Behaviors

Do not use stimulants every time you study or every time you work out if you want to preserve enjoyment and motivation for those activities over time.

Train yourself to associate dopamine and reward with friction, strain, and effort rather than only with the end result. Avoid spiking dopamine before or after hard effort, and use self-talk during difficult work to frame the effort itself as the rewarding part and something you are choosing to do.

Use cognition and self-talk to reinforce beneficial behaviors by telling yourself they are good for you. He gives examples including exercise, fasting, studying, and listening better, saying this can strengthen their rewarding properties at a chemical level.

Actively engage in and pursue healthy social interactions because oxytocin and social connection directly stimulate dopamine pathways.

For growing muscle, favor high-intensity, shorter-duration sessions with restricted rest rather than long, slow sessions. Shorter rests preserve metabolic stress and were described as likely producing greater hypertrophy than longer rests in otherwise similar workouts; the workout should feel challenging from both load and metabolic stress.

Outside the 2 very hard hypertrophy-oriented sessions, vary the rest of the week with some workouts emphasizing higher reps and lower intensity (about 12-15-20 reps) and other workouts emphasizing lower volume but higher intensity to drive different adaptations.

Use pre-workout routines, including music, to raise anticipatory arousal before demanding exercise. Greater pre-event arousal was described as beneficial for physical exertion and sustained force output.

Treat technically or cognitively demanding drill sessions as requiring fueling and refueling, even if they are not physically intense. Lower-intensity sessions can still create substantial cognitive demand and recovery needs.

Use diet manipulation and some exercise manipulation to teach the body to preferentially use fat at lower intensities and carbohydrate at high intensities. Longer cardio bouts and somewhat lower carbohydrate intake were discussed as ways to improve fat utilization and metabolic efficiency.

Match food intake to current exercise demands; consciously adjust diet based on training status.

For recreational self-experimentation with training, diet, heat, or cold, use about 12 weeks/3 months to assess whether an intervention is helping or hurting.

He warns that repeatedly eating progressively sweeter and highly palatable foods shifts the dopamine system and narrows what feels rewarding; instead, consuming less sweet or less savory, non-super-palatable foods can help reset what feels attractive and rewarding.

Socks impede heat loss from the feet; minimizing foot insulation can improve cooling when maximum heat loss is the goal.

Using a knit cap at the start of a run in cold weather can reduce heat loss from the head and help you warm up more quickly; remove layers later as needed.

Do not use screens within a couple of hours of bedtime because their blue-light-rich output delays circadian sleep signals.

If too warm under covers, expose the hands and/or legs to help regulate body temperature during sleep.

Socks may help sleep by insulating the toes, which are highly temperature-sensitive; useful for comfort when feet feel cold, but not if the environment is already too warm.

Do not touch or wipe your eyes after touching other people or other surfaces, because the eyes are a primary entry point for bacteria and viruses.

Think about a future, ideally a positive future, to activate dopamine/reward pathways that may accelerate healing and recovery.

Avoid spending too much time indoors without sunlight, as this can delay sleep-wake timing and create circadian disruption.

To determine whether you are truly an early or late type, get morning sunlight consistently and see whether it makes you feel better.

At night, lower blue content while keeping light white and full-spectrum rather than eliminating blue entirely.

Avoid using an iPad at night because it is harder to dim sufficiently and emits a large amount of light; also avoid reading on an iPad during nighttime awakenings.

If schedule allows, eat during the time of day when you feel most alert.

Cease food intake as bedtime approaches.

When trying to optimize sleep, feeding, and exercise timing, start by regulating light exposure first because it is viewed as the strongest time cue.

Get exposed to sun clearly in the morning and again around noon.

Keep office windows completely open to maximize daytime light exposure.

After staying up very late, allow yourself to sleep in rather than forcing an early wake time immediately.

Use light exposure as a first-line behavioral intervention for mood, sleep-wake cycle, and productivity when appropriate.