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your life will change forever the moment
that you decide to get up early and
really attack your day go to bed at the
same time every day don't use an alarm
sleep as much as you need but the second
you wake up you're going to get yourself
going let me tell you all about what my
life looked like before I started
getting out of bed and really getting
after it
one I was sliding towards depression
because my life felt like it was
completely out of control two I was
wasting four to five hours a day every
day three I spent my time tired all the
time because I wasn't going to bed with
intention which means that my body clock
was all over the place I would go to bed
two to three hours differently every
night sometimes earlier sometimes later
I had nothing specific to Anchor to to
what time that I was going to go to bed
which means that if I just let my body
sleep then I was going to wake up
whenever I was going to wake up and if I
set an alarm even worse I was gonna wake
up but feel terrible now most of the
time I had an alarm so I would just wake
up feeling terrible and I would snooze
the alarm and snooze the alarm and
snooze the alarm and I would constantly
one I would still sleep like another
hour but I would do it in nine minute
fits and starts so you end up starting
your day absolutely terribly you feel
like you're on the back foot from the
moment you get up because by the time
you finally get yourself out of bed
depending on if you're talking about a
period when I had a job or when I didn't
which even I can't believe that that's
actually true in my lives but there was
life there was extended periods of time
where I didn't have a job and then times
where I did so when I didn't I would
just lay in bed and when I did I was on
the back foot and that was when I really
could not get momentum going in my life
and I couldn't understand why now from a
biological standpoint I really did not
feel good I was low energy all the time
when you're low energy you lack
motivation when you lack motivation then
you don't make the changes that you need
to make partly because you're not going
out and learning the things you need to
learn in order to create a framework in
your mind that's going to tell you
things like what I'm telling you now now
when I started implementing rules in my
life then one I was going to bed on time
9 pm every day like it's a religion I
would wake up when I would wake up
without an alarm so I would actually
feel refreshed and then I gave myself
only 10 minutes to get out of bed so
imagine going from snoozing for an hour
when I had a job or laying in bed four
to five hours if I didn't have a job two
getting all the sleep that I needed
getting up within 10 minutes and having
my day structured such that if I was
awake Monday through Friday I was either
working or working out imagine the
amount of momentum that you can create
in your life when you act like that and
so everything changed dramatically once
I started putting those rules in life
now when I did this I actually didn't
have a job at the time that I put this
rule set into place but I started going
to bed at the same time I started
whatever time I woke up I gave myself 10
minutes to get out of bed and then I
would get right to it now at the time I
had a big goal of writing a screenplay
which I ended up accomplishing I can't
remember how long it took me four to six
months something like that and I was
like holding this thing I was like oh my
God like I actually managed to
accomplish this why because I was
getting up early now what ends up
happening if you're going to bed early
you're gonna sleep somewhere between
probably seven to nine hours depending
on your age or if you're really going
hard after something that's really
exciting for you or quite frankly really
stressful might be closer to six six and
a half which is about where I live six
and a half to seven hours of sleep
measured has an average over the course
of a year and so like last night I went
to bed at nine I woke up at 3 30 a.m now
if you have my rule set you get up at 3
30 a.m by 3 31 you're either working or
working out now you can imagine that you
get a lot done as I'm recording this now
I think it's like 3 34 p.m in the
afternoon I've already worked a 12 hour
day by the time that I'm recording this
and I'm filling all of my
intermittent moments where I'm
transitioning from one thing to another
reading researching so I am constantly
maximizing my time now by the time most
people woke up I'd already been working
if they wake up at what six o'clock I'd
already been working for two and a half
hours if they wake up at seven o'clock
I've already been working for what three
and a half hours so I'm able to get a
half days work in because at my Pace
it's really getting a lot done before
most people get to their first meeting
so it's really incredible how much you
can do in a day when you begin
maximizing it but it really does begin
with going to bed on time
not setting an alarm this is not me
telling people to get six hours of sleep
or five hours doesn't mean telling you
to get as much sleep as you can get so
that you can be cognitively optimized so
that you've got the biological energy
that you need and so that you really can
pursue the only thing that matters which
is skill acquisition once you have the
right skills you can apply that to
accomplishing the things you want but
look we live in a hyper competitive
world I always tell people there's three
things that you've got at your disposal
you can work hard you can work smart and
you can work long hours now people
always say if I'm working hard and smart
why do I have to work long hours why Tom
do I need to get up early
because eventually you will encounter
somebody like me and I'm doing all three
so
if you're trying to accomplish something
big in your life I'm telling you just
have to maximize all of the things that
are at your disposal and one of those
things is just the number of hours in
your day now remember I love what I do
so for me to go hard after the things
that I'm trying to do create and build
it's the ride of a lifetime I don't want
you to do something that's miserable I
don't want you grinding it out to try to
