Running and Audio books

I was just out running again this morning. On the way I meet an old colleague of mine, and as we talked briefly, he told me that a couple of my other old colleagues was training for an Ironman - a thing that I also plan to do some time.

But the thing that I thought about was that he commented that he could not understand how they found the time for that, and I thought a bit about that during my run.

For me I think the reason that I can find the time for running is to do with two things:
1. Using the time to get inspired
2. Strong body - strong mind

1. Using the time to get inspired

When I run I very often listen to audio books, like today I was listening to "The Future of Management". This is for me a great source of inspiration.

It gets me thinking about innovations, strategies and improvements.

I very often listen to management books and I try to select books from different areas of the management spectrum, so that I can get inspired on different areas.

I also listen to books on private areas and personal interests.

All of this means that running gives me a chance to spend some time on the throughts that I would otherwise not get enough time to focus on.

TIP:  I listen to the audio books on my mobile phone which means that I can also use the phone to collect the good ideas that I get along the way. 


2. Strong body - strong mind
I have borrowed the phrase from Chris Macdonald and Eskild Ebbesen. For me it means that when I train, I might get physical tiered from the training, but I get a lot of mental energy.

So training and running means that I have a lot more energy which I can translate into either more work or just more efficiency when I work.

So even though running takes time it also gives me more efficient use of the rest of my time and thereby I get more done.