One of the most important tools for hiking is your shoes. And once you find the pair that fit great and are comfortable, we start using them all the time, but often never check for wear. At first glance they may look good for a long period of time. But on closer inspection, we start to see the effects of the mileage on them. Looking at the tread on the bottom (as in this example), we can see the obvious problems, as noted in the circled area. However when comes to the cushioning and support, those problems may not be readily able to see. Often cushioning problems begin to be “felt” with feeling pain in your knees or other parts of your legs after going for hikes. My first reaction is thinking it’s my age or longer hikes, so I might start to back down on distances. With the pain still there after shorter hikes; the light bulb comes on in my head and I realize, “Hey” I’ve been wearing these same shoes for 6 months and have over 400 miles on them. And duh, it’s time for new shoes
At work, we also need to be aware of the wear on the tools we use every day. Like shoes, a main tool I use every day in working from home is my office chair. After six years of sitting in the same chair, I’m starting to feel the support starting to give way in the back and on the edge of the seat, so maybe it’s new chair time. My laptop is another tool I use every day and at times it starts to run slow and gets hung up with basic applications. Out of frustration – after I can’t stand it anymore- I’ll call our company help desk, and get reminded that just because I have a 27 inch monitor I don’t need to keep 30+ windows open, or maybe I should delete temp files and do basic computer clean up once in a while. That plus taking the time to shut everything down and do a computer reboot often solves the problems for me.
In both my shoes and office conditions, I know I get too busy to stop, be still, and take an assessment of condition of the tools I’m using every day. I forget that while working hard is important, working smart is even more important and having my tools in top working condition is a major part of working smarter and operating at peak performance levels.
Take time this week to evaluate the conditions of your tools, then put a monthly reminder in your calendar to take 15 – 30 minutes to check the conditions of your tools and fix or replace them as needed. You will be pleasantly surprised about how much your performance will improve by always operating with tools in top shape.
Al Andersen 