In partnership with Monster Energy
A little while back, a Navy SEAL schooled your pals at InsideHook on the philosophy of “eating the elephant one bite at a time” — in short, the idea is that daunting tasks, when broken down into manageable pieces, can be accomplished much more easily.
For example: if you were to begin with the goal of “having a healthier, more productive day,” chances are you’d be largely ineffective in your quest. Too vague, too amorphous, too large to wrap your head around. Classic elephant.
However, if you break that day down into several smaller parts, each can be more easily optimized. You take one bite at a time, and, before you know it, the elephant is eaten.
To that end, we present The Fully Optimized Day, a handy blueprint to tuning up your life from sunup to sundown. From waking up refreshed to maximizing your work day to powering down and getting a good night’s sleep, we’ve got the tips, tricks and products to get you there. So read on and remember: one bite at a time.
Waking Up
The incessant beeping of your phone alarm will no doubt rouse you from your slumber, but science shows that light is actually a better wake-up cue for your body — it suppresses melatonin (your brain’s “sleepy” chemical) and allows you to ease into the morning feeling more refreshed. Natural sunlight, however, tends to be in depressingly short supply early in the a.m., especially during the winter months.
The Philips SmartSleep Wake-up Light makes a great solar stand-in (and is the best of its ilk that we’ve tried), kicking off with a soothing red-tinted sunrise simulation that gradually morphs into bright white light, coupled with calming wake-up sounds like birds chirping or waves crashing on the beach. Try it and tell us you don’t feel better right from the jump.
Eating Breakfast
While fasted training is all the rage these days, the majority of us are going to want to put something in the tank to help power through our morning workout (more on that in a minute). Try an overnight oats recipe, the king of satisfying/time-saving breakfasts, or whip up a smoothie with an assist from the Beast Blender. We’ve been using ours for a peanut butter-banana smoothie for years. On the peanut butter front, remember: choose one without added sugar or salt.
If all you’re looking for is a quick pick-me-up before hitting the gym, consider Monster Energy. According to several international sports nutrition organizations, knocking back an energy drink (such as Monster) prior to exercise may improve overall athletic performance, including focus, alertness and endurance. Good enough for international champions like Nyjah Huston, Chloe Kim and Rayssa Leal, good enough for us.
How to Become a Morning Workout Person, in 9 Easy Steps
It’s possible, even for all you night owls. We’ve got the perfect plan.Working Out
We recently spoke with a variety of fitness professionals who agree, believe it or not, that age (specifically an age over 40) is not nearly the kryptonite to attaining a “jacked” physique that you might think.
But we get it — waking up early to work out is a slog. Lucky for you, we’ve compiled a list of nine key tips to help get you into the morning sweat routine. As for how to work out? Join a run club, or look into squad training, to ensure max accountability. These groups are all the rage for a reason. If you’d rather not leave the house, your TV is a pretty powerful piece of workout equipment in its own right. Head to YouTube to find a workout that works. Or alternatively, take a chance on the new dawn of connected fitness machines. Palo Alto darling Amp uses AI to auto-generate quick, bespoke workouts.
Closet Constructor: This Hack Will Take Your Everyday Uniform to New Heights
Leather derbies are about to take your fall ‘fits to the next levelGetting Dressed
Of all the things that shouldn’t require too much time in the morning but invariably do, choosing what to wear reigns supreme. Our recommendation? Cultivate a uniform.
It’s not that we don’t care about style here. We have a whole newsletter devoted to it (check out The Stitch). We just believe it’s possible to assign yourself a daily uniform without sacrificing your sense of style. Rely on clean, comfortable, functional silhouettes that you can shop in multiple colors. B for basics. Lay them out the night before work. You won’t just save time, but cortisol, too.
To get started, check out our guides to the best T-shirts for men, the best chinos for men and the best lightweight jackets for men. Meanwhile, you can follow our in-house series “Closet Constructor” for precise (and more experimental) fits.
Commuting
Whether you’re spending it in the car or on mass transit, your commute is a great chance to knock out some content that’ll have an overall positive impact on your day/life in general. Download Audible and listen to the likes of The Anxious Generation, The Courage to Be Disliked, Novelist as a Vocation and Open.
If you’re looking for topical information, and not necessarily ruminations on the meaning of life, try podcasts like: WorkLife with Adam Grant, The Ezra Klein Show, On with Kara Swisher, and WSJ What’s News.
Working
Of course, the office itself is the true battleground in terms of productivity. Our best advice: lean into the concept of “deep work” — that’s to say, working for an uninterrupted span of at least two hours each day. (Four hours if you can.)
The term was coined a term coined back in 2016 by Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University. Project management platform Asana defines it as “a state of peak concentration that lets you learn hard things and create quality work quickly.”
Deep-work hours are, by their nature, distraction-free. You schedule them during a time when you know you don’t have meetings to attend to or emails to catch up on. (Two tasks that fall into the “shallow work” category!) What ideas might you come up with once you can acknowledge that “being available” actually isn’t the be-all, end-all of work? What sort of asset might you become to a business once you’re actually available to yourself?
Powering Through
Around 2 p.m., when you get that familiar urge to make a run for the Keurig, stop. Take a beat. Instead of your umpteenth cuppa joe of the day, consider switching it up with the previously mentioned Monster Energy — ounce for ounce, Monster contains half the caffeine of standard coffee-shop coffee, with the added benefit of vitamin B-12, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin B-6. Sustained energy through the rest of your day without the caffeine crash.
Additionally, they’ve got a deep bench with flavor and formula options for everyone. Cutting calories? Try the Zero Sugar line — Fantasy Ruby Red has a fresh citrus taste that’ll blow your mind. Really missing the taste of that coffee? The Java Monster line has you covered.
In terms of where to enjoy it, might we suggest taking an afternoon constitutional?
Eating Dinner
It would be a shame to cap such a healthy and productive day with take-out. Everyone and their grandmother now uses NYT Cooking (and yeah, it’s excellent), but we’ll also stump for MOB Kitchen, a London-based platform with fantastic recipes, a bevy of highlighted chefs and social media-style videos that clearly show how to prepare each dish. You’ve come this far: surely you have 30 minutes left to whip up some Chicken Yaki Udon.
Powering Down
An important but oft-overlooked part of most people’s routine — taking time to properly decompress and wind down in the evening. We like to put the phone and laptop away, watch an episode of a TV show (or throw the game on for a bit), then make sure the house is clean and orderly: dishwasher humming, tomorrow’s outfit folded and ready to go, etc. A candlelit shower certainly doesn’t hurt — and neither does 10 minutes of reading in bed. If your eyelids start to feel heavy, you’ve officially won.
And now, at long last, the day is done. Your watch is ended. Time for some much needed rest. After all, you’ve got to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.
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