Essential Time Hacks: Turn 24 Hours Into 48 Essential Time Hacks Turn 24 Hours in 48

STEFAN CAIN

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Copyright © 2016 Stefan Cain

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

DEDICATION

For the moment of inspiration, the great itch of ambition, driving us unaccountably to grave levels of pain and struggle, for the rare but extraordinary victory or final insight, that ends all struggle.

CONTENTS

1

Introduction: Productivity without problems

1

2

Daily Productivity Hacks

10

3

Power Diets

32

4

Fast Power Workouts

41

5

Super Apps and Tips for Productivity

47

6

Productivity-Enhancing Supplements and Herbs

55

7

Sleeping Hacks

90

8

Meditation in Minutes

97

9

Save Time During Your Commute

107

10

Learn Faster

111

11

Review

120

1 Introduction:

Productivity without problems

The main productivity zapper is conflict. We become unable to focus on the task at hand because our desires are pulled in so many different directions. If our task is boring, we may be fantasizing about something more interesting, more exciting things we could be doing, places we could be, things we could be saying. Our bodies may be complaining we are not fully comfortable, we are hungry, tired, any excuse to distract us from the present task. We do not identify with the task, so we procrastinate, try to steal back a little real life that we feel we are owed by whiling away time with pointless distractions.

For this book, we have put together a list of the best, most effective time-management tips that will skyrocket your productivity. You will learn powerful, well-studied techniques such as:

• How to use procrastination to get stuff done.
• Spend the most time on the most important things.
• How to power nap and feel recharged.
• Recharge your brain with meditation in minutes.
• The best and safest supplements and herbs to super-power your productivity.
• Power food to replenish the mind and body.
• Super time-management apps to put you above the fray.
• Sensible speed-dating for singles.

Improving your productivity is about remaining present at your tasks. Feeling your bodies positioned in space, listening to the sounds of the keyboard clicking, seeing the words on the screen, smelling the smells, without complaint, without moving toward sensations or away from wants and desires. Observing ourselves and your lives moment by moment. This state of choiceless awareness is called mindfulness by experts like Jon Kabat-Zinn, and meditation by Indian spiritual leader Jiddu Krishnamurti. The mind, in this state, has a switch of gene expression, from energy-wasting, repetitive thought patterns to an energy producing sense of freedom. We will explore how to enter this state and release boundless energy to power your tasks and your lives in the chapter “Effective Meditation in Minutes.”

In the end, what you will truly need to turn 24 hours into 48 is energy and motivation. You will need mental and physical energy. To have physical energy, you need right diet, sleep, and exercise. To have mental energy, you need a stable and resilient mind which means discipline and meditation. We will reveal and discuss the tricks, hacks, and tips that show you how to unleash this energy, regardless of your age or health status.

Choose Your Ultimate Goal

Before we jump into our effective, yet simple productivity tips, it is necessary that you make sure you are doing your best to do what you are made to do. Not all the work you do will be to your ultimate purpose, but it can still be done with purpose. When you have purpose, you have energy and focus. According to productivity guru Marcus Ursache, “80% of what you do today will not turn into anything. It’s just busywork, no useful outcome.” We have found this to be the case. Most of a human being’s time is spent in disorganized thought, and much doing busywork. Therefore, it is imperative that you discover what is most important to you. What is your purpose, your ultimate goal?

Ask yourself these questions and weigh the answers:

What do your circumstances require of you?

Do you have children? How much of an income do you need to make? Is your country in upheaval, in need of your earnest effort? The first thing to determine is what the universe is telling you about your purpose and what your ultimate goal should be. This decision cannot be made in a vacuum and since it is responsive to your environment, it will naturally change as things around you and within you change.

What do you care about?

You need to know what you care about and what your mind and body responds to in order to find a goal and purpose that will be convincing. Do you care about children, education, money, meaning, peace, conflict, world peace, or feeding the planet? A carefully chosen focus will sustain your interest and energy throughout your life.

What are you capable of?

You need to take an inventory of your abilities. Are you physically healthy and have lots of energy? That will take you a very long way. Are you verbally intelligent, good at math, patient, or funny? Patience, persistence, conscientiousness and resilience will take you a long way but you can even use potentially negative traits to your advantage. We will discuss how to do this in this book.

How do you feel doing it?

Once you are settled on your goal, have aligned it with a line of work, (or maybe you just end up in a line of work and are trying to find energy and motivation), be honest about how you feel doing the work. Daily frustrations and boredom are to be expected. Do you experience moments of joy? Do you like the work environment? Can you see yourself doing this work in this environment for decades? What are your alternatives? If you find that you feel undue stress, you may need to re-evaluate your options, or find ways to make your circumstances more tolerable. One of the best tricks for this is mindfulness - learning to concentrate fully on present experience. This is a method influenced by eastern religions and can unleash tremendous energy and productivity.

Further help discovering ultimate goals and purpose
If you need further help deciding how to discover your ultimate goal, an easy-to-use, scientifically researched method has been developed by esteemed psychologist Martin Seligman, Ph. D. At his website, Authentic Happiness, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, you can take several scientific tests each less than 5 minutes long that will reveal your signature strengths, abilities, and interests.

We should give some attention to the physical aspects of productivity because many of us may feel that we have physical ailments or situations that hold us back. Certainly, there are physical limits on your performance which can cause us to lose time. We will address how to keep your system in the best shape allowable in the least amount of time in the chapters on diet and exercise. For now, we will address the following question many of those interested in productivity may be concerned about.

Do I Need to Be in Perfect Shape to Be Productive?

You do not need to be in perfect shape, but you need to continually bring about the amount of physical harmony you can manage at that moment. We all have physical needs that need to be kept in balance. The mind needs a certain amount of physical energy. The body needs energy for performance. Consequently, there needs to be a balance of diet, sleep, work, and exercise. We will cover simple, easy, direct, and effective hacks for these important factors in subsequent chapters of this book.

First let’s add the caveat that most people will have some kind of health issue at some time or another. If you were to let that stop you from pursuing what it is that you care about, you would easily be thrown off course by health problems. Rather, let yourself learn to adapt to them. You may have to change some of your activities, but you never have to lose the conviction of your purpose. When you have carefully chosen your purpose and mindfully focus on your tasks, a change occurs in the mind that produces a wealth of mental energy and resilience. You can have this energy despite facing health challenges. This energy can be boosted with right diet and exercise.

We will discuss powerful, yet simple diet and exercise hacks that anyone can do and are more efficient than the most expensive and popular diets being marketed today. These are backed by science and advanced experts in the fields of performance, exercise, and nutrition.

These super-diets that have been shown to promote health and longevity and will be covered in this book.

• Mediterranean Diet
• Reduced Carb diets
• Intermittent Fasting
• Traditional Okinawan Diet
• Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition (CRON) diet

We will also cover the most well-researched and effective workout hacks ever discovered. They include the following:

HIT Resistance Training

This is Mike Mentzer’s super 4 exercise, HIT training, taking 20 minutes, twice per week or less. That’s only 4 or 5 exercises, one set per exercise. Mentzer used this quick, infrequent workout to become Mr. Universe!

High Intensity Interval Training

This cardiovascular training system can produce optimal cardiovascular health in 20 minutes or less, 5 to 7 days per week.

We will also discuss sleep hacks including the famed Uberman sleep schedule and the less known but well-studied partial sleep-deprivation with sleep stage advance, a sleep technique that is so powerful it is used to super-charge severely depressed people and make them instantly come back to life.

The practical tips we will cover in this book can be the key to unleashing the power you are capable of expressing in your life. You will discover simple, but transcendently effective life-hacks used by the world’s most successful people to supercharge their performance. Your life at work and your romantic life will get an upgrade as you apply these effective hacks. You will learn to confront life and be present for your life. This is something to be very excited about. Feel free to skim topics of interest, or to read these valuable tips from cover-to-cover.

We will begin this journey in the first chapter with a definitive list of time hacks in short, concise and effective aphorisms that you can apply right away. In the following chapters, we will expand on this with specific instructions, and clear and concise explanations that will allow you to understand step-by-step how to apply the appropriate time hacks at the right time to reach your goals.

2 daily productivity hacks

Before we explain in depth all the life-affirming time management and productivity hacks we have discovered, we will spill the beans in a sense by giving you a list of all the time-hacks, tips, and aphorisms demonstrating how to apply these valuable measures in your life daily. Since this book is about saving time, you can quickly go through all the hacks and further research the ones that interest you so that you can put them into practice quickly and easily. This is to be a definitive list of all the most effective time-hacks we can possibly give you in short, concise, direct statements and applicable aphorisms. You can apply them right away or continue to the subsequent chapters for thorough explanations.

Power Plays

2. Show up in uniform to exude authority. Dress it up and you will appear more competent and feel more confident.

2. Studies show that ‘power poses’ discovered by Harvard Business School Professor Amy Cuddy will raise your testosterone and make you feel powerful in minutes.

Time Savers

1. Start your day working on your most important task.

Leave everything else for later, and only work on them after you’ve completed what you set out to do for the day. This way, you’ll always get your important tasks done.

2. 2-Minute Rule.

If something can be done in 120 seconds, it should be done immediately. This will have two important effects. It will allow you to get a lot of simple but effective tasks done in little time, and it will get you working on things that may take a bit longer, due to not having the entire weight of the task on your mind.

3. 5-Minute Rule.

For longer tasks, set a goal to work on it just 300 seconds. You will either get 5 minutes of work done, or you will be able to continue for longer. This will break the habit of procrastination.

4. 10,000-Hour Rule.

It takes daily practice, 6 to 10 years, or 10,000 hours of doing something to become an expert. Focus on becoming an expert at one thing, before becoming a jack of all trades.

5. 4-Hour Rule.

Attempt to do 4 hours of focused work per day, excluding drudge work like checking emails and attending meetings.

6. Write everything down.

Plan your day using the killer apps explained in this book or whatever method works best for you, even if it’s pen and paper.

7. Avoid setting up unnecessary meetings.

Nothing but chest-thumping gets done at meetings. Instead, use asynchronous communications like email and project message forums. You will never have to wonder what someone said or what information was provided, as all your communications will be saved and easily referenced.

8. Delegate.

You should delegate tasks that do not require your direct involvement when you can do so. These may include household chores or work which can be done more effectively by others so that you are freed up to work on your most important goals.

9. Time-boxing.

Allocate a ‘box’ of time to do only the task at hand.

Life Tips

1. Choose one thing to become good at and make it your livelihood.

2. Don’t be a jack of all trades, master of none.

Master at least one, then you can expand your interests.

