Next is a cup of coffee—the ultimate nootropic—mixed with a blend of functional mushrooms and adaptogens. On weekdays, that’s lion’s mane for focus. If an immunity boost is needed, then Chaga. Weekends, before long runs, Cordyceps is called for. Midmorning is when you’re naturally most focused, so that’s the time to hunker down for the day’s most cognitively grueling tasks, eliminating distractions and never working in chunks longer than around an hour. You frequently walk away from the computer screen to gaze at the horizon (an autonomic-nervous-system regulator) or to move your body. You don’t eat processed sugar or flour or drink alcohol. Roughly every two months, you take a clinical (as determined by the Johns Hopkins psilocybin studies), ego-dissolving dose of psychedelic mushrooms.
Eight to nine hours of sleep every night is nonnegotiable, and your bedroom mimics a cave—dark, cool, quiet. Did I mention you should also sleep on a tatami mat to simulate the way humans slumbered for hundreds of thousands of years?
Or that you should undergo EMDR and hypnotherapy, and most weeks, even in January, dunk in an ocean for some cold-AF therapy?
Routines like these have become a shiny by-product of the self-optimization era. Certainly, today’s unrelenting pressure to do more can suck the life from many and cause them to seethe at the term “optimization” or dismiss these practices as “hacks.” But through them, many have found liberation. Indeed, today, this razor-sharp double edge has moved to the forefront for workers, leaders, and companies. At the same time that neuroscience is making personal transformation more attainable than ever, burnout is reaching epic proportions. Executives face one obstacle after another, from labor shortages to climate change. But whether the promise of being smarter, faster, bolder makes us better equipped to face these challenges hinges on one central question: What’s it all for?
For leaders and their workers, the science of peak performance is reaching new heights. Will all the routines really help people to be smarter, faster, and better?
he size of the drive-hard-and-drive-even-harder movement is enormous, with the self-help industry raking in $10 billion a year by some estimates. We are bombarded with messages selling perfection, whether it’s a book, a gadget, or a guru. Ultimate life hacker Tim Ferriss has 80 million podcast subscribers, with his books The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Chef, and The 4-Hour Body all bestsellers. The world can’t get enough of Dave Asprey and his line of Bulletproof products. Like the interminable technology upgrades, there is always a better version of ourselves to be had. And if we can only actualize that better version, then we will be successful, then we will be happy. It’s a doctrine dating back thousands of years.
In Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us, journalist Will Storr traces the idea of self betterment back to the ancient Greeks, who idolized the talents of remarkable individuals. People don’t compete in the Olympics for monetary reward or to better civilization, but for the fame and glory of being the best. The problem with striving for perfection for perfection’s sake, though, is that very few ever reach the podium, leaving the masses feeling like failures. Considering that measuring ourselves against others has become a 24-7 event, it’s unsurprising that there have been tragic upticks in eating disorders, insomnia, anxiety, abuse of performance-enhancing drugs (including cognitive enhancers), and suicide. But while the Greeks believed that humans are inherently heroic and that the individual is at fault if they fail to live up to that standard, modern medical understanding suggests people are largely governed by genetics, fixed personality traits, and environmental circumstances. What’s groundbreaking about today’s science is that it’s uncovering ways to reprogram the physiological responses that dictate how we show up.
It offers a biological basis for change.
Many business leaders are incorporating neuroscience in the same ways that athletes
train for peak performance, as well as using it to help employees both execute better and manage emotions. “Neuroscience has the potential to change the way we operate in critical ways,” says Amelia Haynes, a researcher at the Korn Ferry Institute. “The primary function
is to arm people with knowledge about why they are the way they are, so change and optimization is more within our control.” An exciting trail of crumbs suggests that neuro-optimization may soon be right there alongside nutrition and fitness (of course, they all correlate): the Wharton School recently established the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, claiming this area of research will be “key to [business] practice in the next decade.” Corporations are partnering with academic institutions. And executives are undergoing neurofeedback therapy.
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Upon waking in the morning, you head straight for the kitchen to chug a glass of water mixed with green superfood powder, along with
a daily synbiotic. From the kitchen, it’s a direct line to the backyard, where you meditate among madrones and succulents for 40 minutes using brain-wave entrainment technology, do a series of yogic postures, and then scribble three stream-of-consciousness pages by longhand (a practice many creatives swear by). All the while, the unfiltered sunlight exposure is setting your circadian clock, so that you’ll be more alert throughout
the day and able to sleep easy come night.
The day starts early, always early.
Superheroes
of the Corner
Office
A literature review by Stanford neuroscientist Andrew
Huberman explores the latest science pushing the limits of
peak performance. The five key areas are fitness, sleep, neuroplasticity, the nervous system, and nutrition.
Here are some tips in each category.
Finding Your Peak
A few best practices for training the body for peak physical
—and mental—performance.
1. Shake That Money Maker.
Timing.
Body temperature has a surprisingly dramatic influence on physical capability. The ideal window for hitting the gym is three hours after waking, or 11 hours after waking.
