I’ve recently started playing chess online. I enjoy it. But so far, it doesn’t appear that I’ll be adding “Grandmaster” to my bio.

Early in the game, there is a concept called a “blunder.” These are silly but serious mistakes that can cost you the game. They come from playing too quickly, making assumptions, or losing track of what is happening across the full board.

This is where much of my game currently suffers. I make blunders.

Recently, I noticed a pattern. I play better and make fewer blunders when I’m mentally fresh.

However, my blunders increase when I’m tired. If I’ve had a demanding day, my ability to “see” the board, anticipate future moves, and think through the variables of the game is weaker. It shows up in my win-loss record.

Our brains have performance limits. Fatigue, complexity, stress, sleep debt, nutrition, and exercise habits all affect how well we think, create, and solve problems. They also affect our ability to manage our emotions and relationships.

This is a common-sense observation.

But leaders often don’t consider, or resist considering, that it applies to how we work.

This leads to blunders: avoidable decisions or reactions that are costly.

Volume of Work Doesn’t Equal Productivity of Work

U.S. culture values hard work and long hours. Professional subcultures do as well. I see this in construction, medicine, and professional services such as engineering and law. Entrepreneurs like to “rise and grind.”

Executives are prone to this as well. Whether they are trying to prove themselves, set an example, or never feel as if the work is done, there is a tendency to measure commitment by total hours worked.

This dynamic has been closely studied, especially in hospital settings, where the stakes are high. U.S. medical residents have routinely been required to work long shifts, sometimes 24 hours or more.

Research has shown that residents working longer shifts make more serious errors than those working limited hours. The same pattern has been found with sleep-deprived surgeons: fatigue equals more mistakes.

The Status of Overwork

I couldn’t tell you how often an executive or owner has humble-bragged to me about “cutting back to 80 hours a week.”

I don’t doubt their commitment. I do doubt their judgment.

These same leaders act as if all those hours were equally productive, or at least had the potential to be. They weren’t.

Continuing to lead while fatigued doesn’t merely produce diminishing returns. It increases blunders.

Many leaders can easily spend 40 or more hours trying to put toothpaste back into a tube because of a one-minute decision they, or an employee, made, overlooked, or avoided because they were pushing too hard for too long.

That’s not productivity. That’s failure work.

Use your good energy on your important work. Avoid making blunders because you are tired.

Your Work Ethic Can’t Beat Your Biology

Our energy isn’t only limited. It also rises and falls throughout the day.

People perform better at different times. You probably already know whether you are a morning person, a night owl, or something in between.

Timing differs from person to person, but the functional reality is the same: We are at our best only at certain times and for a limited amount of time.

Your work ethic can’t beat your biology.

The practical question for leaders shouldn’t be, “How do I squeeze more hours into the day?”

It should be, “How do I protect and use the limited number of high-productivity hours available to me?”

Some of the Most Important Work Happens When We Aren’t Working

Olympic athletes train with extraordinary intensity. But they also know there is a limit to how much they can train.

Good coaches program enough stimulus to produce results. They don’t push athletes to their maximum all the time. They know excessive work creates fatigue, injury, and declining performance.

Athletes don’t improve only while they are training. Training provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the body and nervous system to turn that stress into greater capacity.

Leadership has a parallel.

How many of your best ideas have occurred not while sitting at a conference table and forcing a good idea out, but while taking a shower, going on vacation, or walking?

We need periods when we aren’t sorting through more information, making more decisions, or reacting to more problems. These quieter periods give us room to process. This is where we connect ideas, recognize patterns, and develop insights that are often drowned out in the middle of busy days.

This doesn’t mean every break will lead to an epiphany. It does mean constant activity interferes with the space and time needed for insight.

Sometimes stopping isn’t an interruption of the work. It is part of how the work becomes useful.

Our recovery practices may look different, but the principle is the same:

• Get enough sleep.
• Eat and exercise in ways that support your energy.
• Reduce unnecessary context switching.
• Maintain healthy relationships at work and at home.
• Make room for activities that engage a different part of you.

Recovery isn’t separate from performance. It is one of the things that makes sustained performance possible and helps us avoid blunders.

Find Your Good Time, Use It Well, and Recover Well

For most people, leadership is a marathon. But many leaders try to run it as a sprint, and throw in a few hurdles and high jumps.

That is exhausting. It causes burnout and blunders.

It isn’t necessary for success. It just feels helpful.

Experiment with this. Try it for 21 days:

• Do your most important work during the hours when you think most clearly.
• Learn how much good energy you have to give, and stop before fatigue creates unforced blunders.
• Treat recovery as part of your work rather than time taken away from it.

Tell me if it doesn’t help you perform at a higher level.

If you are an owner or executive and fatigue, overwork, or constant reactivity are beginning to affect your judgment, your team, or the performance of the business, it may be time to address the issue more deliberately.

I work with leaders who are ready to make meaningful changes in how they lead and operate. If that describes you, reach out to explore whether working together would be a good fit.

Take good care,

Christian

P.S. I explore the relationship between intensity, recovery, and sustained leadership performance in Train to Lead. You can learn more about the book here.