Ludvig S 92 Tips

Copyright© 2018
Ludvig Sunström
Best of StartGainingMomentum
Health Disclaimer:
The following information on nutrition, health, and fitness is merely

information – not medical advice. Consult a doctor or other appropriate
medical professional before changing your lifestyle.
About the Author:
Ludvig Sunström is the host of Future Skills and 25 Minuter together with
renowned investor Mikael Syding. He is also the author of Breaking out of
Homeostasis. Finance billionaire Martin Sandquist said: “it’s one of the most
important books I’ve read in a long time, it’s rare to come upon a book that
changes how you think, I would recommend it to anyone.”
From: Ludvig Sunström, Sunday, 2018, 6/11, 19:29 PM
Location: Sweden, Stockholm.
Mood: Tired from doing squats and working all day.
Subject: How to use 92 practical tips to succeed faster in various areas of your life
Hi friend,
In this guide you will learn 92 practical tips that you can use to improve different
areas of your life. It has taken me around 7 years of dedicated studies and
experimentation to learn these things. Now I am giving them to you for free,
described as concisely as possible to save you time.
1. How to Boost Your Energy Levels

2. How to Improve Your Mental Focus
3. How to Become More Productive
4. How to Think Better
5. How to Use the Internet Efficiently
6. How to Learn Things Faster and Better
7. How to Get Good Sleep
8. How to Eat Healthy and Increase Vitality
9. How to Build Muscle and Shred Fat
10. How to Become More Motivated
11. Big Picture Concepts
12. How to Brainwash Yourself (For Success)
You don‘t need to read this from cover to cover.
Feel free to skip ahead to one of the 12 areas listed above.
All the tips are easy to implement. Put them to use and you'll quickly gain an
advantage relative to most people, who don‘t use them.
To keep it short and simple, I‘ve only provided a brief explanation for why these
things work. Otherwise I would‘ve ended up writing a big book.
To read more about any specific tip, look for my linked articles. They are all
found in blue text.
Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 3

How to Boost Your Energy Levels
Your productivity – and enjoyment – is closely tied to your ability of

focusing exclusively on one thing. Single-tasking.
And, how long you can single-task has to do with your energy levels. The
following tips will help you raise productivity by increasing your energy
levels throughout the day.
The reason why all the things below have a big effect on your energy
levels is because your posture and physiology directly influence your
mental focus. For example, if you lie down for a while you'll tend to lose
focus and get sleepy. This has to do with the on-going feedback between
your brain and body, which is called bidirectional communication.
1. Work by your computer standing up

This is particularly easy to fix if you have a desk that allows you to adjust
its height. If you don't have such a desk, you can place your computer on
a pile of books or stack a bunch of other items on top of each other.
Alternatively, you can go on many short walks throughout the day.
2. Sit with an upright posture

The second best thing to standing up is to sit with an upright posture.
Make sure your spine is straight and that your breathing isn‘t shallow. If
you have a chair without good back support you can place a pillow against
your back to help you sit up straight. This will allow you to keep your
concentration longer. Or sit like L, if you are a nerd.
Also, have a good screen resolution. Some people don‘t. This forces them
to squint their eyes or look at the screen from awkward positions.
3. Move around or tense your muscles frequently

Many people think those who move around or fidget are stupid, and sitting
still is the ―superior‖ thing to do. My guess is people think this is because
they unconsciously associate it with the hyperactive and annoying kids in
school who always had to be at the centre of attention.
This is false. A certain degree of movement is necessary to remain

focused. Movement keeps your mind from getting dull and repetitive.
That's why people like Steve Jobs, Napoleon Bonaparte, Hannibal Barca,
and many more smart guys were in continual movement. They did not sit
still for long.

So, don't maintain the same posture for too long. But how long is too
long? It's highly individual. You'll have to find out. This brings us to the
next tip…
4. Observe your mental state

This is one of those things that sound incredibly easy and obvious on
paper, but it feels inconvenient, so few people do it. The reason they shy
away from it is because the brain‘s main objective is to save energy, and
that means it will want to keep doing what it‘s already doing. This includes
sitting in a certain posture or focusing on a certain activity.
By monitoring your mental state and your level of concentration you'll

soon become attuned to knowing when it's time to switch things up. When
you notice your concentration dropping, there are two possible decisions:
1. You change your posture, stand up, move around or flex your body.
2. You take a break for 5-15 minutes and return to work.

How to Improve Your Mental Focus
There is a high likelihood you are – or will be – a knowledge worker:

someone who solves complex problems by finding relevant information or
learning new skills.
Your ability to do quality work is therefore closely related to how quickly

you can learn new things, process information, or create connections
between seemingly unrelated pieces of information…
…And this has to do with your ability to concentrate and learn new things,
which in turn have a lot to do with making things interesting. Because it‘s
almost impossible to learn things if they‘re boring.
The feeling of being interested is closely associated with being well-rested

and increasing your mental focus.
Here are a few ways to increase your focus and feel more interested.
5. Skip breakfast
You learn better on an empty stomach because fasting increases your
ghrelin levels – ghrelin is a hunger-related hormone – which in turn will
increase your dopamine levels. When we were cavemen, and we got
hungry, we needed to focus so that we could find food.
This means that if you consistently skip breakfast you will become more
concentrated, interested, and learn things better than if you were to eat
breakfast. Not immediately, because your body needs to adapt to it first.
But in 1-4 weeks. Trust me on this.
Important conclusion: You should do the majority of your creative work or

knowledge work before lunch – if you eat lunch, that is.
6. Take 5-30 min power naps

This can increase your total output in terms of mental focus and energy
levels throughout the day. Beware of power napping for longer than 30
minutes, because that will often make you even more tired than when you
began the power nap. I have gone too long many times to my detriment.
7. Meditate
Meditation is a good way to consistently practice your concentration
because it is the ultimate single-tasking activity, where you're focusing all
your attention on one thing for an extended period of time. Meditation is
good from a productivity standpoint for two reasons:

1. It teaches you to become increasingly comfortable with single-
tasking. (Which is uncomfortable to most people).
2. When practiced consistently, it allows you to concentrate for longer

periods of time.
8. How to use music to increase your concentration

Good music raises your dopamine levels. This makes you feel alert. It also
helps you work longer and harder – even in the gym.
When you are at the "brink of defeat" and don't feel like working anymore,
or want to quit and avoid doing that last set in the gym, use your special
reservoir of music. This is very helpful.
These are your favorite songs. The songs that make you feel the best
depending on the context. Perhaps it is classical music or trance music
while working and heavy metal or rap music when you are working out.
The key is to not listen to these songs excessively within a short time
span. Because if you do, you become ―resistant‖ to them, and they give
you less dopamine. Almost exactly like developing tolerance to a drug.
Do not listen to the same songs too much, it will drain your brain.
The economic way to get the most dopamine out of these songs is to cycle
between them.
This will make the dopamine-rising effect per song last longer than if you
were to listen to your newest favorite song 10 times in a row and deplete
its potency (and this is our first instinct). Songs are often made for this
purpose; and, if they are really good, we just cannot resist them!!!

How to Become More Productive
As mentioned, your productivity has a lot to do with how well you manage
your energy levels and mental focus. Those two things are analogous to a
battery, determining how long you can be productive.
The second thing required to be productive, is to use different methods for
completing tasks and knowing how to choose. It has to do with using
different work strategies, knowing when you should do certain tasks, and
being able to force yourself to do the work.
Here are some effective ways I‘ve discovered.
9. Find your biological prime time
The first thing you must do to become productive is to find your biological
prime time. This is the time of the day when you are most productive;
when your energy levels and your mental focus are at their peak. For most
people this time is in the morning. It‘s roughly 3 hours long.
This is the time period where you should do the #1 task of the day.
This is one of the most important advice in this entire eBook.
10. Don’t do more than 1-3 ―big‖ things per day

Because if you do, you probably won‘t be able to reach a state of
cumulative concentration.
You see, concentration and creativity are often built up over time. This
means that you‘ll be more productive by spending your time focusing on a
few (important) things per day, as opposed to attempting many things
every day. If you try to do many things it‘s less likely you get into a state
of high concentration where you can do innovative work.
So, be sure to always choose 1-3 important things that you will spend your
time on each day to reach a state of cumulative concentration.
11. Do one thing at a time – don't multitask. Single-task!

For obvious reasons multitasking sucks. Not only does it make you less
efficient, but by engaging in multitasking over the long-term you will also
lower your ability to concentrate.
This is so because when you multitask you are slowly raising your brain‘s
threshold for stimulation. Over time, this will make you feel less satisfied
with your life, unless you‘re doing ten different things at a time.
Point being: Cut out multitasking from your life. There are zero benefits to
doing it. Only negatives.

