Sustainability, one of the three dimensions of effective management, requires us to manage our time and energy well in the short run so that we can stick around for the long run. We may not be able to change the context we work in or adjust the pace, volume, or weight of our responsibilities—but we do have control over how we recover from sprints and restore our energy to last through marathons (and support our staff to do the same!).
According to this oldie-but-goodie Harvard Business Review article on how high-performing athletes effectively manage their energy, recovery is just as important as pushing through:
“In the living laboratory of sports, we learned that the real enemy of high performance is not stress, which, paradoxical as it may seem, is actually the stimulus for growth. Rather, the problem is the absence of disciplined, intermittent recovery. Chronic stress without recovery depletes energy reserves, leads to burnout and breakdown, and ultimately undermines performance. … On the playing field or in the boardroom, high performance depends as much on how people renew and recover energy as on how they expend it, on how they manage their lives as much as on how they manage their work.”
In other words, it’s not experiencing stress that tanks sustainability (in fact, some stress helps us grow)—it’s failing to actively make time and space to recover from it.
Recovery looks different for everyone. What practices help you recover and restore after intense or prolonged activity? Use our worksheet to reflect on these practices and make a plan to use them.