3. Recognize your expertise and use it.

We encounter many people who have become experts at something and yet don’t recognize it. For example, they may be an expert typist as a side effect of schooling and don’t realize they can use that skill as their source of livelihood. Others have been working out all their lives and don’t realize they are an expert fitness trainer.

4. Remain flexible.

Make a schedule but don’t stick to it religiously. You must be able to adapt to what life requires. You will meet people who may be great collaborators but you will not even notice them if you are concentrating on brushing your teeth at exactly 12:45 after lunch.

5. Harness the power of randomness.

If you roll the dice only once, you will get one outcome. Successful people take chances. They fail, try again, fail bigger, and try even harder. You need to get your product, your talents to as many people as possible as often as possible. The artist who hides his work to protect his ego will die undiscovered, but the artist who puts out all his work, even his uncompleted works will suffer many failures and pains but expose himself to the possibility of unimaginable success. One of the most famous poems in English Literature is Kublai khan, an unfinished poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

6. Take a break to recharge.

When you find your productivity is exhausted - you are just staring blankly at the screen- you need to take a procrastination break. The brain regions in use become exhausted of resources, so you must use other brain regions by doing a dissimilar task for a few minutes. Watch your favorite show, or much better, play a video game. You can also use meditation to recharge. Don’t snack if you’re not hungry - it will only make you slow and unproductive.

7. Play video games.

Video games keep your brain sharp and young. A game of traditional Tetris can be used to measure how alert your brain is. This will tell you what task to focus on. When you are performing at your height, you should set out to do the most important task of your day. When your scores are low, your alertness is a bit slower, and so you may choose to focus on required drudge work instead.

8. Avoid the energy zapping traps of blame and regret.

Life consists of ups and downs, wins and losses. Many of the richest persons in the world have also been homeless. Some reach great wealth only to go bankrupt and lose it all. If you - after a success - experience a big loss, the mind wants to blame itself or others and feel regret. This becomes an endless cycle analogous to a piece of toxic code that produces an infinite loop on a computer and crashes it. Blame and regret can go on forever, and like a Trojan horse, they will take up all your resources and crash the mind and body. So, when you experience a loss, take a lesson from the experience that will make you better in the future, but spend no time in the desert land of blame and regret.

9. Keep it simple.

Don’t use 5 different time management systems and switch to a new system every few months. That is a waste of time and an attempt to convince you that you are getting something done when you are not. Choose one simple system or app, and use it flexibly. Paper and pencil is just as good as the latest software.

10. Take a break from the news.

Watching the news can often become a source of distraction, as most of it is optimized to arouse the animal passions of anger and dissatisfaction. This will zap your energy and productivity. You can keep informed with news focused on science and technology instead. Take a break from politics and other click-bait as often as possible.

Power Diets

Power diets are the battery in your arsenal. These diets have been scientifically researched and proven to extend your health and lifespan. They protect against cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and cognitive decline. We will explain how to do them right here in as few words as possible. You can start immediately or skim the diet chapter for more details.

1. The Mediterranean Diet Without Breakfast.

The diet consists of fruits, vegetables, whole-grains only (high fiber-like pumpernickel bread, not fake wheat bread), beans, olive oil and healthy fats (we would include real butter with MCTs, not margarine and fake butter), a single drink of wine (5 oz.), and fish or chicken (and other fowl). No white breads, white sugar, sodas, junk food, or unnatural saturated fats, and limited red meat.

2. Low-Carb Diets.

This is a diet low in sugar and carbohydrates. All unprocessed meats are fine. Leafy greens and small amounts of non-starchy fruit and vegetables are fine if carbohydrate intake is kept low. Chicken, fish, pork, and beef are encouraged. Real butter is fine, but processed plant oils like soybean oil are to be avoided. Healthy fats like olive oil are encouraged.

3. Intermittent Fasting.

Intermittent fasting has received a lot of attention since the BBC documentary Eat, Fast, and Live Longer. It showcased people who use intermittent fasting to improve diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases of aging. Research studies on fasting have supported these claims. Intermittent Fasting means fasting for half the day, up to an entire day, then eating without caloric restrictions on the next day. There are many regimens available. One popular regimen is called the 5:2 diet, which includes 2 fasting days, and 5 days without caloric restriction.

A very easy way to do Intermittent Fasting is to fast two days per week by consuming only 500 calories on fasting days. As you get use to this approach, you can study other approaches and use different approaches to reach different goals.

4. The Traditional Okinawan Diet.

Ninety-six percent unprocessed plant food including sweet potato as the main staple, yellow and green veggies, smaller amounts of rice, 4% fish, other meat, dairy and eggs.

5. Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition (CRON) diet. Reducing calories to 600 – 1700 calories per day, with added vitamins, minerals, and nutrient-dense superfoods.

20 Minute Power Workouts

1. Mentzer’s High Intensity Ultimate 20 Minute Weight Routine.

Four exercises to be done 1 - 2 times per week, 1 to 2 sets of 6 - 20 reps, 80 - 90% of 1 rep max (heaviest weight you can lift):

Squats
Deadlifts
Pull-ups, weighted if needed.
Dips, weighted if needed.

That’s it. This is the most powerful, quickest, full-body resistance training workout ever invented. These four exercises work every major muscle group, causing maximum hormonal signaling to raise testosterone and build muscle.

2. High Intensity Interval Training.

According to highly regarded published scientific studies, you can maintain optimal cardiovascular fitness in 20 minutes or less per day. Jog lightly or cycle at half effort for 4 minutes, then sprint for one minute, alternating this pattern for 20 minutes for a total of 4 or 5 minutes of sprinting and 15 minutes of light jogging or cycling.

Productivity Enhancing Supplements and Herbs

We will discuss the following performance-enhancing substances. The experimental substances are for research and use is discouraged and could be illegal in your country. However, the herbs and vitamins can be used safely, legally, and effectively when taken in the right dosage.

We will discuss the research on:

Experimental Performance-Enhancers - for research only, not recommended for use.

1. Low dose psychedelics like LSD for creativity.

University research into the use of low dose psychedelics for creativity may one day produce a revolution in creation and discovery. Follow the research, but don’t experiment on yourself.

2. Nootropic racetams like piracetam.

Racetams have been shown in numerous studies to produce gains in cognition in animals and humans with brain impairments. Many bio-hackers are already using racetams. We suggest you follow the research but wait for more evidence to prove safety.

3. Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMS) like Ostarine for muscle growth.

SARMS are the children of anabolic steroids. They reach the same receptors in muscle; yet, they are not hormones or steroids, so they can theoretically stimulate muscle growth without the side effects of steroids. However, though many biohackers are using the SARMS that have clinical trials behind then, we recommend to wait until these SARMS are found to be 100% safe and approved by regulatory agencies. Follow the research, but don’t expose yourself to unknown risk.

Prescription Memory Drugs - for use only under doctor supervision

1. Prescription memory drugs like donepezil, nicotine, and memantine.

These drugs are approved for use in diseases of memory like Alzheimer’s and dementia; however, donepezil and nicotine have both been shown to improve recall in normal subjects. Biohackers use memantine to protect the brain from damage.

2. Modafinil.

Modafinil is perhaps the leading cognitive-performance enhancing drug today. It improves clarity, wakefulness, and focus for many people.

Herbs and Vitamins – can be safely used without prescription

1. Huperzine A

Huperzine A is similar to donezepil and nicotine in that is improves memory by increasing cholinergic neurotransmission.

2. Bacopa Monniera.

Bacopa Monniera decreases anxiety and improves long-term memory.

3. Ashwagandha.

Ashwagandha reduces the impact of stress and anxiety on the acquiring of novel information.

4. Coffee, green tea.

Coffee and green tea provide a caffeine boost as well as a large serving of antioxidants which help improve the functioning of the mind and body.

5. Nicotinamide Riboside.

Nicotinamide Riboside is an available form of vitamin B3 shown in mice studies to reduce the occurrence of chronic diseases and oppose aging.

6. Low-dose lithium orotate.

Lithium orotate in low doses has been shown to extend lifespan.

7. Creatine monohydrate.

Studies have shown creatine improves mental and physical performance by providing supplemental energy to the brain and muscles.

8. Tumeric.

Tumeric has been shown to have profound anti-inflammatory properties and to reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

Best Time Management Apps

1. Time Management Apps: Timeful, Evernote, and 30/30.

These are the best basic time-management apps for your phone and computer. Timeful helps you focus on the right task at the right time by taking all your tasks into account and allowing you to focus on the most appropriate. Evernote allows you to break your calendar tasks down into projects where you can work with others. 30/30 allows you to time yourself during tasks.

2. Free apps: Google calendar, Todoist, pen and paper.

Google Calendar is the best and most basic calendar app that you will need to program your calendar from anywhere with internet and share it with your collaborators. Todoist is a free todo list that you can program from anywhere with internet access and send to others. If apps begin taking too much time, don’t hesitate to use pen and paper to write down your schedule and tasks.

3. Supermemo

Supermemo is a flashcard-like study program that uses an algorithm to quiz you until you get all the information firmly memorized. It is the best and simplest to use study program available.

Sleeping Hacks

1. The Uberman Sleep Schedule

During marathon study or work sessions, sleep a total of 3 hours in six naps divided throughout a 24-hour period.

2. Total or Partial Sleep-Deprivation with Sleep Phase Advance

If you need extra time to work on a project, you can give your mood and performance a quick boost by remaining awake for 24 hours (or sleeping only from 6am to 9am), then advancing the sleep phase by sleeping 5pm - 12 am, 7pm - 2am, and 9pm - 4am, the next 3 days.

3. 90-Minute Nap

Studies show that a sleep deprived person who takes a 90-minute nap will be fully alert for a few hours after waking before symptoms of sleep deprivation return.

Meditation Hacks

1. 5-minute meditation for instant recharging of the mind.

2. Mindfulness and choiceless awareness for stress reduction.

3. PERMA formula for happiness.

You can apply these hacks right away, look them up in this book, or do a little outside research on them. These hacks are scientifically validated and we have seen them work without fail in those who applied them in the little time it takes. Some of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, like former Mr. Universe Mike Mentzer and 6 time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates, use our MM High Intensity 20-minute resistance training. The greatest minds in self-help, psychology, and technology including the late great Steve Jobs use our mindfulness techniques and Dr. Seligman’s PERMA formula to supercharge their performance, save time, and feel ecstatic. Inventor and Futurist Ray Kurzweil uses the nootropics and herbs we will cover to remain in the best health possible and extend lifespan, which is the greatest of time savers. We will also cover ways to save time on the job and at the office. We are excited to share this valuable information with you. So, let’s get right to it!