12. Use either of the two most important types of to-do lists.
You probably already use a to-do list. But do you also categorize the items
on the to-do list?
You should do this. Otherwise you will end up with 1000 items without
order of priority and it will only confuse you. (This is my big concern with
doctrines such as ―GTD‖.)
There are two particularly useful types of to-do lists:
1. Four quadrant to-do list: You arrange all tasks in accordance to their
individual rate of urgency and importance. See the image:
Here's an example of typical tasks that correspond to each quadrant:
Business project: #1
Schedule doctor appointment: #2
Watching TV: #3
Cleaning and doing laundry: #4
2. Prime time based to-do list: Arrange tasks in two different categories:
a) Those that require you to be creative and focused, where you

need long uninterrupted chunks of time.
b) Those that don't need to be performed at your best.
Here's an example of the two different categories:
a) Writing a text, creating a speech, or solving a unique problem.
b) Answering email, meeting a friend, cooking food.

I prefer using the prime time based to-do list because I think it's easier.
The four quadrant list is perhaps more useful if you're running a big
business or if you are in a managerial position.
13. Create a ―not to-do‖ list

Often, it‘s easier to tell yourself what NOT to do, than what to do. Because
there‘s so much you know you should be doing, and you don‘t have the
time to do all of it. But, you CAN (quite easily) avoid doing the things you
know you‘re NOT supposed to be doing.
Here are a couple of examples:
- I will not watch any TV this week.

- I will not drink soda or eat sugar this week.
- I will not have three beers after work.
- I will not get in arguments with people over petty things.
- I will not read mainstream newspapers or magazines.
- I will not eat breakfast or engage in mindless snacking.
14. Categorize your problems by these three types

There‘s a high risk you‘re worrying or dealing with problems you should
not need to deal with. And it‘s a waste of your time.
A good way to figure out if this is true is by dividing the problems you face
into the following three categories:
1. General problems: These happen over and over. They are the most
important ones to solve, because if you create a standardized
solution for it, you will not need to encounter that problem again.
Spend 80 % of your time solving general problems by creating
systems, checklists, reminders or habits that counteract the problem.
2. Normal problems: These happen occasionally – just often enough to

be somewhat predictable. The best way of dealing with normal
problems is to "just go with it" and quickly make a decision on the
spot. Spend 15 % of your time dealing with normal problems.
3. Unique problems: These happen rarely, and are unpredictable. Since

you cannot predict them in advance, your best bet is to prepare
yourself to face them head-on by absorbing them, like financial
hedging. Spend 5 % of your time preparing for unique problems.
Most people waste far too much time on normal problems and unique
problems, and not nearly enough time on the general problems.

15. Collect unimportant tasks and do them all in one go
Put all unimportant tasks on a list. When the list gets large enough you
devote an entire day to doing all of those things. Here‘s an example of
items that would belong on such a list:
1. Cooking lots of food for the rest of the week

2. Cleaning and vacuuming
3. Transcribing various notes you‘ve compiled
4. Downloading Buying lots of good songs and books
5. Ordering supplements and miscellaneous items
6. Buying groceries
7. Scheduling a dentist‘s appointment
By doing this you filter out distractions. It‘s a form of single-tasking.
16. Respect the ―law of diminishing intent‖

The so-called law of diminishing intent states that ―the longer you wait the
lower the probability that you will act on your idea‖.
This is a great rule of thumb when it comes to new ideas, thoughts, or

goals. But it‘s slightly less accurate when it comes to not-so-new ideas,
thoughts, or goals.
Now, pay attention: This is important.
The law of diminishing intent is a sort of simplified all-in-one package

explanation for a bunch of different important principles about human
nature. A major one being how your short-term memory works. Another
one being how your brain rationalizes its behaviour. I‘ll tell you more about
both of these later.
Anyway, the law of diminishing intent works in three ways:
1. The longer you wait to do a thing the less you‘ll feel like doing it.
2. The longer you wait to do a thing the less likely you are to
remember it.
3. The longer you wait to do a thing the worse your result or

productivity will be because you‘ll be less inspired or creative. The
thoughts that led up to the new idea may be gone.
And here are three different tips for how you can ―respect‖ the law of
diminishing intent:
1. If you can do a thing in a few minutes or less, you should do it

right away, and if you can‘t you should instead…

2. …Write down your idea or thought immediately and place it in a
corresponding to-do list.
3. If you feel compelled to do a thing that you know is bad for you –
such as engaging in instant gratification – you should use the law
of diminishing intent to make that desire weaker. Simply wait it
out. Tell yourself you will make that decision one hour from now.
Chances are that you won‘t even remember it then.
17. Don't put more things on your plate than you can handle
Finish what you are doing before you move on to something new.
Remember this: concentration is usually the scarce resource. Not

information or finding things to do. It goes back to Biological Prime Time.
You may be great at finding useful information. But are you putting it to
use? Are you consistently following up on your information by
implementing it? Or are you getting stuck in Information Overload?
18. Avoid information overload at all costs

Information overload is one of the most serious problems that isn‘t
publically spoken about. The reason it‘s not a public issue is because
almost everyone suffers from it. Since most people are so immersed in it,
they don‘t consider it a problem. But it is a problem.
Most people are in the habit of getting far more information than they
need, and useless information at that. They do this out of two reasons:
1. Convenience: It feels a lot safer to know what you need to know

before you start doing something, right? But in terms of productivity
and results an ounce of action is often worth more than a pound of
information, unless you're a hedge fund manager or company board
member. To become more productive you need to pace your
information intake and dare to learn as you go along towards your
goals. Especially when you are young.
2. To save energy: Being fed interesting information from second-hand

sources is safe, convenient, and comfortable. It is nice to the ego
because there‘s no risk of failure. But that's not all. It also requires a
less energy than implementing the information in your own life. The
human brain has evolved to minimize all energy expenditure, unless
it's absolutely necessary. This is part of our biology. It‘s called
homeostasis. This means that people are more strongly inclined to
gathering information, than they are about putting it to use.
19. Replace all unproductive activities with reading

Stop watching TV, movies, mainstream media, sitting on silly forums,
playing video games… And start reading books instead.

A few years ago when I traded TV, video games, and movies for reading
books, I noticed that I was reading one book every two weeks.
Imagine that, huh?
That was when I first realized that it‘s fun to learn things and become
smart. I always hated being an uninformed idiot, I just didn‘t know it at
the time. I was too stupid.
When I started reading voraciously, it awakened my brain from a semi-

dormant zombie state caused by years of TV-watching and dumbed-down
instant gratification. Where most people are.
Then after a few months, when I had become very comfortable with
reading books, and could read faster and for longer periods of time, I was
able to read one book per week. You could do the same thing.
20. Skip breakfast

Because you‘re wasting around an hour‘s worth of time that could be
spent solving a problem or learning some new skill. Your ability to learn
new things and your interest both go up when your stomach is empty.

How to Think Better
The notion of productivity is interesting. What does it mean to be
productive? I think you need a clear objective to be truly productive. Or
work processes that are easy to follow consistently.
Whenever you come across the topic of productivity, notice how it‘s
always split in two parts: doing more or doing less. On one hand, you
have the motivational guys screaming in your ear ―Work Harder, you
CHUMP!‖ and then you have the analytical person telling you to get clear
metrics on what you do and focus on what gives you most results.
My take on this is more nuanced than that. I think it fluctuates.

Sometimes you need to just work harder and do more stuff. Other times,
you need to cut back on the crap and prioritize better. I think you have to
reassess this notion a couple of times per year, to course-correct, and
avoid going too far in either direction.
Like I said, I think you need a clear objective in order to be most

productive. Unfortunately, it‘s hard to give advice on that (at least beyond
the scope of this book).
That said, here are some things I have found useful for thinking better.
21. Throw Out Your TV

Stop reading newspapers, stop listening to radio, and above all STOP
WATCHING TV. Podcasts and blogs are OK though, because they have
better targeted information, and allow you to choose.
Simply put: The (mainstream) media is a waste of time.
It can‘t get any easier than that.
22. Potentially Double Your Creativity:

Measure your mood for 2 weeks or longer. Do this by buying a physical
almanac and writing ―UP‖ for every day you have significantly more
energy or creativity than usual. And write ―DOWN‖ for days that you have
significantly less energy or creativity than usual.
I did this for 6 months, but I think you'll get most of the benefit in just 2-3
weeks. Now I know intuitively when I am "having a good day" within the
first hour of the morning. A good day is defined by (1) more energy (like
12-16 hours of work) or (2) more creativity (can come up with work tasks
for several days ahead). The result of this is that I can concentrate my
work better and shift between different types of work more seamlessly.
Read more about getting started here:

How I Doubled My Creativity for Less Than $30
DISCLAIMER: I did not become twice as ―naturally creative‖. What I did

do, was learn how to use my existing creativity more efficiently, by
predicting more accurately when it arrives, and capitalizing on it better.
23. Make Better Decisions
Going back to what I said about being productive. It requires a clear
objective. When you don‘t have a clearly defined objective, you should fall
back on rules of thumb and decision-making principles.
Here are four essential ones:
 What am I willing to sacrifice to _______?
 Is this an acceptable price to pay (do the gains outweigh the costs?)
 What is my opportunity cost?
 Could I get most of the benefit with low effort? (80/20 principle)
Learn these and learn them well. You can use them almost for any
situation in life! Therefore, if you can‘t memorize them, etch them on your
forehead or get them tattooed (I‘m only half-kidding…)
You can read about more decision-making principles here.
You may also wish to complement with the following article for 11 potent
guidelines to base important life decisions on. (It‘s one of the top 5 most
popular articles I have written.)
11 Maxims to Live By
24. Be Mindful of Your Inputs for Information

For instance, stop reading newspapers (unless it‘s industry-specific
knowledge). Read books, essays, summaries, and in-depths interviews
instead. And don‘t watch TV.
And if you still insist on watching TV and reading newspapers, then….

