YouTube Transcript:
I Tried Andrew Huberman's Morning Routine

thank you to hellofresh for sponsoring
this video this is Andrew huberman the
internet's favorite neuroscientist
Andrew huberman Andrew huberman Andrew
huberman through his research at
Stanford University in his excellent
podcast he has become the go-to expert
on the best habits and routines for
living a successful and fulfilling
life and this is me while I don't think
I have the worst habits in the world
lately I've been in a slump less energy
throughout the day slacking off in
healthy habits and an inability to focus
on my work leading to a constant feeling
like I'm going through the motions at
half speed so for the next 30 days I
want to try Andrew huberman's
science-backed morning routine to see if
it can pull me out of the rut that I'm
in but what is Andrew huberman's morning
routine for me I tend to wake up
sometime around 6:00 a.m. 6:30 and I
write down the time in which I woke up
the second thing I do after I wake up is
I make a beine for sunlight so getting
outside for a 10minute walk or a
15minute walk is absolutely vital to
mental and physical health we get back I
start craving caffeine but I purposely
delay my caffeine intake to 90 minutes
to 120 minutes after I wake up so for me
I just drink water I also put a little
bit of sea salt in the
water and I also drink my athletic
greens which is compatible with fasting
so I don't eat anything until about
11:00 a.m. or 12: noon next I would do a
90minut bout of work and that's
typically phone off and out of the room
you'd be amazed how much you can get
done in 90 minutes if you are
focused after I finish that cognitive
work bout I do some form of physical
exercise for about an hour very last but
certainly not least deliberate cold
exposure and that's what I do each
morning and I'm certain that these tools
work on day one I wake up craving coffee
however instead I get ready and I head
out from my morning walk and while it's
definitely no morning coffee it actually
is really really nice and I feel pretty
good
afterwards what doesn't feel so good
though is drinking salt
water but I don't want to rely on how
I'm feeling to evalu my progress on this
goal as feelings can change pretty
quickly I don't want to do this I don't
want to do this here we
go to track my progress with this
challenge I'm going to be conducting
three tests the first is I just took a
blood test for day one that's going to
measure things like my testosterone
levels and judging by how scared I was
to prick my finger oh I can't do it I
can't do it I'm worried they might be a
little low ow test number two is by
tracking my energy and my my mood levels
at the end of each day I've already been
doing this for the past month so at the
end of this I'm going to compare my
numbers and see if I've made any
improvements finally I'll be testing my
work productivity to help me evaluate
that I've asked for help from the one
person who knows my work habits better
than anyone else my name is Brendan I am
Cam's brother and his boss you're not my
boss I'm evaluating how you do it your
job that makes me your
boss just talk about my work
habits sure you procrastinate get
distracted procrastinate more just a
Serial scroller bad communication bad
time management Miss
deadlines yeah I think that sums it up
and sadly he's not wrong I am terrible
at focusing and in my first week in this
challenge that seemingly has not changed
even with a science back checklist to
help my brain is still struggling to get
into the zone
and work effectively and even though
it's still early into this goal I really
need to figure this out for a bit more
context I work from home most days and
if you come through here just got to
come through the bathroom past the
toilet and
voila this is where I work staring at a
screen in a storage room closet that is
connected to my bathroom now I have done
the the best to make this space feel
cozy however it is still kind of a
shitty place to work no pun intended and
with that I've become really good at
getting out of this room and distracting
myself at any chance I can get even with
my phone out of the room I am getting up
constantly to top up on coffee or look
for snacks that I can't even eat because
I'm fasting and with each of these
interruptions I'm killing my momentum
when I try to dig into a task and I'm
falling further and further behind in my
work and this is definitely the area I
need to improve the most or at least
that's what I thought
testosterone that's your ideal range
2.49
2.4 I'm below
average
gosh I am speechless I am speechless
so one week in and I am failing in two
categories
great with the discouraging week one
complete I really want to hone in on
improving my work sessions for week two
so I decide to revisit some hubman lab
episodes to see if there's any tweaks I
can make to improve my focus couple of
things for optimizing workspace that are
grounded in neuroscience and physiology
so what I do is I prop the computer up
such that it's at least at at eye level
when our eyes are directed upward it
creates a state of heightened alertness
in addition I use low-level White Noise
turned on at a low volume not with
headphones most of the time puts the
brain into a state that's optimal for
Learning and workflow the one single
perk of working in a
bathroom white noise is easy to come by
I'm hoping that if I compare as much of
huberman's advice on focus with the rest
of my morning routine that it can put me
in the best possible position to lock in
on my work and really start to see some
progress this feels crazy to say this
early into a challenge but I feel like
I'm already noticing benefits from this
strictly from like an energy and mood
standpoint I used to wake up every
