45. Listener Questions: GTD and Fitness Goals

Transcript

Automatically transcribed and lightly edited. Timestamps omitted for readability.

Morten: Hi and welcome to another episode of the Getting Things Done podcast from GTD Nordic. I am still Morten Røvik and I'm still here with my long-term friend and partner Lars Rothschild Henriksen. Gettala, amigo.

Lars: I'm Morten. Good to be with you once again and looking forward to, to doing another episode. Episode with you. If you are new to this podcast, we do this to support you in learning GTD or becoming an even better GTD or help you get the benefits of GTD, be better present with whatever you're engaged in. And we really hope that you find these episodes valuable regardless of whatever your experience is with GTD. And if you'd like a refresher or, you know, learn the basics of GTD, recommend that you go back and listen to episodes 1 through 6.

Morten: Good, and today is a listener questions episode, and we have a question from a person called Thomas Novak who asks us if we can make an episode about GTD fitness goals. And in the pre-meeting here, I said I'm more like an exerciser, you're more like a fitness fanatic, and so this episode is yours, Loris, I think.

Lars: And like I said, that's really not the case.

Morten: Well, you've run— have you run a marathon?

Lars: Yes.

Morten: More than one?

Lars: I've run. That was in past tense.

Morten: Yeah, but how many?

Lars: I don't know. 10? I don't know.

Morten: 10 marathons. And how many half marathons?

Lars: I don't know.

Morten: And you've done ultra or something? You know, what do you call it? Ultra runs?

Lars: What is this? That's true. Yeah. So anything longer than a marathon.

Morten: Yeah. So, and compared to me, you're a fitness fanatic because I'm more in the low end of this where I start to build the micro habits to just get out the door and to get moving. And because as I mentioned before in previous episodes, I have in my Kairos Cognition survey test, I am a low mover, which means that my energy doesn't rise with moving. I don't feel smarter and I don't get any special benefits except maybe a brief dopamine high when I finished. So I have to motivate myself to just get out the door and to build the microhabits you need to get out the door. And we talked about that in previous episodes. I don't remember which what we mentioned before, but to build the big habits where you really not only get out the door, but get motivated to actually run a marathon or something of that sort. And Loris, how do we do that? How is that possible? Please tell me.

Lars: Well, it really depends on where you're coming from, obviously.

Morten: So for me, Okay, let's set the scene here. I've gained 3-4 kilos during Corona. I would like to take them off and I would like to achieve a fitness goal to this. How do I go about?

Lars: Well, a good place to, at least where it came from, from me was inspiration from my sister. That was one key element of this. And from a GTD perspective, areas of focus, I think, was probably a good place for me to start with. Becoming aware of, you know, paying more attention to health-related things, diet, exercise, things like that, and noticing that and starting to think more about that as opposed to only thinking about work, which was probably more what was on my mind before I started doing my runs. And when I started off, I think it might have been back in 2015 when I really started to do something about this, or maybe even earlier, actually. It was, you know, running a 5K was the cool thing for me to achieve. So I was really not, I'm not born a runner, and it really took a long time to train and practice for these longer runs. But that's where I started and then, yeah, started building on that.

Morten: Just for the listeners who are not, you know, very well versed in Getting Things Done methodology, it might be good to mention that the Horizons of Focus is the model where you are trying to paint a picture or how, what's your purpose of life, what's your values and principles, and what's the vision you have for when you live that purpose, values, and principles. And at some point you wrote something there about fitness, I guess, or health that led you to starting running or start wanting to get fit. Is that correct?

Lars: Yeah.

Morten: Can you get practical and just what did you write there on, like, on top of your head? Do you remember that?

Lars: No, I don't, I don't remember specifically. I think it primarily came into play when we, so we started doing these, these New Year's runs. So on New Year's Eve, we go for a run, a 10K, things like that would have shown up as a project in my world. And I know for sure, at least when we started doing half marathons, that that started to show up as projects in my, in my world. So for anything bigger, it could be fitness-related or it could be, you know, speeches, coaching, whatever it might be. But these things where I have a number of actions attached to them, they will go in as projects in my world. And these fitness ones for sure did as well, both for, you know, different practices. If I've never been— well, initially I was aiming for running faster. Now I'm just running slow and longer. And initially, I know I had some aims there, but Yeah, now it's more focused on just training endurance, just getting used to being out there on the road and practicing and getting the right gear and getting the right things to eat and all that kind of stuff.