make a bunch of money I want you to
pursue your passions with everything
that you have to leave it all out on the
field like your life depends on it
because how you feel about your life
actually does depend on it
so many people
have a constant feeling
that they're not doing anything with
their lives and the reason that they
feel like they're not doing anything
with their lives is because they're not
and that's the hard reality that you
have to face we all have 24 hours in our
day we have 365 days a year
plus leap year when it comes around and
most people just aren't making the most
of it most people don't have rules in
place most people don't know what
they're trying to accomplish most people
don't drag their ass out of bed and get
to work but if what you love to do is
the thing that you do when you get up it
really is pretty extraordinary here's
the thing that we're all up against
you've got all this potential
you can turn it into skill set but the
thing that's required is time and energy
so you need to get sleep to have the
energy and you need to get out of bed to
get the time now there's something about
getting up when it's dark when the world
just feels slow people aren't texting
you they're not emailing you it's just
you and the things you're trying to
accomplish when you take advantage of
that time and by the way you're going to
be sharp you're going to be fresh maybe
not in the first 30 minutes when you
wake up but man once you get that engine
turning which is why I recommend that
you work out first thing in the morning
once you get that engine going
and you're up to speed those are going
to be the most high performative hours
of the day and so you want to make sure
that you're taking advantage of that
time so that you can really get things
moving so get up get going take
advantage of that set goals know what
skills you have to acquire use that
additional time that you get from
getting up and getting right to it to
stack those skills and accomplish the
things that you want and once you
understand that stacking skills is how
you do something great but stacking
skills takes time then you'll start
putting the right rules in place in your
life to make sure that you do the things
that you need to do to be energized get
out of bed and get after it so stop
making excuses structure your life in a
way that is set up
to give you the space that you need to
get this all done don't make excuses
just get after it if you want to make
the most out of your time you really
have to be very thoughtful about the
things you do the first couple of hours
after waking up I have a very strict
routine that I've been adhering to in
one form or another it does very
slightly depending on what I'm doing in
my life but I have a very narrow range
of things that I do immediately after
waking up so this is what my life looks
like I don't use an alarm so I wake up
when I wake up it's usually six and a
half to seven hours after I go to bed so
I'm up very early 3 30 to 4 30 a.m is my
typical wake-up time I have my gym
clothes sitting right next to my bed I
get my feet on the floor within 10
minutes of waking up I immediately get
dressed in my gym clothes I happen to
then grab my dog
take her downstairs I feed her breakfast
and then I and by the way the second I
finished putting on my clothes I put
headphones on and I've got something
pre-arranged that I'm going to be
researching so I'm researching pick up
the dog go downstairs get her fed the
whole time I'm researching something I
immediately then go to the gym the whole
time I'm researching something while I'm
working out in the gym I work out
typically between 30 and 45 minutes
weight lifting I don't do cardio not
saying you shouldn't just saying that I
don't
I then finish working out in the gym I
go and right now I am immediately
meditating sometimes I will research for
10 or 15 minutes to let my breathing and
my heart rate come down but right now
I'm not I'm using the meditation time to
actually see how rapidly I can slow my
breathing down and get back into a calm
and creative state but meditating is
very important now the reason that I'm
doing all of these things and I'll
finish with my routine in a minute but
the reason I do all of these things is
to cognitively optimize the whole point
of life from my perspective is to turn
your potential into usable skill set use
that skill set in pursuit of honorable
goals meaning they elevate you and other
people and they're exciting to you it's
something you care about not because
people told you that you should care
about because you actually do care about
them do not let the world try to trick
you into thinking you have to care about
what is quote unquote right to care
about care about the things you're into
as long as they elevate other people as
well as you yourself I'm all for it
whether you want to play the guitar or
clean up the oceans I don't give a [ __ ]
just do something you actually care
about so you have this honorable goal
you're going after it with everything
you have you're transforming your
potential into skill set that's what
it's all about but you have to be
cognitively optimized energetically
optimized meaning that you're actually
getting sleep you're working out and
you're eating right and that brings us
to the next thing that you will notice
in my morning routine is I haven't
mentioned eating I'm usually up for four
to five hours before I eat so if I wake
up at 3 30 in the morning I'm not going
to have my first meal roughly until 8
30. sometimes I can push it to 9 9 30
depending on my schedule but I
intermittent fast for on average I
measured this over an 18-month period
and the average is about 17 to 17 and a
half I now forget the exact amount but
roughly 17 17 and a half hours over
again 18 months that includes weekends
holidays all of it where I'll have a
slightly shorter window but during the
week that window can push to 18 19 hours
sometimes so I'm going to do
intermittent fasting I'm once I finish
working out meditating I immediately
begin official work so that typically is
going to be somewhere around an hour to
an hour and a half after I wake up I'm
in full work mode so if I wake up at 3
30 by 5 a.m I'm like full-blown
