It is very difficult to create a “super” day. This is when your energy levels are at an unreal level and you feel a natural high that lasts for the duration of an entire day. Anyone who has played competitive sports at a high level (high school state championship, college) knows that this type of day is extremely different from any other day. You know when you are experiencing one of these days because the feeling doesn’t lie. Sure, building discipline by focusing day after day does yield sustained long-term results, but being in the zone is something that only happens a handful of times each quarter. Typically, you will have more of these “super” days when you are younger due to naturally greater energy levels. Likewise, the better your physical shape, the more frequently you will experience one of these days.
Let’s take a crack at it to see if we can decipher the code and create one of these days. We are assuming here that you are already in good physical shape as it is mandatory in order for this process to have a good shot of working.
One Week Prior: Before we go any further we want to point out right now that you are not allowed to engage in tobacco/drug use or abuse alcohol. If you fall under either camp then you will need to wait a full seven days before trying this out. Having more than two drinks in a day will reduce the quality of your sleep and alter your sleeping patterns, which will take you at least a week to recover from.
As for the first actionable step, begin by tracking your daily water and caffeine intake. Bar some major unexpected one-time developments, there shouldn’t be any major discrepancies for either on a day-to-day basis.
Two Days Prior: Building up for a “super” day usually starts two days in advance. You won’t need to do much during the day, just eat healthy and have a normal gym routine. During exercise, try to direct your focus more towards lighter workouts such as abs/arms/cardio. You can push harder in one of these without feeling too tired the following day. This is where your prior tracking of water and caffeine intake comes in. Try to consume a marginally higher volume of water while keeping caffeine intake levels consistent with the average level of the previous five days. Besides that, you should be good to go for the day.
The evening/night will be far more critical. In order to create a “super” day, you want to get up at the exact same time every morning. So if you want to be up at 5.30 am then you should be in bed a little before 10.30 pm (it takes on average 7-10 minutes to fall asleep). If you live a fast-paced, high-stress life, it can be quite tough to fall asleep sometimes, so you may need to factor in some additional time to prepare for sleep by reading a book and consuming a couple tablets of melatonin which you can buy over the counter.
The Day Before: These final 24 hours will be critical as you will need to take every single measure to make tomorrow a “super” day. There are zero guarantees that this will work for you at all. We are just outlining what has worked for us with moderate consistency over the course of more than a decade.
The Morning: As long as you are getting up before 9 am, when you wake up is not important as long as you are consistently waking up at the same time. The goal is to be in bed at the same time every night so that you can keep your sleep rhythm unbroken. If you typically wake up at 6 am then you should be in bed slightly before 10.30 pm, and if you are up at 8 am then you should hit the sack before 12.30 am. Of course, we personally prefer waking up really early ideally when it is still dark outside so that you get several hours of quiet productive time with no emails and text messages coming in. We do however realize this is probably too extreme for most people especially if your work mandates late hours most nights so let’s set 6.30 am as a baseline. Assuming you wake up this time with your 7+ hours of sleep, you will feel completely normal. As soon as you awake you will do two things: 1) jump into a cold shower for two minutes and 2) make yourself two glasses of lemon water. A glass of water is typically 8 ounces, so heat up 16 ounces of water to a near boil. Then freshly squeeze two halves of a whole lemon into the water and add in an additional two tablespoons of honey and stir until the water turns murky. Drinking lemon water in the morning has greatly risen in popularity because it works, but it’s not the only option. Here are a few other alternatives:
- Aloe Vera Amla Juice: Mix two tablespoons of aloe vera and amla juice into a glass of water. If you have issues sourcing it fresh then you can buy a readymade concoction of amla juice and aloe vera.
- Ginger Tea: Add two tablespoons of fresh ginger into 16 ounces of boiling water and let the mixture boil for eight to ten minutes. Add a small amount of honey and/or lime juice.
- Coconut Water: The quickest option. You can buy fresh coconut water from practically any grocery store/7-Eleven.
- Apple Cider Vinegar in Water: Two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, one tablespoon of lemon juice, ¾ teaspoons of ground cinnamon, two teaspoons of honey, and a pinch of cayenne pepper in a glass of water.
- Turmeric and Pepper in Warm Water: Heat 16 ounces of water until warm. Add a piece of lime, pepper and turmeric. Then stir.
Now’s the time to crank out some push-ups and sit-ups (feel free to replace either one with pull-ups if you happen to have a pull-up bar at home). No, you won’t get sweaty from doing 5-10 minutes of basic exercise. The whole idea is to generate some blood flow following the shower.
Follow this up with breakfast. Avoid all cereals and breads and stick with nuts, seeds and berries. We recommend avoiding coffee if possible and replacing it with green tea. Coffee takes a much heavier toll on the body and is not as clean when compared to tea leaves. Due to coffee having higher caffeine content, you generally need to consume twice as much tea for the same caffeine strength.