Morten: Okay, so let's pretend our listeners, you know, being— I will pretend being a listener. So if I'm— I don't know GTD very well, I'm just starting out with it. And how do I go about motivating myself and planning for, let's say, half marathon might be somewhere to start?

Lars: Yeah. Well, for me, the way I would set it up, I guess you can more speak to the motivation and the habits and how to get that up and running. For me, it would be to, well, let's pretend that it was something that had ended up in my inbox to run that 10K coming up or join that race when yeah, in the summer or in a couple of months, whenever it might be for you. So for me, again, clarifying and organizing that, the project level for me is typically to attend a specific race. So actually, I just last week signed up for a race which will take place in 4 months from now. So that will go into my system as a project, and next action on that will probably be to go back and look at some of my previous training schedules. So again, keeping the GTD perspective, that would be support material for my project, having an overview of that training schedule. X weeks before the, the race, I want to run this many times a week. I want to run this many times, this many kilometers. I want to, if I'm playing around with any sort of new things to eat during races. I will test that as well. So just to give a bit of context for these ultra races when you are not a fast runner like me, so it takes some time. In Norway, we attended a race last summer, I think it was, or the summer before, and we spent around 12 hours out there running up and down these different— only macaroni. So you need to make sure that you have the right food, you have the right water, you have the right energy, salt, whatever you need out there. So that could be part of my training as well, to try out some of those things.

Morten: So for the motivation part, I just want to speak a little about that, the Horizons of Focus model, just for— because if you are trying to get fit without understanding why you want to get fit, you might fail spectacularly, I think, maybe. And you have to write down the why. And on my Horizons of Focus document, it said something around my health. I want to be healthy. I want to make healthy choices that helps me Live long and be prosperous, which sounds something like I picked up from a movie. Probably it is, but it is, I would like to have a long life. I want to enjoy life. I want to have a life where I can move, and that is around my health. And then to vision, make a vision of that, is that I would write something like, It says something like, on top of my head, I move as much as I can. I don't take elevators, I take stairs. And these are, you know, positive affirmations that help me move in that direction. I walk, I go for walks with my wife as often as we can. And when we visit and that's going to be post-corona. Big cities, we walk instead of taking trams and metros because we like to experience the cities. So me walking is the way I make exercise because that's the level I am at and my motivation is that, and that it helps, and I'm fairly healthy. So that is my level, but from that perspective, from you if you were to motivate yourself and write something or help someone, coach some person into running an ultra race, by the way, can you tell us what an ultra race is? What is it really? Because I'm just in the, it's like a marathon, but it's longer?

Lars: Longer. Anything longer. Yeah. So typically it's a marathon is 42 kilometers. So typically 50 kilometers, 60 kilometers, 80 kilometers, 100.

Morten: Holy macaroni.

Lars: I've never run 100. So, so I've run 50 miles, which is 82 kilometers. Done that twice.

Morten: And you talk about 50 American miles. Oh God. Yeah.

Lars: So that's 82 point something kilometers.

Morten: Okay.

Lars: Oh, so, but in, but in my system, the way I have grouped it is that I group my, some of my, no, I group all of my projects by which area of focus they relate to. So. I have sort of grouped some of my areas of focus so it doesn't become overwhelming for me to get that overview. But under an area of focus called health, maybe I would have these different projects. It could be races that I'm attending. It could be trainings that I want to— training habits that I want to establish. It could be projects as well. It could be projects for finding the right running gear, having the right things to eat, stuff I want to read to motivate me further. It could all be projects under that. And of course, they would all have Yeah, the classical next actions that most of our listeners will be quite familiar with. And like I said, some of them will have, you know, support material related to that. Could be training plans. Also have some pretty solid checklists by now for each of these races going back, you know, even up to, I think, 7 days besides the training plans, also checklists for specific races. So, all the way 7 days before races where I want to— some things I want to start doing at that time, what I want to do 24 hours before, what do I need to do pre-race, which running gear do I need to pack as well. And I just looked at this list and I have 22 things that I'm actually wearing or might be wearing when we go for these runs, what I want to pack in my running bag with different shoes. No checklist for that, I guess. Different, you know, stuff we might need for emergencies, snacks I want to have pre-race, post-race, clothes for post-race, drop bag, what do I want to find out there on the course, what do we need for the stay.

