Productivity 101 for Digital Nomads who want to get shit done.
Routine is everything and the best tools are from Neuroscience.
Coffee shops. I’m in one right now, writing the very blog you are reading. To be honest, not my favorite place to do any kind of work, writing, studying, research or calls. I find it to be too distracting — too many people, too much noise of all kind from coffee machines, blenders, birthday celebration songs, lighting is very often off, and the sitting is uncomfortable or simply not optimal for the brain blood flow, essential for productive days, and it’s just not my zone of genius, where things, words, ideas flow into place. Did you know we all have one? Zone of genius?
YOUR ZONE OF GENIUS IS A PLACE
Our genius zone isn’t necessarily a specific place although it’s VERY helpful to have one, for the speed and ease of our productive juices flow, to get right into it, our focused, our get-shit-done mode. Our genius zone is in workplace design.
You see, our brain “reads” our environment and then prepares us, with hormones, biochemistry, neurotransmitters, for the task at hand — so we are great at it, or at least have the potential to unleash that greatness! Our brain is a prediction machine, that orchestrates the whole body, every cell, tissue, every organ to respond most adequately and effectively to what this environment USUALLY requires of us. In simple language — familiar spaces create familiar feelings and states. If you always do the work at a coffee shop — it’s gonna be hard for you to relax there, and if you always sleep in your bedroom, don’t be surprised to feel sleepy, if you take your work to bed with you one afternoon.
Environment and routines are everything! They condition and ensure productive mornings, afternoons, or whatever times of the day you choose for work.
That’s why most prolific people, who deliver a lot of good work consistently — artists, entrepreneurs and unicorn startups, scientists and researchers, performers, elite athletes — they are the “weirdest” bunch — having all their rituals, amulets, favorite shoelaces, trinkets, pump-up songs, old-ass “winning” shirts and shorts, they’ve been patching up since their first big win, “home ground” stadiums and studios that bring luck, favorite brushes and pencils. It’s not that those things have anything magical or special, it’s the conditioning of the brain, that almost magically puts elite performers in the state of winning. Those “silly”, “superstitious” habits create a special kind of chemistry in the body and brain, chemistry, that we experience delivering our wins and masterpieces.
It’s all backed by neuroscience research and it all makes sense — the brain’s purpose is to make us adapt to any environment and demands, to exploit resources, and to do it as fast as possible (So no predator eats you for lunch while you think about the best possible path to berries). The brain reads the environment, recognizes the signs, and makes you ready to go, equipped with the best “tools”, whatever that go means — writing a novel, making calls, coaching clients, working on sales copy, doing science experiments, training for a soccer tournament. We still yet to learn how it all works but what’s not questionable — where we are, changes how, what, how well we think — from light to your seat cushion, to colors to the height of the ceiling.
(Research, “Ceiling Height Can Affect How A Person Thinks, Feels And Acts”)
PRACTICE: If you work on something you care about, if you want to get really good at anything, as effectively as efficiently as possible, either stick with the same time, same location, same everything as much as possible, or try to re-create that sameness in any location to prime your brain, to let your brain know what’s coming — have your own amulets, use the same writing T-shirt, work from the same kitchen table (I recommend to keep things uni-purpose though for the best digestion and work), or from a coffee shop, or co-working space — keep it the same or very similar. Even to the detail of the time of the day and what you have for breakfast. The more similar you keep it all — the better work will come out. Plus, it eliminates decision/mental fatigue, that will steal your masterpiece any time of the day, any season, at any, even the most picturesque destination!
ABOUT FOOD
Food.
It’s a crucial element of high performance.
First, you eat several times a day, every day, and if you make decisions about every meal — what and where and how much to eat — your brain performance gonna be reduced by a lot! That’s why I shop once a week and I decide then and there what I’m eating for the rest of the week. I don’t leave my food to chance, and I’m not wasting my precious, limited cognitive resources on it. Bonus — you’ll easily get yourself to eat healthier, once you have a plan and you shop for it.
