In this post I wanted to describe a motto that I’ve started using within the past year, but one which has already given me so much practical mileage. The motto is simply,
“Leave something in the tank.”
The idea is that what ever I’m doing, I should stop before I hit empty; when I have a little bit more strength left, when I know the next few things that I’d like to do. This is in contrast to my previous approach which was to go until I literally couldn’t anymore.
I was first inspired by Scott Adam’s approach to exercise as described in his book, “How to Fail at Nearly Everthing and Still Win Big.” He says
“the most important rule is that you should never exercise so much in one day that you won’t feel like being active the next day. To put that another way, the right amount of exercise today is whatever amount makes me look forward to being active tomorrow.”
Aroung the time I read Scott Adam’s book, I had also read 80/20 Running (another phenomenal book that will get it’s own post in the future) and was set on reestablishing myself as a runner. By ending my runs with something in the tank, I was able to establish a consistent running practice that was enjoyable and that didn’t come with any of my normal ankle blowouts.
I then read Daily Rituals by Mason Currey and found Hemingway’s famous (in productivity circles at least) practice of ending his writing day when he knew what came next. I started leaving something in the tank with my work and found I was more creative and having more fun.
As with many mottos that I attempt to live by, I had a period where I forgot about this one. I just started a new job, where I was transitioning from pretending to be a neuroscientist to pretending to be a climate scientist (long story). There was so much to do and it felt so overwhelming and I tried to go to hard. And I burned out equally hard.
As I emerge from the burn out I’m trying to bring “leave something in the tank” into my daily life more and more. This process has reminded me not only of how much good it can bring, but also how revolutionary it is to leave that little bit of energy for yourself.
I currently work as an academic, and leaving something in the tank is contrary to the culture in most corners of the academy (and most of America, let’s be honest). In the academic environment there’s no one to tell you to stop working on this very important bit of science for the day. This leads to a culture where not only do people work until they can’t, but they feel guilty that they had to stop at all. Only since I’ve started reminding myself to leave something in the tank have realized how damaging this environment is to both the quality of the science and our wellbeing.
This post, like most on this fledgingly blog, is a reminder to myself. A chance for me to interact with my lived knowledge of how unnecessary the common working style is, how this constant pushing hurts our work, our bodies, our joy. I want to do good work that brings me joy in a healthy body. To do that, I need to leave something in the tank.