I quote myself from this article:
"It‘s not ‗just‘ entertainment. It‘s subconscious influencing and,

just like you should be mindful of what you put into your body,
you should also be mindful of what you put into your head….
Contrary to popular belief, thoughts don‘t just come out of
nowhere. The thoughts you have are a RESULT of the life you
lead, the stimuli you‘re exposed to and the information you
consume. If you tune into mainstream media and spend
your time gossiping with average people, guess what? You
will become average and have average ideas."

On a related topic: It can be a good idea to take breaks (where you stop
feeding your mind with new information) as a way to facilitate having new
ideas or better synthesize existing information.
Finance Billionaire Martin Sandquist said to me: ―We talked about this
before, it‘s like an analogy with training. When you do workouts you‘re
breaking down the muscles. That‘s when you‘re doing the damage. The
whole positive thing comes when you‘re relaxing, you‘re just lying there,
that‘s where the muscles start to build. That‘s where you‘re doing the
building process. Same with intellectual work. You could do a lot of
research and look for stuff—but it‘s really when you relax that the ideas
come to you because that‘s when you are open to them. ―
25. Play the Loser’s Game

There‘s a military saying that the general who makes the fewest mistakes
wins the battle.
This refers to another decision-making rule. It states that when you don‘t
know exactly what you want (which, as we established, can be tricky)
then you should simply try to avoid making obvious stupid mistakes.
In practice, this might mean:
o On a date: Instead of trying to impress the other person with

your astounding achievements and cool credentials, just be
quiet and avoid embarrassing yourself.
o Sales: Instead of trying to be a high-powered dominant pushy

salesperson, just be curious about the customer and ask them
questions to understand them better, and then try to help.
o Investing: Instead of trying to find the perfect company, the

―unicorn‖ or ―Tenbagger‖; just pick a decent one in a future
industry, or buy more of your current best holding.
Basically, keep away from big mistakes, and you‘ll win eventually.
This is also a great rule of thumb when you are dealing with complex
situations (where, even if you know exactly what you want to achieve, you
don‘t know how to achieve it).
So: Instead of trying to "hit the spot" with your genius, just try not to fail.
It‘s surprising how difficult this can be to do for people with a big ego.
26. Think Like an Investor

Investors sit on top of the economic food chain. There‘s a reason for that:
They are expert thinkers and know how to be extremely productive. What
is their productivity secret? They know how to use the time, energy, and

labor of other people in clever ways. They know how to tap into global
trends, arcane economic ideas, and the forces of human nature.
To be a great investor, you must understand reality better than others.

For this reason, investors are often fascinating people to study.
The first step to thinking like an investor is to create a system. You start
with the big picture and narrow it down. This helps to move forward.
Create a System
When you have an objective, a system, or a strategy, you are not as easily
deterred by (temporary) failure as most people are. Because you know it‘ll
work out over a longer time frame, if you just stick to it consistently. Like
Jeff Bezos with Amazon. Or like a trader who has a system that allows him
to make money on 55% of all trades he makes in a week. But if you
zoomed in on just one or two days, his results would fluctuate and could
be bad. But this is most people. They don‘t consider long time frames.
Here‘s a rough illustration of how you can conceptualize this:

Many people don‘t understand the relationship between ―Goals and
Processes‖. Well, just look at the picture above and you will know. These
two things are not mutually exclusive. You can have both.
27. Learn Higher Order Thinking.
Upgrade your thinking. Try thinking one, two, three steps ahead. Consider
how others might react. Consider root causes and figure out how to
prevent them, instead of always being at the mercy of events. Like
Napoleon always generously providing shoes for his army.
Stop thinking in a simplistic, one-dimensional way. Integrate complexity.
The future is not looking bright for people who are bad at thinking.

How to Use the Internet Efficiently
The Internet is a wonderful place because you can find all the information
you need, and then some. But it‘s only wonderful if you can use it with
discipline. Most people cannot do this – and it ruins their concentration
and productivity over the long-term. Here are some things so that you
don‘t end up like those poor people.
28. Don’t Check Your Email so Much
Try not to check your email more than once or twice per day, preferably in
the afternoon, or whenever you‘re not in your biological prime time.
Just don‘t do it. It‘s trap. One thing leads to the next thing, which leads to
something else, which leads you to waste your best time of the day.
29. Keep Fewer Browser Tabs Open

Don't do too many things at the same time, you won‘t get anything done.
When you press too many hyperlinks you‘re setting yourself up for a
pattern of hoarding and you‘ll just want more stimulating information.
Your brain will post-rationalize your decision to click that hyperlink, and try
to fool you into thinking that you‘re being productive. But you're not!
My own limit for tabs is generally around 3-7. After that I won‘t open any
more until I finish or close what I‘ve already got up there.
30. How to Read Online

Most people suck at using the Internet in a productive manner. This is
why the stupidest videos on YouTube generally have the most views.
This is not strange, because our biology is not adapted to having access to
this much information so easily and fast. It‘s an evolutionary mismatch.
Imagine if Aristotle had lived now. Do you think he would sit around
watching videos with thumbnails of hot girls all day? To use all of this
information in a constructive manner, a shift in habits is needed.
Five important implications are:
 We need more focused attention. (Avoid browsing when working)

 We need to search for information with an end in mind. (―Why am I
looking at this?‖)
 We need to finish what we started before clicking on something else.
 Don‘t open up 10 browser tabs. Try to keep it below 5.
 We need more repetition of useful concepts. More repetition!

Before we have acquired the proper habits, we need strict time constraints
on Internet use, website browsing, and Youtube watching.
Successful people read to solve problems or fulfill goals. They direct their
reading at a purpose. They don‘t fall for the temptation of reading a
compelling headline if it doesn‘t seem related to what they‘re specifically
trying to accomplish.
And here‘s a bonus piece of advice: You also want to have simple filters
for information. This can be as easy as having browser folders called
―Articles‖, ―Videos‖, ―Books‖, ―Products‖, ―Companies‖, ―Read Later‖ or
something along those lines.
Here are a few of mine:
The reason you want to have this is because it reduces the risk of going
on a binge; entering ―Hoarding Mode‖, which leads to information
overload. These folders will act as visual cues to provide a powerful
reminder not to binge. Read this article for more:
How Successful People Read Online

How to Learn Things Better & Faster
―Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.‖

― Frederick Douglass
What sets humans apart from all the other animals on the planet? Is it our
opposable thumbs? Is it the fact that we are the most socially advanced
animals, and that we are better than all other animals at cooperating?
No. But people say that too.
We are superior to all other animals when it comes to learning complex
information and we can adapt to just about any type of environment, with
the help of technology. Monkeys use sticks, we create computers.
The human brain is more advanced than the brains of all other animals.
Even apes, like chimpanzees, that have similar brains, have much smaller
prefrontal cortices. This is the part of the brain associated with learning
new skills, making decisions, and planning the future.
As humans, our competitive advantage is that we‘re the best at learning
things. The best human beings are learning machines.
Don‘t forget that.
It‘s the ultimate virtue of humans. From Bruce Lee to Da Vinci.
Since this is so important I have many tips on this subject.
31. The Art of Optimal Reading
Do you know how to read properly?
Here‘s the single most important thing to understand:
All information is not equally valuable. Therefore, make sure you practice
your ability to filter out useless information, and avoid wasting time on
junk. In fact, this is SO important, that everything else you know about
learning should be subordinated to this principle!
To become truly smart, you should allocate roughly 5% of your study time
to searching out valuable learning material, and the remaining 95% on
concentrated reading, repetition and practice; to really learn that great
material in-depth. All of my advice on learning is related to this.
32. How to Speed-Read a Book in 4 Simple Steps:
It’s helpful to know how to skim large texts (AKA: “Speed-Read”).
A lot of people believe Speed-Reading is some kind of superpower that
allows you to be like a text-scanning machine, inserting the information
into your head flawlessly, like putting papers into a printer. But that’s false.