not even research mode which I'm again
doing from the second I wake up not even
in research mode I'm sitting down and
I'm tackling my important things list
which I keep a list of the most
important things that I could be doing
that are moving my goals forward this
does not all have to be work it's
whatever you're trying to do with your
life just so happens that for me work
and what I want to accomplish in my life
are one and the Same by the way I highly
encourage for all of you but I know that
sometimes reality gets in the way and
that's not always going to be the case
so whatever matters most you should be
attacking early early early early
so I get to it I don't do my important
things list in the morning I do my
important things I technically I'm
constantly updating it but I try to have
it done before I go to bed so that when
I wake up I know exactly what I'm going
to be doing I know what I should be
researching and I know what I'm going to
be hitting right when I sit down and
then I do that thing now because I don't
take meetings before 8 30 used to be a
little bit later
I've started letting some things
actually I will frame it this way some
things I've gotten so good at
identifying what is critically important
that I'll actually let it come earlier
in my day whereas before I tried to push
it back because I felt like my time was
being inappropriately consumed by other
people I kept pushing my meetings back
now I've started taking meetings three
days a week at 8 30 a.m because I've
gotten so good at making sure that those
meetings really matter and that I
absolutely need to be in them
so I take my first meeting at 8 30. now
if I've woken up at 3 30 that means that
I have five hours of productivity before
I take my first meeting now I'm gonna
work until I go to bed which is at 9 00
PM so if I wake up at 3 30 and I work
until 9 pm I'm not going to do math but
it's somewhere around what 17 18 hours
ish I know it's a half but it's a lot
and so I'm able because I'm doing that
lead Domino strategy of important things
in a particular order I'm able to get a
lot done now that time is highly curated
very cultivated I'm not uh checking my
phone I'm not looking at my text
messages unless that happened to be on
my important things list if I have a big
partnership or something that I'm trying
to move forward and I know people are
going to be texting me then I might but
that would be highly highly highly
intentional be very thoughtful to
structure your day to make sure that it
meets the goals of the things you're
trying to accomplish that is what I do
with the first couple hours of my day
and I highly encourage you guys to do
the same when you wake up there are very
specific things you're going to want to
avoid number one hitting the snooze
button don't do it not even once that is
how you end up on the back foot trying
to make something happen in your day but
you feel tired you should be getting as
much sleep as you can unless you are a
parent with a newborn I don't think
there's any excuse for not getting
enough sleep
go to bed early you may have to go to
bed ridiculously early if you have to go
to bed at 7 pm to get on your kids
schedule I'm completely fine with that
what I don't advise is getting so little
sleep that you're constantly hitting
this news alarm first of all this news
alarm is going to give you terrible
sleep it's going to wake you up in what
nine minute increments which is
absolutely atrocious far better to just
admit that you're only going to have 15
minutes to get out of bed or to get
ready and get out of the house and just
get the Sleep set your alarm for the
last possible second that is far better
than hitting this newsletter this news
alarm says that you've not got control
of your evenings get control of your
evenings go to bed if you're telling
yourself the absolute catastrophic lie
that you need time to unwind you are
creating a torture cycle for yourself
you don't need time to unwind you need a
method for shutting your brain off so I
use fiction books or that's what I did
in the beginning now I use non-fiction
books but you need something to get your
brain at a problem solving mode if you
put a book on I fall asleep to a book
what I find there's I haven't read the
research on this but I'm going to
guarantee that if it doesn't already
exist if somebody did the study of
whether or not laying down triggers
things regarding sleep I promise you it
does if you need to wake yourself up sit
upright if you want to fall asleep and
when you don't feel tired get in bed and
lay down now if you're not completely
expending yourself during the day you
might have trouble falling asleep if
you're overly stressed you might have
trouble falling asleep if you're
drinking caffeine you might have trouble
falling asleep if you're working out
late you might have trouble falling
asleep there are a lot of dumb things
you might be doing that are keeping you
from falling asleep but if you're not
laying down and doing something to shut
your brain off then you're not going to
fall asleep and if you're watching TV
with blue light pounding into your eyes
then don't be surprised when you have a
hard time falling asleep so
optimize so that you can fall asleep get
yourself in a position
that you're actually going to be able to
get out of problem solving mode
into relaxation mode
feeling sleepy
dark light
no blue light no staring at your
computer no checking Twitter to see how
many people have commented on some
stupid thing that you've said so you
don't want to spike your stress you
don't want to be checking email and
there's a guy that works right up until
I go to bed there are ways you can
section off the things you're working on
so you're working on less and less
stressful things as you get closer to
bedtime
so doing all of that will allow you
to not violate principle number one
which is don't hit this news alarm the
next thing that you're going to want to
avoid is laying in bed so even if you're
not hitting the snooze alarm I give
myself 10 minutes to be out of bed up
and at them there's no laying in bed and
playing on your phone that's the surest
way to watch a whole bunch of time go by
without you actually getting up and
getting after it so everything in your
