Read This If You Don’t Want To Lose
Read This If You Don’t Want To Lose
PLUS: The One Skill You Need In The Era of AI
September 13, 2026
“Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance.”
\- Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
I’ve always been fascinated by boxing. I fought as an amateur and was taught many lessons in the ring, some of them humbling.
Boxing tests you on every level. Mentally, physically, emotionally. It can take you to places you’ll never experience in everyday life.
This was front of mind for me when I watched the recent IBF World Heavyweight title fight between unbeaten young superstar Moses Itauma and veteran Filip Hrgovic.
Itauma was a huge favourite and during the fight he was the faster man, the better boxer and won nearly every round.
And he lost the fight.
Why? Because by round nine, he’d expended so much energy trying to win the fight by a KO that he’d emptied his tank and could barely stand up, let alone punch.
Hrgovic, the wily veteran, who'd barely survived the early storm, had paced himself better - intentionally holding back some of his energy.
When the opportunity came, he was ready to deploy it when it mattered most.
There’s a lesson here for every one of you - your cognitive capacity is no different to your physical one.
You know this intuitively - you’ll talk about ‘brain fog’, about feeling ‘tired but wired’, about how you can’t think straight.
Yet how often do you consciously manage your capacity?
How many of you act like the sprinter who has slowed to a jog, but insists on doing one more lap, even though their times have fallen off a cliff?
The ‘always on’ mentality is a kill zone for high performance. The cognitive athlete thinks differently.
THE PROOF
Elite sport has understood this for decades - 'pacing' is practically its own discipline in athletics, swimming, cycling and rowing.
But in elite business you can also find examples, including the founder of the largest company in the world by revenue.
Jeff Bezos built his schedule around one principle: protect your best hours for your hardest calls.
Speaking at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. in 2018, he explained that he always had his "high-IQ meetings" booked early in the day.
By 5pm, if a hard problem landed on his desk, he'd resist the temptation of trying to solve it there and then. "I can't think about that today," he said. "Let's try this again tomorrow at 10am."
His rationale was simple. As a senior leader, your job is to solve the challenges that will have the most impact on the business, rather than burn through energy on hundreds of small ones.
A cognitive athlete in action.
THE SCIENCE
Research backs Bezos’s approach.
In 2022, researchers at Sorbonne University put that to the test.
Two groups completed either demanding or straightforward mental tasks for over six hours, while their brains were scanned throughout.
In the group doing the harder tasks, a compound called glutamate built up in the prefrontal cortex - the part of your brain responsible for control and executive function.
As it built up, participants were given a choice: a smaller reward now, or a bigger reward that took more effort or a longer wait.
The more glutamate had accumulated, the more they took the smaller, easier option, even when the bigger one was clearly worth more.
The brain scans showed how the participants who’d started off ‘sprinting’, were, over time, reduced to a crawl.
THE APPLICATION
Understanding that your cognitive capacity is finite is the starting point. Being intentional about how and when you deploy your thinking is the skill.
Far too many of you are living in the ‘simmering six’, where your always-on mindset is dragging you down.
It’s that sense of just pushing through rather than being at your sharpest when you need to be.
There are lessons here for you from Bezos and from the research - the ability to oscillate is key.
However, one important caveat. Your own prime window for deep cognitive work might not look like Bezos's, or like anyone else's.
For some of you that's down to your chronotype - some people are wired to think sharper later in the day.
For most of you, it's more likely to be the reality of your operating environment - the executive who has to prepare for a board meeting; the entrepreneur with two young children who only has protected thinking time once they’ve gone to bed.
This is all about adapting to your data and your reality.
What does this look like in practice?
- Creating protected space for complex discussions and big decisions.
- Batching your lower-stakes decisions into a single block, rather than letting that constant ‘drip-feed’ drain you (yes, you really don’t need to respond to that email immediately!).
- Maintaining an adaptive mindset - oscillation isn't only about planning your working day. Your world is a dynamic environment - plans change, crises hit and priorities can change rapidly. The skill is knowing how you allocate your cognitive capacity in real time.
- A 20-minute walk in nature, or even a minute or two of properly stepping away (not just switching tasks), is proven to interrupt the decline in focus and accuracy that builds the longer you stay on one complex task. And stepping away does not mean going on your phone!
- Switch off the auto-pilot and tune into your own data, so you know when 40% is the right amount to give. Be brave enough to ignore the obsession with optics and save the rest for when it counts. That will serve you far more over the long term.
A final word on self-compassion.
How often do you beat yourself up for not being on your A-game all the time?
Now you know the physiology of your brain, let go of that illusory state.
Instead, focus on being intentional with your cognitive capacity. Know when to sprint. Know when to jog. Know when to rest. You’re in the longest of races. Don’t burn out.
Go well.
J.
LIVE BETTER, LEAD BETTER
The best content I researched this week:
1. A recent study out of MIT shows that an over-reliance on tools like ChatGPT leads to a measurable decline in cognitive function. Author Brad Stulberg explains the practical implications for you.
2. The one skill that will keep you irreplaceable in the era of AI, according to tech entrepreneur and investor Sandeep Swadia, AKA the MIT Monk. In just 40 seconds it reinforces my belief that you have to think like a cognitive athlete.
3. Finally, how different types of downtime affect your brain is broken down in a few Instagram slides. Read it and use that knowledge to switch off properly.
Share this with a fellow leader - we’re stronger together.
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