morning and just like Doom scroll
Twitter and now I like I genuinely look
forward to these walks but get some
natural light in my eyes get some fresh
air some steps I'm like halfway through
an audio book that I started this
week things are going well even with my
cold showers while they're definitely
not fun during I do feel energized
afterwards and it feels like it fuels
the rest of my day this next blood test
it's about to
be so much
better but as much as I've seen
Improvement in my energy and in my
health my work sessions still seem to
come up short if I'm being honest there
hasn't been as much improvement as I was
hoping it's hard to point to anything
and say you've accomplished more than
you normally
do determined to improve my performance
I opted to switch where I was going to
be working and hopefully get myself into
a better zone for focused
[Music]
work but after 3 days working out of my
house my work still hasn't improved and
it's starting to look more and more like
the problem isn't where I'm
working the problem is me yet another
day where I am not as productive as I
should just feels like the story of my
life at this point ever since I started
working for myself ever since it's just
me and my computer in my
house like it is like pulling teeth it
it it just feels like my brain cannot do
this and I don't know what that is but
it feels like I've been fighting against
the same thing number one problem in my
life is being able to work for myself be
disciplined be focused in my own work
and I like it's been 8 years of fighting
the same
thing like how does it make any sense it
starts to just feel like like it just
starts to feel like
this is who I am like this is
like maybe I'm just like not the person
that I thought I was maybe this is just
like it you know and that's that is
scary and I just feel like I'm leaving
so much potential on the table for
myself for my future and that like that
thought is like horrifying you know
goodness gracious
feeling defeated my only hope now is to
try and work backwards through the past
two weeks to hopefully try and figure
out what has been holding me back why is
it that everything feels like it's
working except for this one
thing ever since it's just me and my
computer in my house it is like pulling
teeth just a Serial scroller halfway
through an audio book that I started
this week and I just feel like I'm
leaving so much potential on the table
for myself for my future like that
thought is like
horrifying even though I've been working
with my phone off and out of the office
I am still constantly using it
throughout this routine on my walks
before I get ready to work and after my
90 minutes are up I immediately go to my
phone and if I'm constantly distracting
myself before I sit down it feels like I
just keep craving that distraction when
I'm working
[Music]
the next morning I decided to try
keeping my phone powered down until it
was time for my lunch break to see if it
would help me Focus the moment you sit
down to do some serious work and you
flip off the internet all of a sudden
it's as if the phone has a voice but we
all are familiar with the fact that if
we are focused on something that we all
that just kind of melts away so I'm
creating this space I'm funneling my
brain into a state where I set up a
relationship not just between me and the
work that I'm doing but between me and
my ability to control my own State of
Mind the more I avoided using my phone
the more focused I felt allowing me to
move throughout my mornings faster and
more
productively and on the days where I
really wanted to use my phone the
most I straight up stashed that sh in my
car because I need to
focus and I have to say that while it
can be a challenge to try and achieve
this state and this tunnel of work some
days you start to get kind of addicted
to it it feels really good it's like a
workout for the mind I don't remember
the last time I had an experience where
I I feel like I was in a flow state
twice today twice oh and it feels good I
cannot say it enough that felt so good
today
as strange as this may sound I feel like
the habit of jumping in the cold showers
and drinking those awful salt water
drinks has actually made me more
resilient when it comes to distraction
because just practicing that daily habit
of doing something hard that I know will
be satisfying once it's over it's
literally the exact same thing with
getting in focused work it's hard it's
challenging but I feel so much better
than I have in some time we got a 10
energy in a tenin mood that is the first
perfect day of this challenge today was
a good day a really really good day and
when I tally up my numbers from the last
30 days there's been Improvement in both
my energy levels and my mood with my
reported energy levels increasing almost
two whole points it's not just that
you've turned in everything on time this
week which I appreciate it's that it's
really good work which leaves just one
final test here we go
day one day 30 let's
go I'm
average vitamin D got better my
cholesterol got
better everything is better things have
been going so well I even started
putting my friends onto the routine I've
been doing the huberman morning routine
and how did you hear about it you told
me about it hey things have been going
so well that I am honestly going going
to continue doing this and I'm so
thankful that I gave this a try and to
celebrate on the final day I invited my
brother and my friend Matt out to go for
a cold plunge to finish this off by
doing something challenging that I know
will feel good afterwards and my hope is
that going forward after this challenge
that I can do that more often that I can
force myself to do difficult things that
I know will pay off in time
oh let's go