life once you wake up should be dictated
by
a routine that you follow religiously
that is optimized to help you achieve
your goals now remember you should set
goals that are honorable and exciting so
it's something you're legitimately
interested in doing again don't let
other people set goals for you based on
what you should want don't chase money
don't uh uh Chase
um goals that are good for the planet
unless you're excited about it now if
you are that's amazing but if you're not
don't get tricked into doing things just
because other people think you ought to
this is where you really want to jump
out of bed you want a spring in your
step you want to be moving towards
something and not just away from
something what is it that you're trying
to make come true in your life that
you're really amped up about go do that
thing so we're not going to lay in bed
we're not going to play on our phones
we're not going to take something in
before we start creating outward we're
going to figure out what the important
things are in our life so don't check
email don't go on social media go
straight to the gym you want to be doing
things that are going to optimize your
body and mind no one is more bored by me
than having to deal with the body I wish
that I could just exist in the realm of
the mind but the reality is that your
mind and your body are completely
interconnected they are organs in the
same ecosystem and if you don't take
care of your body you will tear apart
your mind so be very very thoughtful if
you're suffering from depression or
anxiety and you're not working out like
a fiend that is Step number one all
right another thing that you should
avoid in the first couple of hours after
waking up do not eat
you want to give yourself a nice long
window
where you are not taxing your digestive
tract so your enteric nervous system has
as many neurons literal brain neurons as
a cat brain so from having a distinct
personality to
being very important in terms of
responding to the things you eat you
want to be very thoughtful about leaving
that Gap so I have my first meal about
four to five hours after I wake up and I
won't have eaten
since about 2 pm the day before so I go
from 2 P.M to roughly 8 30 a.m without
eating every day that's going to allow
you to have a whole lot of improvements
in terms of how you regulate your
glucose how you're able to produce
ketones which will change your
relationship to hunger there's a whole
lot of benefits to fasting that are
Beyond this but I definitely would not
eat when you first wake up I also do not
allow myself caffeine for I have my
first bit of caffeine once the sun has
come up that's rule number one and then
number two it has to be at least 7 A.M
so those two conditions have to be met
before I have any caffeine and then I
also water my caffeine down dramatically
to the point where to be honest I'm
really just having coffee for the flavor
and I could probably do decaf and I
wouldn't notice on days where I don't
drink any caffeine I don't notice any
difference so I have no addiction to
caffeine I don't do it because it gives
me energy
really I do it because it gives me some
taste other than water the reason that I
do that is I don't want to be beholden
to any exogenous substance to get me up
and going so I have found that going and
working out is far more impactful to
elevating my energy levels to getting me
going to getting my blood pumping and my
brain working than any amount of
caffeine so I highly encourage you guys
to do that also I'm just super suspect
of exogenous substances this is why I
don't supplement I don't take any
supplements regularly I'm open if I
could find one that extended life for
instance I would take it like crazy I'm
just inherently skeptical about taking
exogenous substances I know there's a
lot of people that do take supplements
and I hold them in very high esteem so
it's not something that I have a hard
and fast rule it's just something that I
am wary of so do the research make a
decision on your own the truth is
hitting your career goals is not easy
you have to be willing to go the extra
mile to stand out and do hard things
better than anybody else but there are
10 steps I want to take you through that
will 100x your efficiency so you can
crush your goals and get back more time
into your day you'll not only get
control of your time you'll learn how to
use that momentum to take on your next
big goal to help you do this I've
created a list of the 10 most impactful
things that any High achiever needs to
dominate and you can download it for
free by clicking the link in today's
description alright my friend back to
today's episode okay that is the bundle
of things that I really try to avoid for
myself in the morning all of it is
designed to cognitively optimize myself
to get me moving to not be reliant on
anything outside of myself to get up get
moving I'm not allowing distractions
into my life I'm just getting to work on
those things that matter to me and that
is how you take control of your morning
and really get effect if you struggle
getting up and getting your day started
early even though you want to and know
that you should be doing it
this comes down to two things one it's
all mechanism all the time what are you
doing with your night routine to make
sure that you're getting to bed on time
because the reality is if you're tired
you're not going to want to get up the
reason so many people lack motivation is
because of as Vince Lombardi said
fatigue makes cowards of us all if
you're tired you just don't have what
you need to face the day life is hard
being a human is difficult life is going
to kick you in the face the second law
of Thermodynamics makes abundantly clear
that life moves inextricably towards one
thing chaos and the only way to tame the
chaos and create order in your life is
by pouring energy into the system to
pour that energy into the system you
need energy at two levels at the
cellular level and psychological energy
now it's easy enough to get yourself
pumped up psychologically
but to get yourself pumped up at a
cellular level you have to make sure
that you are getting to bed on time
getting plenty of sleep eating right and
getting exercise and meditating if
you're not doing those things and you're
