How Spending 20 Minutes Can Earn You Hours

I am one of those annual wishful thinkers, a staunch believer in New Year's resolutions and good intentions that start on January 1st and end somewhere around January 10th (okay, sometimes January 2nd). And every year some permutation of "exercise" languishes on the abandoned resolution list. What tends to happen is a dissolution in resolution usually stemming from this skewed notion that I don't have enough time.

No Time to Not Exercise

Okay, let's demystify this. A Master's student has enough time. In fact, in Gregory Semenza's book Graduate Study for the 21st Century, the one extra-curricular activity he recommends is exercise. (He only suggests one since everything else you do should revolve around research, reading, studying, publishing, presenting, and maybe sleeping). Other than keeping you healthy (a bout of the flu may keep you away from the library for more than 8 hours), exercise gives you a chance to clear your mind and decompress. While the work sixty hours a week mantra may not work for everyone (I actually find his rally cry for grad students to give it their all kind of inspiring and fitting for the "all-in" sentiment of this blog), the importance he places on maintaining one's health seems applicable to everyone.

Build Stamina

But perhaps most importantly, spending those minutes on the treadmill or running trails or playing dodgeball actually buys you time in the long run. How? It builds stamina and increases concentration. In Act Now BC's list of 25 ways to improve your stamina, the BC government initiative basically lists 25 incarnations of exercise.

In the last week, I feel like I can attest to the time-creating power of exercise. Granted, I only go for 20 minutes, but right now that's my speed. If I go to the gym at 6:30 a.m. and leave by 7:00 a.m., I not only start my day earlier, I also have more energy for the rest of the day. When I start to lose focus around 8:00 p.m., a quick jaunt to the gym perks me right up. After a brief, but productive break from the books, I feel ready to tackle the Modernists again (unless it's Joyce-- I need a much longer break to tackle Joyce).

Hone Your Focus

Focus is a skill that requires practice-- and yes, I need a lot of practice. That is why running is perfect. Running is a practice in focus. When running cross-country in high school, our coach told us a secret: running is 10% physical and 90% mental. Focus on your goal, focus on your breathing, focus on the next step, and 90% of the hard work of running is complete. When I stop running it's not usually my physical limitations that stop me, it's my mental track that stops me. I get bored and start focusing on discomforts the same way I do when I'm studying. By cultivating focus through running, you can cultivate focus in other areas. A brief stint at the gym centers my mind, warms-up my ability to focus, and gives me the energy to maintain that focus for a longer period of time.

Quantitative Results

Math is not my thing, but between waking up an hour earlier and being able to stay up 2 hours later (without straining to keep my eyelids open), minus 30 minutes for the gym, has already increased my waking and non-gym hours by 2 and a half hours. I'll have to get back to you on the time saved through sustained focus, but let me tell you, it has made a huge difference (huge being the technical, statistical term for such difference).

As the year stretches on, we'll see how this "exercise" thing goes. One day at a time, one practice in focus at a time.

What motivates you to run/swim/play? What benefits do you reap from this practice?

Thanks for reading.