3 Unseen Factors That Steal Your Time

The first workout of the 2024 CrossFit Open, 24.1, was a long slog of 90 dumbbell snatches and 90 burpees over a dumbbell, split into rounds of 21, 15, and 9 reps. At each rep count, athletes had to perform two rounds: one set of snatches on each arm, and a set of burpees after each round of snatches.

The time cap for the workout was 15 minutes.

During CrossFit Open workouts a judge counts reps for you and ensures you meet the standards.

My judge got confused early in the workout: as I started my second round of snatches in the round of 21 reps, he told me I was at the round of 15 reps. Then, in one set of burpees, he was counting ahead of where I was.

The confusion is understandable: it’s challenging to keep count in the chaos and when people around you are counting different numbers.

Despite the early confusion, I finished only 2 burpees short of completing the workout under the time cap.

Initially, I hadn’t believed I could finish, so to come so close was a big win. With the newfound belief that I could finish it, I decided to redo the workout.

In advance of repeating the workout, I reviewed my video of the first attempt, marking the time stamps so I could see how long each section of the workout took and where I could trim time.

The review led to an unexpected finding: the second set of snatches in the round of 21 took over 30 seconds longer than the first set.

At first I attributed the extra time to the fact that the second set was what I typically consider to be my weaker arm. But as I continued time stamping the video, I noticed that in the other rounds, the snatches on that arm were faster.

So what explained the big discrepancy in the beginning?

This was place where my judge had been confused.

There was a similar slow down in the set of burpees where my judge had miscounted.

By the last round of the workout, I had a whole team of people surrounding me, clearly counting for me. With clear guidance and the knowledge that other people were keeping track, I was able to relax my mind and give myself over completely to the movements.

That round was much faster — even when you factor in adjustments for the fact that it was fewer reps.

It was clear that confusion had cost me at least some time, even if I couldn’t exactly quantify how much.

When I redid the workout a few days later, not only did my judge clearly keep count, but she also gave me guidance before my last rep to remind me of what I would do next.

I was able to take my mind out of it completely, which helped me finish the workout in 13:35 — almost 11% faster.

3 Time Thiefs

Most productivity advice focuses on “time management.” To help you improve this skill, many experts advise you to track your time to see where it goes.

This exercise can show you how much time you allocate to different activities, but beware that these numbers won’t reveal the whole story.

The time stamps on my video show how long each section of the workout took, but they don’t account for why 21 reps on one arm took more than 50 percent longer than the same number of reps on the other arm. They don’t explain why or how I moved at a faster pace in one round versus another round.

These discrepancies are explained by energy.

The first time I did the workout, I was the victim of 3 main time thiefs:

• confusion
• lack of clarity in structure and guidance
• self-doubt

These are issues that can’t be addressed through better “time management” strategies. They had to be addressed through a combination of inner work and receiving the right support.

The Real Work of “Time Management”

The same is true in any place where you’re trying to “manage time” better.

Time Management is a myth.

The clock is going to tick by at the same rate as it always does. What we can change is our approach to how we do the work within the structure of time.