To Improve Your Work Performance, Get Some Exercise | Hacker News Reader

To Improve Your Work Performance, Get Some Exercise

hbr.org

32 pointskungfudoi15 comments

Exercise makes me tired and more irritable than normal for at least a day after and often beyond. I also tend to make more mistakes and forget obvious things. Coworkers at multiple places have said "You exercised yesterday, didn't you?" Their hit rate on the prediction is excellent!

As an aside: How credible is HBR.org? I've been underwhelmed by the caliber of articles I've read there. Are the authors commissioned by the University or do authors submit in hopes of getting some Harvard shine attached to their names?

The "this article is telling me to get in shape" to "this journal is of questionable veracity" pipeline is real

Not sure I follow. I was referring to mainstream HBR articles on more traditional business topics.

Sounds like you've tried exercise about twice in your life. Do it daily and you'll feel better.

I can confirm that I can focus much better throughout the day, have higher mental clarity and energy if I do some sports in the morning.

It doesn't have to be the gym or a 45+ minute high intensity run - just jogging for 20 minutes and doing a few pushups or pullups is sufficient as „baseline activity“ for me.

That doesn't seem to check. For his colleagues to be able to make a casual linkage between lowered cognition, tiredness, and irritability to him exercising, they must have observed said symptoms enough times and confirmed it with him more then twice in his life.

The body is a mechanical filtration device.

If you are mostly sedentary, consume any form of what are toxins to a human (there's lot of kinds, don't get caught up on the buzzword), and then one day start working them all back out into your bloodstream at once, it makes sense to temporarily feel like garbage.

What kind of exercise(s) are you doing? I find that when I return to a routine after long absences (like the COVID pandemic) my body loves to complain that I had the audacity to make it move. That feeling subsides if I stick with it and afterwards I'll only be sore or tired if I actually overexerted myself.

Something low-impact like yoga can be great for getting back into a routine. I highly recommend Yoga With Adrienne on YouTube as there are no ad breaks in the middle of the videos, and there's something for everyone. Anything from 10 minutes to an hour+ with plenty of suggestions for alternative poses if you have an injury or limited range of motion.

These days, not much. In the past I've done a lot of different things like biking, weight training, assorted fitness classes, etc. Tried running but it was too much on the tendons and doctors said it was a bad idea for me. Even had a personal trainer for 18 months or so before Covid. Always attached to portion/nutrition control tracked using an app (log everything). Boredom, lack of progress, and/or some injury or the other would cause me to stop.

My handle is accurate. I'm at an age where I can just maintain at a sub-optimal but far from dangerous weight and fat level. The time and money I used to spend on exercise, I can devote to other things. Like naps and hanging out here learning things from you whippersnappers.

Weird! For me, it's like I just gave myself superpowers. When I do it for the first time in a long time (like months -- and provided I do it hard enough for long enough), I get an endorphin mind+body high for the whole day that must be what heroin is like. Paradoxically, I can only bring myself to exercise in times of low stress. In times of high stress, I stop all my good habits and onboard bad habits and fuel a feedback loop of that stress, which has worked out great so far. :D

I think that's true for a lot of (most?) people. I just chuckle at articles that state it is true for everyone.

What next? To improve your work performance, get some sleep?

Some do need to be told.

I do coding exercises!

How much ya benchmark, Bro? ;-)

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