Day 956 - We perform our best at 85% intensity - https://golifelog.com/posts/we-perform-our-best-at-85percent-intensity-1691991054595
I always loved bringing sports analogies and lessons into productivity and indie hacking. This tweet by [@fitfounder](https://x.com/fitfounder/status/1690364931252830208) is a good one:
**We perform our best at 85% intensity.**
The long tweet was so good (with ~7M impressions) that I must reproduce in entirety here:
> When an athlete is told to run at 85% they run faster than if they're told to run at 100%. It's called the 85% rule and here's why it works:
>
> Carl Lewis was a 9 time Olympic gold medalist who was known as a master finisher but a slow starter. He began races 2nd to last but usually ended up finishing first. It became known that he's wasn't performing at full throttle. He was going at 85% the whole time.
>
> Why 85%? When you have your best performances it's never when you're trying your hardest. Instead the task usually feels easy & effortless. Going at 85% is a mindset about relaxation & performing at a high level while being in flow. It's about pacing, form & finishing. At 85% you're not striving or straining by operating at the very limit of your ability. You have room to think, focus & adapt. Applying the 85% rule helps you balance intensity while being focused & relaxed. Here's a few example of how to do it:
>
> At work:
> Instead of going full throttle, take your time, release the pressure & focus. Put an emphasis on optimizing your systems & adopt a mentality of expending 85% of your mental energy towards a task. Your perception of energy is the biggest component to your productivity.
>
> In your diet:
> Instead of trying to be perfect aim to get 85% of your food choices right. This takes the pressure off of you and gets you away from an "all or nothing" mindset. You want to be adaptable to any situation and hitting 85% is enough to get your body in shape.
>
> In your workouts:
> Instead of going to failure for every exercise aim for 85% intensity so you can focus on good form & keep your body injury free. We have a rule to keep 1-2 reps in the tank when lifting and this fits perfectly into it.
>
> Keys to the 85% rule:
> 1) Relax
> 2) Focus on form
> 3) Set your mind to 85% intensity
> 4) Work just below your maximum threshold
> 5) Stop when you feel close to 100% of your mental/physical capacity
>
> Instead of putting the pressure by trying to go 100 aim for 85% instead. Doing so might help you unlock new levels of performance.
Mindblown 🤯 We perform better at 85% intensity than 100%.
So much for the mainstream narrative of trying your “best”, going at 110%. Another example of how popular ideas break down when you probe deeper.
So I wonder: What does operating at 85% look like as an indie hacker?
- **Not working 24/7.** Take your breaks and weekends seriously. I work on weekend early mornings but it's more on a hobby side project so it's pretty fun and relaxing.
- **Not working long hours** within a day. No late nights or all-nighters. Instead of 12h full-on days, try 8h with scheduled breaks every hour, or 6.5h of full-on. I find it's too straining if I sit in my chair without getting up for 2h, so getting up and moving about every 1h or so is a good guage of going at 85%.
- **Finish well.** If I'm finishing the day feeling drained, back aching, eyes dry, and throbbing headache, then I've went too hard. The ideal finishing state is feeling fine, balanced or even half-relaxed, even if there's some fatigue.
- **End nice.** I always like to end the day with a bit of recap on what I did, to kinda reflect and review, and have a tiny moment of celebration for good, honest work done for the day. Then spend a few minutes looking ahead to the next day on what tasks to work on.
- **85% posture.** While working, a stance leaning back in relaxed but mindful focus seems to work better than a posture sitting on the edge of my seat, pupils dilated, sweating, frowning, hunkering down. I learned this from long distance running too – good form lets you last longer, and is less straining.
- **Minimal meetings or calls.** Maybe 1 a week for me. If I schedule 3-4 face-to-face sessions in a week, I get drained.
- **Context switching** between projects and tasks. I try to stick to max 2 projects or problems per day, context switching 3-4 times a day (based on how my day is structured between family, lunch etc).
*What other hacks and tricks do you have to work or perform at 85% capacity?*
**We perform our best at 85% intensity.**
The long tweet was so good (with ~7M impressions) that I must reproduce in entirety here:
> When an athlete is told to run at 85% they run faster than if they're told to run at 100%. It's called the 85% rule and here's why it works:
>
> Carl Lewis was a 9 time Olympic gold medalist who was known as a master finisher but a slow starter. He began races 2nd to last but usually ended up finishing first. It became known that he's wasn't performing at full throttle. He was going at 85% the whole time.
>
> Why 85%? When you have your best performances it's never when you're trying your hardest. Instead the task usually feels easy & effortless. Going at 85% is a mindset about relaxation & performing at a high level while being in flow. It's about pacing, form & finishing. At 85% you're not striving or straining by operating at the very limit of your ability. You have room to think, focus & adapt. Applying the 85% rule helps you balance intensity while being focused & relaxed. Here's a few example of how to do it:
>
> At work:
> Instead of going full throttle, take your time, release the pressure & focus. Put an emphasis on optimizing your systems & adopt a mentality of expending 85% of your mental energy towards a task. Your perception of energy is the biggest component to your productivity.
>
> In your diet:
> Instead of trying to be perfect aim to get 85% of your food choices right. This takes the pressure off of you and gets you away from an "all or nothing" mindset. You want to be adaptable to any situation and hitting 85% is enough to get your body in shape.
>
> In your workouts:
> Instead of going to failure for every exercise aim for 85% intensity so you can focus on good form & keep your body injury free. We have a rule to keep 1-2 reps in the tank when lifting and this fits perfectly into it.
>
> Keys to the 85% rule:
> 1) Relax
> 2) Focus on form
> 3) Set your mind to 85% intensity
> 4) Work just below your maximum threshold
> 5) Stop when you feel close to 100% of your mental/physical capacity
>
> Instead of putting the pressure by trying to go 100 aim for 85% instead. Doing so might help you unlock new levels of performance.
Mindblown 🤯 We perform better at 85% intensity than 100%.
So much for the mainstream narrative of trying your “best”, going at 110%. Another example of how popular ideas break down when you probe deeper.
So I wonder: What does operating at 85% look like as an indie hacker?
- **Not working 24/7.** Take your breaks and weekends seriously. I work on weekend early mornings but it's more on a hobby side project so it's pretty fun and relaxing.
- **Not working long hours** within a day. No late nights or all-nighters. Instead of 12h full-on days, try 8h with scheduled breaks every hour, or 6.5h of full-on. I find it's too straining if I sit in my chair without getting up for 2h, so getting up and moving about every 1h or so is a good guage of going at 85%.
- **Finish well.** If I'm finishing the day feeling drained, back aching, eyes dry, and throbbing headache, then I've went too hard. The ideal finishing state is feeling fine, balanced or even half-relaxed, even if there's some fatigue.
- **End nice.** I always like to end the day with a bit of recap on what I did, to kinda reflect and review, and have a tiny moment of celebration for good, honest work done for the day. Then spend a few minutes looking ahead to the next day on what tasks to work on.
- **85% posture.** While working, a stance leaning back in relaxed but mindful focus seems to work better than a posture sitting on the edge of my seat, pupils dilated, sweating, frowning, hunkering down. I learned this from long distance running too – good form lets you last longer, and is less straining.
- **Minimal meetings or calls.** Maybe 1 a week for me. If I schedule 3-4 face-to-face sessions in a week, I get drained.
- **Context switching** between projects and tasks. I try to stick to max 2 projects or problems per day, context switching 3-4 times a day (based on how my day is structured between family, lunch etc).
*What other hacks and tricks do you have to work or perform at 85% capacity?*