Stephen Covey reiterated the importance of “sharpening the saw,” whereby you take time to refresh, reflect, and reskill. Just like weightlifting requires rest and recovery for optimal performance, your vocation requires refreshment, reflection, and reskilling for optimal productivity. Weightlifters must discipline themselves in their rest and recovery efforts every day, or they will suffer in future workouts and recovery.
Similarly, you must instill daily habits that allow you to refresh, reflect, and reskill if you want to prevent burnout, plateaus, and disillusionment. The occasional vacation does not provide sufficient sharpening of your saw.
How can you make a habit of sharpening your saw? Here are five simple and effective ways to sharpen your saw, every day:
1) Go on an outdoor walk (15 minutes)
- Get the body moving, get some fresh air, and take in the elements of nature and your surroundings.
- As you become more consumed by the usual activities and distractions of your day, you need to take a step back, or a “walk” back (pun intended), and help both your body and mind recalibrate with a quick and refreshing walk.
2) Meditate/visualize (5 minutes)
- Take a little bit of time to clear your mind, envision your successes for the day, and feel your breath enter and escape your body.
- As you become more mindful, you can better control your thoughts, feelings, and actions throughout the day.
3) Journal your thoughts, gratitudes, and wins (5 minutes)
- Getting your thoughts on paper frees your mind to create, innovate, and develop new thoughts.
- Focusing on gratitudes allows you to reflect on your gifts and blessings, which humbles you and allows you to appreciate each moment the day provides you.
- Focusing on your wins provides you with the confidence in knowing that you succeeded and accomplished something during the day, no matter how trivial or material your success on the particular day. This confidence creates momentum for the proceeding day and establishes a virtuous cycle of continued success.
- Gratitudes and wins place you in a positive state of mind and allow you to focus on more important things that put you in a better and more relaxed state of mind.
4) Listen to one of your favorite songs, podcasts, etc. (3-5 minutes)
- Take your mind off more serious matters of the day and let loose to your preferred song or podcast of choice!
- Free your mind from the monotony or challenge of the day by taking a little bit of time to enjoy someone else’s thoughts and unwind from the seriousness of whatever task or engagement is pulling at your pant leg.
5) Connect with a friend, relative, or acquaintance (2-20+ minutes)
- Get outside yourself by engaging someone in a phone call or face-to-face discussion.
- Whether you’re catching up, discussing an idea, or relaying your weekend plans with someone, you can exchange thoughts and words as a way to get outside yourself (by interacting with another person), as opposed to staying consumed by thoughts of your own responsibilities and obligations.
Walk. Visualize. Journal. Listen. Talk. 30 total minutes per day. Five simple daily habits that allow you to refresh, reflect, and reskill if you want to prevent burnout, plateaus, and disillusionment.
These 30 minutes will increase your productivity, focus, and engagement throughout your entire day. You cannot afford to skip or ignore these 30 minutes – these precious minutes are responsible for more focused efforts and value-adding hours that will enrich your day, your career, and your life.
And if you feel like you can’t incorporate all five habits at once, start with one or two! Do something every day to sharpen your saw. If the five habits provided do not resonate with you, then come up with something on your own! As long as you’re doing something that allows you to refresh, reflect, and reskill on a daily basis, you’re on your way to sharpening your saw and chopping down the cherry tree of your dreams. Get to sharpening!
After all, we all know the story of the two tree cutters: the first cutter kept hacking away at the tree, swing after swing, to leverage his brute force to knock the tree down. The second cutter spent hours sharpening and preparing his saw, and after two or three easy swings, hacked his tree successfully and completed his task more efficiently and effectively than the first cutter.
Be the second cutter and sharpen your saw! That cliché about success being 90% preparation and 10% perspiration … it’s not wrong. It’s up to you to prepare and sharpen your saw daily. Remember – proper preparation prevents poor performance! Sharpen away, friend. Make your cut in this world.