Morten: It sounds like preparation is king here.

Lars: This is a long list now that I look at it.

Morten: It really is kind of overwhelming me to listen to this. So if we can just kind of— because what you've been doing this for how many years? 5 years, 6 years, something like that?

Lars: Maybe even longer. So that's why obviously this list was way shorter. Initially there was no list, and then maybe I made a list with the stuff that I needed to pack just for an overnight stay, and also which running gear I needed. And then, you know, as time went on, some more things joined or ending up on that list.

Morten: So, so, so it sounds like for your practical preparations for runs, you use checklists. And where do you keep them on a practical level? Where are they living?

Lars: These are in OneNote. These are in OneNote.

Morten: Okay.

Lars: Could really be anywhere, but the OneNote works well for me. I had OneNote as my GTD system at one point in time. Most of it has been migrated out of OneNote, but I still keep some support material, checklists, and things like that in OneNote.

Morten: Okay, so if I wanted to prepare for one, to have a place to have a checklist is a good place to start. And then if you start at a very practical level, let's say I am— how do you go about getting out the door? I'm just on the practical level. So how do you go from idea to actually starting exercising to train to to this, you know, ultra run or something? What would you do?

Lars: So, so in my case, what I have always tried to do, and this actually relates to a topic that you and I frequently touch on, is whether to, to put the things in the calendar or we want to keep them on, on lists and hopefully intrinsically motivate yourself to get out there. So I have that as part of actually another checklist. So part of my weekly review, I will ask myself, so did I get my 3 runs in this week, or do I need to schedule them in my calendar for next week?

Morten: So you plan how many runs you should have per week?

Lars: I aim for 3 runs a week. Yeah.

Morten: 3 runs a week.

Lars: Yeah. So Tuesday, Thursday, and once on the weekend.

Morten: Okay. So, okay.

Lars: Ideally, I would just get home on a Tuesday afternoon and just say, yes, now is the time to go for a run. And here we go.

Morten: And it's raining cats and dogs and Exactly.

Lars: And I have a number of so many excuses. So when those kinds of weeks happen and they've been happening more frequently in this Corona times, then for the coming week, I will schedule them in my calendar to get out there and get them done. And for me, the motivation, a lot of it is what happens when I am out running. Obviously, the feeling afterwards, I can remind myself about that. But when I run, I get to listen to my audiobooks or podcasts that.

Morten: I'm That's your secret sauce.

Lars: I love just being out there and, you know, on my own and just, yeah, listening to interesting stuff.

Morten: Okay, so if you just go back, is that you schedule 3 runs a week and you go and check if you've done that on your weekly review and see if you did a good job or not and then schedule next week? Is that how you do that?

Lars: So actually, I try to avoid scheduling them, but I will schedule them for the coming week if I did not do them without scheduling.

Morten: So it's kind of like an invisible calendar appointment with yourself on the days. Okay. So, but you have to remember that.

Lars: Yeah. So I actually have them in my calendar as full day events. So they are really there. But in the end, when I get home or when I get up Tuesday morning, I might not be out there on my, you know, with my running shoes on and heading out.

Morten: Okay.

Lars: So I'll push myself in the coming week to make sure that it Okay, good.

Morten: And do you have someone you run with or are you a lone runner?

Lars: Training mostly on my own. And that also makes sense for, you know, listening to podcasts and all that. But for races, I do race with others and at the pace that we are racing, whether it's with a good friend or brother-in-law that we do these races, we tend to talk the whole way through. Oh, so, okay.

Morten: Because if I was going to try that, that's not able to talk at all.

Lars: But I'll be honest, if we were at the pace that we're running, that speaks more about the pace that we run at than the actual fitness level that we are at. Let's put it that way.