3 power diets

To be the most energized, productive professional you can be, you need to energize your body and mind with real, natural, power nourishment. We have found the most effective diets for powering your life, ensuring your health, and extending your lifespan. While not all of these diets require caloric restriction, if the goal is weight loss rather than just improved health, you should consume 500 fewer calories than your usual caloric intake each day. That is the one rule to follow to ensure weight loss regardless of dietary composition.

The Mediterranean Diet without Breakfast

The Mediterranean Diet is inspired by the diet of people in countries like Greece, Italy, Spain, and others in the Mediterranean region. Researchers noticed that though these people consumed similar amounts of calories as those in other Western cultures, they had lower incidences of heart disease. Two factors are thought to contribute highly to this result - the tendency to consume small amounts of red wine with meals and a high use of olive oil, which has components known to reduce inflammation. The diet features high use of olive oil, perhaps the healthiest oil one can use so long as it is kept cool or not fried at high temperatures. In addition, legumes, unrefined, high-fiber cereal grains, vegetables and fruit are emphasized. A little-known trick about this powerful diet is that to activate the weight-control effect, breakfast should be skipped or replaced with coffee.

The evidence:

• A 2011 meta-analysis found that the Mediterranean Diet was more effective than a low-fat diet in promoting cardiovascular fitness.
• A 2013 meta-analysis of scientific studies shows the diet is as effective as low carb and high protein diets at reducing the occurrence of heart disease and diabetes.
• Two 2014 meta-analyses show the Mediterranean Diet reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.
• Other studies show the diet can fight cancer and slow down cognitive decline in old age.
  What is included in the diet? We will give you a list in order of importance so you can apply it at a glance.

2. Extra virgin olive oil
3. One 5 oz. glass of wine
4. Whole grain pasta and bread
5. Legumes
6. Fish and chicken.
7. Low consumption of red and processed meat, eggs, and sugary foods

The main secret is a high intake of extra virgin olive oil. This is not what you find labeled ‘olive oil’ at grocery stores, or even ‘virgin olive oil’. Be sure to get only ‘extra virgin olive oil’. Include less refined pasta and whole grains only (high fiber like pumpernickel bread, not fake wheat bread with low fiber content). Legumes are frequently included. We would include real butter with MCTs, not margarine and fake butter, a single drink of wine (5 oz.), and fish or chicken (and other fowl). No white breads, white sugar, sodas, junk food, or unnatural saturated fats, and limited red meat. While caloric restriction is not necessary to get the health benefits of this diet, if one has a goal of weight loss, one should subtract 500 calories from your standard caloric intake per day.

Reduced Carb Diets

Low and reduced carb diets can quickly help you reach weight loss goals. Examples of these diets include the Atkins Diet, The South Beach Diet, and the Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy. Numerous studies reveal that low carb diets can lead to rapid weight loss, reductions in cholesterol, reduction in allergies and inflammation, and improved cardiovascular fitness. There are several diets to choose from; however, this is a great hack for weight loss because it is simple. It doesn’t matter how you reduce carbs or what you eat, so long as you reduce carbs down to 0% to 40% of total calories. That’s anywhere from 0 to 100 grams of carbohydrates. Some people will feel too weak at 0 carbs and should not do it, so it’s best to start with 40% carbs or 100 grams (400 calories from carbs) and go down from there to a comfortable level that allows you to lose weight at the rate you desire. Including high protein and high or moderate fat will allow you to keep muscle mass and energy levels high.

Here’s what to eat in order of importance:

2. Butter, olive oil, fatty fish
3. Unprocessed fish and Chicken
4. Beef, pork, unprocessed red meat
5. Leafy green plants: Lettuce, broccoli, collard greens, salad with cheese no croutons, add vinaigrette dressing
6. Other low calorie fruit and veggies (no jumbo or white flesh fruit or veggies like banana and potato): blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cucumber

Avoid processed plant oils except extra virgin olive oil and real butter with MCTs (medium chain triglycerides). The power of this diet is for weight loss. The fat just melts off. It is also powerful for those who have food allergies and epilepsy. Although various low carb diets restrict various foods, the overall rule is simply to reduce carb intake until you reach your goals. First, cut out all sweetened drinks, then all sweets. Next cut out all bread, rice, and other processed grain and cereals. If you need to go further, cut out all white flesh plants. To go even further, you cut out all non-wild fruit (wild fruit is smaller, lower in calories, and nutrient-dense), and finally all starchy vegetables. If you go to the most restrictive level, you are left with meat, butter, olive oil, salads, and all the leafy greens you want because they have very few digestible calories and high fiber.

Intermittent Fasting

Fast two days per week by consuming only 500 calories on fasting days. There are many fasting diets. They are shown to reduce mortality from diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. A quick and easy way to do it is to choose any two days of the week to consume only 500 calories. You may drink black coffee for some meals or eat rather large amounts of low calorie food like spinach. Just be sure your calories for a fasting day comes to 0 to 500 calories. Monitor how you feel and what your goals are to decide how many calories you will need to consume on a fasting day.

Two variations may be worth adding to our 5:2 routine (2 fasting days, 5 regular days). These are alternate day fasting, where we fast for one day, then eat normally the next day and repeat. The next is 23 hour fasting, where we fast for 23 hours, then eat as we please for 1 hour each day. These are the easiest and most reasonable fasting routines.

The Traditional Okinawan Diet

People of the island of Okinawa have the highest life expectancy in the world. Many Okinawans reach the age of 100. This is due in part to their diet. The traditional Okinawan diet consists of 96 % unprocessed plant food including sweet potato as the main staple, large amounts of green and yellow veggies, smaller amounts of rice, 4% fish, other meat, dairy and eggs. The Okinawan diet adapted for weight loss and health focuses on caloric density. Okinawan centenarians eat a diet that averages one calorie per ounce of food. That is a large amount of food with a small number of calories. Green and yellow vegetables have a low caloric density, while red meat and refined grains and white sugars have a high caloric density. One consumes large amounts of low caloric density plant foods and avoid or limit high calorie fatty red meats and sugars. The power of this diet is for longevity. The relatively low protein content is not great for muscle building but can improve overall health.

Calorie Restriction and Optimal Nutrition (CRON) Diet

Caloric restriction has been shown to extend lifespan in animals and humans. The CRON diet developed by Roy Walford, uses this fact while solving a problem encountered in CR diets. When calories are restricted, an individual may fail to get sufficient vitamins and minerals. Therefore, adherents to CRON diets restrict calories to around 1800 calories per day or less, while taking supplements and nutrient super-foods to ensure they can get lots of nutrients with few calories. Some of these nutrient-dense foods include:

• Blueberries, raspberries
• Apple peels
• Strawberries
• Spinach
• Edible kelp
• Brewer’s yeast
• Tofu
• Dry skim milk
• Wheat germ and wheat bran
• Mushrooms
• Soybean

This diet is a favorite among serious life-hackers, quantified self-enthusiasts, and cutting edge professionals in middle and late life who intend not only to be as healthy as possible, but to live a healthy, unimpaired life up to and past the age of 100.

We have explained these power diets clearly and concisely. Each of these diets will reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and cognitive decline. Each can be used for weight loss. Each will ensure the mind and body is energized. Most importantly, each is very easy to apply. You can get started right now with the information provided here or do further research.

4 fast power workouts

We all need energy to power our bodies. Your bodies react to physical stresses by becoming stronger. We therefore need to work out to keep our bodies strong and our productivity at its best.

We see many people who go to the gym every day for hours. This can be a huge drain on your time and energy; there must certainly be more time-efficient ways to stay fit. There are. We have found scientifically backed workouts that produce results and take only minutes to do. They are based on the principles of High Intensity Training, developed by former Mr. Universe Mike Mentzer.

Mike Mentzer is a legend in the bodybuilding community. The was an accomplished author, business man, IFBB Professional bodybuilder, and Mr. Universe. He was inspired by Ayn Rand and the principles of objectivism to develop a scientifically informed method of bodybuilding called High Intensity Training. The basic idea of HIT training is that the body becomes strong and muscular due to stresses placed on it through weight training, but the body has a limited ability to recover from the strain. If the strain is too great and done too often, the body will be unable to fully recover and we will become over-trained. The goal of HIT training is to place the highest stress on the body, then give the body extensive time to recover. Mentzer also taught the 1 good set rule. This means the body only needs a single good set of very heavy weight to adapt optimally. One or two warm-up sets may be needed just to warm the muscles up before the one good set. Additional sets may cut into the body’s recover ability and lead to over-training.

Mentzer designed many different workouts. He became the trainer for Dorian Yates who used Mentzer’s HIT training to become Mr. Olympia 6 consecutive times, the 4th highest in history, behind only Ronnie Coleman, Lee Haney, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, Mentzer also had a rare, secret workout. It is a short workout that works every major muscle group. Once a bodybuilder has reached his peak, this is the only workout he needs to do. So, this was developed for elite bodybuilders; however, for those who merely want to remain healthy and build a lot of muscle for recreational purposes, this is even more useful. It is comprised of only 4 exercises. Competitive bodybuilders add weights to these exercises yet one just starting out can do these without weights. Look at the workout below, then we will explain why this is the most powerful workout ever invented.

1. Mentzer’s High Intensity Ultimate 20 Minute Weight Routine.

Four exercises to be done 1 - 2 times per week, 1 to 2 sets of 6 - 20 reps, 80 - 90% of 1 rep max (heaviest weight you can lift):

• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Pull-ups, weighted if needed.
• Dips, weighted if needed.
  Ideally, one will use the heaviest weight with which one can do 6 to 20 reps. Studies show that these workouts not only optimally fatigue the muscles, but also cause the most release of testosterone and other powerful hormones. These are complex compound movements that use various muscle groups, rather than isolation exercises. Squats work the thighs and cause a massive release of anabolic hormones. Deadlifts work the back, arms, thighs, deltoids, and trapezius. Pull ups work the arms and back, and dips work the chest, stomach muscles, sides, and back. Each of these exercises work many muscle groups, combined they work all major muscle groups.

As one progresses with this workout, one can add weights to the dips and pull-ups by using a weight belt to tie weights around the waste. Each of these exercises is a natural movement, rather than the unnatural movement we get from isolation machines. One can do each exercise on a single day, once or twice per week, or do each exercise on a separate day. It is important not to try to work out too frequently, as this will cut into your recovery ability and you will become weaker rather than stronger. Rather, go full-out with the heaviest weight you can possibly lift for one set. It’s a good idea to warm-up by doing 20 minutes of aerobic first. Then once you are warmed up and energized, get the heaviest weight you can lift for 6 reps and go full out on deadlifts or squats for one set. That will be a combined aerobic and weight lifting workout of 25 minutes. The next day, do the same thing, but do pull-ups instead, and so on. Therefore, you will be doing 20 minutes of aerobic and 5 minutes of weight lifting 4 days per week. For the remaining 3 days, you will do only your aerobic training or take up to 2 full rest days.

