Did You Give Your Brain a Workout Today?

Getting in tip-top shape requires both physical and mental exercise. Leaders who work hard to get themselves in great shape invest time to challenge themselves physically and intellectually each and every day. 

Moderate physical exertion, such as weightlifting, bicycling, and rowing, burns about 6 calories per minute on average, while engaging in difficult intellectual tasks, such as working through a complex decision or playing chess, burns roughly 2 calories per minute. On a typical day, leaders burn through about 320 calories just by thinking and conversing with others. 

Unfortunately, the brain has a hard time staying focused on just one thing for too long. But, when disciplined to do so, this sustained concentration drastically increases the number of calories we burn. 

Whereas a typical leader on a typical day will burn roughly 300 calories just by thinking and conversing with others, those who maintain long periods of unbroken focus can as much as double that total. 

Even though the adult human brain is only 2 percent of total body weight, it demands 20 percent of resting metabolic rate. Energy travels to the brain via blood vessels in the form of glucose. When we fire the brain to think through a complex problem, we use more blood, more glucose, and more oxygen. 

By maintaining a focused concentration on a given problem, we ask the brain to draw on even more reserves than normal. This makes it a highly efficient exercise machine. 

By doing what author Cal Newport calls Deep Work, or sustained concentration in longer chunks of time, we give the brain a real workout. The brain continually gulps huge amounts of energy to maintain focus. Not only do we become more productive when we maintain our focus over a long block of time, we burn more calories and get ourselves into intellectual shape. 

Who knew thinking could be such a great workout? 

Developing the discipline to do deep work is no different than creating habits that help us hop on an exercise bike each day. It takes intention, commitment, and resolve. Just as with exercise, the more we do it, the easier it becomes. 

Conversely, even a few days without vigorous exercise produces inertia and a decline in commitment. The same is true intellectually. When we go days or weeks without extended periods of uninterrupted concentration, we make it that much harder to find the sweet spot that facilitates execution. 

The key to both physical and intellectual exercise is to do it consistently. That’s how the best performers get into and stay in shape. 

Great leaders stay in shape both physically and mentally. The best news is that the two arenas feed one another when done consistently and with vigor. Leadership strength does not come from one side without the other.