Morten: Okay. So now you have scheduled your runs, you try to run them. If you don't, you will be a little hard with yourself, maybe to motivate you. How do you motivate you if if you don't run, if you understand, well, last week I made a bad excuse because of something, but, and it's like, it drizzled, oh, let me stay at home, it's raining. So I don't know if you do that, but what do you do? Because you told, you were quite open saying that sometimes you don't run and there is no kind of, if I understood you correctly, there's no good excuse for why. What do you do to motivate you next week? Because some people I know would get very dismotivated of that, with that fact that, oh, I disappointed myself. And it's just, then it's easy to say, ah, I don't want to do this at all. It's like, I will not use a bad word, but it's, um, eff it or something like this. I can't do this. The good excuse to just not run at all. How do you motivate yourself to continue?

Lars: I don't have any specific, uh, good tips on that, to be honest, because when, for me, I just, um, And that could very well be part of the mindset of a GTD practitioner, but just keep looking forward. So I may be missing something. I know that that means I'm missing out on my training. That means it'll be more painful when I do the race. So I just keep looking forward and aiming for the next one. Looking back, again, falling out of, you know, the good habits or the solid habits and running habits in these corona times, I can clearly see the difference in how easy it was to have that, you know, Tuesday, Thursday, weekend run when it was just, you know, happening every week because it was just a habit. And now in a phase where I need to reestablish those habits, it's much more of an effort to get up and running and get those things done.

Morten: Yeah. And for those of you who don't know, Lars is a father and you have small children, two boys. And there is I guess sometimes working from home, maybe that's also when the children are home, they're not in kindergarten or school or somewhere else. It might be extra hard motivating yourself running.

Lars: And then sometimes the run will also depend on whether they are interested in going for that run. Because if I am taking care of them, I need the oldest one to be on his bike and the youngest one to be in the running stroller. And then we head out there. But having both of them agree And they just got the new Lego Jurassic movie set. Not always successful on that one.

Morten: No, no. Maybe, I don't know. I don't know how to motivate them for that.

Lars: I was going to say, how do you motivate a 2-year-old, Morten?

Morten: Good question. By something sweet and/or shiny.

Lars: Yeah.

Morten: So, which is not very healthy. But okay, so now you've told us you are, we are, you have established you're running. So if that, let's move into the projected future where you are actually doing this. How do you track your training? Do you have a schedule? Do you track your, do you measure yourself? Do you have a QuantifiedMe, Pulse, running something?

Lars: I've had different gear that also helped motivate me. So as I'm sure a lot of GTers out there are probably also techies to some level, there are— there's always some good running gear. I had a nice Suunto running watch that was a lot of fun to use. Today I use my Apple Watch to track these things, and it works really well for me to have those kinds of motivations to help me out there.. Do you track your weight as well? I have actually geeked it out a bit and set up shortcuts on my phone to track it, speak it into my watch, and then it would end up in— I know that's completely automated, but it would end up in Google Sheets, which would then make a graph on how we were progressing. I would note my races, my trainings. I would be keeping that support material as well. So here is what I read about from this ultra running guy, what I should be running, here's what I think I will do, here's what actually happens. Those rarely completely lined up.

Morten: Okay, yeah, but at least you tried. This is whatever motivates you.

Lars: Yeah, and it's fun to play around with and see how things were going. Again, a lot of people will typically be focused on, on their pace and improving that, and I, for a long time, have only been focused on on distance. So it's so much easier for me to get out there and run and feel good about that run because I don't have to run a specific pace. I just need to get my kilometers in.

Morten: Yeah. Okay. So you don't care about time, just kilometers. Yeah. Okay. So let's— and then you spoke about you create when it's getting closer to a race, you start using your checklists. So if I were going to go for a a run of any sort, where would I start with my checklist? What would be the first checklist you think I should make and what should be on it?

