No matter what you’re pursuing, you want the best payoff for your investment, especially if that investment involves your time or energy. So whether it’s a promotion at work, your own business, a healthier and sexier body, or a more energized mind, the concept of “work smarter, not harder” is one of, if not the best, to come into play.
That’s the basis of Mindvalley’s Smarter Not Harder Quest with Dave Asprey, the world’s leading figure in the biohacking movement. He demystifies what it takes to be well, starting from the inside out, and guides you on a clear path to get there.
Biohacking isn’t just about empirically shattering the imperative to “work harder, not smarter” to achieve success. Rather, it’s about holistically healing the body and mind so you can live your best life for as long as possible.
What does it mean to “work smarter not harder”?
According to Dave, the “working smarter, not harder” meaning boils down to three factors:
- Focusing on high-impact tasks that…
- Lead to significant results…
- While avoiding time-wasting activities.
In essence, working smarter, not harder is about optimizing your work habits through technology and by biohacking your system so you can function at your highest capacity. Needless to say, it can’t be attained if you don’t take care of your physical body.
So it’s paramount to get these covered: getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and managing daily stress.
Why should you work smarter?
Working smarter can provide several science-based benefits over simply working harder. Here are a few of them:
- Increased productivity. According to a 2012 review of research on productivity and time management, you get more productive and efficient at everything you do when you optimize your time and resources. Timeboxing, for example, is one of the ways to manage your time. On top of that, it prevents you from multitasking, which, according to science, is detrimental to your brain.
- Reduced stress. When you are efficient and productive, it gives you control over your workload and confidence in your competence, according to the research mentioned above.
- Improved job satisfaction. By working smarter, you achieve your goals faster, which makes you more satisfied with your job and life.
- Better work-life balance. Multiple studies have shown that by working smarter, you can achieve true equilibrium by making time for other categories in life.
- Increased creativity and innovation. A 2014 research suggests that rethinking work practices can leverage employees’ innovation potential. By freeing up time and resources through smart work practices, you may have more time and mental energy to focus on creative and innovative solutions to problems or challenges.
- Career growth. When you are productive, efficient, and innovative, you become as good as gold. As a result, you get promoted or get new opportunities.
- Improved health and well-being. When you strategically intervene in your biology through biohacking, you improve your overall health and well-being.
This Quest has a lot of great info about the different vitamins and minerals we need for optimal health. Dave also does a deep dive into healthy habits we can create to optimize our energy levels.
— Kerry Fisher, student of Mindvalley’s Smarter Not Harder Quest
Dave Asprey’s 9 tips on how to “work smarter not harder”
Dave, known as “the father of biohacking,” has been sharing invaluable knowledge about the capabilities of your mind and body for years. Here are nine tips from Dave on how to think faster, be more productive, feel better, and work smarter—not harder.
1. The Bulletproof Diet
The Bulletproof Diet, created by Dave Asprey, is designed to support fat loss and muscle maintenance while targeting and lowering inflammation in the body.
Dave explains that in addition to having far fewer brain-impacting toxins than a typical diet (even a paleo one), the Bulletproof Diet is the richest in the fats that help brain function.
If you want to be smarter or rewire your brain to be more efficient, you do need more energy. That’s why you should eat more healthy fat because it is the most energy dense.
— Dave Asprey, trainer of Mindvalley’s Smarter Not Harder Quest
It also balances hormones, stabilizes blood sugar, banishes brain fog, and boosts your energy.
The best part about this diet? It’s not really a diet at all. It’s simply a modification of what you eat and adding healthier, more nutrient-dense, life-giving foods into your life.
The Bulletproof Diet works on a spectrum:
- Green Zone foods. These are Bulletproof foods. Eat them up whenever possible.
Yellow Zone foods. Be cautious. You might be able to eat these foods, but they’re also known to cause inflammation, so check in with how they make you feel.
Red Zone foods. Avoid these foods whenever possible. They’re almost always liable to wreak havoc on the body.
Pretty simple, right? Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof Diet is easy to understand and even easier to try.
2. Danger Coffee
Have you heard of Dave’s game-changing Danger Coffee? Unlike regular coffee, it’s packed with minerals and electrolytes.
Dave explains that mineral and nutrient deficiencies are a big deal. They make you feel sick, tired, and stressed, and they can give you brain fog.
So Danger Coffee puts minerals back into your cells where they belong, and it gives you access to the minerals you already have. Most importantly, it’s free of mold toxins.