It is important that your workouts build you up rather than break you down. You should feel more energized for the rest of the day, rather than more tired. The old gospel of break yourself down has proven false. Muscle growth does not depend on just causing damage to the muscle; rather it depends on the gene expression brought about by sending the body the message that you are listing very heavy weight in an environment of a rich and healthy diet. So, the muscle does not have to be broken down to the point of not being able to function. Rather, the gene expression itself is changed by taking on the challenge of heavy weight lifting.

2. High Intensity Interval Training

According to highly regarded published scientific studies, you can maintain optimal cardiovascular fitness in 20 minutes or less per day. Short bursts of high intensity aerobic activity work just like Mentzer’s high intensity resistance training. You can obtain optimal aerobic fitness in a short amount of time by using 1 minute sprinting or all-out effort in your aerobic routine. If you are running, that means you do 1 minute of full-effort sprinting, followed by 4 minutes of light jogging, and repeating till you have a total of 5 minutes of sprinting and 15 minutes of light jogging. You can do the same thing while cycling. This should be done at least 4 days per week, but can be done every day. If you find yourself tired from your workout throughout the day, take more rest days. As your body adapts to these routines, you will find that you have more energy, more strength, and better looks. Studies show that those who spend hours in the gym get the same results as those doing high intensity training in short, 25 minute workouts. You can use this hack to save loads of time while still building a physique that rivals the accomplishments of those who spend hours working out.

5 Super apps and tips for productivity

We have found the apps that will supercharge your productivity at work, school, and leisure life. Choose the app that works best for you and make sure the app is helping you to get work done.

However, be mindful of these apps. Some people will use them to avoid work rather than using them to work faster. They use too many apps and are constantly updating and trying to move all their information to newer apps. This can sometimes take weeks. For example, if you are trying to move a whole company to new project management software and changing your mind by the month, this will eat up your time and get no real work done. It gives one the impression of doing work when in fact, one is simply avoiding work. So, choose your apps wisely and make sure it’s improving your productivity. One can be productive with just paper and pencil, so don’t obsess over your apps, but use the app of your choice to supercharge your productivity. The app should be easy to use, integrate well with other apps, not too complicated, and able to stand-alone. It’s best to use the basic apps from old, well-established companies since they are likely to be around longer compared to new apps from new companies. For example, Google Calendar has been around for a long time and will probably be around for as many more years. Use the rule that apps age in reverse. The longer it’s been around, the longer it or it’s descendants will be around and will be supported by the companies’ engineers and compatible with future software.

Effective Time-Management Apps

Timeful

Timeful is a popular app that uses machine learning to help you organize and accomplish your goals. You can tell Timeful general goals like that you would like to take a walk weekly, or call a friend on Tuesday and it can integrate this into your schedule based on the importance and position of other activities. Timeful can integrate schedules from various platforms like Google Calendar.

Evernote

Evernote is the best free time-management app for students. It allows one to integrate information from various platforms and save notes, video clips, audio clips, pictures, websites, and texts that you need to complete your goals.

30/30

Another app like Timeful, but 30/30 allows you to set timers. It is geared toward those who like to engage in more restrictive time-tracking.

Project Management Apps

Project management apps are like time-management apps, but they provide features that allow you to plan and work on an extended project goal. The top project management apps include Casual, Basecamp, Evernote, Omniplan, and Podio. It is best to choose a project management app that is compatible with one’s personal time management app or one that also has time management capability like Evernote.

Google Calendar, Task List

Most people have a Gmail account for work, school, or personal use. Google also offers free time-management software for those with a Gmail account as Google Calendar and Task List. Google Calendar allows you to share tasks on your calendar with colleagues and you can use other google features such as Google Hangouts to conduct virtual meetings and collaboration. These free and ubiquitous features make it mandatory that one takes advantage of these free and effective software.

Best Study App

Supermemo

Supermemo is a work of genius. It is a study app that allows you to enter what you need to learn like flashcards, in questions and answer form, then continually quiz yourself. The program works on an advanced learning algorithm that learns what information you know well and what you need to go over again. When you complete a round of Supermemo, you will know all the information front and back. If, after some time has gone by, you feel you may have forgotten some info and you want to study the whole thing again, you can ask Supermemo to forget your former learning and start over as if you were a beginner and it will still very quickly learn what you know and what you don’t know and save you loads of time studying and learning. We waste most of our study time going back over things we already know well and not giving enough attention to things we have a lesser grasp on.

Enough with apps - below are non-related app tips to boost productivity.

1. Try a mechanical keyboard

Many people have noticed that they type faster on a mechanical keyboard. A mechanical keyboard has actual switches underneath the keys. This creates a more certain tactile contact and a faster typing experience. You can feel more easily what keys you have touched and thus make fewer errors and type faster. If you spend a lot of time typing on a keyboard, the switch to a mechanical keyboard might just save you some time by increasing your word-per-minute (WPM).

2. Keyboarding short-cuts everyone should know

Ctrl + X Cut the selected item

Ctrl + C Copy the selected item

Ctrl + V Paste the selected item

Ctrl + Z Undo an action

Alt + Tab Switch between open apps

Alt + F4 Close the active item, or exit the active app

F2 Rename the selected item

F5 Refresh the active window

Alt + F8 Show password during sign-in

Alt + ← Go back

Alt + → Go forward

Alt + Page Up Move up one screen

Alt + Page Down Move down one screen

Ctrl + D Delete to Recycle Bin

Ctrl + Y Redo an action

3. Multitasking Advice

Do one, and only one task at a time. The best multi-tasking tip is don’t do it if you are not naturally good at it. Studies show only a very small percentage of people can effectively multi-task. Instead, have a to do list and focus on one task at a time.

Have a schedule and to do list. If you are a natural at multi-tasking or your job requires it, be sure to use a schedule and to do list. You may have to deal with many interruptions such as phone calls, and so will need to be reminded what tasks to focus on.

Line ‘em up and knock ‘em down. Have all your tasks open and set up to make progress on them. The easiest way to do this is to open as many as 5 tasks in tabs or software on your computer, then go through each tab till you complete your goal in that tab or app, then move on to the next one.

Use time pressure. If you work well under time pressure, set your deadline ahead of when your task needs to be done and work to meet the early deadline.

These killer apps and tips will organize your life and work and greatly extend your productivity. You will become known as productive, precise, punctual, reliable, accurate, and lightning-fast. They will allow you to find time for everything. If you need to work out, you can tell your time-management app to schedule work out time for you. You can set work meetings and romantic dates for their proper time and always be prompt and having the right information readily available. Our recommended study app is a marvel of learning and programming. We have seen students improve from the bottom of the class to the top using Supermemo. While your time-management and task management apps will vary, Supermemo and Google Calendar will be your mainstays. You can simplify things by using Evernote, Google Calendar, and Supermemo to accomplish your time-management, project-management, and learning goals with fewer apps. Use them wisely and productively. Don’t let constant searching for the most recent app slow you down. Get comfortable with a handful of apps and stick with them. Even basic pen and paper can be more productive than switching to different apps every month.

6 Productivity-enhancing supplements and herbs

A mainstay of biohacking is what is called nootropics, performance-enhancing supplements, and herbs. This is a very wide field of synthetic and natural chemicals that may improve some aspect of performance. We will discuss both experimental substances, substances currently in use, their pros and cons, herbs, and longevity approaches. While the use of experimental substances and some nootropic substances need to be supervised by scientists doing studies, doctors, or other professionals, many herbs can be used far more safely and effectively with fewer and well-studied side effects.

As a disclaimer, you should not risk your health to experiment with unapproved substances. Some synthetic chemicals can cause an allergic reaction or damage to the internal organs. You should thoroughly research any substances you plan to use legally before trying them. With any chemical ingested, be especially certain to know what risks are posed to the liver and kidneys. Do not be deceived that nootropic and synthetic PEDS have no risks. They all have risks. We do not endorse experimentation with unapproved synthetic drugs because the risks may be unknown or outweigh the benefits in the long-term.

We will discuss them here because you should be aware of the research being done on them should they be approved for performance enhancement in the future. However, many herbs have a long history of use and can be used safely and effectively once you have thoroughly researched traditional use and determined safe and effective dosage and route of administration.

Follow the research on experimental drugs, but don’t use them

1. Low dose psychedelics such as LSD.

It’s no secret that scientists in labs worldwide, as well as entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, are experimenting with increasing their creativity by taking very low doses of psychedelics like LSD. We will not suggest you risk your health by trying these substances. Instead, you should the clinical studies being done on these approaches and glean whatever information you can from the. This will set us up to be in a good position to take advantage of these advances when safe and effective creativity-enhancers are officially approved for public use.

2. Nootropics

There are many classes of so-called nootropic drugs. Some examples include racetams like piracetam and stimulants like modafinil. While they are widely used for cognitive enhancement, they have only proven to have effects in those with cognitive impairments. Again, rather than experimenting with these substances, you should follow the studies and wait to see if safe and effective substances based on these supplements will be produced in the future.

3. SARMS

Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators are the new alternative to steroids. They work like testosterone to improve athletic performance. They are being developed with the hope that they will have the effects of anabolic steroids without the risks. However, the long-term effects are unknown. Some studies show slightly raised liver enzymes and mild testosterone suppression. While these substances like Ostarine and YK11 are already being sold online and used by bodybuilders alike, you should not risk your health for temporary physical gains. Rather, watch the research and see if they are safe enough to be eventually marketed for performance enhancement.

4. Prescription memory drugs

Some prescription drugs developed for cognitive deficiencies also improve cognition in healthy subjects. One of these is donepezil, a pro-cholinergic developed for Alzheimer’s disease. It has been shown to produce superior recall in healthy subjects. Another is nicotine in the form of patches, shown to improve memory recall. Also, low doses of memantine are used to slow down cognitive decline by protecting the brain from excitotoxicity.

Neither of these substances have been approved for use in healthy adults. Nicotine we know, though not as carcinogenic as tobacco when taken in patches, still influences the cardiovascular system which presents some risk. It also appears to promote the growth of cancers when they become present, even if it does not by itself cause cancer.

5. Modafinil.

This is a wakefulness-promoting agent used widely as a smart drug. It is for use in excessive daytime sleepiness. It is not marketed for use as a smart drug and should not be used without the supervision of a doctor.