Lars: Yeah, find a nice route that you would want to run. I think that's been key for me, and that's perhaps now that I say it out loud, maybe also part of the reason why I haven't found my old habits from before. So we moved to a new place 6 months ago, a bit more than that, and haven't really found the best paths to run. So it's worth mentioning that most of what we do when it comes to running is trail running. So we would certainly prefer that these were single-track paths in a forest, just out there running like that. And obviously, or the place that we live, it's just, it's not the case. So finding good runs that at least get you closer to that feeling of running single tracks in the woods. That's, I think, a good starting point to figure out where would you want to run and also to have the right gear. Not that you have to go and spend a lot of money. I certainly didn't do that when I started off, but as time went on to have, you know, playing around with things like shoes, there's really a lot has happened. I started out with my old running shoes. It might not even have been running shoes when I started off. It's just whatever I found next to the door. But, you know, the different types out there, whether it's, you know, zero-drop shoes or whatever works for you, it's fun to play around with and see the difference that that could make. So again, coming back to trying that out and seeing that that might also.

Morten: Motivate you to get more out there. You actually answered the question I didn't ask, but thank you. What I really asked was, so I need to get close to a race and you want to create your checklist. What is my first first checklist I should make for that race?

Lars: Closer to the race, you mean? For the race. Yeah. No, that's for me. It was just, you know, what, what do I want to run in? What is my best running gear? So that, that will obviously change over time and you'll update your checklist to reflect that. But that's, that's certainly where I started. What is my favorite running gear? My best shirt, my best shorts, my best running shoes.

Morten: So you have a fitness bag with that. Packed and ready?

Lars: Yeah. So I would make sure that I had that one ready to go as well.

Morten: Okay. So gear is one. What other preparation checklist would you make?

Lars: Well, it depends on what it's for. If it's just for a simple race where you just show up and then you start running, then obviously there is not much needed to that. If it's something bigger, then I have, like I said, some important dates leading up to the race with what I want to eating. Also what I want to do before we start off, for example.

Morten: Okay. So you start preparing for this well in advance by eating correctly. Yeah. And you have a checklist for that, or where does that live? It's a checklist. Okay. So how do you remember to start eating? Do you put it in the calendar or?

Lars: Yeah. So that's, that's where the projects then come in handy. So if you have a project for a specific race, you can go in there and just put a note for yourself with a date on it saying now is the time to pick up the the checklist and start moving on there.

Morten: Okay. And after the race, how do you handle that? Do you have a checklist for what you need to do or how do you— because I don't know if I have this idea that when you finish the race, it's kind of like a high and a low at the same time. It's a high you finished and low it's finished and it's what do I do next?

Lars: And low in the sense that you are completely exhausted after a long day. Just to add to pre-race things, there's— I have a small running bag where I have 9 things that I would normally have in there, different tape that I need, preparations that I need to make. My feet are very delicate, maybe. I easily get blisters when we go running. So I need to put tape and all kinds of different things on there to make sure that they stay good.

Morten: On your feet before you run.

Lars: Okay. Yeah. So that's in there as well. Different snacks that I want to have in my drop bag or eat before the race. Clothes for after the race. So some of the shoes, for example, that you want to move over in when you have been out there running for 12 hours, your feet will really.

Morten: Appreciate it if you have comfortable shoes.

Lars: Yes, exactly. Comfortable bigger shoes. Loose clothes. A Coke or whatever you need as a reward when you, when you get out there. And then really not much post-race other than I know to when I look in my calendar and, you know, see what, what I might be scheduling, I tend to be nice to myself the days following the race to make sure that I have a bit of time to, to, yeah, get well again because obviously it's a, it's a big big thing for the body to go through.

Morten: Yes, physical and mental. So scheduling easy days after might be something. Do you put that in the calendar as a reminder for you? Like a whole day event, don't schedule heavy lifting here.

Lars: Okay.

Morten: Exactly.

Lars: Yeah. So be nice to yourself.

Morten: Yeah. So just block out that time so you don't get anyone taking that time. Yeah, that's good.

Lars: Block out that time and also perhaps place a reminder to say, let's get— let's start running again. Because that can actually, you know, when you've given yourself a week off running, after that you can really quickly fall out of the habit again.

Morten: So having a trigger— not running. Yeah, I can see that.

Lars: That feels good. I have so much more time these days. So yeah, so maybe a trigger like that can also be.

Morten: Helpful. To round this off, I would like to ask you a question. Because these runs are long and.

Lars: Hard, why?

Morten: Yeah. I'm sorry, but are you a little masochistic? You like.

