Replicating “Interval Training” in Running to anything that you do

In running language, there is a term called ‘Interval Training’ which was Gerschler’s baby in the 1930’s. He discovered that they could accomplish more in a given stretch if they broke it down into discrete chunks of running, followed by brief breaks. For instance, you’ll run faster and with better form if you run hard for a certain distance followed by rest and repeating the exercise multiple times where the effort for the first interval is the same as the last interval. Gerschler used this style of training to guide multiple runners and this eventually spread to every other sport and is very popular among runners today. You can apply this to any field be it sports, music, arts, chess or a regular 9-5 job. 

Ericsson popularized the 10,000 hours rule stating that you can learn any skill if practiced for 10,000 hours however these hours were completely undisturbed with short breaks – which is similar to ‘Interval Training’ as described earlier.

Regardless of the industry, repeating cycles of intense, highly focused work followed by short breaks seem to produce the best performance. Researchers agree that the reason such work cycles are so effective is the same reason why they work in Sports. Intervals help with both physical and mental fatigue, allowing people to work better through the day. Eliminating distractions and single-tasking during such chunks is of utmost importance to their productivity. Although most people love multitasking because it makes them feel like they’re getting more out of their time, it turns out that the opposite is true. It’s impossible to do two things at once, even in individuals who claim to be exceptional multitaskers. Your output level suffers, as does the quality of your work. You may feel like you’re getting twice as much done when you multitask, but you’re actually only getting close to half as much done. A runner would never stop in the middle of a sprint to check his or her phone. In doing so, it would ruin the quality of the interval.

Either perpetually working with moderately hard work with multitasking or working at the utmost intensity nonstop, neither of these approaches is ideal. The former leads to under performance and the latter to burnout. A far better way to manage and get the most out of your time is to take the lesson from athletics and work in intervals alternating between blocks of hard, deep-focus work and brief periods of rest.

Bottom line – create structure to your day in blocks of time. Deep focused work followed by rest followed by deep focused work and all of this by being a single tasker. You will gain much more.

Article inspired by the book “The Peak Performance” by Brad Stulberg & Steve Magness