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Sprints

November 13, 2018

To sprint is to run at full speed over a short distance.

It’s running the 40-yard dash instead of the marathon.

In most cases, life is more of a marathon than a sprint. Whether it’s pursuing your goals, investing in your career, raising kids, or maintaining friendships, it’s more about pace than speed and endurance over a long period of time.

But there are times when sprinting is valuable.

We use this term a lot in the business world, specifically in the realm of technology. If a company wants to develop a new technology, they might issue a sprint to make it happen quickly. They will do all of the research and preparation ahead of time, and then focus on actually building the new solution during a shorter period of time. So instead of taking years to develop a new technology solution or platform, a fully devoted team could be ready to launch in a matter of weeks, or even days.

While considering the way we leverage sprints in the business world, it made me think about how we might implement a sprinting strategy in our daily lives.

Often, I struggle to start an important task because it feels like it will take a marathon to complete it. It’s daunting, and the thought of getting it all done is exhausting. But in these instances, couldn’t we implement the concept of sprints to help us make progress?

Maybe you can’t muster the energy to go through your entire email inbox. What if you commit twenty minutes of your undivided attention to get through as much as you can?

Maybe the prospect of getting your house organized after a move feels overwhelming. What if you start by only organizing your closet in the 30 free minutes you have today?

Maybe developing a habit of reading seems impossible. What if you commit to reading five pages of a book each night? The average book is 200 pages long, so if you read just five pages a night, you would be on your way to reading up to ten books in one year!

The best way to tackle the task in front of you is to start with a small sprint. What area of your life could use a sprint? Identify it, define a short period of time that you can run at full speed, and block out the time to do it. A lot of times, the progress we make from a short sprint gives us the energy and momentum necessary to decide to run the entire marathon.  

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