Lars: Pain? Yeah. No, it's funny. And you can ask many ultra runners why they do it. And it's strange. I think there are different components in why you do it. But there is, you know, obviously it's always fun to master something and then do something that you thought you could not do. So obviously that's part of it, but that will only get you so far because then why would you keep doing it? Why would you run a second race at the same distance if you already made it. But there is something that happens to your body when you're out there running. It's some strange addiction. And you can go back and read different running books and theories and perhaps some science as well on why there is something— something happens in your body when you've been out there running for a longer time. It's just— it feels great. It's fun. It's a nice challenge to get through. You're out there outside spending a nice day. So it's— I can certainly understand. I would probably have asked me the same if you had talked to Lars 5 years before and say, what on earth are you doing? But it really is, yeah, it's just a great feeling.

Morten: It really is. Okay, good. I was thinking when you talked about you challenge yourself to something you have not done before. The only thing I've done a lot of that for the last 10, 15 years. And one of the things that I remember specifically is that That's nothing to do with training, but it has to— it's in the same category of challenging yourself is that I decided to— because when I was young, 17 years or something like that, I had— I started, I bought a motorcycle, I started running it, and I started taking the driver's license. And I know that is not in the correct order of things. And it's, I think, what you call a statue of violation or something like that. I think it is too old now. And I remember when I started doing my driving lessons for a motorcycle, I saw a near accident. It wasn't, you know, it was like a wobble on the bicycle that was really big, a big wobble. And I lost control for maybe 3, 4 seconds before I gained the control again of the motorcycle., and that stopped me in my tracks. I didn't continue doing that. I didn't finish my driving license. But later on, when I was— I don't know if this may be related to midlife crisis, but when I was 49, nearly 50 years old, I decided to take that up again and to finish my driving license. And my motivation was there, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. So that was in the other end And that is challenging because you are challenging yourself to do something you're scared of or you're not. And I think that is, if you want to win, I think that there's something in winning over you. I don't know if you know that yourself, your inner fears or your lazy person who don't want to run ultra runs. You win. Over your fears or your laziness. And I think that has a value in itself. So if you're not going to run ultra runs like Lars, then maybe you should find out Harley-Davidson motorcycles. I'm just making a joke. No, but just to make the analogy with the full hair is that if you are, you know, to face your fears or your inadequacies and do something about them, it's when you win over you that gives you the feeling that you can do anything. Anything. And it motivates you to do more. Yeah, exactly. And in getting things done, I remember when I did this before, it really motivated me. I won over my fear of riding a motorcycle. It really motivates me to, what can I take on now? What can I do now? I've won one of my biggest fears. Hey, what's next? How can I win over me? And I think, I don't know, any.

Lars: Finishing thoughts or words, Lars? No, just fun to talk about, fun to reflect on, hopefully helpful for you out there listening. And if it helps any of you out there, we would love to hear from you. I'd really love to hear if that got you inspired to get out there and run a 5K or 10K or whatever it might be.

Morten: Yeah, hopefully it helps. Send us an email at.

Lars: Podcast@Gtdnordic.Dk. Podcast@gtdnordic.dk.

Morten: And that will be repeated. It's in the show notes and Lars will repeat it at the end because we are now at the finishing words and saying goodbyes. So Lars, if you're now finished, what are, where can people find more information about Getting Things Done and us and get motivated for.

Lars: Learning more? We always wrap up these episodes with a quick reminder to head on over to gtdnordic.com, have a look around, because on that site you will find links to the country websites for each of the Nordic countries. On each of those sites you will find articles about GTD, the newsletter, all of our different offerings, groups on, on social media where GTDers from each of those countries discuss GTD and tools. So, so go there to find all of the things, both virtual and physical Portugal. And if you're looking for GTD courses in the US or Canada, you can go on over to vitalsmarts.com. And you go to gtdfocus.com to find GTD coaches in that region. And for everyone else, gettingthingsdone.com is a good place to start to find your local partners. And as always, we really hope that you find these episodes valuable. And like I said, and if you do, we really appreciate when you share the podcast with a colleague or rate us on iTunes. It really helps the discoverability. So thanks to those of you who.

Morten: Have already done it. Okay, and until next time, everybody, stay safe and stay productive. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.