Consistency.
To maintain or increase musculature, do at least five sets per muscle per week.
Recovery.
Just as with strenuous mental exertion, be sure to give the body time to recover, ideally one to two full days a week. And wrap up each workout with at least five minutes of deep breathing.
The secret to a good night’s rest:
2. It’s All About Sleep.
Create a routine.
The body has an internal clock. Going to bed at different times throws off our circadian rhythm.
Keep it cool.
Body temperature also regulates sleep schedules, dropping about 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit when it’s time to turn in. Getting out of a warm bath can help precipitate this drop.
Go outside.
The latest research shows that getting at least a few minutes of direct sunlight within 30 minutes of waking triggers a biological timer that controls the release of cortisol and melatonin, hormones which wake you up, then make you tired later.
Watch what you eat and drink.
Restrict caffeine to earlier in the day, limit alcohol, and keep snacking light right before bed.
Neuroplasticity is how our brain and nervous system learn and acquire new capabilities.
3. Changing the Brain.
Focus.
Bring laser-like attention to the task at hand—for instance, by narrowing the visual field, since mental focus follows visual focus.
Eliminate distractions.
Turn off all alerts and set your phone aside. Switching between tasks disrupts a deep flow state.
Rest.
Huberman stresses over and over, “The dirty secret of neuroplasticity is that no neuroplasticity occurs during the event. All of it occurs in sleep or non-sleep deep rest.”
Find your rhythm.
The brain can’t keep a spotlight on indefinitely. Like sleep, wakefulness occurs in 90-minute cycles. Most people have only one or two 90-minute periods a day during which they’re at peak cognition.
Try one of these techniques for manually regulating the
nervous system.
4. Mastering the Nervous System.
Start with breath work.
A general rule of thumb: extending exhalation relaxes, while prolonging inhalation arouses.
Cold therapy.
Try exposing the body to cold water several times a week, using breath work to train the nervous system not to click into fight-or-flight mode when exposed to unpleasant stimuli. Studies suggest cold therapy may have the added benefit of improving immune function and reducing inflammation.
Try manipulating the field of vision.
Many people don’t realize that the eyes are actually part of the brain. Narrowing the visual aperture to focus on a particular object sends a signal to the mind and body to become more alert. On the other hand, gazing wide at the horizon tells the system to chill. Speaking of chill...
It’s not just what we eat; it’s also when and how.
5. Food Be Thy Medicine.
Fasting.
Eating sends a signal to the brain to rest and digest, which has a calming effect. That’s why many cognitive high performers are taking up intermittent fasting. Recent research shows that delaying breakfast increases morning alertness and motivation.
1,3,7-Trimethylxanthine.
The most reliable nootropic, according to many experts: caffeine. Just wait two hours after waking to drink your coffee, or else it can disrupt the body’s circadian clock and cause a midday crash.
Nootropics.
Many people turn to supplements marketed to improve cognitive function, known as nootropics. Studies suggest over-the-counter supplements containing nutrients found in brain-boosting foods don’t appear to have the same benefits as
whole foods.
Our main goal is that they stop using words like ‘concentration’ and say ‘I have too much frontal activation.’
hat these already high performers are discovering is that peak performance is determined by wellness. When CEOs go in for neurofeedback to improve their focus, they often find that the deficiency has to do with poor sleep or stress. “Our main goal is that they stop using words like ‘concentration’ and say ‘I have too much frontal activation,’” says Dr. Philipp Heiler, CEO of Brainboost, which offers neurofeedback to corporate clients. If doctors like Heiler are successful, it may not be long before that is the reality, with companies merging their fitness centers with neurogyms that provide clinical EEGs, teach breathing and optical techniques to regulate the autonomic nervous system, and offer counsel on nutrition that feeds the brain.
One class of the criticisms of self-optimization is leveled at the narcissistic element. But experts say the changes people are making in their lives allows them to show up for themselves and others in ways they were never able to before. More creative and prolific, many say they now live in alignment with their intentions without constantly being hijacked by emotion and impulse. And that gets to another criticism—that all this optimization is an outgrowth of an unrealistic economy, a pace of life that has accelerated to a cadence that requires superhuman speed to keep up, and a dearth of meaning powering this never-ending chase.
In his books The Joy of Missing Out: The Art of Self-Restraint in an Age of Excess and Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze, Danish psychology professor Svend Brinkmann argues that self-actualization often comes at the cost of caring about the collective. What’s missing from these movements is fundamental human values, like integrity and duty. “I’m not against self-improvement,” Brinkmann tells Briefings. “These are universal human cravings. What I have against it is the ethical emptiness and the instrumentalization of people’s development. We haven’t found the balance yet.” That will be the struggle for business leaders. If peak performance remains in service only to bottom-line results, most experts agree it will only continue to grind workers into a mush of mental and physical afflictions. But if they can use it in service of purpose, it has the potential to elevate the person and the endeavor.
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