro, and then quit like a pro.