Years ago, I became positively obsessed with the skill of hand balancing. I started out by perfecting the standard handstand, but that wasn’t nearly enough. In time, I had moved on to the coveted “straddle press.” It took eight months, but I finally learned to transition from a high splits into a handstand—without bending my knees or elbows. If it sounds difficult, it’s because it is. And when that wasn’t enough, I began working my way towards the near impossible: standing on one hand.
Along about this time, I began noticing that both my strength and my balance seemed to vary significantly from day to day. On some days, I had the strength and agility to press up into a perfect handstand and shift my weight back and forth. But on others, I couldn’t even get my feet off the ground without cheating and bending my elbows. These variances were due to all kinds of factors: how well I’d slept, how well I’d eaten, how hard my last workout was, and whether I’d consumed alcohol recently. The point is this: never before, in my years of weight lifting or playing sports, had I noticed such significant variance in my ability to perform. Now, however, in this new and challenging skill that pushed the limits of my abilities, I was able to see the differences as clear as day.
That’s why, before sending you off to conquer the world with your newfound learning skills, I’d like to share a word of caution: your brain is a highly complex and finely tuned instrument, and you have just given it some serious upgrades. Like any finely tuned, high-performance instrument, insufficient maintenance can lead to poor performance, or worse, failure.
Many students discover this the same way that I did when they first begin SuperLearning. They’re amazed at their ability to read faster and remember more but complain of excessive exhaustion, hunger, or an insatiable desire for naps. Remember: the brain consumes about 20 percent of our body’s energy and resources. When you’re operating it as rigorously as you now know how to, the added drain is palpable.
To combat this, there are a number of high-performance habits I would encourage you to consider.
First and foremost is sleep. While you may realize the importance of sleep, you probably don’t give it nearly the respect or the priority it deserves. In the over 225 interviews I’ve done with some of the world’s foremost superhumans, sleep is one of the few things that comes up time and time again. In a recent monthly challenge for my private mastermind community, sport sleep coach Nick Littlehales shed light on how broken the average person’s sleep regimen really is.
When we sleep, our brains are hard at work, conducting a great number of processes that scientists have only begun to understand. Chief among these is the movement of memories from short-term to long-term memory and routine maintenance of our neurons and synapses. If, then, you neglect to sleep enough, your brain is incapable of creating or maintaining strong memories—plain and simple. Consider that the next time you choose to stay up late cramming for an exam or presentation.
What’s more, research has proven that our brains can only clean up after themselves during sleep. When we use our brains intensively, metabolic waste builds up—just like it does in our muscles. In our brains, however, this waste causes those feelings of fogginess, pressure, and irritability that we all know too well. What most of us don’t know is that our brains, unlike our muscles, are completely unable to clear this metabolic waste while we’re awake.
Because of this, napping becomes a powerful tool for many SuperLearners. When I was studying intensively at INSEAD, I made a habit of napping nearly every single day. To this day, you’ll often catch me dozing off in the middle of the day, especially on days that call for a lot of speed-reading or heavy-duty learning. Believe it or not, I’ll often schedule in free time after something particularly challenging, such as a Russian lesson. Not only does a quick, twenty- to twenty-four-minute nap help clear metabolic waste, it restores alertness better than even the strongest cup of coffee. There are other benefits as well. Years ago, I had the opportunity to interview former Navy SEAL trainer turned sleep expert Dr. Kirk Parsley for my podcast. In the episode, we discussed the ways in which a properly-timed nap in the middle of an intensive learning period can condense the learning curve. According to Dr. Parsley, this is one of his secret strategies for integrating new knowledge quickly. For this reason, I’ve covered sleep extensively on my podcast. I encourage you to check out some of the episodes I’ve curated for you at http://jle.vi/bonus.