Herbs

While the aforementioned drugs are experimental and may not be available or advisable to use— except if participating in a clinical trial, or for medical purposes ­— productivity-enhancing herbs have been used for thousands of years and often have a better safety profile than synthetic drugs. Herbs can be used legally and effectively, according to the instructions of a knowledgeable herbalist or practitioner of alternative medicine.

1. Huperzine A. Nootropic, memory-enhancing pro-cholinergic, from traditional Chinese medicine.

2. Bacopa Monniera. Reduces anxiety, improves focus.

3. Ashwagandha. Reduces anxiety, improves focus.

4. Coffee, green tea. Improves alertness, provides antioxidants, detoxes liver.

5. Nicotinamide Riboside. Vitamin-based longevity and mitochondrial enhancer with a good safety profile.

6. Creatine monohydrate. Studies have shown creatine improves mental and physical performance.

7. Low-dose lithium orotate. Mood stabilizer, longevity promoter.

Biohackers combine these and many other relatively safe and natural vitamins, herbs, amino acids, and healthy fats (fish oil, flaxseed oil, MCTs) to create brain enhancing ‘stacks’ only after doing extensive research on safety and effectiveness. You should avoid untested synthetic or experimental drugs of unknown safety and instead use vitamins, herbs, and only well-tested, safe, and approved synthetics.

An example of an effective study stack might include coffee, bacopa, nicotine patch, and creatine monohydrate. A longevity stack might include nicotinamide riboside and low-dose lithium orotate. Biohackers do extensive research on safety and effectiveness, and they can greatly improve their performance in work, romance, physical ability, memory, and other abilities. It’s very important to stick with the safe, well-tested substances and avoid the new, unknown, and experimental substances which may not be safe. Don’t use yourself as a guinea pig. Damage to organs like the liver and kidneys can never be undone so use only natural, safe herbs and vitamins, and wait on researchers to produce safe and effective drugs that are approved by regulatory agencies.

Ray Kurzweil’s Super Stack

Ray Kurzweil is one of America’s top futurists. He is currently working at Google, directing research on machine learning and AI. He has made many inventions that were pivotal in the development of computer optical character recognition on computers. He is an accomplished author and guru in the tech community.

One of Ray Kurzweil’s interests is in nootropic compounds. He has done extensive research on these compounds and he also runs a company that sells some of the compounds that he finds can be safely used by and sold to the public. We mention this because Kurzweil has been brave enough to share the supplements, medications, and herbs he takes to function at the top level and to hopefully greatly increase his lifespan. He believes new advances will eventually extend human lifespan past 150 years. He takes many longevity enhancing supplements, and supplements that improve productivity. We will reproduce his list of supplements here and have a brief discussion on each one. This is a rather long list and we do not suggest anyone take all these substances.

Please note that the following section is only meant to serve as a brief introduction to each supplement. We cannot discuss each supplement in-depth in the interest of space. Therefore, it is important that you perform a more thorough research before making the jump to see if the supplement is a good fit with your lifestyle.

It is the responsibility of the biohacker to become informed about any substances he is considering using. The body has a limit to the amount of supplements the liver, kidneys, and other organs can handle. Some of them place a load on the liver, others have no effect or even improve liver function. Again, it is important to do your research and choose safe supplements at correct dosages.

With that said, let’s take a look at Kurzweil’s list and get a quick overview of his supplements and what research they have behind them.

For Antioxidation and Overall Wellbeing

Anti-oxidants are substances that stops the process of oxidation which releases free radicals that damage cells. The body uses substances like vitamin C and glutathione to balance the state of oxidation and limit damage to cells. It is not proven that taking extra anti-oxidants improve health; nonetheless, a balanced intake is necessary to maintain a normal balance of oxidation. Theoretically, the reduction in harm to the cells from free radicals can slow the aging process and improve overall health in multiple organ systems. While the evidence of benefit for each of the following substances vary, most of the anti-oxidant substances are relatively safe.

Comprehensive multi-vitamin

Studies say multi-vitamin supplementation is unnecessary for most people. If you have a well-balanced diet, it’s certainly not necessary, and high intake of certain vitamins, like vitamin A and calcium can even be harmful. However, as we age, our diet may become limited and our absorption compromised, so it might be useful to take a multivitamin. Our recommendation is to take a multivitamin no more than 3 days per week. The body can store vitamins and minerals and functions best when intake is variable, not regular.

Coenzyme Q10

Coenzyme Q10 is a component of the energy production mechanism of the mitochondria as well as an anti-oxidant. For this reason, it has been studied as a treatment for various disorders and to improve energy levels. It has shown some positive effect in migraine, but proved ineffective in more serious disorders like heart disease. Thus, the evidence for its usefulness is theoretical. However, it is well-tolerated, and safe to experiment with.

Grapeseed extract

Grapeseed extract is well-tolerated and safe to experiment with. It contains proanthocyanins. These and other components have been shown to lower systolic blood pressure. Theoretically, the components of grapeseed extract contained in red wine has been hypothesized to be the cause of the Mediterranean effect. This is the observation that the people of this region can consume a high calorie diet yet have lower levels of diabetes and heart disease. Studies show that grapeseed extract components may be part of the reason as it does indeed lower blood pressure.

Resveratrol

Like grapeseed extract, resveratrol is a component of grapes that has been shown to lower blood pressure. It also activates sirtuins which affect the mitochondria and can theoretically slow down the aging process, though there is little scientific evidence that it has this effect. Usual doses are safe to experiment with, while high doses can produce side effects.

Bilberry extract

Bilberry extract is used to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. It contains anthocyanosides and antioxidants which improve circulation. It is safe for use at recommended doses.

Lycopene

Lycopene is a red substance from tomatoes used to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. It also acts as a strong antioxidant in the body.

Silymarine

This substance is extracted from milk thistle and is an antioxidant. There is evidence that it helps protect the liver from damage due to alcoholism or synthetic drugs. It is safe at recommended doses.

Linoleic acid

A necessary fatty acid with antioxidant effects, safe at recommended doses.

Lecithin

This is the yellow-brownish part of egg yolk, rich in choline, which is useful in optimizing neurotransmission. It is also an antioxidant.

n-acetyl-cysteine

NAC is a precursor to the endogenous antioxidant glutathione and is used to replenish glutathione levels. It is so powerful that it is used in paracetamol overdose to protect the liver from damage. It also appears to have some positive effect on the brain by affecting dopamine and glutamate receptors. It is safe in normal supplemental doses but can cause an allergic, anaphylactic reaction in some people.

Garlic

Garlic lowers blood pressure, is an antioxidant, and reduces inflammation. It’s a good addition to a supplement stack and safe.

l-carnitine

An amino acid that appears to be safe and effective at improving exercise tolerance.

Pyrodoxal-5-phosphate

This active from of vitamin b6 reduces the production of advanced glycation end products related to aging.

Echinacea

Used for treating the common cold. Safe at recommended doses. Insufficient evidence for common marketing claims.

B12 shots

These shots are generally used to increase energy levels and reduce aging, though there is insufficient evidence that it is helpful for those who do not have a deficiency.

For Treating Type 2 Diabetes

Chromium

Chromium in necessary in small amounts to regulate blood sugar. It may be taken a supplement in deficiency or experimentally in diabetes or prediabetes. Large amounts may not be safe.

Metformin

This is a prescription diabetes medication which is currently being studied as a treatment for aging, as it also reduces the occurrence of heart disease and possibly cancer.

Gymnema Sylvestra

This herb appears to lower blood sugar. It is safe at recommended doses.

For LDL and HDL Levels

LDL stands for low density lipoprotein, while HDL stands for high density lipoprotein. LDL is considered ‘bad’ cholesterol, and HDL is ‘good’ cholesterol. High levels of bad cholesterol put one at risk for heart disease. The following supplements are aimed at improving cardiovascular function. The natural substances are safe at recommended doses. However, if you do not have high cholesterol, it is recommended to only use the ones that work via high fiber - such as oat bran and psyllium - since they carry little or no risk of side effects or overdose, except that of constipation.

Policosanol

These are well-tolerated long chain alcohol compounds derived from plant wax, used to lower cholesterol levels.

Gugulipid

Ayurvedic herb can be used safely at recommended doses to lower cholesterol levels in the liver. The research shows no overall reduction in cholesterol levels in the bloodstream.

Plant Sterols

Plant sterols are cholesterol-reducing compounds found in many plant foods. They can be used safely and are considered natural.

Niacin

Niacin is Vitamin B3, and is used to lower cholesterol levels and improve energy metabolism. It is safe at recommend doses but may cause side effects such as liver failure if taken in excessive amounts.

Oat Bran

Oat bran provides a high level of fiber and is generally recommended for people with high cholesterol levels.

Grapefruit Powder

Grapefruit seed extract is a safe powder made from grapefruit seed and pulp. One study shows a reduction in cholesterol when taken daily in capsules, or from eating a whole grapefruit each day.

Psyllium

Psyllium, like oat bran, also contains a high amount of fiber.

Lipitor

Atorvastatin, also known as Lipitor, is a prescription statin drug used to lower cholesterol. It can have various adverse effects including liver hepatitis. It is not to be used unless a doctor diagnoses very dangerous hyperlipidemia; otherwise the risks outweigh the benefits.

For Blood-Vessel Health

Healthy blood vessel function protects from heart disease and other illnesses such as varicose veins and orthostatic intolerance (fainting when standing).

Arginine

Arginine is an amino acid that improves blood vessel functioning by producing more nitric oxide, thus improving blood flow. It is safe at recommended doses and studies have shown that it effectively raises nitric oxide levels.

TMG

Trimethylglycine improves cellular hydration. It is well-tolerated up to 2.5 grams per day.

Choline

Choline is an essential nutrient that has many positive effects in the body at recommended levels. A good choline source can help improve blood flow to the brain and muscles. Choline is also important for neurotransmission and clear thinking. Eggs are a good source of choline.

To Lower Blood Viscosity

Blood that becomes thickened by inflammatory substances can lead to cardiac events. The following substances will thin out the blood and reduce the risk of heart attack.

Aspirin

Low-dose aspirin can be helpful for older people as a mild blood thinner to reduce the risk of cardiac events. It can cause stomach irritation and other adverse events at higher doses and may not be advisable for younger people who are not at risk of heart trouble. Willow tree bark is an alternative that contains the same anti-inflammatory substance without the concentrated chemicals in aspirin.

Lumbrokinase

This is an enzyme taken from a species of earthworm which appears to improve blood flow, especially to the brain. Though it is a natural extract, it’s exact safety is unknown due to a lack of studies.

