James Clear writes in this article about maximum speed and average speed. One way to think about it is the all-night writing many students undertake before the paper is due. Compare that with someone who writes a little bit once the paper is assigned. They can sustain that lower per day writing amount, whereas the all-nighter cannot.
I’ve noticed this myself with my new year’s goal of reading 20 pages per day. I’ve only missed a few days, but have made up for it on many days by reading far beyond the 20. The result? I’ve read 5 full books since January 1, and have started and stopped several others. At no point in this process did I push very hard to read a ton. 20 pages per day are fairly easy to come by. Clear also makes the observation about exercise:
“For example, anyone can feel a burst of inspiration, head to the gym, and push themselves for a single workout. That’s maximum speed. We waste a lot of time obsessing over it. How hard was your workout? How motivated are you? How fast are you pushing it?”
How can you increase your average speed? Clear writes about habit graduation, taking your current habit and upping it slightly. If you exercise once every couple of weeks, you might aim to go for once per week. If you only cook one meal at home a day try cooking two. Small ways to bring up your average speed will yield big returns in the long run.