I curate articles from around the web that present an interesting perspective or helpful information at the intersection of behavior design, technology, and wellbeing. Each of these articles were featured in my July 2022 newsletter. I send out an update twice a month along with some notes on my latest work. Sign up for my newsletter here.
Hi friends,
It's "utter addictive, chaos doing a startup"
I recently attended a meetup at the beautiful Oracle offices here in Austin. It was hosted by Y Combinator's Startup School, or the "Graduate school for startups" as it calls itself.
The quote was from the speaker Amir Elaguizy, cofounder of Cratejoy, a Y Combinator alumni. I then asked him how he manages in this chaos. His response is helpful for us all.
"Build a routine of predictability in every other part of your life."
Not everything can be controlled, but we can add predictability in many areas that can help manage through the chaos that life can throw at us.
My go to is to build routines for consistent sleep. It's highly leveraged, giving you the fortitude, impulse control, and stamina to take on the chaos.
Sleep isn't everything, but it does impact everything.
On my media list ...
The Quest by Circadian Medicine to Make the Most of Our Body Clocks
Personalized circadian medicine may be the future. Researchers are trying to figure out the right hour of the day to do everything.
Aligning our behavior with our clocks or our clocks with behavior leverages our circadian rhythms to optimize performance and "improve the efficacy and reduce the side effects of treatments for diseases, especially cancer. This NY Times Magazine piece highlights the benefits and advances in circadian medicine including the shocking way hospitals are one of the worst places for your circadian health.
What Happens After 14 Days of Cold Showers
I've been binging on Dr Eric Berg's YouTube channel. It's full of great, short form lessons on how to make small adjust to improve your health and longevity. One of these is about taking cold showers and its many benefits including:
Enhances immune system function
Improvement of mood, focus, alertness, and energy
Benefits for weight loss
Reduces inflammation
Lowers stress
It's not a full cold shower. Take your regular warm, relaxing shower and then turn it on full cold for the last part. Start with 15 seconds and increase it as you're comfortable. When I reframe that I'll have more energy and a better mood before I step into it, it helps a lot. I do feel great after, especially on low energy mornings.