Second, nutrition — what you eat, rapidly and long-term changes your biochemistry and brain chemistry (Our gut microbes, for example, produce almost half circulating in our blood molecules!), and that’s the difference between struggling with focus, anxiety, brain fog and sleepy/high energy roller-coaster and powering through anything, forgetting about time for several hours non-stop. To keep you focused, easily navigating distractions of the busiest coffee shop, flowing “in the zone”, “your sweet spot”, your brain requires certain nutrients to create chemicals of focus and attention, and you can’t afford spikes of blood sugar or inflammation either, created by inappropriate for your gut and biology food choices. Breakfast in the zone anyone? For flow states on demand? Read about that in my articles HERE (smart drugs), HERE (chocolate for flow states) and HERE. (Neuroscience-based brain nutrition to manage ADHD and Brain Fog).
PRACTICE: Learn the rules of basic brain nutrition in the articles above. Make a plan for your meals and shop for it!
ALWAYS HAVE A “PLAN B”
Back to routine and my coffee shop.
Why am I in a coffee shop in the first place, if I don’t like it?
Mexico!
Or pick any destination, but especially the most idyllic, remote, beachy and mountainousy, breath-taking ones, if it ain’t in your house, it’s a rented AirBnB or some other random apartment — be prepared for things to not work, from internet being slow, being out, being cut-off along with light and water — anything can happen, and it probably will, so always have a plan B to work well for whatever you need to get done every day.
Today, my internet stopped working since the moment I woke up and so here I am, writing from the closest coffee shop where I go to in any case of a beach-town emergency.
PRACTICE: always have a plan B. You’ll need it in your nomadic life. It’s also not a bad idea to have a plan C, in case your favorite coffee shop decides to do repairs, and the noise is heard in the next neighborhood. (Also happened).
And now back to routines. Prepare your mind to be blown! I’m about to deliver to you fresh-from-the-oven neuroscience-based tips and tools to sky-rocket your performance. Build on top solid sleeping, eating, work schedule and workplace routine — it will make your genius zone your new home ground.
TIME OF THE DAY
It matters.
And not so much the exact hours but the first part of your day and the times when you know you are your most productive self. Morning people usually arrive into their genius zone almost as soon as they wake up (and it’s the best when you have early regular wake-up time ), true night owls (vs morning people who stay up too late, too often, because of too many invitations they unable to say NO to) usually do better later in the day, and maybe not for the first few hours after waking.
In general, very soon after you wake up (unless after a drunk party or not having enough sleep) you’ll have your best hours with all your brain reserve available for work . The more decisions you have to make, the more you switch between tasks, the more you get into social media, emails and other distracting (and potentially stressing issues) before your main task — the less resources you’ll have for deep work, and the more difficult it’s gonna be for you to focus. Long bouts of focus are very mentally demanding. Your brain has to filter out thoughts, possible environmental distractions, maintain certain blood sugar, create brain chemicals of focus — the more you waste this resource on the unimportant — the more your work will suffer, the less motivation you’ll have to do challenging, uncomfortable tasks. All resources are limited. Energy for sports, mental work, social media — it all comes out of the same source and it is limited.
Also, are we still having notifications and sounds ON? — Not a chance you’ll do any deep work or come up with breakthrough ideas when interrupted by beeping and vibrating and all the buffet of the notifications from many devices we all have, from your heart rate monitor (although, maybe keep that one on), to your smartwatch, to phone, to tablet. When it comes to deep work it’s like digging a well to find gold — distractions and switching tasks keep you on the surface, and the best stuff, “the gold” is all the way to the bottom. Keep digging — stop throwing the sand from side to side. They even did studies — the closer your phone to you, in your sight, the less mentally capable you are, it drains your cognitive resources. My phone? Lives in a closet, with all sounds off. In a coffee shop? In my bag, sounds off.
