Health & Productivity 5.0
Ok wow, reviewing this I’ve just realized how much my protocols have changed since the Achilles Tendonitis and Sleep Apnea last year
Biggest change is that I dropped Cardio (2023 is the year of no Cardio) in favor of weight-lifting bc cardio is good for weight loss but pretty bad for fat loss
I’ve been using MAPS Anabolic from Mind Pump and the results I guess are noticeable enough that people (mostly guys lol) keep commenting on my physique….
I started doing Dexa Scans monthly to estimate my body-fat percentage and lean mass level
This has been LIFE-CHANGING bc it’s the perfect feedback system that showed me that even though I was losing weight with High-Intensity Running, I was mostly losing muscle which trapped me into skinny-fat mode for years, whereas when I started weight-lifting my body-fat % started to go down
The other breakthrough I had based on these results is just how important protein is to build muscle and lose fat, that’s why I started eating 4x a day (to optimize protein absorption) and drinking Muscle Milk (40g of protein) for breakfast
3x4 Pomodoros: 3 sets of 4 pomodoros with at least a 1h break between each set
Depending on the day, I tend to do 2 sets of Valyria and 1 set of Cassandra deep work and I just let it compound over time
I really doubled down on this after listening to Huberman talk about the max amount of cognitive work we can do before causing a dopamine burnout
ChatGPT Plus (I.E. access to GPT-4 and Code Interpreter) high-key has changed my life! I enjoy programming sooooo much more now that I don’t get stuck on stupid bugs and DevOps issues
I want to thank GPT for helping me build a new version of our Play-2-Earn Prediction Market from scratch in 5 weeks!!!
ADHD-optimized White Noise: discovered this thanks to Andrew Huberman and right away I felt some sort of “pressure evaporate” and the resulting relaxation has boosted my productivity
I guess this is what everyone else has been experiencing when listening to music while working? Bc that has never worked for me, but up until recently I was putting on TV Shows in the background to get me over the initial hump
Personal Scoreboard: following the input-over-output philosophy, I now track how many hours I am able to allocate towards the top 3 priorities (it looks like 4 bc Valyria has replaced Deep Learning) in my life so that I can slap myself with the reality of just how little Deep Work (I don’t count meetings) I really get done every week — it’s now a staple of the Productivity Gym
Bionic Reading: I now hear my inner voice again when I read! It truly works magic!
Adraful: there’s an Adrafanil (it metabolizes into Modafanil) shortage but these guys have managed to get their hands on enough supply to create an nootropic energy drink that really works bc you know…Modafanil is the closest thing to NZT-48
I’m actually becoming friends with the founders and they’ll be on the podcast soon!
It’s really strong so I only drank 1 can throughout the span of a week. The rest I have saved bc they are sold out, so I mostly want to keep it for emergencies.
I find that Adrafinil is especially useful to deal with jet lag or any other major sleep disruption when I can’t afford to nap the next day
Noopept: I discovered it for the first time earlier this summer when I was looking for something to fight off my daytime sleepiness (I kept passing out in the middle of day during the summer) that wouldn’t caused me to crash like caffeine or exhaust my brain like an actual stimulant (I know I know: I sound like a Mormon ahaha)
It actually works super well for some reason and it’s by far the best nootropic I’ve taken so far. No real side effects except getting easily annoyed when people interrupt me
Apparently people take 2-3x per day which is crazy bc I am fine with just 1 capsule. I only take it max 3x a week so that I don’t develop a tolerance
Sleep cocktail: LMNT Electrolytes + Magnesium (500mg) + sleeping meds
I got Lormetazepam prescribed in Italy bc I was looking for something other than Ambien to deal with my low-key insomnia so that I could rotate between different meds to avoid developing a dependency on any of them
I rotate between Zolpitem, Lormetazepam, and Trazadone and ofc Melatonin
For some reason that is not clear yet (hoping to find that out at the next sleep study) I keep waking up when I hit REM sleep so the meds have helped me have a more peaceful night of sleep
I have been taping my mouth shut at night which I think helps too
On a related note, I’m sticking with the 12-9am sleeping schedule bc the more I try to fight my chronotype the more it comes back to bite me in the ass….
