A CrossFit Strategy to Tackle Big Tasks Without Overwhelm

My new apartment is filled with almost 100 boxes, which have been in storage for almost 8 years. I haven’t seen this stuff in so long, and I don’t want most of it.

Each box contains hidden decisions: whether to keep the items, discard, donate, or try to sell. And if I’m keeping them, where will they go?

I could feel my mind start to swirl in overwhelm before I even start.

Then I had a epiphany, which of course came in the gym:

Treat it like a chipper workout.

What’s a Chipper Workout?

A chipper workout is a type of CrossFit workout that contains one or more movements in high volume, performed for time.

One example of a chipper workout is the second workout of this year’s CrossFit Quarterfinals. The workout is to complete, in 15 minutes:

• 80 dumbbell hang squat cleans
• 40 bar muscle-ups

Another chipper workout is the middle part of the classic Murph workout:

• 100 pull-ups
• 200 push-ups
• 300 air squats

Some chipper workouts require you to perform all of one movement before moving on to the next. Others, like both of the workouts mentioned above, allow you to complete the movements in any order.

You can go straight through, or your can break them up and alternate movements.

Why I Love Chipper Workouts

On the surface, a chipper workout seems like a big task. But to my brain, it’s different.

Although big tasks tend to overwhelm me, I don’t feel the same about chipper workouts.

I happen to love a good chipper workout.

One of the things I like about chipper workouts is that they play to my strengths of endurance and persistence.

I may not be the fastest, but I have the capacity to stick with something over a long period of time, even when it gets uncomfortable. If I need to rest, I pause to rest, then I come back to it.

I also like the strategic element of planning out how to break up the high volume to make each movement manageable, and the boost of energy that comes when I accomplish a high volume of reps of a movement that I previously thought was impossible for me.

I can’t do 100 pull-ups at once, so when I did Murph, I broke up the movements into 20 rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 air squats. When those sets got to be too much for me, I broke up the pull-ups to do them one at a time.

The feeling of accomplishment I felt after completing Murph boosted my confidence for days.

If I need to take it one rep at a time, that’s what I do.

I’ve used this approach for high volume repetitions on other movements too.

Gamify a Big Task By Making It a Chipper Workout

One of my favorite ADHD strategies for handling a tough task is to find a way to make it into a game.

When I think about my unpacking my boxes as a chipper workout, the energy shifts. Instead of being about an endless slog through boxes filled with decisions, it’s about strategizing a workout I can do in different short bursts of time.

No matter how many reps you’re going to do in a workout, you can only do one rep at a time. In a chipper workout, the total may seem overwhelming, but you still approach it the same way.

The same is true with any big project.

Instead of thinking about the total volume, focus on one rep at a time.