not going to be primed at a cellular
level now to get the psychological
energy we get to the second thing you
just don't want it badly enough most
people don't want the thing that they're
pursuing in their life for two reasons
reason number one you don't realize that
desire is a process you build desire for
things you are not born with some
intense Sensational desire
you do have imperatives that Evolution
has given us but you don't have these
intense desires other than like hunger
thirst sexual drive
but you certainly don't have a drive to
go to the gym you don't have a drive to
be more successful at work that's
actually only minorly true certainly for
guys you probably do have a pretty
strong imperative to gain access to
resources but it will not direct you
towards the thing that you're
specifically going to pursue so you'll
have a vague sense of I want to do more
I want to be more I want to be admired I
want to be at the top but the top of
what
that's where people get themselves into
trouble because they lack that Clarity
they lack that Clarity because they
don't realize that you just have to pick
something that you already respond
positively to naturally you encountered
it it gave you more energy than it took
you're naturally drawn to that thing you
want to do it okay but it's not going to
be like oh my God I need to dedicate the
rest of my life to this I spring out of
bed in the morning because I'm so
excited about this thing that is not how
it works you'll just be like oh that's
cool I dig that thing now if you go put
time and energy into building desire
which is basically the process of
explaining to yourself why
that thing matters to you and as you
repeat that in an embodied way meaning
you embody the enthusiasm for that thing
that you want to feel and you loop
around it and you actually go and get
better at that and do it in the world
and people are like oh man that's so
cool I'd love that you can do that thing
and you get that positive feedback and
it was already energizing to you and you
loop around why it matters why am I
investing in this so much and you do
that over and over in an embodied way
now all of a sudden six months later a
year later it really is this raging
Inferno at the center of your soul
something that you care about and want
incredibly deeply you have to go down
that process of gaining Mastery of
really pushing yourself around why
you're gonna love this thing so much and
then it actually becomes real you become
what you repeat so if you're repeating
that you're an idiot that you don't love
yourself that will become true now
self-worth is a very complicated topic
that is beyond the scope of this
conversation but just know that you do
become what you repeat so be very
thoughtful right those really are the
two reasons that people are going to
struggle so you have to focus on making
sure that you're getting yourself
energized for this thing that you're
pursuing and then you have to make sure
that mechanistically you're doing the
things that you need to do so you're not
tired all the time
but most people
fail to get enough sleep they go to bed
with such wild swings that it's like
having jet lag like everybody goes oh
yeah if I traveled to the east coast
from the west coast and I had three
hours of jet leg of course I'm going to
be tired well what do you think happens
when your bedtime swings by an hour two
hours three hours you're gonna
experience that same kind of disruption
in your sleep cycle also people do a lot
of things to
have poor sleep hygiene from breathing
through their mouth taking in blue light
going to bed at different times watching
TV right before they go to bed checking
their text messages reading emails
working on stressful things all of this
stuff are things that are going to
disrupt your sleep and
this one which we haven't even talked
about
how close to your bedtime do you eat
food
I have roughly seven hours between my
last meal and my bedtime
and it's amazing and I have found that
if I even eat within three hours of
going to bed I can feel the difference
now three hours is I would say good if
you got three hours of distance between
the last moment you were chewing so now
when you start the meal the last moment
you were chewing and when you go to bed
you're in pretty good shape I think you
will find that you sleep better the
longer that you stretch that period out
there's of course also a lot of
individual variability I've heard some
very interesting information around
carbohydrates and if you have uh your
last meal has a fair amount of
carbohydrates that you will sleep better
now I find for me that that actually is
true if I have carbohydrates but they're
not high sugar
where glucose monitor it's very
enlightening but if I have something
that doesn't Spike my glucose massively
so think about
doing a lot of greens things like that
leafy greens that I actually will sleep
better but I need to have a pretty big
distance still between my last meal and
when I go to bed you have to experiment
with the stuff when it comes to diet
there's so much individual variability
it's absolutely terrifying so try it run
that but I find that most people eat
within an hour maybe 90 minutes before
they go to bed that's going to disrupt
your sleep massively so be very
thoughtful about trying that and
experimenting once you get all of that
down and you hold yourself accountable
to doing all of this stuff then I think
you're going to find getting up is very
easy but if you don't address
how badly you want the thing you're
getting out of bed for
and your physiology it's going to be a
struggle for ever and last but not least
I'll throw in a little bonus here and
that is you have to have standards
I'm angry with myself if I don't get out
of bed in 10 minutes or less I'm angry
at myself if I don't go to bed on time
because I really want the things that
I'm pursuing so be really thoughtful
about that don't do it because you ought
to find a way to get excited about it
then build rules in your life around
that and so you're doing it because it's
what you want for yourself and so the
reason that you're upset with yourself
when you don't do it isn't because
you're worried about disappointing other