To Reduce Inflammation

Inflammation - an immune response which attacks the body’s cells - is associated with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Substances which reduce inflammation can therefore reduce the risk of such chronic diseases.

EPA/DHA

These fish-derived omega-3 fatty acids can be taken safely and are commonly used to reduce levels of inflammation in the body.

Curcumin

Curcumin is a component of turmeric and has been scientifically proven to greatly reduce inflammation in the body.

To Reduce Homocysteine Levels

Homocysteine levels are associated with various chronic diseases. There is one exception - lowering homocysteine levels has not been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack.

Folic Acid

This is a B vitamin which is shown to lower homocysteine level, but has no measurable effect on heart disease. It is best to get this vitamin from food such as liver and green veggies.

For Detoxification

EDTA

Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid is used to remove heavy metals from the body. It is not safe at high doses and cannot be used safely outside a medical context due to its potentially severe side effects.

DMPS

This is another chelating agent which removes heavy metals from the body. It is not safe for use outside of a medical context and has potentially severe side effects.

For the Liver

Intravenous glutathione

Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant in the body. It is used to reduce side effects of chemotherapy by protecting body cells with its antioxidant effect. Biohackers may use it to make their cells more resilient to environmentally-induced cell death.

For Cell Membranes

Intravenous phosphatidylcholine

This form of choline is used to slow aging and improve memory, as well as stabilizing cell membranes. There is little evidence of effectiveness in slowing aging.

For Testosterone Levels

DHEA

Dehydroepiandrosterone is a precursor to other androgens and has been hypothesized to have anti-aging effects. It is extracted from wild yams and can be used at low doses with minimal side effects. Higher doses present unknown risks and side effects. It is sold over-the-counter as a dietary supplement.

Testosterone

Testosterone is the primary androgen in the body. It has been shown to improve muscle mass, strength, and psychological motivation and feeling of well-being. As a steroid, it is available only by prescription. It can cause serious side effects including hypogonadism or suppression of natural testosterone production as well as liver damage if not taken appropriately.

I-3-C

Indole-3-carbinol is derived from green vegetables and has the effect of antagonizing estrogen. This is used when taking testosterone to counteract the rise in estrogen.

Chrysin

Chrysin is an extract from chamomile that was thought in the past to be an aromatase inhibitor that could counteract the rise in estrogen from testosterone supplementation. Subsequent evidence failed to show any activity and showed low bioavailability and rapid excretion, suggesting the substance is inert.

Nettle

Stinging nettle is used to raise testosterone though evidence of this is insufficient. It is safe to use.

Ginger

Higher doses of ginger have been found to increase testosterone. The safety of high doses is unknown. Recommended mid-range doses can be used safely. Ginger is safe and has multiple benefits.

For the Prostate

Saw Palmetto Complex

This is alternative medicine mainstay used to reduce the risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia. It is safe.

Nextrutine

This supplement from Chinese medicine is shown to reduce the chances of prostate cancer.

For Stress

l-theanine

L-theanine is a component of green tea used to reduce stress. It increases production of alpha brain waves associated with relaxation and meditation. It is safe to use.

Beta-sitosterol

This naturally-occurring and safe plant sterol may reduce cholesterol and risk of prostate problems.

Phosphatidylserine

This naturally-occurring fatty substance which is present in small amounts in many foods has been shown to boost memory. It is safe to take. It is usually present in high amounts in white beans.

Green Tea Extract

Green tea is purported to have many benefits. Studies have shown that it effectively reduces cholesterol levels. It can be safely experimented with as a tea to see if it helps with stress.

For the Brain

GABA

Gamma-Aminobutyric acid is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. It does not cross the blood-brain barrier in large amounts, but enough may get through to produce an effect of relaxation.

Melatonin

Melatonin is used safely at recommended doses to improve sleep quality.

Glycerylphosphatidylcholine

Alpha-GPC is a bioavailable form of choline used to improve cognition. It is safe and natural at recommended doses.

Quercetin

This plant flavanol which may reduce inflammation. Scientific evidence for its usefulness is scant.

For the Eyes

Lutein

Lutein is a safe, natural antioxidant which protects the eyes.

Bilberry Extract

Bilberries have many phytonutrients which protect the eyes. It is safe when taken in the form of fresh blueberries.

For the Skin

Antioxidant Skin Creams

Creams containing topical forms of the aforementioned antioxidants can preserve the quality of the skin.

For Digestion

Pepsin

This digestive enzyme helps in the digestion of proteins. It may be useful as a supplement when digestion has been compromised by age or illness.

Gentian Root

This herb has been used to treat digestive issues for centuries. Some studies back this use. Side effects tend to be mild but long-term safety is unknown.

Acidophilus Bifodobacter

This probiotic can be used safely to restore the proper balance of bacteria in the gut and improve digestions. Probiotics can be obtained from yogurt or pill supplements.

Fructooligosaccharides

This sweetener extracted from blue Agave provides a substrate for healthy bacteria to proliferate and thus improves the health of the intestinal tract.

Fish Proteins

Fish protein is much better for your gut health than red meat.

l-glutamine

This safe amino acid improves intestinal permeability, thus aiding the intestinal wall to maintain the correct level of permeability and barrier function.

n-acetyl-d-glucosamine

This form of glucosamine is used for its anti-inflammatory action on the gut. Studies have not yet borne this out. It can be tested safely at recommended doses.

To Inhibit Glycated End Products

Glycated end products are products of sugar metabolism that become damaging to cells and contribute to aging and chronic disease.

n-acetyl-carnitine

This amino acid seems effective at improving fertility in males, improving blood flow, and improving memory in the elderly. It also causes the body to burn more fat and less sugar.

Carnosine

Carnosine is an anti-glycation agent. It effectively reduces advanced glycation end products. It is safe for use.

Alpha Lipoic Acid

Alpha lipoic acid is used safely to reduce the risk of permanent or serious damage due to diabetes. It has shown good safety and promising results.

There are a total of 77 supplements Kurzweil uses for performance enhancement and longevity. We may notice most of them are vitamins, minerals, or herbs, taken orally. After extensive research, we can use these ourselves safely. For example, quercetin, grapeseed extract, and curcumin are all anti-inflammatory compounds found in ordinary foods which can have a powerful positive effect on our health. However, testosterone and Lipitor are for use only with a doctor’s prescription and for specific health issues. Pay special attention to the supplements he takes for the brain as these are the ones that are most aimed at greatly improving productivity.

7 Sleeping Hacks

The ambitious professional will sometimes find him or herself losing sleep. The stress of work and daily life sometimes leaves us unable to sleep. We will explain some sleeping hacks you can use whenever the situation calls for it, and still be 100% productive. These are ways that help you sleep less and work more on important occasions.

Regardless, this is only a short-term strategy. For long-term performance, you should get the amount of sleep your body requires every night. This will be 4 to 10 hours, with an average requirement of 8 hours per day.

Through fasting, Nikola Tesla reportedly taught his body to sleep only 2 to 4 hours per day and he died at the ripe old age of 86. He claimed he could have extended his lifespan even further by consuming a small amount of alcohol each day, the equivalent of one to two drinks; and studies done long after his death confirmed that fasting and small amounts of alcohol do in fact extend lifespan. Since he was right about those, we take his assertion that you can sleep a short amount of time and still be very productive under circumstances of reduced caloric intake seriously. We have found it to be the case. However, we suggest these techniques be used only on special occasions since we cannot recommend daily fasting and sleep loss but rather to use these intermittently, when you need to get more done in a short period of time. Here’s how to do it:

1. Total or Partial Sleep Deprivation with Sleep Phase Advance.

Studies done from the 1970’s through to the present used a little-known trick to improve treatment-resistant depression. They discovered that if you kept a severely depressed person from sleeping an entire night, the next day, the depression vanished in an astonishing 75% of severely depressed persons. That is a greater effect perhaps, than any antidepressant medication ever made. However, the effect disappeared after the following night of sleep. It was later discovered that an extended REM sleep period was possibly depleting their brain resources and reintroducing the depression. Scientists at the University Hospital of Tübingen, Germany (2002) found a way to prevent relapse and still save many productive hours by sleeping less.

After a day of sleep deprivation, one gets an antidepressant effect that will allow you to continue to work productively and even be better at certain tasks like social engagements. The mind becomes more outward focused. There are however, two caveats.

First, during sleep deprivation and the next day, you must reduce caloric intake as heavy carb intake will induce sleepiness. Instead, do a fasting phase or consume a low-carb diet on these days. Secondly, use the supplement creatine monohydrate to keep your mind sharp on fasting days. Creatine provides back-up energy to the brain.

The day after sleep deprivation, you will sleep from 5pm to 12am, the second day from 7 to 2, and the third day from 9 to 4. This will maintain an antidepressant effect that will boost your productivity and efficiency over the course of 4 days. This will allow you to inject a huge boost of productivity into your project. After this, you may go back to your normal sleep schedule.

2. The Uberman Sleep Schedule

This sleep schedule is popular among techies. Coined by Puredoxyk, this sleep schedule makes use of a period of sleep deprivation of 24 to 36 hours, or until one gets what is called a ‘second wind’, which we have seen from the clinical studies is an antidepressant effect typified by a rise in dopamine and norepinephrine. Once this state is attained, the Ubersleeper will begin to take 20 minute naps, equally spaced throughout the day, sometimes every 1.5 to 4 hours. One continues this pattern for 2 to 4 days, until the sleeper is no longer deprived of REM sleep. The long-term health effects of this schedule are unknown. We suggest this powerful technique only be used if your body is agreeable to it and only rarely, to get a boost in productivity to work on an important project.

3. 60 to 90-Minute Power Naps

Researchers at the University of California (in Nature Neuroscience, 2003) discovered that people performed just as well on a mental task after a power nap as they did after a full night of sleep. Also, the power nap contained both SWS and REM sleep, producing a fully recharged mind. We can use this when we have an important project to complete. If we must stay up, when we get to the point of needing sleep, take a 60 to 90-minute nap to recharge. This will allow you to stay focused on the task at hand.

4. Use Creatine Monohydrate

Researchers from the University College Chichester (2005) discovered that creatine monohydrate increases mental performance in a state of sleep deprivation. It is important to use this technique in conjunction with sleep hacks to work productively on little sleep. The typical dose of creatine monohydrate is 5 grams. It goes to work providing brain energy almost immediately.

5. Use a Low-Carb Diet

As we mentioned before, when you are using a time-saving sleep hack, high carb intake will cause drowsiness, so stick with only meat and/or salads. No soft drinks, breads, cereals, or grains. Grains contain benzodiazepine-like compounds that cause drowsiness.

