Should I Exercise Before or After Deep Work?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03.440 | Our first question comes from Aaron.

00:00:08.760 | Aaron asks, should I exercise before or after deep work?

00:00:14.920 | He elaborates, I am a new father and an assistant professor.

00:00:18.920 | My deep work entails research and writing,

00:00:20.760 | which I almost always conduct from my home office.

00:00:23.840 | I am also highly committed to physical health

00:00:26.240 | and lift weights in my home gym, which

00:00:27.920 | happens to be in the same space as my office in the basement.

00:00:31.960 | My most productive work hours are in the morning,

00:00:33.960 | but morning is also the best time

00:00:35.200 | to exercise from a behavioral perspective.

00:00:36.920 | How should I structure these two crucial activities?

00:00:40.520 | Well, it's not like there's a one right answer, Aaron.

00:00:43.240 | In general, I do like when possible to get concentrated

00:00:49.280 | exercise done during the day.

00:00:51.840 | I think it breaks things up nicely.

00:00:54.120 | It helps you avoid falling into this highly unnatural state,

00:00:58.720 | which is quite common in knowledge work of just sitting

00:01:02.480 | and looking at screens all day.

00:01:05.120 | I let it float.

00:01:07.000 | It really is part of my planning.

00:01:08.640 | I actually do this typically at the weekly scale, not

00:01:10.960 | the daily scale.

00:01:12.480 | When I look at my week, I want to get in there

00:01:14.360 | and figure out when I want to do daytime exercise.

00:01:16.640 | And now I can't always do it.

00:01:17.840 | Some days I'm on campus all day, it's just not going to happen.

00:01:20.480 | But I want to know where it is.

00:01:21.880 | I do not want the decision of when

00:01:23.600 | do I exercise to be the last thing I figure out that day.

00:01:26.040 | Because then it's just all going to get

00:01:27.640 | pushed into the evening.

00:01:28.560 | But that's hard, especially when you have kids

00:01:30.480 | and other things are going on.

00:01:31.840 | So I like exercise being done in the day.

00:01:33.520 | I like planning this ahead of time.

00:01:35.360 | You can let it move.

00:01:36.880 | For your particular situation, though,

00:01:39.960 | I'm going to get more specific.

00:01:42.320 | I'm going to say work a little bit, a real session,

00:01:47.400 | exercise, back to work.

00:01:51.240 | You have a six-month-old son.

00:01:53.880 | So I assume you're not sleeping in till 9 AM

00:01:56.400 | and finally rolling into your work at 10 AM.

00:01:58.440 | You're probably up.

00:02:00.120 | You're probably up.

00:02:01.880 | If you're doing the handoff right with a child care,

00:02:03.920 | and I'm sure you have that figured out.

00:02:05.160 | I have a session, you have a session

00:02:06.660 | before whatever happens with daycare or preschool

00:02:10.200 | or whatever, nannies or whatever.

00:02:12.040 | I'm sure you have the morning figured out,

00:02:13.800 | some sort of back and forth.

00:02:15.640 | Get a deep work session in, exercise session,

00:02:18.080 | then back to deep work.

00:02:20.400 | OK, that's what I would say for you.

00:02:22.960 | The other thing I would suggest is maybe interleave more

00:02:26.120 | activity throughout your work hours.

00:02:30.280 | Not, OK, I'm going to disappear for 45 minutes again.

00:02:33.600 | But every 50 minutes, I am going to do 15 pull-ups.

00:02:38.720 | Or I'm going to do whatever, jump on the erg

00:02:42.120 | for five minutes.

00:02:44.000 | Someone who does this well is my friend Brian Johnson

00:02:46.600 | from Optimize.

00:02:47.480 | You've heard Optimize be discussed on the show

00:02:49.640 | because they're a longtime sponsor of the show.

00:02:51.880 | But Brian does this pretty well.

00:02:53.880 | He does not like to sit for more than--

00:02:55.720 | I don't know the exact amount of time,

00:02:57.440 | but it's a little less than an hour.

00:02:59.680 | So he works exercises like five minutes, intense,

00:03:02.160 | works five minutes, intense.

00:03:03.360 | He does this all day.

00:03:04.240 | He swears that it really helps sharpen his focus.

00:03:06.640 | So Aaron, I'm going to suggest that too.

00:03:08.560 | All right, so I'll just put these two things together.

00:03:11.320 | If you're working from home anyways a lot of days,

00:03:13.880 | put your exercise during the day.

00:03:15.440 | Plan it out and protect it in advance

00:03:17.280 | like you would other things.

00:03:18.820 | And then my specific advice for Aaron

00:03:20.680 | is take little intense activity breaks throughout the day.

00:03:24.080 | The weights are right there next to you anyways.

00:03:27.280 | You're working in a gym.

00:03:29.440 | So you might as well take advantage of that.

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00:03:34.640 | (upbeat music)

00:03:37.220 | (upbeat music)

Should I Exercise Before or After Deep Work?

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