Today at a glance :

• Productivity at its base… How can I live the most fulfilling life from moment to moment, while pursuing my purpose with passion.

• Time, the constant of time. Shifting perspectives, utilizing your time and connecting it to your life in a intentional way.

• Optimization practices to increase energy & brain cognition.

• Some quotes for contemplation.

9 minute read time

We all have the same 24 hours

Time is a resource, and the utilization of it revolves around on knowing yourself.

A question to myself regarding time… How can I live the most fulfilling life from moment to moment, while pursuing my purpose with passion.

It can turn into a rabbit hole of optimization. Through time, and into how your body feels and responds to your actions.

Keeping track of your personal schedule, When do you eat? What do you eat? How does that affect your cognition, and so on.

Productivity has been a trending topic for while. With a never ending amount of applications and systems woven into the tapestry of time utilization, it is very easy for one to get lost and ultimately become counter productive.

The purpose of productivity is to make your life easier and more efficient.

The four components

My time optimization is broken up into four categories, flowing focus, which is falls into deep work. Based in the logistical mind, working on projects, reading and research.

Being human which consists of eating, cleaning, day to day maintenance and so on.

Restoration which is time for rest and maintenance of the body and mind. Spending time with friends and family, and decompression. Body movement and meditation are key here.

Then we have Creation, This stems from the core of your soul. Whether that’s your morning journaling practice, to painting and creative writing. This is where we create our own reality, that may look like planning your week out through project-based goals, or planning out what your day looks like the night before.

The key here is to implement an element of expression. What fuels you and how do you want to live your life.

I enjoy taking my life one moment at a time, leaving room for spontaneity. However I also find myself being more on purpose when I have structure to elaborate on.

I wake up by 6:00 everyday and the first thing I do is journal, then go outside for a run as the sun is rising. Afterwards I read and research until 9:00.

9:00 to 11:00 is my first deep work period.

And I break my fast at 11:00 with a light meal.

From then my mid day stays open, with emphasis to integrate at least an hour of intensive movement at 12.

There's some time for social media management afterwards and then at 2:30 I go back into a deep work section until 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m. Is when I eat a huge meal and start to wind down for the night.

These time blocks are placeholders. They acknowledge my must needed 4 components of life, while simultaneously holding space for the more specific tasks that are needed to be completed.

I’ve found it is crucial to choose when to focus based around my schedule, energy levels, and tasks.

Personally in the morning when I'm in a fasted state I feel my cognition is at its most efficient flow.

As I mentioned I break my fast at 11:00 but what's more important than the time mark is that I accomplish something that I'm proud of.

The reason for that is I want to reward myself with a meal. This increases the dopamine that rushes into my brain when I do eat and creates a more prolonged effect that carries through the rest of the day.

My interpretation of this is bringing it back to primal roots, as hunters, food wasn't always guaranteed, and when you were able to obtain a good source of food, it was celebrated as a success.

When I do break my fast I like to do it with a carrot, a good source of fiber. Eating fiber to break a fast, prevents your body from having a glucose crash and having roller coaster blood sugar all day. It’s a great way to sustain clean energy throughout the day.

Shortly after I'll make an extremely protein rich smoothie and couple that with some greens and color. I like to keep it light in the first meal because if I eat a very large meal I can feel my cognitive functions lower and I start to get tired.

I prioritize prolonged focus in the early morning, and this fasting regimen has dramatically improved that for me.

With a huge emphasis on personal preference, I believe that the upfront investment in time dedicated to understanding how your brain and body work in tandem, will create so much space and time for you in the long run.

Sleeeep

The reset in the beginning. Everyone is specifically unique. And sleep is something that everyone does, and that everyone does differently.

Instead of deeping diving into scientific benefits we're going to keep it simple.

After spending time feeling into different sleep schedules, I found what works for me. And I stick to it, and if I don’t It reflects.

II try to keep all light exposure to a minimum starting at 2 hours before my bedtime, and I have my last meal around there as well. I strive for 8 hours of sleep and usually wake up when It’s still dark. I live in Austin and it gets bright until around 7:30. Depending on where you live you might experience a similar situation.

Something that is easily overlooked is by far the most important aspect of productivity. Starting your day out strong with intention and creating a space in which you can breathe expression and creativity within. And ending the day with deep restoration.

Nutrition

Another very important aspect for me is nutrition, which is a slippery slope. supplementing is another trending topic that comes in all shapes and sizes, flavors and combos. Supplements are nice, and definitely have their place. But eating Whole Foods are nourishing at a deeper level. There's an emphasis on the fact that everyone has different needs and different foods affect in different ways. There are many different routes to take and a lot of experimentation to be had.

So let’s get into some optimized nutrition. I believe there's a general rule of thumb, a foundational base of whole foods. Foods that come from the Earth, your choices of meat or protein and the tasteful rainbow that earth offers with love.

Personally I love food and I’ll try everything, but my diet is fairly constant and I keep it that way because it makes me feel good, and my gut loves me for it.