6. Sleep in a Cold Room

Sleeping in a cold room has been shown to have strong antidepressant and anti-inflammatory effects. During REM sleep, the body’s temperature control mechanism goes awry for unknown reasons. This may cause the body to heat up and produce inflammation, fever, and dysautonomia. Also, the sped-up metabolism causes the body cells to age faster. Studies show this can be counter-acted by merely sleeping in a cold room. The lower temperatures reduce inflammation and stops the brain from having too much REM sleep which can drain neurotransmitters. A cold room also helps you fall asleep. A study done at the University of Pittsburg showed that insomniacs who were given a cap to wear that cooled off their brain by circulating cold water, fell asleep just as well as those without insomnia.

These powerful sleep hacks will supercharge your performance and give you hours of productivity, more time than you can get by any other means. They are to be used sparingly, however.

Primitive man had times where they had to lose sleep to find food so our bodies have adaptations that allow us to temporarily perform above average during our ‘second wind’ or the antidepressant phase of sleep deprivation during fasting or low caloric intake.

We can use this powerful adaptation as it was intended, to give us a boost when an important project requires us to stay up for longer hours. So, if you need to write a long paper or pull an all-nighter of studying, don’t worry. Try the sleep phase advance technique or the power nap technique and you will be able to stay up and still be productive. Use creatine monohydrate to keep your mind sharp and avoid high carb intakes. You will be able to perform at a level others will envy. These techniques may take a little practice, but can be mastered very quickly and used effectively.

8 Meditation in minutes

Meditation techniques have been used by such luminaries as Steve Jobs to access levels of creativity, motivation, meaning, and serenity that allow them to effectively innovate and wade through the rigors of work and life. When we think of meditation, we think of a monk sitting cross-legged for hours in a Himalayan hermitage. However, techniques have been studied and adapted for Western meditators which can be done quickly and effectively to get the benefits of mediation in minutes. The following techniques can be done in 5 minutes, in the office, or during work just as easily as they can be done sitting quietly on a mat at home. Some can be done in the very midst of frenzied activity, allowing you to perform at your highest state. They quickly relieve anxiety and stress and allow you to focus on the task at hand.

1.Choiceless Awareness

This is the most basic meditation technique and does not require sitting quietly. It can be done at any time the mind is clear. In choiceless awareness, we focus fully on the present moment. We see the words on the screen and hear our inner voice reading the words. We hear the tap of our fingers on the mechanical keyboard. We feel the position of our bodies in space. We do this without judgement, without the desire to change anything whatsoever. If we have thoughts in our minds, we merely listen to them indifferently, so that we are free of conflict. This state is the goal of all the meditations we will discuss. This type of meditation can be done anytime and is without any method or practice. The revered Indian Philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti recommended this as meditation. When the mind is without conflict, not divided by conflicting desires, it can perform at its very highest ability.

2. 5-Minute Body Scan

This meditation has the goal of relaxing the body. Simply find a relaxing position to sit. You can lay back in your chair if you are in a cubicle. You can sit on a mat. Close your eyes. Start at your feet and merely concentrate all your awareness on your feet. Feel all the sensations, the position of your feet, the pressure of your shoes and the floor. Then move on to your calves doing the same thing, just focusing and feeling all the sensations. Move all the way to your ears and the top of your head. You will find that the body has become relaxed and the mind clear. This recharges the brain and helps you retain focus to achieve your goals for the day.

3. 10-Minute Thought Meditation

This meditation is slightly longer and more powerful than the body scan. It is also a bit more challenging. You sit back, close your eyes, and simply watch your thoughts with full attention but without judgement. If you see nothing but your eyelids, you just focus on your experience of it, and the sounds you hear. Thoughts will come and go and you watch them without moving toward or away from them, without judging them. You will find the mind and body start becoming incredibly relaxed and clearly focused.

4. Breathing Meditation

This is the most basic, easiest meditation which can be done anywhere. Find a quiet place or you can do this at your desk. Lay back, close your eyes and become consciously aware of your breathing. Don’t try to breathe deeply or change your breathing. Just watch your breathing. If you have never meditated and feel you need practice, you can count your breaths up to four and repeat. However, once you become proficient at this technique, you no longer need to count your breaths. Just become aware of your breathing. You will find the mind and body becomes quickly relaxed. You have forgotten yourself and the mind quickly begins to use its resources for rejuvenation.

You can use these quick, powerful meditations to recharge your mind and body and greatly boost your performance. They can be done in your desk or sitting quietly on a mat at home. They can be done in bed or used to induce sleep. Finally, choiceless awareness can be used during any activity so that you watch every aspect closely and your performance becomes the result of your entire being focused and accurate.

Happiness Hacked

A new field of psychology called Positive Psychology studies things such as happiness, flow, success, and fulfillment. One of the luminaries in this field is former President of the American Psychological Association Dr. Martin Seligman. After many years of being the foremost authority on learned helplessness, Dr. Seligman turned his attention to what makes man happy and fulfilled. He helped create a new school of psychology in the process, called Positive Psychology. He also produced a simple formula for happiness and engagement, the PERMA formula.

P - Positive Emotion

E - Engagement

R - Relationship

M- Meaning

A - Achievement

Positive Emotion

Dr. Seligman feels if we give attention to each of these, we will find the greatest fulfillment. Positive emotion is having positive sensory experiences. We can attain this by taking care of our bodies, as well as by including fun activities in our lives like playing games, seeing movies, going out to eat with friends, and walking in nature.

Engagement

Engagement is basically our work. It is necessary that we feel fulfilled in our work life. Dr. Seligman suggests we do this by using our signature strengths, our greatest talents, for our most important and meaningful goals. At his website, you can take carefully designed scientific tests that allow you to identify your signature strengths and discover the goals that you care most about.

Relationship

As humans, we are all in relation with each other. Humans need each other to survive, so even the ascetic hermit must spend some time begging others for rice grain to fulfill his meager daily requirement of sustenance. Most of us see many people throughout the day. It is important that we have fulfilling relationships. Relationship is not something to strive for, to try to take others and make goals out of them. Rather, we are in relationship to others already, and we are to value those relationships and respect the autonomy of ourselves and others. We are to value other people as human beings, and not for what they can do for us, or for a goal or product we wish to form them into.

Meaning

Human beings need to feel that their activity and lives are meaningful, important, and fit into their view of the world. They need to feel that they have a role to play in life, rather than being out-of-place and without meaning. Many things give meaning to life and our activities. Our relationships, our way of thinking and seeing, the rituals we do, may give us meaning. Alternatively, we may find meaning in just being in the moment.

Achievement

Dr. Seligman sees ‘the good life’ as containing achievement. Achievement means that we have worked toward goals that we feel are important with success. This doesn’t mean that we destroy our minds and bodies in the process of achieving this success. Health is more important than work so it is no achievement to trade one’s health to work more. Rather, when we achieve what is important, health, a quiet mind, harmony in our relationships; these are our achievements.

This formula for happiness seems particularly apt for the biohacker, the career-driven professional. We find this formula to be a great way to look at our lives and put things in perspective.

Flow

A related concept to the PERMA formula has been developed by Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He noted during engagement, the highest performers enter a state of total awareness, deep focus, and loss of ego and self, called ‘flow’. Flow has been called ‘in the zone’, ‘in my groove’, and other phrases used to describe when we are performing at our absolute best. High level sports stars, chess masters, and even doctors and lawyers describe being in this state. Csikszentmihalyi has studied how to get into this state. The state comes about when a challenge slightly exceeds our ability to meet the challenge and the mind must lose the ‘default mode network’ operation completely to free up brain resources. The default mode network creates our sense of worrying about self and becomes overactive in depression. The flow state destroys this process, banishes depression and boredom, and causes us to perform at our absolute best. Here are some aspects of the feeling of flow:

1. Complete absorption

2. Euphoria

3. Crystal clear thinking

4. Timelessness

5. Ego-lessness

Here is how you enter the flow state:

1. Choose a task you are skilled at.

To enter flow, you need to be working on a task where you have a high amount of skill. This could be writing, working out, driving, or programming. It is not necessary that you be skilled at every activity you are working on. For example, to enter flow while writing a book, you don’t have to be skilled at writing a book. You only need to be skilled at typing. You can focus on typing to enter the state of flow.

2. Keep your eye on the prize

You need to set clear goals and benchmarks to get into flow. Turn reaching your goal into a game. Games are the quickest route to entering flow. You can set a benchmark to type a certain amount of lines of code in a certain amount of time, then set yourself to working on attaining this goal.

3. Focus

Now you just need to focus all of your attention on your task. You will find that time flies by. You forget yourself as your speed increases. You are ‘in the zone’, the sweet spot, the flow state. As you attain and maintain this state day-after-day, you become a sight to behold at work. We do our job with such speed and efficiency, others watch with awe and envy. It will take some practice, but you will eventually get to this state.

9 Save time During Your Commute

Most of us do not work from home, and therefore must make a daily commute to the worksite. A commute can be as short as 15 minutes or as long as two hours. A 2-hour commute will cost us at least 4 hours of lost time, going to and from work. We often wish we could have this time back, for work or for pleasure. There are ways to make your commute more productive. Even if you don’t travel to work on a daily basis, you’ll find some of the tips below useful whenever you’re commuting in general.

1. Use Your GPS

The first thing to do is to make sure the commute is no longer than it should be. To do this, you need to use a good GPS on our phone or in your car to make sure you are taking the fastest route. The fastest route is often - but not always - the shortest route. Sometimes, there is too much traffic or other obstructions on the shorter route. A good GPS program such as Google Maps will show you the route that takes the least time while taking traffic and obstructions into consideration.

2. Car Pool

Carpooling can be a great way to save time and be more productive, as you will not be the one driving and can give your attention to other things. You can catch up on work, reading, or other activities that can be done from the passenger’s seat.

3. Listen to Audiobooks

Many extremely productive people use audiobooks during their commute so that they can absorb information quickly and effortlessly while driving. As you drive along a familiar route, autopilot takes over in our brains and we have an excess reservoir of attention. You can use these moments to catch up on your reading or learn something new. You might want to listen to something motivational that will allow you to get the most out of the day ahead.

4. Learn a New Language

Using audiobooks to learn new languages is a great way to use our time during the daily commute. In the US, learning Spanish and Chinese is quickly becoming a required skill. The entire world is becoming more globally interconnected. The rise of China and opportunities in other nations makes learning new languages a skill that can get you far ahead of the competition.

