Several years ago I saw a late night infomercial about an exercise device called a Gazelle. The creator, who was describing the device and its benefits for your body’s overall well-being, was named Tony Little. Self-described as “Americas Personal Trainer,” Little was a body sculptor and trainer for several years before he developed his “Gazelle”. His life wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows though. Six months before one of his biggest sculpting competitions, his car was blind-sided by a school bus. Left with numerous lacerations, bruises and spine problems, he paid a price of pain every time he even moved. Depression, weight gain, addiction to his pain killers – he saw his goals and dreams slowly slipping away.
After a long period of suffering, Tony had enough. He was not going to let his circumstances defeat him and he began a long road of rehabilitation. During this time, he saw many late night infomercials with celebrities endorsing all sorts of workout devices. But he felt there was a larger concept missing that was not covered by these designer exercise devices. Tony’s focus was very clear. “It’s not HOW MANY sit-ups you do…it’s how many sit ups you do RIGHT.” Tony shared that FORM was far more productive than quantity of repetitions. The challenge was that most people really didn’t know HOW to do even the basic exercises…properly. So Tony produced several videos showing how doing 10 sit ups the RIGHT way brought better results than doing 100 of them the wrong way. Many exercise routines focus on heavy repetitions and the more the merrier! But by simply educating yourself on HOW to do a simple exercise “right,” the benefit was incredible. 
In your daily routine and life…how many things are driven by quantity over quality? I am sure we have all heard “If it’s worth doing…it’s worth doing right” – but often it’s easy to get bogged down in simply trying to meet the demand of mass quantity or productivity. Sometimes we even develop self-defeating goals. With the best of intentions, we actually cause ourselves to be LESS productive by trying to do too much.
I used to be a professional videotape editor and I would work ungodly hours. I thought that by working 90 hours straight, I was getting a lot done. But over time, I saw the TRUE results: I was making mistakes that I had to fix later, creativity suffered, and even organizing my thoughts became a challenge. Also, I had little to no patience. Working harder was defeating me from all angles.
So when I finally said “I need some sleep” and came back refreshed, I could far out-produce my former self and not feel like death at the end. I was clearly more productive and quite frankly, got along better with others when I didn’t try to kill myself and do everything at once. And I think some co-workers might agree; I smelled better when taking showers instead of working for three days straight.
For many years, I had the standard vacation time – 2 weeks a year. With Christmas, travel and other appointments and meetings, I never had time for an actual vacation. So I was a little unsure what to expect from my first real vacation (Branson MO) after 21 years of never having the opportunity to take a whole week off. During the vacation, I played golf, went on walks/runs, played poker with the family and just pretty much relaxed the entire time…not giving a second thought to my job back home. The results of my vacation didn’t really hit me until I returned to work the next week. I was noticeably more relaxed, focused, happy and productive. Taking time off is indeed handling work the “right” way. I became convinced that working HARDER (bleeding, miserable and if we’re being honest…a bit of a martyr) was going to get me to where I wanted to be faster. In the end, it actually KEPT me from getting there for 21 years.
The Bible is pretty clear about vacations. I was reading through Exodus once and I realized of the 10 commandments, the Sabbath day was the one with the longest explanation.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Once I changed my perception of the value of time off, I decided I would never work a Sunday again (“Sabbath days” are different days for different people; for me it became Sunday) and to this day, I choose to relax, read, watch a movie or just sit and watch the birds. By the time I am ready to go to work Monday, I am cleansed and ready to get back at it.
And you know what? After doing that for almost 15 years, I never missed anything. I didn’t miss a deadline, lose a deal or miss an opportunity. Quite an incredible lesson to look back upon!
So try not killing yourself to meet a goal or accomplish something. Instead, try doing what you do, “right” and that way your productivity can come through. Know your limits, know your needs, and focus on doing what you’re doing with excellence and integrity. You will propel yourself MUCH further down the road of accomplishment in this way.