It’s just a way to sell products to uninformed people who are self-
conscious about their intelligence and want a shortcut/quick fix solution.
Quantity must not be mistaken for quality.
The only value of Speed-Reading (skimming) is to Help You Find Great
Material that you can then study in-depth—going back to that 5/95%
allocation of your study time.
Here’s the 4-part process for skimming books:
1. Skim the description on the back of the book.
2. Check the Table of Contents.
3. Find 3 chapters that seem interesting and skim them.
4. Decide whether the book is worth reading or not.
Then keep a list of books to read.
33. Take notes with multi colored pencils
The more colors and more specific details you have when you take notes,
the easier it becomes for you to memorize the information and then later
skim through your notes. Assuming you take physical notes.
There are two benefits of taking notes with multi colored pencils:
1. You will learn faster because you are distinguishing between different
hierarchies of importance. You are also creating categories for
different sort of information by linking it to a different color. This
makes it easier for your brain to process and retain the information
2. It makes it easier for you to skim the text (if you do physical notes)
I suggest you get yourself two different multi colored pencils. Then you
can use different colors to differentiate between, for example:
Underlining text
Quotes
Headlines or subheads
Your own thoughts
Writing associations in the margin to make it easy to skim later
New words or expressions and their definitions
I recommend using at least 2-3 colors in terms of importance for

underlining text. I use around 5.

These pens are my favorite, and I believe they are the most popular type.
34. Build a Framework of Learning

Build a framework of learning ASAP in life. This is the best investment you
can make, because it‘ll be useful to you for the rest of your life. Nothing
compounds more than learning and knowledge.
There‘s no one right way to build a FOL, as everyone processes

information in slightly different ways, but there are guidelines. These
guidelines are dictated by principles from psychology and neuroscience.
I‘m not going to list them all out (that would take a long time), but rest
assured all of my advice on learning is based on principles from these
areas. I did not come up with this myself; I merely studied the science,
then figured out how to apply it in practice to my own life. Keep in mind I
started out as an average student, and now in just a couple of years, I
have read several hundred books and talked to many of the smartest
people in the world in their respective fields. Trust me: This stuff works.
Here‘s my own framework of learning:
1. Read books and articles (art of optimal reading).

2. Take notes while reading.
3. Write summaries.
4. Review notes and summaries.
5. Have a conversation and/or teach it to someone else.
6. Integrate information into my commonplace.
7. Build out associations (studying the history of a field is the best way).
35. Do NOT trust your short-term memory

Gone in 60 seconds? Try 30.

Whenever you have an interesting thought or a good idea, write it down. I
cannot stress how important this is!
Whether you do this with pen and paper, on your phone, or on a computer
doesn't matter. But it matters greatly that you do – because your short-
term memory is extremely limited.
You can only keep 5-9 things in your head at the same time, and if you
don't continually repeat these things, you will forget them within 30
seconds. And you don‘t want to go around all day repeating ideas to
yourself because then you‘re not leaving any room for new ideas.
So write it down. Always. To keep your important notes organized I would

recommend you to write summaries and keep a commonplace. Then you
can find those ideas later, in a categorized fashion, like a boss.
36. Write Summaries

When you summarize new information it sticks better in your brain.
This is an easy thing to do and everyone can do it, but practically no one
does it. It can be as easy as just writing down one big takeaway.
37. Create a Book Summary Book

Buy yourself an empty book and start summarizing the most important
and actionable information you get from books or longer articles. Use the
first 1-3 pages to create a register where you write:
The title
The author name
The date you finished reading it
Additional info
You will then take the most important and actionable information from
your note and put it in this book. Try to be very selective. This is a good
practice for sharpening your observative powers and learning how to
distinguish between useful and useless information.

(My first 3 Book Summary Books.)
Go get yourself a big blank notebook. Then fill it up with summaries of the
books you read. AKA: a Book Summary Book.
I have more than 200 summaries in physical format and at least another
50 or so in my commonplace system (accessible via computer/phone).
This next advice is commonplace-specific:
38. Keep a Review File

The point of commonplacing is to systematically collect the best things
you learn organized by categories of your choosing. These will be the
areas of your life that you spend most of your time working with and
thinking about. Since you‘re already investing your time here, why not
figure out a way to do so more effectively?
A Review File is where you keep only the best/most useful material;
organized by topic, to be reviewed every month or quarter or before you
start work on a project. Why? Because it‘s a proven method for keeping
useful information top-of-mind.

Say you have a collection of 7000 notes. Your Review File would be like a
Table of Contents, organized by area, linking to maybe 50 of these notes
(only the very best).
You could create a Review File without having a commonplace, but it

would be harder/more time-consuming than if you had a digital
commonplace because you‘d have all your stuff organized one click away.
39. Skip breakfast

Because, as I told you in the section about mental focus, it raises your
ghrelin levels. This floods your prefrontal cortex with dopamine and makes
you better at learning new information and you'll feel more focused.
40. You have 15 minutes to speak up, ask a question, or get

invested in meetings or lectures
I always hated going to class in university. I would always lose focus and
get bored…Until I understood this trick.
Then I used this trick for the remaining two years and I was able to cut
something like 25 % of my time studying, while also getting better grades
plus making friends with the professors. This gave me more time to read
books and build my website.
The reason why getting engaged in a social interaction makes you learn
faster, and retain information better, is twofold:
1. It activates your amygdala: When speak up in front of a number of

other people it makes you slightly nervous. This produces a small
amount of adrenaline, which is going to make you feel very alert. It'll
also prime you to learn better because, evolutionarily speaking, your
brain thinks that it's in survival mode, and will seek to take in as
much information as possible to increase its odds of surviving. The
end result is that you feel alert, and, because you've invoked strong
emotions, you will remember the information a lot better later.
2. It helps you get buy-in: When you speak up, ask questions, and get
involved in any discussion, you're investing time and energy into it.
This tricks your brain into believing that you're actually interested in
what's going on, and that it's important to your survival, even if it's
really not. By doing this, in a social setting, you can get focused at
will. Your brain gets tricked because it rationalizes the situation as:
"Well, I wouldn't have asked that question, or said those things,

unless this was important to me. So I guess it must be important.
I better pay attention!"
Anyway, the result is that you can trick yourself into becoming interested
in the things that you initially find boring. It‘s really powerful! So be sure

to speak up and activate your amygdala. Try it on your next lecture or
conference. See how it feels.
This is one of the simplest and useful tips in this guide.
41. Read history books to learn things faster (by association)

I will let you in on a secret. Not many people know this, but the more
mental associations you have, the easier it is for you to learn new things.
I recently talked to Mattias Ribbing, who is a Grandmaster of Memory.

―When you learn, it‘s your brain making connections between something
you know and a new thing,‖ he said to me.
This is the reason people who already know a ton of things have an easier
time learning new things. The more you know, the more you‘ll learn.
I have found that reading about the history of a field is one of the best
ways of doing this. Biographies are also good for getting associations.
Another positive result of reading history books and gaining lots of

associations is that you will start noticing lots of similarities between
different things, and you will gain a better perspective regarding the
current state of affairs than most other people. This is exhilarating.
Most people are oblivious to the context in which they live, how things
came to be the way they are, and why things happen.
When you start studying history, you‘ll become very hard to trick. You
build a B.S Detector. Your knowledge of history will make you impervious
to most of the typical scams (perpetrated time and again).
[Note on studying history:]

There are also other benefits to studying history apart from the learning
aspect. If you‘re interested you can read an article I wrote on the topic:
 How Studying History Boosts Your Personal Development
And these two, if you‘re a history geek:
 How to Study History for Business and Investing

 How to Study History (the top 10 things I learned)
42. Start commonplacing

When I started keeping a commonplace, around age 22, it was THE most
important thing I‘d ever done in terms of becoming more productive,
organized, and learning faster. Perhaps because it helped me better
―channel my hoarding instinct‖.

It doesn't matter how you do it, but I strongly recommend that you do.
Organizing your thinking in categories has at least two big benefits:
1) The more you do it, the easier it becomes to build on your ideas.
2) You can easily find your stored ideas later in life.
Here are two examples.
(What my OneNote commonplace looked like in my student years. On

the left I have ‗notebooks‘ that can be thousands of pages long. In the
middle, on top, I have ‗sections‘. Each section contains an unlimited
amount of pages, which you can see to the right of the screen.)

I have since switched to using Evernote. It is a less intuitive software, but
it‘s better once you have internalized categories in your head. It also syncs
to your phone. For much more details on this topic read:
All of My Articles on Commonplacing

How to Get Good Sleep
It goes without saying that sleep is important. I should know, I‘ve had
sleeping problems for about 75 % of my life – and it sucked. A lot.
To be clear, I still haven‘t solved this. I don‘t sleep picture perfect. But it‘s
no longer a problem. Let me give you the rundown.
When you don‘t get proper sleep you get a messed up circadian rhythm –
your biological clock – and your hormones play tricks on you. You become
moody, tired, or hungry during inconvenient times. Your willpower,
decision-making, and your ability to concentrate will also go down as your
prefrontal cortex is impaired.
If you get really bad sleep, you will walk around with heightened cortisol
levels, meaning that you‘re stressed. This can make you fat and harm your
hippocampus, the part of the brain that helps you store memories.
If fear is the mind killer, then bad sleep is the productivity killer.
The big problem with getting bad sleep is that it‘s hard to break the cycle.
You feel tired, so you consume some stimulant to prop yourself up. This
easily leads to overuse, which messes up your sleeping schedule even
more… And it‘s tough to stop because the stimulant is addictive and your
willpower is impaired from getting bad sleep.
Here‘s how you can fix it, gradually.
43. Create a pre-sleep ritual
Before going to bed, make sure you have a ritual that prepares you for
sleep. This isn‘t just for show, this is important because if you do it
consistently, it becomes a physical habit that literally conditions your body
into getting tired.
Here‘s an example of what you can:
1) Open up your windows to get fresh air
2) Avoid bright lights or screens.
3) Drink a glass of water
4) Sit down and write or reflect on the day. You could also meditate and
plan the following day – mentally rehearsing what you will do.
5) Go to bed.

