1: What do you do when the battery turns red on your phone? You recharge it.
Yet, many people who are tired and overworked just trudge forward.
Which begs the question, “Why do you think you can force yourself to run well on empty?” Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram write in their book The 5 Gears: How to Be Present and Productive When There is Never Enough Time.
“People in general do not know how to rest or recharge,” they note.
The impact? “They are less effective than they could be.”
The authors write: “The majority of people we know fall into this category of not knowing how to recharge. They might read an article on rest and say, ‘I need to do more of that.’
“They believe they need to recharge and often talk about how worn out they are from all their hard work.”
But when they are asked what they do to recharge, they say something like, “I’m just working through it. I will be okay, I’m just tired right now.”
What does that response really mean?
“I don’t really know how to recharge,” they write, “and I want you to know that I am a hard worker, and feel bad for me and maybe encourage me a bit.”
This week, we’ve been exploring the ideas behind the authors’ book The Five Gears, which serves as the central metaphor of the book:
- 1st Gear involves taking the necessary time to be 100% recharged.
- 2nd Gear involves connecting with family, friends, or colleagues in a meaningful way.
- 3rd Gear is about being social and enjoying the company of others.
- 4th Gear is your task-driven work Gear, where you juggle priorities, responsibilities, and to-do lists.
- 5th Gear is pure focus mode that allows you to “get in the zone” without interruption.
When it comes to neglecting time in 1st Gear, Jeremie says, “I can spot this behavior because I have lived it myself. In fact, 1st Gear isn’t a Gear I’m naturally wired to do well in.
“But what I have discovered from my own failures is that if you fix your charging issues, if you figure out what 1st Gear feels like for you and discipline yourself to spend time there, more power will flow through you.”
One important insight: Rest and recovery do not look the same for everyone.
“Introverts recharge internally, like a battery pack,” they write. “They need to plug into an energy source directly and recharge on their own from within.”
Extroverts recharge differently. They are more like solar panels: “Their recharge happens from external power sources, like ideas or people or experiences.”
The authors outline recharging strategies for introverts:
- Sleeping: Introverts usually need a bit more sleep than extroverts
- Reading: Like novels or biographies
- Exercise: Long runs or walks alone
- Devotions: Introverts are normally more disciplined with their personal time
- Meditation: This normally becomes a place for peace
- Time to yourself to pursue individual hobbies, like art, gardening, cooking, woodworking, and so on
Extroverts recharge in different ways:
- Ideas: Some extroverts are enamored with ideas, which can bring life to them
- 2nd Gear time: Extroverts tend to get recharged with people, especially those they care for a great deal
- Enlivened experiences: A concert or movie can be recharging to an extrovert
- Time with a mentor: Extroverts need to talk out loud to hear their ideas with someone they trust
- Sleep: Extroverts need sleep as well, usually less than introverts
- Speaking: Some extroverts thrive when they speak or share
- Reading: Books that bring inspiration and are highly applicable
- Exercise: Extroverts tend to like class-type exercise with a group of people rather than the isolated experience of running by themselves
The key takeaway: “The method of recharge is not the issue; making sure you know how you need to recharge is.”
2: One specific strategy to optimize rest is to schedule a weekly Sabbath Day.
“What if you took one day and designated it to be a complete recharge in the same way that you recharge your phone,” the authors ask.
“For me, Sunday is that day,” Jeremie says. “It is the day our family has chosen to recharge with each other and personally. If there is a better day for you, then by all means, prioritize it.
“My rest on Sundays has to do with my mind. I have tried to shift down and rest my mind on Sundays; therefore, I don’t send emails (most of the time), take calls, or work on my business on Sundays.
“Instead I try hard to spend this time recharging my mind, since my work is actually in the creation of content and ideas. When I do this then I actually look forward to Monday. Ideas feel fresh because I rested appropriately.”
He shares the example of a friend who begins each year by building rest into his calendar.
“He first blocks off one day each week for a rest day (normally Sundays),” he notes.
“He then takes one day a month and blocks it off as a focused rest day, and then a weekend each quarter for intentional rest (some days overlap).
“On top of that, he and his wife schedule family vacations that are a mix of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears.”
Jeremie’s friend sees rest as a competitive advantage. “Our 1st Gear can become a secret weapon that provides greater clarity and focus that ultimately leads to better decision making and communication,” he says.
Prioritizing rest means that when he shifts up into the working Gears, “he has laser-focused clarity about what he should do and should not do, and how he should communicate or handle certain situations,” Jeremie notes.
When you know how to recharge, you are better able to handle stress and operate from a position of strength.
The overall goal is to work from your rest, not resting from your work.
3: It’s also smart to schedule 1st Gear time into your day. For many, doing so involves a morning routine of journaling, prayer, meditation, and/ or exercise.
“Building in rest makes you more productive in the everyday work of life,” the authors explain.
One of the authors’ clients says, “I think the biggest realization for me from the 5 Gears was that what I thought was rest was not actually restful.
“I believed that all time away from my full-time job (in executive compensation) was rest time.
“When I was asked to order the amount of time I spent most to least in each of the 5 Gears, I actually had a hard time finding any time spent in 1st or 2nd Gear,” she recalls.
The time I spent, when I wasn’t at work, was spent with my kids (who I love, but let’s be honest… time spent with a two- and four-year-old isn’t necessarily restful!) or entertaining guests with my husband.
“I’m an introvert, so time alone to recharge is imperative, and while I knew that, for some reason I’d thought that time with my husband and my kids was close enough to alone time to be considered restful.
“As I began to think about how I recharge, I had a hard time as I began to see that I wasn’t truly resting.
“The 5 Gears required that I actually define what each of the gears would mean in my life specifically, and helped me to determine how I need to structure my week to ensure I had the proper amount of work and rest time built in.
“I now have a ‘family 2nd Gear’ time and ‘alone 1st Gear’ built into our schedule. It also gave me a language to use with my husband as we planned our week, and for accountability as we have a tendency to slip into 3rd or even 4th Gear during our 2nd Gear time.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: How well do you understand the specific activities that truly recharge you rather than simply occupy your time?
Action: Schedule one block of intentional recharge time this week and protect it as carefully as you would your most important meeting.
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