And that diet looks like this, a good form of healthy animal protein, and that frequently

gets paired with eggs which are a great source of choline, which our brain and nervous system enjoy for regulating memory, mood, muscle control and many other functions. I enjoy creamy textures so this adds the fluff needed in my life.

I eat copious amounts of butter, and at least two avocados a day, I welcome all the fat, and my brain health does not contest. Our brain is 70 percent fat, and fueling it with nutrient dense fats is extremely important for brain function.

Fermented foods are one of my love languages, and how my gut fell in love with me. I eat multiple different types of sauerkraut, always stocked up on kimchi, and snack on pickles throughout the day. As I alluded to before my gut loves me for this and the gut health is crucial for my day-to-day productivity. It keeps my mind and body connected on a healthy level and it creates a natural source of energy that fuels me through the day.

I put an Emphasis on conscious eating and what I mean by that is not just what you put into your body, but when and how you do so. As I alluded to before I keep my food intake light during my prime cognitive workloads.

The reason behind this is because the body uses a tremendous amount of energy to break down food, the more you eat the more energy is being sent to digestion and not to brain function. I also spend the initial time up front chewing my food fully and I found that this is actually helped save energy.

And it sounds very crazy, but i’m enjoying the results.

I like to stay away from gluten and sugar, sugar gives me a lot of inflammation, and both gluten and sugar block the smooth flow of blood and of course that's not good for you.

However I absolutely adore bread so I make sure to throw some fluffy sourdough into the mix here and there, again, with an ungodly amount of butter.

For nutritious carbs I'm a sucker for potatoes they're in about almost every meal. And I always add more than a Sprinkle of sprouted greens.

When I deviate from what I know my body needs to feel nourished and energized I notice the difference right away. I feel slower, lethargic, and I feel my brain disconnecting, and not in a concious way.

When I find myself in the spoon touching the bottom of a Earl Gray ice cream tub, I noticed that I probably shouldn't have done that. But sometimes you just have to live a little.

And of course in parallel to food; hydration is Paramount to healthy functions and productive days. You can feel the lubrication within your body and your brain function when you're constantly drinking water vs when you aren't.

Sleep food and water, are our base functions and we will wither without them. I plan to get more scientific with different aspects of these respective fields of life in later videos because there's a lot to unpack.

Keeeep scrolling, we’re almost done…

Movement

Movement can be very difficult especially as your schedule fills.

I'm the type of person that gets completely immersed into the subject I'm working on.

Of course there's the benefit of flow, but when it's a detriment to physical health it becomes an issue. When I find myself 2 hours past my 45 minute timer that reminds me to stand. I notice a lot of restriction in my body.

Shortly after I notice that there's an energy coagulation in my brain as well. I find it harder to snap back into that flow state but thankfully that issue gets solved by movement.

Personally I don't enjoy the prescribed techniques such as Pomodoro, which is working in four increments of 25 minutes separated by 5 minute breaks.

I like to implement a 45 minute deep focus block separated by a 5-minute movement shake in which I will do a little dancing or some jumping jacks or simply wiggle my body to move that stagnant energy out. If I'm super in the flow of things and I want to get back then I will.

However I find myself often benefiting from spending another 5 minutes to create that 10 minute break calming my nervous system. Focusing on a few breathes and having a little body meeting.

Every 2 hours during my break I'll go out in the sun and show it my smile.

As I mentioned I have my deep work blocks that are usually 3 to 4 hours and I do two of those a day. Each block is split by a mile walk.

Movement whether that's wiggling out the energy or going to the gym for a full intensive workout has been my saving grace for functioning at beyond what I thought my abilities were.

Quick side quest:  as you know our hearts pump blood that's how we’re alive, usually are heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. If your able to hike your bpm to around that 140 mark before you start your deep work sessions, and during your breaks it will dramatically increase oxygen and blood flow which is always nice.

Also recent science people have found that raising your heart rate through regular aerobic exercise can increase the size of the anterior hippocampus drastically, the part of the brain involved in verbal memory and learning.

I’ve found that some high knees or jumping jacks can get me to that bpm after a few minutes, and don’t exert too much energy.

As you have noticed we are getting pretty rooted in the basics, things that we all know or have heard. And it’s quite easy to pass by.

However I invite you to take a deeper dive into your body and feeling how different additions or subtractions aid you in being more productive.

Many time’s I have fallen subject to not giving the little things proper attention, brushing over important concepts because the other guy in my head told me I already know that or it’s a waste of my time.

Emphasis on waste of time. Why would I waste time? I thought the whole point of this was to save it.

It wasn’t until I initiated my descent into the well of knowledge that I discovered useful information that helped me increase my awareness of self and how I operate in this world.

That resulted in me finding efficient tactics that I could implement moment to moment. Which in turn helped me improve on my goal of optimizing my most valuable asset, and more importantly using it in fulfillment.

And it is a constant pursuit, and a beautiful journey. Productivity in the essence is our relationship with time. And time is a interesting concept, it’s something that my soul tells me is completely irrelevant, but something that my human tells me is extremely important.

It’s easy to fall into the scarcity of time, but beautiful being in the abundant flow of it.

So thank you for sharing your time, and thank you for being in my experience of it.

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