3. Intermittent fasting
One way to supercharge your body’s natural cleansing and fat-blasting abilities is through intermittent fasting.
Dave explains that it has become a popular trend due to its ability to rapidly impact the body and mind in as little as twenty-four hours.
One of the most popular methods of intermittent fasting is the 16/8 method: you fast for sixteen hours a day and eat for eight. Usually, you begin your fast around the time you go to sleep, say, at 9 p.m. The next day, you would refrain from eating until 1 p.m.
Learn more: Intermittent Fasting: A Basic Guide for the Perfect Fast
4. 40 Years of Zen: A meditation experience like no other
Dave’s program, 40 Years of Zen, is designed as a unique, exclusive experience for those looking to hack the biofeedback of their bodies and truly revolutionize their experience. It’s a form of biofeedback meditation training offered in a small, specialized facility in Seattle, Washington.
The experience is tailored to each applicant. And for five days, trainees explore neurofeedback through specialized equipment that teaches them how to listen to their body and mind’s responses to their emotional and mental state.
The program is called “40 Years of Zen” because, as Dave explains, it takes zen masters some 20–40 years to cultivate the same level of awareness that the program offers.
It’s an intense process and requires a deep level of emotional dedication. But the training has yielded staggering results for those willing participants who have undergone it.
5. Head Strong: Dave Asprey’s biohacking manual for the brain
In his bestseller, Head Strong, he details the biohacks you can use to take advantage of your brain’s biochemistry for a faster, sharper, more creative mind.
It’s a two-week program designed to totally supercharge the performance of your brain. You’ll learn…
- What the brain needs to fuel itself for optimal output,
- How to eliminate environmental elements that are slowing you down,
- How to reduce inflammation in the body and mind to stay energized, and
- Ways to promote the growth of new neurons for increased mental acuity and new learning potential.
6. The Human Upgrade
For the lowdown on everything Bulletproof Diet-related, you can tune into Dave Asprey’s podcast, The Human Upgrade, available on Spotify.
You can find guidance from bright thinkers, experts, and radical doers who push the boundaries of science, technology, personal development, and human performance in every way imaginable.
7. Cold therapy
Regular cold exposure can help improve physical and mental health. Here are just a few benefits of targeted cooling therapy:
- Increases your endurance and strength by up to 600%,
- Improves metabolic rate,
- Boosts immune system,
- Accelerates recovery, and
- Reduces inflammation.
“What makes it so powerful is that it makes you more receptive to dopamine,” Dave explains. “Three or five minutes of being cold equals ‘I’m happy all the time,’ ‘I have more energy,’ ‘I have more things done.’”
8. Heat therapy
Heat exposure kills weak mitochondria and forms heat shock proteins. According to science, these special proteins protect you from chronic diseases and promote longevity.
What does it mean? When you do saunas three times a week for about 20 minutes at a time, you get whole-body repair of proteins.
The best choice is a full-spectrum infrared sauna, as the heat goes deeper and causes more toxins to be expelled from the body.
9. Nutraceuticals
Natural or plant-based, nutraceuticals are nutrients that have a specific medicinal or pharmacological effect. In this case, they effectively enhance brain functions.
Here are Dave’s top three nutraceuticals for beginners:
- Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALC). It acts as a powerful antioxidant and cognitive enhancer, supercharging your mitochondria. So it is beneficial for your entire system, not just your body.
- Krill Oil (EPA/DHA). These two potent omega-3 fatty acids preserve your brain and enhance memory and decision-making.
- Medium Chain Triglyceride Oil. MCT oil turns on your body’s fat-burning mode and helps your brain run more efficiently. On top of that, Dr. Mary Newport, one of the world’s strongest advocates for preventing and reversing neurological diseases of the brain, has used it to reverse an early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
The best part is that they’re more natural than other drugs and can be purchased without a prescription.
Cultivating the mindset for biohacking
Biohacking is a proven way to live your life to the fullest, beyond your internal built-in conditions and external environment. Because regardless of your personal story and history, you can rewire your system and reach your fullest capacity.
If you want to find out how upgraded you can be, join the 14-day Smarter Not Harder challenge with Dave Asprey. Need a little nudge? Here’s what Sabrina Neumann, one participant, had to say about it: “My energy levels increased measurably. All the changes were small and went easily. The success came quickly.“
And as Dave puts it, “There is no reason to stop improving,” so there’s no limit to what’s possible for you.