people it's because you really want it
and you're not acting in accordance with
that
that's it get after it if you have a
goal to get up early and you find that
you don't and you're feeling badly about
yourself you have to be very thoughtful
about how you react in that moment I'm a
big fan of rewarding and punishing
yourself but you have to be very good at
how you go about that so when you do
what you're supposed to do of course you
want to Pat yourself on the back you
want to give yourself that emotional
uplift of recognizing a job well done
and when you don't you definitely want
to face Square on you said you were
going to do it and you didn't do it and
that is a black mark on your day now the
problem is that when you continue to
beat yourself up now you're going to
begin to diminish your sense of self
I advise you never do anything that
diminishes your sense of self you want
to hold yourself accountable you want to
have a standard you want to live up to
it I think that's incredibly important
and I think so many people fail to get
where they want to go in life because
they fail to hold themselves accountable
so you want to set a standard you want
to hold yourself accountable to that
standard but you also want to make sure
that you only do and believe that which
moves you towards your goals I have a
rule in my life that I only do that I'm
not trying to live in a post-truth world
this isn't me just deciding that I'm
going to believe in whatever I want to
believe in in fact I Define truth as the
thing that most efficiently moves you
towards your goal I think that you're
most closely aligned to what is true
when you're able to predict the outcome
of your behaviors and when you're able
to predict the outcome of your behaviors
I think you're on to what is true so
we're not going to sit there and
belittle ourselves and tear ourselves
apart we're going to acknowledge
that what we did
it breaks our rule that we had that rule
in the first place because it is the set
of behaviors that most effectively moves
us towards our goal so we want to get
back on track because we actually care
about our goal and we want to do the
thing that's moving us towards our goal
we're not going to get back on track
because we think we're a bad person or
we're worried what the world is going to
think this all needs to be intrinsic
motivation you need to care you need to
have some reason why you want this thing
so badly that you've put all these rules
around yourself in the first place all
the rules that I have the amount of work
that I do how hardcore I am the standard
that I hold myself to rewarding myself
punishing myself it's all in service of
what I want so make sure that you want
something that is legitimately exciting
to you make sure that you've spent the
time to build that desire in yourself
and then make sure that you recognize
that the most important thing that you
can do to bounce back is to bounce back
right away to not beat yourself up any
more than is useful to bouncing back to
getting back on track and then when you
get back on track and you say okay cool
this happens to me all the time I have a
rule I get out of bed in 10 minutes or
less and sometimes ugh my field hit the
floor right as it clicks over into the
11th minute now I never miss it by much
but when I'm due one I confess I tell my
wife I'll go on camera I'll tell people
ah I didn't make it today I like to hold
myself accountable and I feel good when
I hold myself accountable because I'm
willing to stare nakedly at my
inadequacies I didn't do it today I said
I was going to and I didn't but my
willingness to own that to admit it to
not lie to myself to not lie to other
people to say hey I didn't do it today
that act makes me feel good because I
know how effective it is I know how much
I've gotten out of my Life by being
honest when I don't do the things that I
wanted to do by reminding myself why I
want to do them by reminding myself why
I have these rules in place and then
live living in accordance with that and
when I don't to give myself that
reminder that hey
you said you were going to do it and you
didn't not making excuses owning
everything completely and reminding
myself that my life is an exact
reflection of my choices and that I made
my day a little bit worse by not doing
what I said I was going to do
at the same time that if I just sat
there and beat myself up and what a
loser I am that I'm not going to get
done the things that I need to get done
in order to make meaningful progress
towards my goals so I do it just enough
to kick myself in the ass and then I
stop I get back on track I reward myself
for getting back on track and boom it's
all systems go the most important thing
that you can do to wake up early is to
get your night routine on point my night
routine really begins at 2 p.m this is
all true so what I found was the number
one thing that disrupted my sleep was I
would wake up in the middle of the night
to pee and then my mind would start
worrying around all the problems that I
have to solve and I would be up for two
two and a half hours in the middle of
the night every single night and so I
was like okay what would I need to do in
order to make sure that I never wake up
to pee and at first I thought well if I
just stop drinking water in the you know
late afternoons or the evening I should
be fine that didn't work and then I
realized ah this is a food problem if I
stop eating food earlier then I can kill
two birds with one stone one I can
elongate my intermittent fasting window
which is already incredibly powerful but
two I'm also not going to have a bunch
of water being extracted from the food
as I lead up to bedtime so what I do is
I have my last meal I start eating at
about 1 15. I'm usually done chewing by
about two o'clock then by the time I go
to bed at 9 00 PM I've had seven hours
without eating and I also I don't drink
I have one sort of final sip right at
right before I go to bed at call it 8
58.55 but from two to then I don't have
any water so I'm able to sleep through
the night perfectly well I'm able to
drink as much water as I need during
because I wake up at say 3 30 to 4 30
somewhere in there so I'm able to get a
ton of water in my system before 2 pm
and so everything works perfectly so