44. Sleep in a pitch black room
When you‘re sleeping in a blacked out room it will lead to a higher quality
of sleep. The reason for this is because your brain has something called
the pineal gland, which secretes the sleeping hormone melatonin at
certain times of the day – this is decided by your circadian rhythm.
The release of melatonin is triggered by darkness, and impeded by light.

So when you sleep in a room that isn't dark enough you‘ll lower your
melatonin levels and get sub-optimal sleep. The pineal gland is more
sensitive to light than your eyes are. You may be able to cheat this
though, by using an eye-mask. Let me know how that works.
45. Avoid the following things if you want to get good sleep
1) Consuming stimulants after lunch. Because they inhibit the absorption
of relaxation minerals (zinc, magnesium, chromium, etc.)
However, the effects from using stimulants are highly individual.

Personally, I will have trouble going to sleep at 10-12 PM if I drink coffee
around 2-3 PM. I know people who can drink multiple cups of coffee.
2) Avoid alcohol later in the day, it also ruins sleep.
3) Avoid sitting in front of TV or computer screens 30 minutes before

going to bed, to make sure you don't mess up your melatonin levels.
4) Avoid working out one or two hours before bed.
5) Most important, avoid the sugar-stimulant-calorie feedback loop.
Many people get trapped in a bad feedback loop of messed up hormones.

This then gets into their homeostasis, then it becomes hard to change. It‘s
the reason why many people are fat, eat snacks all the time to keep
energy levels up, drink coffee and consume stimulants, and sleep bad.
I will show a picture of this in the next section, as it works with diet.

How to Eat Healthy and Increase Vitality
Before we get into this, I just want to say this, because it‘s #1:
The following four things are under your control:
 Your stomach health is mostly under your control.

 Your hormone levels are mostly under your control.
 Your mental focus is mostly under your control.
 Your emotional reactions to the things that happen are mostly under
your control.
These are all things that you can influence, if you want it badly enough.
—Not all the time, like a clockwork, but often enough.
During my teens, if I had listened to the advice of various doctors who

told me that there was nothing visibly wrong with me, and that I had to
live with asthma and being short of breath, my life would suck.
My life would also suck if I had listened to the explanation I got from
another doctor, in Canada, on my exchange semester.
That doctor told me I was just ―stressed out and having problems
acclimatizing myself to a new country‖…
…when I was having problems getting an erection, was getting seriously
bloated, and had severe brain fog — despite the fact that I was in
excellent physical shape at the time (very low body fat).
Good thing I didn‘t listen to that dumbass. The problem was my digestion.
* * *
There are thousands of books on exercise, nutrition and health. But you
don‘t need to know even 5% of that information unless you:
a) Want to become a big bulky bodybuilder, a professional athlete,
or a doctor.
Or if you:
b) Suffer from a serious ailment or have a disorder that I don‘t know
about. (I did suffer from an ailment, candida, so I know.)

So, I‘ve chosen to boil it down to the absolute essentials. You will get
more than 80 % of the positive health effects by eating the foods listed
below on a daily basis.
46. All the most important foods you should eat regularly
1. Eat Eggs
Eggs are the single most important and nutritious food you can find.
Eggs are your best source of protein. They‘re cheap and they contain all
amino acids, even the sulphurous ones you don‘t find in many other
protein-rich foods.
Eggs usually contain 5-10 g of protein each. They also contain lots of
choline, needed for your brain to produce the neurotransmitter
acetylcholine.
Egg protein is assimilated slowly by the body. It usually takes the body a
few hours to assimilate the protein from just one egg. I eat at least four
eggs per day. Usually more than that.
Oh yeah, and there‘s no need to worry about cholesterol from eating eggs.
Your body produces a ton of cholesterol on its own, the amount of extra
cholesterol you get from eating various foods is marginal in comparison.
Plus, there are two types of cholesterol: HDL and LDL. HDL is the ―good‖
one, and you get it from eggs.
2. Eat broccoli
I shouldn‘t have to convince you about the importance of eating broccoli,
should I?
But I‘ll do it anyway because I‘m a nice guy.
Broccoli is considered to be the best vegetable for detoxifying your body.

It contains three important phytonutrients that together help detoxify you:
Glucoraphanin, gluconasturtiin, and glucobrassicin.
Broccoli also contains a ton of different vitamins, it is especially rich in

vitamin C, which is good for your immune system.
Steamed broccoli is to prefer over boiled broccoli, because some of the

nutrients and vitamins get into the water when you boil it. And unless you
drink that water, it‘s a bit of a waste. However, steaming your broccoli is a
pain in the butt and boiled broccoli is still incredibly healthy.
3. Eat spinach

Spinach, like broccoli, is another incredibly nutritious vegetable that you
should eat every day. It contains an excess of vitamins and minerals that
you need. It is especially rich in vitamin K and A.
4. Eat oregano
You think blueberries have a lot of antioxidants? They do. But oregano has
FOUR times as many! 42 times that of apples, 30 times more than
potatoes, and 12 times more than oranges. Eat more Oregano.
To be clear, this doesn‘t that ―oregano is four times more healthy than
blueberries‖, but it does mean that oregano is very healthy – and
massively overlooked by most people. It‘s also cheap!
Eat oregano with everything, as you do with spinach and broccoli. Try to
buy it fresh if you can, because it‘s the best. But dried is still great.
5. Eat rosemary and other herbs too

While oregano seems to be the ―king of spices‖, rosemary is another
healthy spice that contains antioxidants. Plus it tastes very good.
Examples of other healthy spices:

1. Basil
2. Mint
3. Thyme
4. Dill
5. Parsley
6. Eat raw cacao (powder)

Raw cacoa is another overlooked food/spice. It is surprisingly nutritious
and it makes you happy and alert, as it contains the natural stimulant
theobromine. Cacao contains lots of antioxidants, minerals, and even
protein (ca 25 %).
Instead of buying expensive dark chocolate you can just mix in some raw
cocoa with coconut fat. It‘s healthier, more potent, and cheaper.
7. Eat coconut fat for better stomach health

I already mentioned some healthy fats above, but I want to really
recommend coconut fat in case you have stomach problems. It was very
helpful to me when my stomach wasn‘t good, and I‘ve been an avid
supporter ever since. Plus it tastes very good to everything.
Just make sure it‘s not some low quality coconut fat. If it is, it will say
somewhere on the product that it contains hydrogenated fat. Avoid that. It
means it‘s been processed to last longer or stay in a certain shape.
8. Do NOT eat sugar

Sugar is THE single unhealthiest thing in the world. It lowers your immune
system, harms your stomach health, can lead to diabetes and a ton of
other diseases, and it is incredibly addictive. Sugar is about as addictive as
cocaine, as it binds to the same opioid receptors in the brain.
Most people think that a little sugar won‘t hurt them. But over the long-
term, it will. Usually, it‘s not fats that make people fat. It‘s sugars and
carbs. I will go into why later.
Humans did not evolve to eat so much sugar, it used to be a very scarce
nutrient. Cavemen ate only a few spoonfuls of sugar per year. The
average American (according to common stats) eats 90-180 pounds of
sugar per year. This is insane. It will lead to one disease or the other, or
possibly a malfunctioning digestive system. As it did for me!
The easiest way to cut down on sugar is to completely stop drinking soft
drinks. Most people drink 1-2 soft drinks per day, and are addicted to
sugar without knowing it. The single most important tiny thing they could
ever do to improve their health, lose weight, and get a better brain is to
stop drinking those sugary soft drinks.
Sugar comes in many forms. You may be surprised to learn that almost
everything you see in the supermarket has some sugar added to it, given
that it‘s a packaged or processed food product.
You can check this for yourself by reading the labels and nutrition info –
which is a smart thing to do – when you shop for food. If some ingredient
ends with –ose, -in, -ol, it‘s an artificial sugar. You don‘t need to
eliminate sugar (as it‘s in carbs), but you should deliberately minimize it.
You can easily keep processed foods down to a minimum and you can also
easily eliminate snacks and soft drinks. That will cut down your sugar
consumption by at least 80 %.
The most common, and unhealthiest, type of sugar is known as HFCS

(high fructose corn syrup) and the reason it‘s common is because it‘s
incredibly cheap to produce. If you have to eat sugar, the ―healthiest‖
sugar is Stevia, which is a natural sweetener.
If I can get you to eat less sugar, then I know you‘ve benefited massively
from reading this.
9. Avoid additives such as MSG

As with sugars, artificial sweeteners, chemicals, and trans fats, there are
also types of unhealthy additives added to processed foods.

