3 Ways to Structure Your Work Like a Workout

We often compare the brain to a machine — like a computer — that has an “on/off” switch. We expect it to be “on” from the moment we start working until the moment we decide that it’s time to stop or we believe we have completed our work.

That ignores how the brain works.

The brain is a muscle.

Work is a Workout For Your Brain

When it comes to workouts of the body, it’s well-established that the growth happens in the rest and recovery after the workout.

Just like we wouldn’t expect to build muscle in the physical body without adequate rest and recovery, it’s unrealistic to expect ourselves to maintain a high level of cognitive and creative output without rest and recovery.

Less attention is paid to the periods of rest within a workout.

You wouldn’t expect to hold a dumbbell in the contracted position for an hour straight — let alone a day. Nor would you expect to do multiple sets of bicep curls all day without a break.

Your physical body simply wouldn’t tolerate heavy lifting for an entire day, several days in a row, without any breaks.

Similarly, it’s unrealistic to expect yourself to sustain intense cognitive work for hours on end without periods of rest for the brain.

You wouldn’t expect to hold a bicep curl for hours at a time without relaxing your arm. Similarly, it’s unrealistic to expect yourself to sustain intense cognitive work for hours on end without periods of rest for your brain.

One way to maintain high creative and cognitive output is to structure your workday like a workout.

3 Ways to Structure Your Work Like a Workout

There are three ways we can structure our work days like a workout.

(1) The Superset Method

In a workout, a superset is when we pair two or three complementary exercises together in a “circuit.” For example, you might pair a bicep curl with a tricep extension, or a chest press and a back exercise.

Instead of “doing nothing” in betewen sets of your first exercise, you do the other exercise. This allows the primary muscle of the first exercise to rest.

In the same way, we can pair “cognitive lifts” with other activities that allow for some “brain recovery.”

The ideal complimentary activities would involve lower cognitive load, or use a different part of the brain.

For example, I find that switching off between a thought-intensive task and a more creative-focused task can keep me engaged in both for longer without losing focus.

(2) The Focus Method

With heavy, compound lifts, you might not superset at all. Instead, you stay focused on the lift — like a squat or deadlift — and take a complete rest break between sets.

Similarly, when the cognitive load of a project is very heavy, it might be too much to superset it with other tasks. In these situations, the best approach is to take rest breaks that are focused on finding quiet stillness or a walk in nature for a short period and then returning to the same project.

These complete breaks allow you to completely clear the mind and refresh to rest completely, without the added stimulus of new conversations.

(3) The Single Heavy Lift

A third way to do a workout is to focus on one single intense burst and then call it a day. In the gym, this might be a single heavy lift, or a very intense conditioning workout. It might not be long in duration, but it’s a heavy tax on the nervous system.

These workouts require intense bouts of effort but must be followed by significant rest.

Some cognitive work is the same way. A spurt of focused attention to plow through a single project can be an intense cognitive load that requires significant rest to replenish our system after.

Use All Three Methods, As Appropriate

Just as there’s not one “right” way to structure a workout, there’s no “right” way to structure a work day.

The objective is not to pick one of these methods to use all the time. Rather, it’s to use all three — or some hybrid of them — as suits your needs and the projects you’re working on.