that's the first thing that I start
doing the next thing I do is going to
the food thing I want to make sure that
I have a minimum of three hours of not
eating before I go to bed for reasons of
digestion so even if I didn't have the
water problem not eating not having food
in my digestion is hugely important now
the reason that I know that this
actually makes a difference is if on the
weekend I'm having a cheat meal I can
actually drink water and I don't have to
stop drinking water because the
carbohydrate intake will cause me to
retain water so I'm not going to have
that problem even if I eat close to
bedtime and keep drinking throughout the
day it's actually wonderful I love it I
can pound water right before I go to bed
something about water at night tastes so
good uh I don't have to worry about that
if I've had a high carbohydrate meal
so what I found though is that even by
eating let's say three hours before I go
to bed I can still tell the difference
in my sleep but three hours is sort of
that maximum where it's not truly
disruptive so no matter what whether you
have trouble uh with peeing at night or
not you want to make sure that starting
three hours before you go to bed you
finished all of your food intake that's
really important also three hours before
I go to bed I will avoid blue light so I
wear blue blocking glasses and I make
sure that my computer shifts over into
night mode so that it actually turns the
screen warmer colors I dim the lights I
try not to get bright lights in my eyes
all of this stuff makes a really big
difference also I don't do any stressful
work at least an hour before I go to bed
so even though I'll keep working up
until I go to bed at nine as I get later
into the evening I do things that are
far more predictable and less stressful
so for instance I have an episode to
prepare for today and so tonight as I
start getting ready for bed that will be
one of the last things that I do
literally right up until I go to bed
because it's something that isn't about
problem solving it's not stressful I'm
not going to be surprised by some
problem that exists in the business
right as I'm about to go to bed I
realize you know huge Spike of
adrenaline and cortisol because oh my
God I just realized we have some problem
that needs to be solved so it's
something that's based around learning
it's usually exciting it puts my brain
in a different mode and so that is
really useful to helping me begin to
move my brain at a problem-solving mode
and get into a mode that's going to
allow me to fall asleep
also I tend to 30 to 40 minutes before I
fall asleep I'll get into bed now I know
a lot of people say don't take work to
bed with you I have not found that to be
problematic at all as long as it's a
certain type of work like doing research
is my go-to for being in bed so I can
really begin to relax and calm down I
will also if I've had a particularly
stressful day in that last hour I might
do some meditation to really make sure
that I'm calming myself down and then
right as I'm about to lay in bed and
this is the one thing that I'm
conflicted about recommending to people
is I put headphones in and I begin
reading a book right as I go to bed so
as I lay down and fall asleep I put
headphones in and I put a book on I've
used fiction in the past I'm using
non-fiction currently but it's a certain
type of book one it's a very long book
so often biographies about a moment in
time or a given person I technically a
biography is about a person or a moment
in time and the books often are like 20
hours 30 hours so you know that you're
not going to get woken up in the middle
of the night by the book ending which
has happened to me unfortunately with
shorter books and so I will
um listen to those books they're not
where I'm trying to learn something so
it's just something that's interesting
and that puts my brain into a certain
Zone and I tend to fall asleep very
quickly I'm talking like five minutes
quickly or less I'll wake up in the
middle of the night and I'll rewind the
book back to a part that makes sense but
because it's such a big topic it tends
to be something where whether I get
exactly to where I was or not I can
still get the gist it's not like a story
where man if you miss anything you're
going to be completely lost what
happened it's disorienting so that has
been really really useful and then the
last thing that I do is I tape my mouth
closed because if you breathe through
your nose it can actually dry out your
throat disrupt your sleep there's a
whole book on this called Breathe by
James Nester if I'm remembering
correctly and it's really been
transformative to my sleep because I
used to wake up with a dry throat and it
would pull me out of sleep and you know
your lip smacking you need like
something to drink it's terrible so by
taping my mouth I'm able to sleep
through the night much better it really
was a game changer I highly recommend
you guys try not only that but all of
the things that I just talked about I
think that they will radically improve
your sleep hygiene which will allow you
to sleep much better you will be far
more rested and able to get to the Holy
Grail which is not setting an alarm so
you wake up naturally right at the
perfect part of your sleep cycle having
gotten as much sleep as your body needs
if you find that despite having really
good sleep hygiene that you're still
getting tired later in the day a lot of
people wonder if they can take a nap or
if they should avoid it and to be honest
I think that it's completely up to the
person there are some times where I'm so
tired that if I don't allow myself to at
least completely let go meaning I lay
down I close my eyes and I give myself
permission to sleep I just I can't focus
I can't concentrate and I have found
that sometimes even just letting myself
go like that even though I don't fall
asleep for 10 or 15 minutes can be
extremely rejuvenating
other times I find that falling asleep
for 10 or 15 minutes is completely
rejuvenating and other times I have no
idea why I feel super groggy and even
sleeping for an hour may make me feel
worse than just staying awake that
that's always super bizarre where you
lay down you don't set an alarm you just