Other changes
I dropped MUD/WTR bc it was too expensive relative to the alternatives. Drinking electrolytes in the morning is way better
I gave up on Roam (wasn’t really getting benefits from the Graph) and went back to iNotes so that I easily pull up information and infographics in the middle of a conversation
Bc of the nootropics discussed above, I only used Focalin a few times this year
I have not been able to use my Eight Sleep this past year :(
Things I’m looking forward to try
After reading “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Time Ferris, I want to try a virtual assistant
Inside Tracker and more broadly I want to do a hormone test
23andMe bc it’s about damn time ahahah
A second sleep study to figure out why my apnea peaks during REM
"In the previous episodes of Health & Productivity..."
The Pomodoro Technique tricks me into getting started even when I don't want to commit to hours of work
Timeboxing (I.E. scheduling pomodoro intervals) has turned my calendar into a time budget
Meditation force-multiplies my efforts by enabling me to be more present
Rubber-ducking (I.E. braindumping my thoughts as I work through a problem) enables me to not lose context when I switch tasks which in turn enables me to pick up right where I left off
Prioritizing based on momentum > prioritizing based on importance/urgency
Math Therapy with @MathMark has enabled me to pay down my knowledge debt at a rapidly accelerating rate thanks to the Bloom-2-Sigma effect while also expanding my meta-learning skills (started using flashcards for the first time!) which is leveling me up in terms of skill-acquisition in general
The Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity system enables me to capture my thoughts, prioritize them and then act upon them in a loop of compounding execution
MUD/WTR clears my brain fog like nothing else and they should become a sponsor for the Newsletter!
Streaks don't just work for addicts: they are a great way to set yourself up for success when first developing a habit
My audiobook workflow consists of listening to the audiobook at 2-3x speed, writing down key phrases so that I can ctrl-f the full quote in the PDF at the end of the book and upload them to Readwise so that their spaced-repetition algorithm can do their thing
Taking nutrition seriously, I converged on a low-carb, high-protein diet that has resulted in me losing 5% body-fat this year
Doing High-Intensity Interval Traning at night has tripled my consistency and freed up my mornings
Roam Research has massively improved my knowledge processing as well as the efficiency of the Newsletter by externalizing my hyper-active associationist network so that I can progressively consolidate
RemNote has replaced Notion and Anki for my formal learning thanks to their slick flash card system!
Priorities List has replaced my To-Do list bc “More effort is wasted doing things that don’t matter than is wasted doing things inefficiently.” — James Clear
3 sets of 3 pomodoros a day: 1 set early in the morning, 1 set after lunch, and 1 set in the evening
Capture notebook: I carry around a pocket notebook with a mechanical pencil to capture random thoughts as well as notes during conversations (which I separate through indentation) throughout the day so that the next day I can fill in the top ideas from the prior day and transfer them into my Weekly Bullet Journal
Rising in the Morning with L-Theanine: I take these amazing capsules on Amazon that shift the 5-to-1 caffeine-to-l-theanine ratio in tea to 1-to-3. I almost exclusively use 50mg of caffeine + 100mg of L-Theanine
Focalin: after years of resistance and several challenges from friends on the ADHD spectrum, I finally decided to accept my doctor’s diagnosis and take ADHD meds during emergencies. It’s supposed to be taken twice a day, and I take it ~2x per month.
It’s cool to see how your understanding is constantly evolving. Plus, you are experimenting in yourself to see what works, which I think is more important than relying on statistics and generalizations from studies. We are all so unique that health programs need to be customized.
However, the benzos do make me a little concerned, as in my work I see them abused often, with long term (often permanent) consequences. Not saying you would do that, but it’s a risk nonetheless.
Also, now is the perfect time to import your Roam into Obsidian. I use it every day and absolutely love it. It’s quick enough to let me access anything I need in seconds.