Work: You will start work as soon as you are done with breakfast. You will make a moderate tweak with your work practices: You will use around 80% of the energy you normally use, and conserve the additional 20% energy for your gym workout later in the day.
If you work at a desk, you will get up at least once every hour to stretch for five minutes and drink some water (more than usual). If you have an adjustable standing desk try to take advantage of this as much as possible.
Noon: Before you have lunch, go outside for a 5-10 minute walk to catch some sun rays. People who work inside an office all day often experience vitamin D deficiency. Even if you are already wealthy, the likelihood is that you still do most of your work from a desk.
Lunch: Since one of the aims is to go to sleep “lighter” and more relaxed, you want to consume a heavier lunch. We can’t give any concrete details regarding quantity as this will vary greatly depending on your height, but we can propose the type of foods. We would go with something that is both vegetable and protein heavy but on the lighter side when it comes to carbs. This could be brown rice or quinoa to go with a vegetable salad and either chicken or pork. This should be 15-20% larger than what you would normally eat but not more than that. Since you will be drinking large quantities of water throughout the day, for drinks you should stick with green tea or go with fresh vegetable juice. One thing we have noticed is that increasing fresh juice consumption by 50-100% has proven incredibly conducive to experiencing an “on” day the following day, so if you usually drink eight ounces then you should up this to 12-16, 16 ounces to 24-32, etc. Lunch is a great time to consume around 50% of this intake.
Inevitably, some things are out of your control and you need to factor in unexpected changes to your work schedule. If you suddenly end up with extra work that needs to be done, feel free to combine lunch with the sunlight. The point is you want to change and alternate your environment sufficiently so that you feel relatively relaxed and comfortable throughout the day. Working long hours into the night with no change of scenery will not enable your body to recover in an effective manner.
Afternoon – Wrapping Up Work: The timeline here will start to become a bit more foggy as new things can always come up that keep you in the office for longer. Tackle all the urgent matters while pushing the non-pressing ones back, then leave the office and completely shut your mind off from anything work-related. You don’t want to skip anything that *needs* to be done as it will continue to occupy your mind as something you ignored that could carry consequences later, but you also don’t want to run the extra mile today. Your focus should now be entirely on getting into gear for the workout.
Gym Workout: Start with five minutes of stretching and then 15-20 minutes of moderate cardio. Follow this up with moderate sets (8-10 reps) of back/chest exercises and end it with a heavy leg exercise (squats/deadlifts/leg press). For heavy exercises, you can go two directions: 1) heavier weights or 2) lift until failure on your third set. We recommend the second option as lifting lighter weights until failure is much safer than lifting heavier weights. You should be tired, sweaty and experiencing a moderately wavy feeling by the end of the 3rd set.
Recovery Exercises: Once your workout is complete you should feel a slight high and more energy than normal. Follow this up with either some stretching or a massage. Stretching is better than massage therapy for increasing mobility and flexibility, but massages on the other hand can cover a lot more than basic stretching. Regardless of which one you choose, stick with the high tension regions in your body. This varies for each individual, but for the most part it is usually your physically strongest areas. If your strongest exercise is the bench, then this is usually your pecs/shoulders. If you are strongest in legs, then it will likely be your iliotibial band. If you are noticeably stronger in one area compared to the other, a relatively common scenario, you end up overworking many of the supplementary muscles that don’t have the same genetic endowments. If you live in any major city there should be multiple massage places within a one mile radius, and many high-end gyms will also have decent massage services available.
If you are stretching on your own, add in an exercise ball. After going through the general stretches, you will switch your focus towards the high tension areas. Once you pick up an increase in your flexibility through a greater range of motion you have achieved the desired effect.
Staying Loose and Relaxed: At this stage you should be feeling really good about yourself. Your body might be a bit tired but you feel loose and the blood is flowing. Now is a good time to sit down, play some classical music and do some reading. No more blue screens beyond this stage (with the exception of your music soundtrack). While you are relaxing, finish up your juice intake for the day. For the commute home, try to avoid all forms of public transportation if it is still peak hour. If possible, walk the distance home or order an Uber. Spending 30 minutes to an hour stretching or on a massage and then boarding a crowded subway carriage where you are packed like a can of sardines completely defeats the purpose.
Dinner: Healthy options only. We recommend staying off the meats and carbs and sticking with fish and vegetables, then consuming some fruits and nuts after a short five-minute break. Try to eat at a slower pace than you normally would and consume a little less too. If you still feel hungry afterwards then supplement your meal with some berries and either carrots or cucumbers. This will help you feel full without experiencing any heaviness in your stomach.