give yourself permission to sleep as
long as you need you wake up one would
think that you got a full sleep cycle
but for whatever reason man when I wake
up I'm like God I just feel awful I feel
sluggish I have a little bit of a
headache just the whole rest of the day
I feel off so to be honest it's pretty
rare that I take a nap even times where
because if I get five hours of sleep
that I hate that I I can get by if it's
one day but I really really really don't
like doing it I would much rather get
six hours six hours as magical seven is
unbeatable so if I've gotten five I will
give myself the chance to lay down and
take a nap but I often find that it's
like man the whole rest of the day just
never feels like I quite get back on
and if I've gotten five hours of sleep
the only time I will give myself a
chance to take a nap is before 7 A.M so
that I'm still getting that sleep early
the sun typically for most of the year
is still down and so I'm able to sleep
while it's still dark because remember
if I only got five hours of sleep
chances are I woke up around 2 30 ish so
I can by that point I have gone worked
out I've started working for a few hours
and then I find that just wave of
fatigue really hitting me then I will
lay down but if the Sun is up and my day
is going the odds of me taking a nap are
virtually zero again there's a lot of
self-experimentation that you should do
figure out what works for you learning
those rhythms figuring out what are the
times like can you notice a pattern when
you end up getting sleepy and are unable
to bounce back for me it's like if the
day is really going and the Sun is up
and if I've had caffeine or anything
like that the odds of me feeling better
after I take a nap I are very very low
but this really is something that you
should experiment with because there are
going to be times where you may have
gotten so little sleep that the only way
to function is to get that rest is to
allow yourself to lay down and take a
nap so I certainly don't have any moral
judgments on taking a nap I think some
people do I don't like for one if I'm
flying there's something about flying if
I'm flying and I'm just like I cannot
keep my eyes open I'm like I'll take a
nap I've heard people like oh my God
like I'd never take a nap
that's crazy to me you want to
cognitively optimize you want to make
sure that you are performing at your
best and if taking a nap is going to be
the thing that lets you perform at your
best then take the nap you're far better
to if you let's say you're going to work
for three hours you're far better or you
have three hours to work I should say
you're far better napping for an hour
and a half and being really sharp that
last hour and a half then you are just
uh like struggling through not being at
your best and trying to get something
done now everything is on balance I work
so hard I leave everything out on the
field I just don't think twice about
taking a nap if that's what I need
because I know that I'm not doing it out
of laziness and I think that's where a
lot of people get conflicted is they
know that taking the nap is something
that they do as a way to avoid doing the
work and that they do that kind of thing
a lot and that they probably were
feeling tired because they stayed up too
late watching something on Netflix or
playing video games or hanging out
whatever or they had a few too many
drinks they've done something dumb that
is counter to the goals if those things
are your goals by all means do them I
don't pass any moral judgment on
watching Netflix playing video games get
as drunk as you want
if that's your goal if it's not your
goal and you did those things something
tells me that now you're beating
yourself up over being lazy and part of
the reason that you don't want to take
the nap is because you feel guilty if
you play all out all the time and you
know that you've earned that respect
with yourself
then taking a nap is a no-brainer if
that's going to be the thing that
cognitively optimizes you just a
reminder PSA enjoy your life and if
taking a nap is going to let you enjoy
it do it if it doesn't and it's going to
mess up your Rhythm then don't just
grind it out if you let me control your
life for the next seven days here is
exactly what I would have you do I'm
actually thinking about turning this
into a challenge because I think that
this would be amazingly impactful for
people and it goes like this our goal is
to get up early and really attack the
day so that we can get a lot of momentum
going so that we can outperform other
people remember I am super competitive
when it comes to doing the things that I
most want in life now I do that from a
place of joy and abundance I think
everybody can have what they want but
it's actually fun to go hard to compete
against other people and really see how
far you can push your life all right it
goes like this this is the ultimate life
routine
number one we're going to go to bed at 9
00 PM like it's a religion no if ands or
buts and we're gonna as you see as we go
through the day when we wake up we're
gonna do a lot of things to make sure
that we are ready for bed at 9pm but we
go to bed at 9pm like it's a religion we
do not set an alarm clock you can have
an emergency alarm clock if you've got a
meeting or a flight to catch or
something like that so that you just
don't have it on your mind because I
know some people are so paranoid they're
going to oversleep it actually
interrupts their sleep by all means set
an emergency alarm but the goal would be
to have at least nine hours before our
emergency alarm would have to go off
most people are not going to sleep for
nine hours unless they've been
chronically sleep deprived so no alarm
go to bed at nine or eight if you have
kids or seven if you have kids whatever
but we're gonna go to bed early enough
that we don't need to set an alarm for
me that's nine you're gonna go to bed at
that time you're gonna wake up when you
wake up you get out of bed in 10 minutes
or less your feet are on the floor next
to your bed
is your gym clothes you're going to put
your gym clothes on immediately you
don't have to go to the gym you can work
out at home I don't care we can do all
body weight workouts or we can go to