For Entrepreneurs, Executives, and Busy People: How to not hate your life lol
Back when I was in college, I used to work 3 jobs alongside a full-time class schedule, and one of those jobs involved changing briefs in a nursing home from 2:00pm to 10:00pm on Sunday nights.
However, I still managed to make meaningful progress on my business (landed my first consulting contract) and got through senior year with a perfect GPA.
Now, I’m not trying to paint a stinky picture in your head.
The point I’m illustrating is that despite being in the early stages of building a technology company, I’m already more than capable of sustaining 90-100 work weeks without burning out, because I’ve been doing it for years.
And the more entrepreneurs I see giving up everything in their lives to build their businesses, the more I realize I need to share the most important technique that genuinely allows me to not hate my life during these sprints that we all find ourselves in from time to time.
I’m not saying you’ll be jumping around with joy every day by using this, but it’s a whole lot better than giving up everything else in your life that’s important to you—I know because I used to do it, and my only regret is not putting a stop to it sooner.
So, let’s get to it.
The Technique
It’s called the minimum effective dose, which I first heard of from the fitness world.
In the language of muscle, the minimum effective dose is the least amount of work you need to do in the gym to either keep or build muscle.
Generally speaking, it’s about 10 hard sets per muscle group per week if you want to make some meaningful progress.
Since learning this, not only have I structured my entire training program around it, but I’ve applied it to literally every domain of my life.
For example, my minimum effective dose for relationships is to speak to my family every day, no matter what, even if it’s only 10 minutes, and to do something different with my closest friends at least once every 1-2 months (it could be as simple as a group call for 40 minutes).
My minimum effective dose for my health is:
- hitting the gym 2-3 times per week
- moving as much as possible while working during the day (e.g. walking meetings)
- eating 2 real meals a day for most of the week (I do some longer fasts regularly)
- getting at least 7 hours a night in bed
- gratitude journaling for 3 minutes every evening
Does this sound extreme?
Yes.
I’ve been called a robot by many people in my life.
Is it perfect?
Not at all; the minimum effective dose is usually far from ideal (though resistance training may be an exception).
However, this machine-like optimization is what allows me to, at the bare minimum, keep the other aspects of my life from deteriorating while I’m in a very busy season of work.
It’s like putting the rest of your life on maintenance mode at the very least when a single domain (e.g., work) consumes a disproportionate amount of your time.
I think if you start small and figure out your non-negotiables for each domain of your life that matters to you, and cut out anything else, you’ll be much happier during your sprints.
Also, notice that I only share my minimum effective dose for two other domains of my life besides work: health and relationships.
Why?
Because I let go of everything else.
The two things that I care enough about to maintain, and even make some progress in during these sprints, are my health and relationships because they’re the only two things I can’t get back later.
The Final Musing
No amount of impact, money, work-fulfillment, or accolades can buy back my health or my most important relationships.
And as much as I want to make a positive impact in the world, I also want to live a good life, and using the minimum effective dose during my sprints is a way that I’ve found allows me to do both.
I hope it helps you do the same.
I’ll see ya next Sunday 🙂
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