Probably the most common additive is MSG – monosodium glutamate –
and it‘s used to make food taste salty and meaty. It enhances flavor. MSG
is used in almost all types of canned foods: Meat, vegetables, and sauces.
MSG goes under many names. Watch for it on nutrition labels:

1. MSG / monosodium glutamate
2. Glutamate
3. Glutamic acid
4. Yeast extract
5. Hydrolysed protein
6. Accent
Yes, additives are unhealthy, but they also have an even worse sneaky
long-term effect that most people don‘t think about: They desensitize you.
They make natural food seem boring and taste next to nothing.
Think about it: Most people have to add a ton of dressing or ketchup,
containing a lots of additives and flavor enhancers, just to eat their food.
Otherwise they think it tastes bad. And then they want to have their soft
drink for some more sugar. We‘re all guilty of this. But if you‘ve ever gone
to Japan, you‘d know raw/natural food can be quite tasty too.
Additives are to a healthy diet what social networks are to your

productivity on the Internet. They desensitize you. Make you unable to
think clearly, and indirectly hurt your health; mentally and physically.
You can‘t build yourself up that way.
47. Eat less carbs and minimize grain (rice, bread, and pasta)
Carbohydrates are overestimated. You don‘t need to eat even nearly as
much carbs as you have been conditioned to believe, unless you are a
bodybuilder or professional athlete.
The only carbs you need you can get from eating vegetables such as
spinach and broccoli. Just as with sugar, carbohydrates raise your insulin
levels more than any other type of food. This is unnecessary, and often
bad and unhealthy.
You grew up hearing that pasta, rice, and bread were healthy and needed
for you to stay energized. Just as you heard that eggs could ―clog your
arteries‖ and harm your cholesterol values. In both cases you were sold a
big fat lie propagated by food companies. The Plate Model is wrong.
Just as sugar is unhealthy, carbohydrates in the form of most staple foods:

Rice, pasta, and bread, are too. They will be ―converted into sugar‖ by
your body after you eat them. The only time when these staple foods are
actually healthy, is immediately after a physical workout, when your body‘s
glycogen stores are depleted. Other than that, there is no health benefit.

The vast majority of grain products have no nutritional value. They are
just tasty fillers on your plate. Most grains also contain gluten. Gluten is
hard to digest and slows you down. Gluten isn‘t good for anyone, mildly
bad for most people, and really bad for those who‘re allergic to it.
Like sugars, grains are addictive. It‘s hard for many people to give up
eating bread. You don‘t need to give up eating bread if you‘re already
healthy. But if you‘re obese, cutting out bread, soda, sugar will help a lot.
48. Consume and – absorb –enough minerals

Minerals—zinc and magnesium in particular—are needed for you to be
calm, relaxed, and recover from stress. People who regularly have cramps,
muscle spasms, or minor involuntary twitches are often deficient in these
minerals. The same of true of people who are constantly stressed.
Like I told you earlier (in the part about getting good sleep) mineral
absorption is reduced heavily by consuming stimulants and certain other
drugs, like alcohol. For many people this leads to a vicious cycle that
repeats itself and just gets worse:
a. You cannot fully relax, rest, or sleep without aid of drugs.
b. You get tired and stressed.
c. Stress and poor sleep handicaps your willpower which increases

the likelihood that you make impulsive decisions and succumb to
instant gratification – such as propping yourself up with stimulants
as a crutches. Or eating junk food because it‘s convenient.
d. Stress, or more specifically, constantly elevated levels of the

hormone cortisol, will slowly make you fat.
e. The fatter you get the hungrier you get. Your hunger-related
hormones – leptin in particular – tell you to eat more food.

And so it goes, unless you break the cycle. And it gets harder to break this
vicious cycle the longer you‘re in it. Try to pre-emptively avoid it by getting
enough relaxation minerals.
One of the best foods for getting zinc is pumpkin seeds. Oysters contain
the most zinc out of anything, but you can‘t exactly eat that every day!
Other good foods for getting zinc and magnesium are red meats, spinach,
raw cocoa, and various nuts and seeds
Finally: Going back to what I said in the beginning, your body needs to not
only consume the relaxation minerals, but also absorb them. The best way
to ruin this absorption is to consume stimulants (like coffee) with your
meals that contain broccoli and meat, or your Zinc and Magnesium
supplements. Coffee is a great drug, but keep it several hours apart from
the meal and the supplement intake, and you‘ll be fine.
49. Eat more healthy fats

Healthy fats are good for your stomach health, your skin, and for getting
healthy level of hormones (such as testosterone). Fats are also good for
your brain because your brain consists mostly of fats and cholesterol.
Most carbs are bad, and some fats are good. Eat less carbs and seek to
eat more fats. Don‘t be afraid of adding plenty of healthy fats to your food
while cooking.
Here are a few examples of foods with containing healthy fats:

Omega 3 oil and Cod liver oil
Coconut oil
Flax seed oil
Avocado

Seeds and nuts
Olive oil
Peanut butter (without added sugar)
I would recommend you to create your own trail mix to ensure you get
enough healthy fats. Then it becomes easy to just take a big spoon and
scoop it on your meals. In my trail mix I use:
Shredded coconut
Flaxseeds
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Various nuts
Here are a few examples of foods containing unhealthy fats:

Chips and salty snacks
Fried food
Pre-made dressings
Anything processed (foods and sauces)
Almost all processed products contain trans fats, which are unhealthy.
Processed foods are popular for food companies because they are cheap
to produce. With the help of inexpensive trans fats, and various chemicals,
processed foods have an unnaturally long shelf-life. And also, because
processed foods contain a bunch of sugars, artificial sweeteners, and
coloring agents, they taste good and look cool. That‘s good economics.
This makes processed foods cheaper and easier to mass produce.
If you want more details and information about nutrition, you can read my
7 posts of notes from the book Ultramind Solution.
50. Try fasting

Because it gives your digestive system time to recover. Everyone should
do this once in a while (like once per month) just to let your stomach rest.
It will feel great. Try going 24-36-48 hours without food.
This is very healthy. It‘s also good for your immune system, your digestion
obviously, and you‘ll lose fat. No wonder it was a spiritual practice.
[Note on food:]
You will notice that I have not listed any fruit or berries. That‘s because
they are not essential – and they contain a lot of carbohydrates and/or
sugar. You can eat it if you want to. But it is not necessary.
[Note on stomach health:]
Also, know this: All the foods listed above are great for your digestive
system, your stomach health, your skin, and for shedding fat.
I even cured myself from a severe case of candida albicans, which is a
horrible stomach disease, by following this regimen for less than a year
while doing a ton of fasting. Eating lots of oregano probably helped too.
The reason I go on about gut health is because it is very important over
the long-term: Something like 60-80 % of the immune system is located in
the gut. Your gut is directly correlated to your mood, protein assimilation,
and overall health. If you regularly get stomach-aches, become gassy or
bloated, or tired following meals, something is wrong.
There are many nerves connecting the gut and the brain – hence, the
term ―gut thinking‖ is accurate. So, if you want to have a healthy brain as
you grow older, you will also need to have a healthy gut.
Another important aspect is this: Gut health is something most people take
for granted. But they shouldn‘t. Not the way they are eating.
There will be more ―new‖ diseases ―discovered‖ over the course of the 21st
century than ever before, as a result of the so-called standard American
diet (SAD). Many of these diseases will reflect different symptoms of
having a messed up digestive system or developing food allergies.
This is why the doctors and traditional health care system could never find
anything wrong with me, even though I had stomach aches, nosebleeds,
sleeping problems, and occasional headaches up until I was around 20-21.
Finally: If all of this advice is new to you—and your diet is very different
from what I‘m suggesting above—I recommend you give these things a
try. It could have a tremendous positive effect on your health.
Stick to the diet above for just two weeks – every day – and you‘ll see a
sharp spike in overall well-being, concentration levels, and relaxation.
And finally:
51. Do Diagnostic Health Tests
I put this last, because it‘s not a quick fix.
Here are the five top types you should look into:
 Blood pressure (buy a blood pressure monitor)
 Hormonal (testosterone, estrogen, thyroid, etc)
 Mineral and vitamin levels.
 Cortisol (stress levels).
 Fatty acid (omega 3 vs 6 ratio)
In this order of priority.
I will not recommend any particular type or brand, because it differs
where you live in the world.

Diagnostic tests are not meant as a quick fix. They are meant as boundary
testing. If you‘re feeling 100, there is no real need to do them even once
per year. But the older you get, the less you can take health for granted.

