Spinning the Flywheel of Progress
Stringing together perfect days and avoiding over-optimization
With the amount of information being released it’s easy to get lost in too much optimization bro theory. Andrew Huberman has been an incredibly valuable resource and has led to direct improvements in my sleep and performance. Tim Ferriss has written extensibly on tactics to more efficiently work and live. And countless others have published information on everything - from sleeping to how many reps of strength movements you should be doing to how much cardio you should be doing down to the minute.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to do EVERYTHING that is said to optimize our life, and then still get it wrong due to the insane amount of (sometimes questionable) information that is out there. But we are limited in time and resources. The list of things to do is seemingly endless and could spend WAY too much money on things that produce negligible results compared to the basics of optimization. And that kind of defeats the purpose of optimization, doesn’t it?
Somewhere in the “optimized” lifestyle we would want it to be as efficient as possible. Preferably for a relatively low cost, low intrusiveness, and low amount of time spent doing “optimization activities.” That way, it becomes trivial to put together a perfect day and then string these days together.
So instead of listing off optimization tactics, I’d rather start with a top down approach - what makes the perfect week, the perfect day? From there we can discuss how to accomplish the perfect day and what can be done to optimize it with different building blocks you can stack together starting with the basics and inevitably ends with getting your own blood doping system to pump up your red blood cell mass (maybe joking, but no definitely do not do this).
The perfect day is specific to you, an individual. I can only say what I think my perfect day is. I’m not here to prescribe tactics or argue why I think it makes my day perfect because that goes against my entire argument! Maybe piecemeal some of my recommendations, or follow it to a T. The point is, optimization and efficiency comes from planning and experimentation of different factors to reduce the amount of things you have to do to have an awesome day. What I know is I’m still learning and improving. But I’ve found some things along the way that when done, I feel amazing and can consistently string together to create a flywheel of progress.
My Perfect Day:
8-9 hours of sleep
Immediate cold shower upon waking (still looking for a cold plunge)
Then immediately outside for morning sunlight (if available) (clothing optional)
Focused work
Breakfast - 30-50g of protein, decent amount of carbs, lower fats, salts/electrolytes mixed with water
Caffeine (black coffee, lately been using a Bialetti and Cafe Bustelo)
Train (resistance, high intensity, and/or steady state)
If strength training, I take 6g of l-citrulline and 6g beta alanine 30 minutes prior to training
Lunch - another 30-50g of protein, decent carbs, mid-fats
More work
More protein
Into the early evening to nighttime, I try to balance work or relaxing
Dinner - usually very similar to lunch, perhaps a ribeye and white rice, veggies, blueberries
Repeat #11
Take glycine, magnesium, zinc, vitamin D (if low sunlight day)
Sleep at 66-69 degrees F
RINSE AND REPEAT
This is what I consider a perfect day at this point in my life. Obviously work doesn’t always allow for this. But when I do these things, in this order, it’s always an awesome day. It’s fairly basic and my supplementation needs work. I need to update my sleep stack based on some recent recommendations I’ve seen from a recent Huberman podcast to understand the impact on my body.
The challenge becomes doing this every day. Not spending too much time reading about ways to optimize further instead of just working harder. Every once in a while I go down the rabbit hole, but that’s because it just enjoy researching cool topics. Regardless, this is just what I’m doing presently. The most important aspect is nailing the basics of performance down and doing them every day. These include:
Consistent amount of sleep and sleep schedule
Water intake (4L+ per day)
Nutrient dense diet, 1g+ protein per pound of bodyweight
Consistent resistance training, high intensity sessions, and steady state sessions
That’s the bare minimum. Regardless of where I am or what I’m doing I strive to do these things every day. Everything else will be marginal without the building blocks. Then I start stacking other things that are known to optimize and test their impact on my body. In the end, I’ll know I did everything in my power to feel and perform at the highest possible level without wasting too much time on meaningless activities. Over time, the flywheel starts spinning and is hard to stop. I notice minute adjustments in my wellbeing and how my body responds to even 1 less hour of sleep, or slightly less water. Is that what “being in tune with your body” means? Idk I just wanna be jacked, tan, and handsome. I struggle with #2.
Cheers✌️