Middle-Aged Entrepreneur: build faster, don’t burn out. Why 90% of Productivity Hacks Won’t Work For You.
Here’s a 10-point list of things you do that DRAIN your energy.
Kind of like having a leaky fuel tank.
A BIG IDEA 💡
Your lower energy levels, as a middle-ager, and all the productivity, procrastination, burnout problems that come out of it aren’t the result of your age — there are Nobel laureates in their 90s.
See where your energy leaks.
1. Poor light exposure routines
resulting in low dopamine, low drive and high procrastination, low energy — you waste time and have to work extra hours to accomplish the bare minimum.
2. Poor sleep design
resulting in ineffective sleep (sleep more — recover less — even though you need more), waking up feeling tired, low on energy, unmotivated. You waste time, you lose your genius potential, your productivity is all over the place;
3. Poor stress management habits
resulting in increased energy needs and higher workload on all your cells, organs and tissues; poor brain function due to resource mismanagement — you waste A LOT of energy and feel fatigued much earlier than your could have. It’s like switching on your engine and never turning it off, even when your car is parked in the garage.
4. Poor nutrition
I love saying, “Your food is either a part of a stress management toolkit or a stressor. Depends on what’s on your plate” — you waste a lot more energy and don’t create enough of it when your nutrition isn’t optimized for your brain and body. Your daily fatigue levels keep rising.
5. Poor exercise practice
Exercise makes you build better mitochondria, energy-producing plants of your cells. Trained people make more energy while they sit. They have a bigger fuel tank! No movement and you get poor oxygenation and blood circulation which means you produce less and less energy, and you feel more and more tired and fatigued faster, and you get a lot less done every day. Your vision gets delayed day, after day, after day into a non-existent future
6. Poor, shallow breathing
Your brain gets 30–40% less effective oxygenation, which leads to poor energy production in the most energy-demanding organ of your body, your brain. You waste time trying to focus and think clearly, you feel like you have no energy for your goals, frustrated with your own self — you start thinking, “I must be too old for this”.
~ “The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults”
7. Poor workflow design
You waste energy on task switching (that IS expensive), on distractions management (more expenses), on “coming around”, on wasteful activities because of no clarity and attention all over the place — you waste a lot of energy before the work even begins!
8. Poor breaks strategy
You treat your brain as a machine, not respecting circadian rhythms, not respecting attention cycles, pushing when you need to take a break, getting to it when it’s your prime time for deep, your genius work — as a result, not a lot done, mediocre quality of work, feeling like a loser, frustrated with your own self at the end of each day, having troubles falling asleep with all the racing thoughts about what could have been
9. Poor mindset management
Speaking of feeling like a loser. Your mindset, the way you frame things, the way you switch your focus, the questions you ask — they aren’t just in your head, they are physical! This directs your dopamine, your energy flow, your motivation — it’s the difference between lasting long enough to succeed, enjoying the process, and quitting right before you succeed because you got tired of “losing”;
~ “The Neuroscience of Growth Mindset and Intrinsic Motivation”
10. Poor environmental “framing”
From light, to what you put in your fridge to who you listen to — they either save you energy, boost your motivation (aka dopamine) and help you succeed, or they quite literally suck the energy out of you. The beauty of human design — your mind will shape your physiology, your available energy will increase dramatically, if you choose the right things to “put” there. Or, if you aren’t careful (like your have-no-clue 20-year-old self) — you’ll put mountains to conquer in your way where it could have been a cinematic walk through the valley, or even better, a joyful ride downhill to your desired destination.
~ “Mind over milkshakes: mindsets, not just nutrients, determine ghrelin response”
Should I go on?
Do you see how much of your energy potential you waste every single day?
Imagine, you turned on the water tap and just let it run and run and run…
How much would you waste compared to what you actually use?
That’s the difference between your dream becoming a reality while you are enjoying your meaningful life experience, and barely making it through the day, totally exhausted, feeling like the time of your life, your prime is behind you, and you should just settle for what is.
THE SOLUTION?
I won’t give you one here.
But I’ll offer you to experience it.
Science-Based Work-Life design for an ambitious middle-aged entrepreneur who wants to have it all and believes he/she can.
Join us!
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