How to Build Muscle and Shred Fat
Building muscle and losing weight are both areas where action speaks
louder than words. There are many knowledgeable keyboard jockeys on
fitness forums arguing about the best strategies for building muscle or
shredding fat. Ironically, most of them have mediocre physiques, because
they waste their time reading unnecessary diet books and arguing with
each other over the Internet, instead of hitting the gym.
There is no ―best‖ diet or workout regimen. It‘s all individual. You must
find out what works best for your body through self-experimentation.
My educated guess is: In 90 % of the cases where people aren‘t getting

the results they want in terms of bodybuilding or weight loss, it‘s because
they‘re not lifting often enough, or lifting heavy enough.
In the remaining 10 % of the cases it‘s because there‘s something wrong

with their gut health or their hormonal levels or because they have bad
genetics. Now ask yourself: Are you that 1 person out of 10?
Fitness and bodybuilding is an area of life that isn‘t fair. Two of the most
salient examples are muscle insertions (Arnold Schwarzenegger did not
have a visible 6-pack) and protein assimilation. Personally, I cannot
consume more than 2-2.5 g protein per kilo each day without it negatively
affecting my health (I become slow, tired, and gassy on more than that).
This means I cannot become a competitive bodybuilder, but I‘ve still been
able to accomplish the following personal lifts:
 125 kg bench press. (and 6 reps on 47.5 kg dumbbells)

 77 kg weighted dips
 45 kg weighted pull-up and chin
 180 kg deadlift (natural) and 225 kg with belt and straps.
 150 kg squat (with belt)
And my weight is 70 kg. So don‘t let excuses stand in your way so easily.
In the long-term (24+ months), almost everyone can get a strong and
good-looking physique. People who are very short and fat (like a ball) or
very tall and skinny (like a twig) are the exception. They will have more of
an uphill struggle than people with regular genetics. It‘ll take them longer.
Having said that, here are the few most important things to build muscle
and lose weight:

52. Avoid eating more than 3 times per day
Some people, especially those who sell bodybuilding supplements, will
have you believe you must eat 6+ times per day to gain muscle or ―stoke
metabolism‖. This is not true. You can build muscle by eating 1-3 meals
per day, you just need to eat larger meals.
If you eat six or more meals per day – as I and many others have done –
you‘ll realize that you have no life except eating and working out. You‘re
always thinking about what to eat next. You‘re constantly tired from eating
or digesting food. There is rarely any energy left to do anything else.
When I did this, I learned few new things and had no creativity.
In terms of weight loss, if you eat more than three times per day your
insulin levels will almost constantly be in an elevated state. This
dramatically limits ketosis – fat burning – from taking place.
Unless you're special – and have blood sugar problems or whatever – you
will benefit from eating fewer meals per day. Fewer meals will make you
more productive, help you think more clearly, and also burn more fat.
You‘ll save time too.
53. Don't drink alcohol AND eat lots of calories

If your goal is to lose weight, drinking alcohol isn‘t particularly harmful in
itself. But, eating under the influence of alcohol is.
This is because alcohol is seen as a poison by your body, and so, its
metabolization is given precedence before anything else (like the food).
That means most of the food you eat when you‘re drunk gets added
directly to the body‘s fat storage. Right on the tummy!
So if you want to lose weight, keep your drinking and eating separate.
(Similar to the advice I gave about coffee & relaxation minerals).
54. Don't do cardio to lose weigh

Contrary to popular belief, cardio is a lousy way to lose weight. Cardio has
other benefits, but it‘s a lousy way to lose weight and getting ripped.
Cardio doesn't burn many calories at all compared to lifting heavy weights
and doing bodyweight exercises. So don‘t waste your time at the treadmill
like most gym-goers do. Use light weights for your warm-up instead.
55. Do compound exercises and bodyweight training

Compound exercises and bodyweight training are by far the most efficient
ways to build muscle and lose weight. Here are some sample exercises:
Compound exercises:
Squats

Lunges
Deadlifts
Cleans
Clean and jerk
Benchpress
(weighted) Pull ups and chins
(weighted) Dips
Bodyweight exercises:
Pushups
Pullups and chins chins
Situps
Squats
Jumping jacks
Avoid isolation exercises that only work one or a few muscles. Why?
Because, as with the cardio, it's a very inefficient use of your time.
How many repetitions do you have to do each time? It depends. But you
can't go wrong with doing 5-12 repetitions. Most people should lift heavier
weights in my opinion – they are underestimating their strength and are
too afraid of getting hurt. I like doing 3-6 reps on my heavy lifts.
56. Skip breakfast

Skipping breakfast helps you lose fat by lowering your insulin levels longer,
which allows the body to remain in ketosis.
57. Take cold showers

Taking cold showers is no miracle cure, but it has a number of slight
positive spill-over effects that together become important
Fat: Cold showers make you burn slightly more calories by

speeding up the body‘s rate of metabolism as a result of adapting
to the shock of cold.
Muscle: Cold showers may increase testosterone a bit.
Willpower: The discomfort of cold showers improve your pain

tolerance. This will indirectly help you lift heavier weights and
have better workouts, because you become better at pushing
yourself outside of your comfort zone. This is the most important.
58. Go on a 2-day fast

Longer periods of fasting are not for everyone. But if you want to lose a
lot of fat, really quickly, this is a great way of doing it.
It also secretes the hunger-related hormone ghrelin, which triggers

dopamine, and that helps you focus and learn things better.

Going on a 2-day fast can be challenging at first. To make it easier you
can drink coffee and tea. They don‘t break the fast.
***
This concludes most—but not all—of the advice from one of my most
popular articles: ―How I Got Ripped in 2 Years by Following These 13
Principles‖ I wrote it 5 years ago, but I still do most of these things, even
though I don‘t spend as much time exercising as when I was studying.

How to Get Ahead in Your Career
People wonder how I got to where I‘m at.
I tell them: This is 7 years in the making.
If you know where you want to be 2, 5, 10 years from now…. Everything

else is like a stepping stone. As long as you have a long-term goal, some
long-term goal, your brain will easily convert even the lousiest experience
into a constructive learning lesson. But you must think of a destination.
You make decisions and you live with them—and that‘s that.
59. So, Stop Being a Scaredy Cat

Start the day by proclaiming loudly: ―I‘m not afraid anymore!‖ (Click for a
funny video)
Jokes aside, we must overcome loss aversion and not let it rule our lives.
If you ever felt like you cared more about ―not failing‖ than you cared
about winning, then you have experienced loss aversion.
It‘s a serious problem. Entrepreneurs and motivational speakers always

talk about embracing failure, and even though it sounds cheesy, I think
there‘s a lot of truth to that. It‘s especially hard to embrace failure if
you‘re a perfectionist/maximizer.
No one is above this.
Accept the fact you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
To think otherwise is unrealistic. Lee Kuan Yew had to kill some stupid
fish, but he saved Singapore.
If you want something done, you have to put yourself out there. Mistakes
will be made along the way, but if you can accept that, get over yourself,
and stay with what you're doing, things will work out anyway, given a
sufficient time frame.
One thing that‘s good to keep in mind is that most people's opinions don't
matter much. They really don't. They spend their leisure playing games
and going to their beer-booth, like the cast from How I Met Your Mother.
So if you‘re making moves, and they‘re not, their opinion is not valid.
They're not living the life they want to live. They're not pursuing their
dreams. They settle for consolation prizes.
So if you‘ve seen a better life, pursue it.

Let them keep buzzing about, like fruit flies, while you busy yourself with
work. In 5 years, you'll be someone. In 5 years, they'll still be nobody.
Overcome the Fear of Failure and Develop the Will to Win
Is your will to win five times stronger than your fear of failure? It has to
be. I go into this at much more depth in Breaking out of Homeostasis in
the chapter about Amygdala Slavery.
Since this is a difficult topic, the next couple of tips will be on this too.
60. Put Yourself On Because No One Else Will

This is more of a mindset than a practical tip, but the gist of it is this:
Losers wait to be picked. Winners assume they are picked.
Losers wait for permission, looking for a cue to move or think (like a stop
light to cross the street). Winners just keep walking, unless they see a car.
Winners are Homeostasis Breakers who use their prefrontal cortex.
61. Don’t Listen to Most People

There are a lot of talented and intelligent people who never enjoy more
than a mediocre amount of success; not living on their own terms. Why is
this? It‘s because they conform too strongly to the norms of society.
They do things that are considered socially correct, instead of following

their intuition. They listen to people telling them what to do, instead of
thinking their own ideas and following their ambition.
If you are doing something different, most people (including your family)
don‘t have the experience/knowledge/empathy to advice you.
62. Believe in Yourself and Don’t Let Others Dictate Your Goals
You must believe in your own sense of value, and that whatever you bring
to the table (product/network/idea/talent) is good enough to put out to
the public and offer to other people.
Those who have this at an early age (when they start their career) are at
an advantage. Like extremely confident people and those who grew up
rough and tough and will do anything to succeed.
If you don‘t believe in what you‘re doing, your ego‘s defensive mechanism
will overpower your desire for greatness.
Your will to win will be overshadowed by your fear of failure.
Don‘t let this happen to you.

