How do you get more done in your day?
Hustle culture tells us to wake up earlier, go to sleep later, and power through your waking hours with as few breaks as possible: no meals, no rest breaks, no down time between appointments.
That theory assumes that the more you cram into your day and the faster you go, the better you’ll be.
But often, this approach leaves us exhausted and depleted at the end of the day. It’s not sustainable.
What if there’s a better way?
Slow is Smooth; Smooth is Fast
The Marines have a mantra:
Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.
From within the belief system of hustle culture, it’s hard to imagine that this can actually be true — but it is.
CrossFit Case Study
A case study from a recent CrossFit Open workout shows the success of a different approach.
Why CrossFit?
I often think of a day like a CrossFit workout: it requires a mix of strategy, skills, stamina, and preparation to execute well.
CrossFit workouts in general, and especially the Open workouts, are a prime example of hustle culture in action. The workouts are intense, taxing, and often a race against the clock.
Success in a CrossFit Open workout — just like success in your day — requires a good strategy.
CrossFit Open 25.2
The second workout of the CrossFit Open presented a huge test to athletes:
With a time cap of 12 minutes, athletes were required to complete:
- 21 Pull-ups
- 42 Double Unders
- 21 Thrusters – weight 1
- 18 Chest-to-Bar pull-ups
- 36 Double Unders
- 18 Thrusters – weight 2
- 15 Bar Muscle Ups
- 30 Double Unders
- 15 Thrusters – weight 3
The workout has a declining rep scheme, but an increasing challenge: the weight for the thrusters increases each round, and the gymnastics skill gets progressively harder.
This is a workout that elite CrossFit competitors complete in under 6 minutes. Those elite competitors go straight through at a sprint without any breaks.
Most “normal” people who do CrossFit for fitness and fun won’t approach it that way. They’ll need to break up the sets of pull-ups and thrusters, perhaps also the double unders.
Success Requires Strategy
Success in this workout, as in life, comes down to strategy:
Do you go out fast and hot, and sustain for as long as possible, or take your time and go at a steady pace with breaks?
Those who don’t have the skill of bar muscle-ups might try to race through to the tie-break times, which come after each set of thrusters. For those who have muscle-ups, they need to leave something in the tank for the hardest skill.
But what’s the right pace?
I watched different athletes at my gym take on this challenge with various strategies and degrees of success.
One friend, who has bar muscle-ups, did the workout twice, and it provided an interesting case study. This friend always has a strategy, but what was the right strategy for her skill level?
The First Attempt
The first time my friend did the workout, she went out too hot. She was effectively racing to the second tie-break time.
The impact of her fast pace showed early. She broke up the pull-ups and opening round of thrusters into sets of 8/7/6 — what many might consider conservative. But that opening pace clearly fatigued her.
Her double-unders weren’t out of rhythm with her normal cadence. She had long transitions between each mini-set of thrusters in the round of 21, and between each movement of the triplet.
She broke the chest-to-bar pull-ups into 3–3–2–2 and then 8 singles. She broke her second set of thrusters 6–5–4–3, but they looked excruciating. She was doubled over between sets, struggling to catch her breath.
She ended the second set of thrusters at 8:25, which gave her 3.5 minutes for the bar muscle-ups.
Normally that would be plenty of time for her to get several bar muscle ups, but she was out of gas. She missed her first 5 attempts before finally nailing one muscle up. She then failed 3 more times.
At the buzzer, she was deflated and disappointed.
Summary of Attempt 1:
- Tie-Break Time at 2nd set of Thrusters: 8:25
- Bar Muscle-ups: 1 success in 9 attempts = 11% success rate
The Second Attempt
She came back a few days later and redid the workout.
This time, she went out at a slower pace.
She broke up the opening sets of 21 pull-ups and thrusters into 4 sets of 6–5–5–5 reps.
Because she did smaller sets of pull-ups, her opening set of double-unders was better. She didn’t trip. And because she did smaller sets of thrusters, she didn’t need as much rest between sets.
When she got to the chest-to-bar pull-ups, she did them one at a time over 4 sets. She did 6 quick singles, took a brief break, then continued in that pace for 3 sets of 5 singles.
She broke her second set of thrusters into more sets as well.
The Surprise Outcome
Hustle culture would tell us that a slower approach with more breaks would yield worse results.
But numbers don’t lie.
In her second attempt, my friend got through the second set of thrusters by 8:03 — 22 seconds FASTER than her first attempt.
But the biggest win was in the muscle-ups.
She had almost a full 4 minutes to get as many bar muscle-ups as she could.
Did she rush to the bar to start immediately so she could maximize the number of attempts she could do in that 4 minutes?
No.
Instead, she optimized her performance by taking over a minute to rest.
She even sat down.
She started her bar muscle-ups at 9:24 — with just over 2.5 minutes remaining on the clock.
This time, she nailed her first bar muscle-up. And then she nailed 6 more after that.
Summary of Attempt 2:
- Tie-break time at 2nd set of thrusters: 8:03 – 22 seconds faster
- Bar Muscle-ups: 7 out of 9 attempts = 77% success rate
The Conclusion
But the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
After the workout, my friend didn’t feel nearly as fatigued as she did the first time.
By going slower, at a more measured pace, and taking strategic breaks to rest, she got more reps in the workout with less fatigue.
How to Apply This To Your Life
I often think of a day like a long CrossFit workout: some parts will be easier, other parts will be challenging, and the object is to get to the end without being so crushed that you can’t do anything else the next day.
The lesson here is obvious:
When we go slow and steady, with measured breaks, we can get more done in the same amount of time.
It all comes down to a good strategy.
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