5. Listen to the News

The large majority of the population waste much time at work and at home being captivated by news. While we need to be informed, news has been optimized to arouse our passions to keep the viewers’ attentions rather than to inform.

Instead, you can set aside our commute time to get informed about the news from a reliable source, then promise yourselves to not look at the news again for the rest of the day. This may save you a lot of time. Some reliable news sources include The Christian Science Monitor and NPR.

6. Meditate

You can meditate during your commute to relieve stress and increase productivity. If you are doing the driving, you can use a choiceless awareness meditation, focusing on every aspect of driving, every sensation with our full minds until thought becomes quiet. When thought is quiet, the mind is recharging. If you are carpooling, you may want to do a 5- or 10-minute breathing meditation to prepare you for the day ahead.

Don’t waste your commute. It can be a large drain on your time if you allow it to be. Your commute can be a treasure trove of newly discovered time to do all kinds of activities that boost your productivity and efficiency. There are activities you can do as part of driving such as meditation and learning a language, and activities you can do as a passenger such as working on a laptop and making phone calls. It can be a great time to get things done which have been put off for some time.

10 Learn Faster

Many of us are in school or have professions that require us to learn quickly. We may feel clumsy when we are learning a new skill. We may feel that as soon as we master one thing, we must drop it and learn something else. We are often advancing in our career so quickly; we are always ‘the new guy’. No sooner do we get used to our position than we must move to a new one, with new people and new requirements. This movement can be dizzying, even though career promotion is our goal, it is what we want. It just requires us to adapt very quickly.

The movie “Limitless” has become the inspiration for many biohackers concerned with learning. Bradley Cooper plays struggling author Eddie Morra who gets his hands on an experimental drug called NZT-48 that allows him to learn at lightning speed. Many nootropic enthusiasts have tried to reproduce the effects of this fictional account with various drugs and herbs. However, tricks to faster learning have been around for centuries. In China, students train on the abacus to make their brains into a calculator that can do complex calculations faster than you can enter it into your digital calculator and get the answer.

Memory champions often claim they do not have any special gifts for remembering, but rather use techniques we can all use to memorize things and learn faster. While it will not be worth the time for us to learn to use the abacus, there are some learning hacks that apply to our 24/7 work and school lives.

1. Use Mnemonic Devices

A mnemonic device is like using an acronym to help you remember. Say you must get spaghetti sauce, onions, oranges and nutmeg from the store. You can use the acronym SOON, s -sauce, o -onion, o -oranges, and n -nutmeg. We all remember PEMDAS from math class: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. This helps us to remember the order of operations in algebra. You can use these mnemonic devices at work, meetings, schools and social engagements. They can be used to remember names also.

2. Take a Memory Tour

Many memory champions claim they memorize a familiar scene such as their own homes to start out creating a memory tour.

Then, they take long lists of information and make a story about a stroll through their homes with the new information. For example, the experimenter learning the same order of operations as above imagines a stroll through his home thusly: He goes through the living room and sees his couch so he says ‘the parentheses sat on the couch, and it grew exponentially larger’. He goes to the kitchen and sees apples ‘multiplying’, and the table ‘divides’ the apples from the oranges under the table. He creates this story, then when it is time to recall the list, he goes through the stroll again in is mind. He sees the’ parentheses’ on the couch growing ‘exponentially’ and recalls parentheses and exponents, and so on.

This is a simple example. A memory champion can memorize 100 items this way. We can imagine how, as, given enough time, we could name 100 items in our own homes. The memory champion uses this familiarity to memorize things faster and better than others, but he has no special ability. He is merely using a special technique.

3. Use the Power of Passive Listening

If you need to become familiar with a long book, such as a work of fiction and you have lots of time, get it on audiobook and let it play while you go about your activities. You don’t need to try to pay attention to it, just allow it to play on repeat. You will slowly absorb the information and be able repeat much of it verbatim. However, before you have a test or discussion on the material, play it one last time, this time paying attention to it, doing it as your single activity, for the brain to clear up any information it had not absorbed completely through passive listening. Passive learning can take weeks or months, so it is useful for information that you don’t have to use immediately, like learning a new language.

4. Become the Teacher

One of the best ways to be sure you have learned material well is to teach it. Even if you are not at first a master of the material, teach it to others or practice teaching it alone. You will gain a more thorough grasp of the material this way.

5. Repetition is the Key

The key to learning is repetition. However, this repetition must be done in an active way. If you want to learn the fact that plasma is a state of matter, do not merely read that plasma is a state of matter 3 times, but ask yourself ‘what is plasma’ 3 times and answer the question. Thus, you will be learning actively rather than passively in cases where there is no time for passive learning.

6. Quiz Yourself

This is related to the principle of repetition. What needs to be repeated is your asking questions and answering the questions, quizzing yourself. Do not merely read information 3 times. Read, ask questions, and answer those questions 3 or more times. You will quickly become proficient at answering questions about the topic.

7. Read with Speed by Skimming

Studies on speed-reading have come to a serious conclusion - it is a trick. Apparently, no one is truly good at speed reading. What speed readers are doing is skimming. When you skim, you will lose a lot of reading comprehension. However, we are often looking at webpages just to see if we should spend any time doing in-depth reading. Thus, skill at skimming has become more important than ever. You need to quickly be able to skim web pages to see if the page contains the information you are looking for. Look for headings and key words and decide if they are consistent with the information you are looking for. If they are, you can do more close reading. If they are not, you can quickly do another search for more useful information. If you cannot skim, or you do close reading of every webpage, you will quickly become lost in cyberspace.

There are many speed-reading schemes available to learn; however, none of them has yet to be proven as effective. So, don’t spend time struggling to do something which is impossible. If you have good reading comprehension and a normal reading speed, you have all the power you need to be efficient at your work. The important thing is not to read each word quickly, but to quickly identify what information is important and what isn’t. If you can do that, you will be able to master information very quickly. If you try speed-reading schemes - even if you learn to read slightly faster - you will lose comprehension ability and thus be unable to tell what information was important and which was not. The net effect will only be negative, so you should never attempt to do this.

8. Show up in Person

Many things cannot truly be learned from a book or on the internet. You need to be there in person to learn these things. For example, one cannot learn to fix a car by reading a book about car parts. You must get your hands on the car and open it up. Once you are physically familiar with it, then verbal information can help guide you.

In real life, outside of academia, when we need to learn something, we should try to get as close as we can to the actual environment that contains the information we need to learn.

9. Take a Rest

During sleep, a process called memory consolidation occurs. Once you learn something well, the brain strengthens that memory during sleep. Consequently, you remember it better the next day after waking than you did immediately after studying. The brain has tied that memory in with other memories - it has fit it into the environment of the mind. Therefore, it’s important to time your studying well relative to your sleep time. Some people remember things best if they sleep directly after learning the information. So, they may save their studying till just before bed. Others learn best when they space their learning at a different time, maybe before dinner. For others, eating will cause an amnestic effect and should be spaced away from study. You can find the spacing between studying and sleep that works best for you and you will be able to study in a way that is fast and efficient using repetition, recall, and correct spacing between study and sleep.

10. Use Supermemo

We have mentioned earlier a powerful app for memory and learning called Supermemo. Supermemo makes repetition and recall a breeze by allowing you to enter your information in the form of questions and answers, then quiz yourself telling the program how well you did and the program will continue to quiz you focusing on the information that you need more exposure to and not wasting time on information you already have a great grasp on. The effect is the fastest learning you’ve ever experienced.

These tips will help you learn faster and memorize better for school and for work. Keeping your mind active and sharp also has a positive effect on your longevity, and helps to slow or prevent cognitive decline. As your mind becomes faster and more efficient, you will find that learning activities don’t take as long and you will have a better comprehension of the material.

Review

We have discussed hacks that can help you save time and supercharge your productivity. In Chapter 2, we gave a thorough summary of every single hack. We want these hacks to become a part of you, memorized, so you can use them anytime we need to gain an edge in life. Let’s review again how we can use these hacks to supercharge performance.

One of the most important ways to improve productivity is to make sure we have physical energy. Diet is the way to superpower our bodies. For longevity, you may want to try intermittent fasting. For weight loss, subtract 500 calories per day from your usual caloric intake. For health and energy, you may try a Mediterranean or low carb diet.

To keep your bodies strong and with endurance to power your performance, we suggest Mike Mentzer’s 20 Minute Ultimate routine, a four-exercise high intensity weight training regimen. For endurance, we suggest high intensity interval training through running or cycling. This includes 1 minute of vigorous sprinting for every 4 minutes of light to moderate running or cycling for a period of 20 minutes. Studies show this will guarantee aerobic fitness in just 20 minutes a day, 5 to 7 days per week.

We discussed how to make it big at the office or another work environment. The basic tips are to make alliances, avoid drama, know your goals, and be a positive, go-to professional and friend to your colleagues.

Our most effective time management apps include Evernote and Google Calendar. The hands-down most powerful study app is Supermemo.

When it comes to productivity-enhancing supplements and herbs, stick with safe vitamins and herbs. Don’t risk your health trying unstudied experimental synthetic drugs, but follow the research on them.

Our sleeping hacks include total or partial sleep deprivation with sleep phase advance, shown to produce a ‘second wind’ or antidepressant effect. Also, the Uberman Sleep Schedule and 90-minute power naps. Combine these with creatine monohydrate and a low carb or fasting period when using sleep hacks. Use them only when you must finish an urgent project. Else, be sure to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep.

Lastly, the mind needs a break to be able to focus and be productive. You can use choiceless awareness at any time to give thought a break to become quiet and recharge. You can also try the body scan meditation or a simple but effective 5-minute breath counting or breathing awareness meditation. These recharge the mind, reduce anxiety, and produce the focus needed to maintain productivity.

Your time and productivity are in your own hands. You have the power to use these powerful hacks to supercharge your performance. Thank you for reading and stay attentive for more great information and tips from this series, presented in a clear, concise, and direct way. Feel free to go back through this book so these tips become yours and you can use them automatically anytime they are applicable.

We hope that this book has helped you boost your productivity. Even if it’s a 1% increase, that is going to amount to a lot of saved hours over the years!

About the Author

Stefan Cain has spent the majority of his working career in numerous academic research positions, working on a wealth of psychological, societal and cultural topics. His research work and adept studies have been used to form the backbone of many popular titles available today, providing him with the experience and hunger to delve deeper into some avenues of thought.

Alongside his serious academic work, Stefan has been published in a number of prominent publications; filing news reports, features and insightful opinion pieces on myriad topics throughout his career. It was here, in this capacity as a journalist, that he first began to start writing about human behavior.