Proper rest periods aren’t just about sleep, though. In fact, planning structured rest periods into your study sessions is yet another way to improve your focus and learning. One common method is called The Pomodoro Technique, named after the small tomato-shaped kitchen timers. In this method, you study or learn for twenty-five minutes, followed by a five-minute break. You then repeat this cycle four times, until it’s time for a longer break. It sounds crazy, but it actually works. This is partly because taking periodic breaks allows us to rest, grab a drink of water, stand up, and get our blood circulating. This, in turn, restores our focus and prevents us from burning out. But another possible reason that breaks are so beneficial is what psychologists call the “Zeigarnik effect.” This effect states that our brains can better remember and retain things that are unfinished or incomplete. The effect was first described by psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. As the story goes, Zeigarnik’s professor noticed that a waiter seemed to have an easier time remembering unpaid orders. After the order had been paid and closed out, the knowledge seemed to disappear. Fortunately, as she and her colleagues discovered, this has practical uses too. By leaving things “unfinished,” even if temporarily, we can enhance our own memory of them. Studies have shown that students who suspend their learning to do something unrelated actually remember better than those who don’t.17
In other words, don’t deprive yourself of occasional study breaks—they are helping you remember!
Another one of the recurring themes among the top performers I’ve interviewed is nutrition. No surprises there! Students and readers love to ask what “nootropics” or “smart drugs” I’m currently using, without first asking how I am fueling my brain. On this, the research is quite clear. A diet low in carbohydrates, devoid of sugar, and rich in high quality, natural fats will make your brain sing. It’ll trim your waistline too. Omega 3 fatty acids, such as those found in fish and chia seeds, are particularly great.
Wait. Isn’t all fat bad for you?
No!
Over the last decade, research has proven that the nutritional advice of yesteryear had it all wrong. Our brains and bodies love to have a consistent source of energy. But this isn’t possible when your blood sugar resembles a cutting-edge rollercoaster. Minimizing processed carbohydrates—particularly sugar—helps stabilize your blood glucose. What’s more, on the extreme end of the spectrum, a high fat and low carb diet can put your body into a state of ketosis. This means that your body is burning fat as a source of fuel!
It sounds pretty good. It feels even better! Running on ketones is such a performance boost that many people choose to fast to get into this state. Some keep it simple at 18 hours, but others fast for a full 120! You should of course consult your doctor before swearing off food for a week. But at the very least, it’s a good idea to switch out the starchy breakfast cereal for a few eggs and an avocado.
The third major theme for brain performance is also no surprise: exercise. I’ve seen so many students get into “panic” mode before an exam. They barely make time to eat—much less the “luxury” of working out. This is a huge mistake. When we exercise, we do much more than maintain the health of our bodies—the vessels that carry around and protect our brains. Exercise also has dramatic effects on our neurochemistry. Even a light workout can improve mood, lower stress, increase alertness, and enhance memory. In fact, some research has demonstrated that learning is easier while the body is in motion. So if you want to bring an audiobook with you on your bike ride, by all means. It won’t hurt to invest in a standing desk while you’re at it.
Once you’ve covered these three bases, everything else is in the realm of nitty-gritty details—and is quite honestly outside the scope of this book. It’s the type of stuff we cover every single week on my podcast. Therefore, if you’d like to learn more about it, I suggest you visit us at http://superhumanacademy.com. Meditation, getting enough oxygen, and exposing yourself to bright, natural light during the day all help a great deal. Nootropics, ranging from green tea all the way up to modafinil are also quite useful and worth experimentation—with your doctor’s approval. But none of these can help you if you neglect the three foundations upon which brain health is built: sleep, exercise, and nutrition.
It really is that simple, and it really is that important.
You may be the kind of person looking to squeeze out an additional 10 percent here and there. You might be curious about things like mushroom coffee (my current nootropic of choice), cold showers (another favorite), or neurofeedback training. By all means, experiment away! But first, make sure you have those three absolutely dialed in.
Look at it this way. If you’ve come this far, you’ve now invested a considerable amount of time and energy upgrading your brain. This is an upgrade that can and will change the way you live your life.
So please: protect your investment, and treat your brain right.
After all, it’s one of the few organs that you can neither replace nor live without.
17 Bluma Zeigarnik, “Das Behalten Erledigter und Unerledigter Handlungen,” Psychologische Forschung 9, no. 1 (December 1927): 1–85, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02409755; Fred McKinney, “Studies in the Retention of Interrupted Learning Activities,” Journal of Comparative Psychology 19, no. 2 (April 1935): 265–296, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.66.8781&rep=rep1&type=pdf.