PRACTICE: Do the most important work VERY FIRST thing in the morning, after you pee and drink water. Keep your phone at all times of work hidden and soundless. Night owls and timing? Your most productive time might be a bit later but the same rules of cognitive load apply — avoid as many as possible distractions and unnecessary mind-numbing activities before important work.
MORE ABOUT TIMING
For many people morning is when you are your best at very focus-demanding work, analytical or very-intense creative pursuits like writing, afternoons might be best for creative work and wild ideas, when your analytical brain is “tired”, having used a lot of resources prior.
If you want to do productive work for really long bouts, like several hours or the whole day — you’ll do much better if you combine similar tasks, batching similar things and unitasking. Task switching, and doing many different tasks in the same period will take more cognitive resources, and it will take more time for you to get in the zone, delivering greatness. It’s like running — once you start running it’s much easier to continue than to start, or to run, cycle, jump, swim, lift weights — you get more effective at one activity the longer you are at it. Many high performers even dedicate their whole days to just one kind of task — writing, emails, calls, podcasting, pitching things, doing taxes, creative days, or get small things done and out of the way kind of day.
Also, have breaks — every 30–40 minutes, take a completely disconnected break — like 5–10 minutes of walking, or guided meditation, or yoga nidra (a body scan). Leave your phone behind to restore your brain resources effectively. Our phones keep your cortex (that main thinking part of your brain) engaged — we want our brain to rest and restore the pool of neurotransmitters (brain molecules that keep us focused). Kind of like breaks between lifting sets — you’ll get better lifts in the next sets if you rest completely VS doing burpees in-between.
I’m back from my break and let’s continue…
NEUROSCIENCE-BASED FOCUS “HACKS”
Here are a couple of very effective exercises to get you back into focus faster after the break.
Hyperventilation raises levels of norepinephrine (one of the neurotransmitters that increase alertness and focus), to which I add sniffing rosemary oil (which improves cognitive processing, memory and learning.). I demonstrate the whole very short process here.
Staring at the same spot, a little bit at a distance, for about 10–20 seconds before any task will also help to focus faster, as when we focus our eyes (instead of jumping from one tab to another) — our uni-focus also increases. Where our gaze goes — our attention flows.
Writing or typing out in a notepad or an app a short to-do list (even if it’s just one task) will help you to focus on what you need to get done.
Starting with accomplishing a small task, like reading a short article, making a simple adjustment on your website will boost your productive focus and motivation with dopamine, the molecule that gets us going (stimulated by the sense of achievement). Just choose something small that won’t drain your resources and distract you from the main thing.
Good lighting, natural (the best, outside or by the window), or 10 000 LUX of artificial source (next best) is directly correlated with the brain chemicals of alertness and focus (like dopamine and norepinephrine) — don’t expect to stumble into your genius zone in the darkness of your cave.
Music and sounds can increase your productivity a lot! (Dopamine, a molecule of drive and challenging pursuits, for example, is very musically affected!) I personally have different music pieces and styles for different tasks — it’s probably no coincidence that elite athletes have their “pump-up” songs. But so do many writers. Neuroscience supports this musical practice with studies. And many companies create solutions to prime our brain to do its best work. I use Brain.fm that works like magic, keeping me focused for hours!
And last, but definitely not least, and I bet you never heard about it — different ceiling heights and shapes of any room are best for different kinds of work. “Box” kind of rooms are great for analytical, focused, mundane work. “Cathedral” kind of spaces, with very high, especially round ceilings, or open air, boost big picture thinking and creative flow.
PRACTICE: Choose the room for the task — or better say ceiling. Start off with some hyperventilation and sniffing on rosemary oil. Add a focused stare at some point on the wall in front of you, write a to-do list, complete a simple task, music on, phone sounds off and let your genius bring your masterpiece out!
PS I have so much more to share in my coaching neuroscience protocols toolbox! And the best way to learn — join a group of like-minded super-achievers from all over the world at my upcoming LIVE 2-hour class, where you also get to ask all of your questions to personalize the practices. May 4th. Seats are limited. May the force be with you!
