Overtraining the Body

My first experience with burnout came as an endurance athlete. Overtraining doesn’t arrive suddenly and recognizing it early is tricky. My workouts would feel flat for weeks. I started dreading my morning alarm. My cravings intensified. The cycle usually ended with an injury that forced me to slow down.

But overtraining isn’t just about doing too much. Poor sleep, diet, stress, and insufficient recovery are often the real culprits. As I gained experience, I learned to spot the early signs and adjust before injury set in. I performed better as a result.

One factor I became particularly aware of was my non-exercise activity—the things that seem harmless but accumulate. Examples included strolling around a shopping center, spending hours on my feet at a festival, or always choosing the stairs over the elevator.

For most people, those are signs of an active lifestyle. But for serious athletes, they’re hidden contributors to burnout. Even small choices can tip the scale. Usain Bolt was as famous for his laziness between workouts as he was for his speed. Recovery was as important to him as training.

Overtraining the Mind

Lately, I’ve noticed the same dynamic with my mental performance.

I’ve always been able to lock in on difficult problems for hours and often felt energized afterward. Creativity came easily. I constantly had ideas for projects, newsletter topics, and new experiments.

Then things started to feel… flat. My focus drifted. Ideas became harder to generate. Motivation didn’t come as easily.

I was sleeping well. My diet was clean. I exercised regularly. So what was wrong?

When I audited a normal day, the answer was clear: my brain never shut off.

Just as casual strolling once sabotaged my marathon training, a steady drip of inputs was quietly draining my mental stamina.

Thanks to modern tech such as smartphones, AirPods, etc. I had unknowingly optimized every minute of the day toward information consumption:

• Podcasts while cooking

• Audiobooks in the car

• Scrolling X while brushing my teeth

Even when I wasn’t doomscrolling (which I still do), I believed I was making the most of my time. Twenty audiobooks a year while mowing the lawn or performing other household chores felt like a win.

But it wasn’t.

All that constant input meant my brain never had space to recover. Those “productive” habits were actually robbing me of the ability to focus, recharge, and think deeply.

Here’s why that matters and what I did to fix it.

The Paradox of Over-Optimization

I am definitely one of those people who tend to over-optimize everything. It sounds productive but it isn’t.

Just like physical overtraining, mental overtraining snuck up on me. I felt foggy, unmotivated and less creative.

The truth is: You can’t produce high-quality output without quality recovery.

The Science of Mental Recovery

Here’s what happens when you’re always consuming information: 

Default Mode Network (DMN) Suppression

Your brain has a resting-state network that activates during quiet moments. It’s responsible for memory consolidation, self-reflection, and creativity. Constant input suppresses it.

Mind-wandering helps with problem-solving and insight. Without mental space, your creative reservoir runs dry.

Prefrontal Cortex Overload

Your prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain responsible for deep focus and will tire out with constant attention-switching.

Switching between inputs leaves a residue of attention, making it harder to focus deeply again. Even small interruptions matter.

Hippocampus Impairment

The hippocampus plays a central role in memory formation, emotional regulation, and spatial navigation. It’s critical for transferring short-term experiences into long-term memory and for integrating new information with what you already know.

The hippocampus is like your brain’s librarian. If you never give it quiet time, the books never get shelved and all your new knowledge ends up in a scattered pile on the floor.

The Real Cost of Constant Inputs

Too many inputs doesn’t lead to more knowledge, insights or increased productivity. It causes you to:

• Stop having original ideas

• Feel scattered, anxious and fatigued

• Produce less despite consuming more

• Retain less information

• Make poor decisions

My Turning Point

I didn’t make a dramatic shift overnight. I simply stopped filling every gap of downtime with inputs. I now:

• Don’t look at my phone until breakfast (~2 hours after waking)

• Walk or drive in silence

• Let my mind wander while doing chores or cooking

• Sometimes just stare out the window (yes, really) during work breaks

What I found didn’t surprised me.

• My focus improved

• Idea generation and creativity feel easier

• My mental energy increased

And, like with physical training, my performance improved once I gave myself space to recover.

One thing did surprise me. I actually enjoy the space, the quiet. . .the boredom.

The Next Step

Embrace the boredom.

It’s not about quitting tech. It’s about creating intentional space between work.

Try increasing the “blank” moments during your day. No phone. No podcast. No music. Just stillness.

Audit your day. How many moments do you let your brain breathe?

Choose one part of your daily routine to leave unfilled with inputs.

• Commute

• Cooking

• Shower

• Walk

• Coffee break

Start there.

Let your brain get bored. Let it recover. And watch what comes back online.

My goal with The Leap is to provide you each Saturday with the knowledge, tools and lessons learned to help you get started and keep going toward building your future. 

Whether you are making the leap to startups, solo-entrepreneurship, freelancing, side hustles or other creative ventures, the tools and strategies to succeed in each are similar.