Meditation/Sleep: Once you arrive home and settle down you will finish off the day with 20 minutes of meditation. Set an alarm for your intended wake-up time the following morning prior to commencing your meditation so as to not accidentally fall asleep for 11 hours straight.
Waking Up – Day 0: Congratulations! You should now be feeling like you are totally unconquerable and able to operate at 150%. This should last more or less for 12+ hours (most of your waking day). If you feel tiredness/fatigue slowly creeping in after 4+ hours then definitely go ahead and consume caffeine with higher levels of potency (Espresso, Cold Brew, Yerba Mate, etc.). As a cautionary measure, do not consume these until after 1 pm as drinking them in the morning could cause you to crash in the early afternoon. For good measure, add in a 10-minute nap during lunchtime (between noon and 1 pm). This will do wonders for your alertness all the way through to the evening and even better could completely erase any need to consume caffeine.
Things to Keep in Mind: With most of the actionable items already out of the way, we will now run through a short list of things that will likely derail this plan from working: 1) Consumption of alcohol and/or drugs, 2) Any flight itineraries in the three days leading up to the “super” day, and 3) Significant source of emotional strife (i.e. death of family member, major injury). Also avoid overlooking the following: 1) excess carbs (avoid pasta, white rice, and bread), 2) processed sugar, 3) steaks/hot dogs/burgers/pastries/anything from a food truck, and 4) uncomfortably hot temperatures/humidity (you are in trouble if you live in a city like Dubai or Hong Kong). On the contrary, cold weather is perfectly fine, and if you happen to live in a region with sub-zero Celsius winters we highly recommend taking frozen ice dips whenever possible.
Deriving the Most Value Out of Your Day: On the “Super Day” (Day 0), you want to utilize all of your energy for completing work in order of highest returns and for the consumption & retention of important knowledge. This refers to 1) earning $$$ or increasing future earning potential and 2) learning/reading. Start off with item 1 and keep going until you feel drained before switching to the second item. Alternate between the two but aim to keep the ratio to at least 7/3 in favor of earning $$$. If you are trying to achieve a major breakthrough on the physical front, you can also choose to go down a different path by dedicating the majority of your energy towards breaking a physical plateau in fitness. Naturally, you will prioritize whatever is the most important to you.
Replicating the Experience: If you are still reading this, one of the questions on your mind now is probably how many times you can replicate this experience. From our experience, doing this once a quarter is very realistic, and on the higher end of frequency even once a month is doable. Generally speaking, this is substantially easier to replicate the younger you are as energy levels fall with age, an inevitability that no amount of hormone replacement therapy can mitigate. Don’t get us wrong, it certainly works, but no kind of therapy in the world can offset the coming of Father Time (if this were possible then the top pro athletes wouldn’t need to retire by their mid-to-late thirties). At the same time, it may be far more challenging to follow the steps outlined in this post multiple times in a quarter if you are in the early stages of your career. When you are young, you typically don’t have as much control over your schedule and if you are in the financial sector you cannot avoid frequent plane travel at short notice.
Concluding Remarks: Unlike the majority of our posts, we want to conclude by saying that there is absolutely no need whatsoever to implement the steps we outlined in this post. Focus is like a muscle- the more you exercise it the more it will grow. By maintaining a long-term consistency in your habits, discipline and focus, you will go very far, particularly if you are in your early- to mid-twenties. When you are accustomed to doing things at a high-level, your standards grow higher and you break further and further ahead of your competition.
Of course, the more you improve in one specific area, the slower your improvement will be going forward as the returns will diminish bit by bit. This is the case in practically everything, whether it be from learning new languages to playing sports. When you are first starting out in a new language, every single new word you learn opens your comprehension ability up by many degrees, but once you have a vocabulary in the thousands the difference of acquiring a new technical term is marginal, but you still need to do so in order to attain fluency. Likewise, when you are first starting out in a sport, you can improve certain variables like your speed/reaction time by multiple seconds (depending on the sport and performance metric 50-100% improvements in time are not uncommon). However, once you become really good you might be putting in the same amount of effort for only a fraction of 1% improvement in performance. This is exactly how it works for professional athletes: they spend the entire offseason training just to shave a few split seconds off some performance metric, which is enough to significantly boost their on-court performance the following season and in turn the value of their next contract and endorsement deal. This is also why every now and then you read about some pro athlete getting suspended because he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Sure, there’s always the risk of getting caught, but the financial incentives for doing so are strong.
Which is exactly why we like this approach. The 1-3 “super” days per quarter are incredibly effective for breaking through previous limits and achieving new milestones, particularly if it is in an area where you are already operating at a very high level. This is a life hack that very few other people will be doing or replicating, and as we have mentioned before, if very few people are doing something and it’s not illegal, it’s probably a great thing to do!