The greatest runners pace themselves at the beginning of the race so they have the energy to close out and maintain a lead when coming down the home stretch. Not much is worse than starting strong and fading as you approach the finish line.
For me, the week consists of six blocks of potential work time: Monday-Saturday. Sunday is a day of church, rest, and reset from the outside world. In my mind Monday through Saturday is a sprint, but in reality, it's a marathon.
Pacing early in the week is vital to ensure I'm still getting the sleep I need, waking early, working out, and focusing on Friday just as I was on Monday.
Today is Friday and this blog post is a short, hastily thrown-together thing because I blew myself out on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I sprinted hard those days and now, by Friday, I'm a few hours behind and my morning routine is a third of what it was a few days ago.
I must use discipline to force myself to shut down earlier, maintain adequate sleep early in the week to ensure I can run hard down the stretch as I close out the week. No excuses, I’ll still do it, but it could be much easier if I’d paced myself.
Pacing, pacing, pacing. Everything doesn't have to be completed today. In fact, if you simply work at a smooth, semi-fast pace, you'll end up with more productive weeks, months, and years. Pace yourself and trust that tomorrow will be there when you need it. (for most of us, it will be!)