Because, if you do, you‘re placing your sense of self-esteem in the hands
of an external force outside your control. That‘s a losing strategy.
63. You Need Feedback

If you are more focused on failure than success you will not dare to put
yourself out there and get the feedback required to improve at your
talents over the long-term. That slows down your learning curve.
No one knows what is needed all the way. Even the smartest people in the
world can only think so far ahead. Adapting to feedback is required.
This is where mentors come in. Mentors are important, no disputing that,
but… I think the real reason *mentors* is now a trend/buzzword, is that
people are too afraid to put themselves out there. Fragile like a vase.
This next advice might seem contradictory, but it‘s not.
64. Don’t Mindlessly Copy People 10-20+ Years Ahead of You

Think twice about trying to jump straight to the top, copying the masters
unless you happen to know them in person and/or can decipher their
success step by step.
Why do I say this? Because of brain development. Assuming a smart and

ambitious individual, brain development looks like this: (a) enormous input
and experimentation, (b) pruning and philosophical framework, (c)
simplicity and sharpening the saw.
The way the world is currently constructed with Internet and social media,
young people have access to lots of masters, but their brains don‘t have
the cognitive filters to absorb the useful ideas (they latch onto the noble
indulgences). And, in the rare cases they do, it still takes concentration,
hard work, and repetition to internalize those ideas. This takes years.
Therefore, most of what we see is mindless mimicry. People copy without

considering the cause and effect. It‘s ridiculous!
When you copy others without understanding the cause and effect
relations, you become a Fake.
65. Prioritize Ruthlessly

How many people with a ―work-life balance‖, living in eternal harmony, do
you know? Younger than 30?
I bust my balls on a regular basis, and, while I have many friends and
acquaintances, I don‘t hang out with them every week.

People want things too fast. Yes, you can have a work-life balance
whenever you want. But: at what price? You‘re going to live a long life. It
might be worthwhile working harder and more strategically while your
energy levels are peaking. Think twice about being a slacker.
You have not earned the right to a work-life balance when you are under
30 years old. And if you think you do, you don‘t know what‘s best for you.
Besides, man was made for work.
The brain development peaks around age 30. As do your energy levels.
This means you want to work hard and learn as much as you can early on,
because it will produce a compound effect for the rest of your life.
66. Find Jobs That Allow You to Practice Your Talents

People like Albert Einstein, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Stephen King…
Those guys were not just talented at their crafts, but they Busted Their
Balls to succeed. On a regular basis, too.
Though a womanizer, Einstein wasn‘t wasting his time. You should read
about his ―Wife List‖ to Mileva Maric. It has almost the same stringency as
the General Relativity Theory.
Success often stands in proportion to risk taken and the amount of work
put in. But even if you have the risk-tolerance of a rat, there are two
things you can do to increase your chances:
 Find out what you‘re naturally talented at as early as you can in life
 Then start practicing that as much as you can
Implication: Are you in a place that is conducive to your talents? If not,

look for one. Focus on developing your talents and gaining valuable skills.
Then use that to build up assets.
67. Distinguish Between Simple and Complex Activities

Simple activities are where the rules are set and either do not change, or
change very slowly. Complex activities are dynamic; the rules and
boundaries are constantly pushed.
In simple activities, the 10.000 Hour Rule is roughly right. In complex

activities, it‘s complete B.S.
Practical implications:
 If you have a natural talent for a simple activity (like sports) you will
need to outwork everybody else and take more risk than they do (like
steroids or performance-enhancing drugs)

 If you have a natural talent for something that‘s complex you will
need to learn supplemental activities that support your natural talent,
like a force-amplifier (such as a creative medium)
However, it‘s rare for a person to be genetically disposed towards all

aspects of a complex activity. I can‘t think of a single example now.
Moving on, let‘s take something like investing….
Investing is the most complex field I can think of. I have been interested
in investing for almost 10 years, and I still don‘t know much. Investing is
the opposite of Tennis. You can't follow a roadmap; you have to make
your own. You have to know where your talents lie, develop them, and
acquire supplementary skills….
Eventually you will have enough of them. Then you might form a
synergistic concoction. AKA: A truly unique set of skills that set you apart
from others in the industry.
68. Hen or Egg: Are You Not Creative, or Have You Just Not Found
Your Medium Yet?
It‘s important to have *some* creative activity to practice.
Whether it‘s music, painting, writing, designing, programming, sewing,

cooking, social media, whatever…
I did not think of myself as a creative person until I entered university.

Even then, I did not think I had any special creative talents, but at least I
knew I wasn‘t a total creative retard. I always thought of myself as an
analytic person (which may indeed be true). However, now I am more
creative than most people, because I practiced so much!
You don‘t know whether you‘re creative or not until you find a language to
express yourself. Give the following a try:
 Write an article
 Record a video
 Make a speech to your phone‘s recorder
 Draw a picture
 Summarize a book
I am good with long-form writing (articles, essays, etc). I am decent at

speaking and podcasting. I am horrible at social media.
69. Sometimes ―Good Enough‖ is Good Enough

In many career paths it‘s better to be a well-rounded person who‘s ―good
enough‖ at many things, than it is to be an expert.

Are you considering becoming an expert? Here‘s a career shortcut.
If you want to be a doctor, a scientist, a business person, or some kind

of expert academic dude, you can count on it taking at least 5-10 years
before you start earning the money you want and getting the respect you
want. Probably longer.
Yes, it will probably take you even longer than that, unless you‘re good at
lateral thinking and/or promoting yourself…
Therefore, carefully consider your premises. You don‘t need to put in all of
that time into becoming an expert if your goal is to get status, money,
respect, or similar benefits. (Nothing wrong with that—just be honest.)
For the most part you can actually just be ―good enough‖, and mix it up
with some supplementary activities.
You don‘t have all the time in the world, and if you pursue an established
field, you can only become an expert in maximum 1-3 fields in your life.
So pick and choose with some foresight. One has to limit one‘s fascination.
Still, ―good enough‖ isn‘t a walk in the ball park.
70. It’s Not Enough to be Smart; You Also Need to Entertain
―I wasn‘t the best because I killed quickly… I was the best

because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd — and you‘ll win
your freedom.‖

—Proximo
Do you consider yourself smart?

Are you perhaps a nerd?
Then read this final piece of advice carefully.
Even if you do everything right in your career… you work hard to build
some really useful skills and all of that.... well, guess what? You will still
be beat by the Fun-Guy/Gal.
Deal with it. Popular people win.
You need to become more entertaining, like Proximo in Gladiator. Or Mike

the Situation on Jersey Shore. Or celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. Everyone
loves to see him make pizza. Or Lil Wayne with his dreadlocks.
200+ Years Ago These People Were Either The Town Fools, Or They
Belonged To The Servant Classes.
If they lived 200 years ago, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey wouldn‘t be
nearly as successful as they are today. At best, they might‘ve become
personal chefs for a king. But thanks to the medium of television, they are
now multimillionaires and successful entrepreneurs. Jennifer Lopez too.
Just as in Gladiator, where Proximo told Maximus to win the crowd,

legendary boxing trainer Cus D‘Amato told the young Mike Tyson that:
―Boxing is entertainment, so to be successful, a fighter must

not only win but he must win in an exciting manner. He must
throw punches with bad intentions.‖
What you want, is to see someone with an unconventional style of
fighting. You want to see something spectacular.
Consider how Connor McGregor became the best-paid fighter in the UFC.
71: Read More

Read 5 popular books about your career/profession, if you haven‘t.
72: For more career advice, check out The Future Skills Program.
In the Future Skills Program I teach you the fundamentals of your early
career, before age 30, and Mikael Syding, European Hedge Fund Manager
of the Decade, teaches you advanced career skills (how to join the top 1-
5%) from age 30-50. You will also learn how to make better decisions,
take risk intelligently, and gain a foundational understanding of finance.

How to Become – And Stay – Motivated
Things that are scarce tend to be valuable.

I believe that motivation is one of the scarcest things out there (since the
last 300 years), and as a future trend, people will just get less motivated,
despite having more opportunities and easier lives than ever before.
This is one of the core tenets of my philosophy about homeostasis.
I believe many people have the wrong idea of motivation. You know
you‘re dealing with one of these people when you hear them say: ―Oh.
No, I couldn‘t do that. I can‘t do what [insert badass] is doing. He‘s
motivated, I am not.‖
I call these people Homeostasis Dwellers.
Inherent in that line of reasoning is that the person thinks motivation is
something you either *have* or you don‘t.
This is false.
Everyone is motivated–question is: Towards what and how consistently?
You don‘t *have* motivation. It has to do with using your brain.
You must think of it as a skill that you practice. It‘s something you should
get better at over the long-term. If I had to boil motivation down to one
thing it would be this: Consistency.
—Consistency in activating the brain and body.
Keep the following things in mind to be motivated more often:
73. Gain Momentum—Then Keep it
You can act your way out of lethargy, but you cannot think your way out.
This is why many intellectual people have psychological problems. They

think too much, but don‘t do enough. This creates an imbalance. Like
keyboard jockeys suffering from Information Overload.
You‘re either gaining momentum in a direction, or you are losing it.
Keep in mind it‘s easier to break a thing than build a thing.
It‘s easier to break a good routine by staying up too late, partying, and
watching TV, than it is to build a productive routine by consistently doing
what you know you should be doing as often as you can.

The problem for many people is that they don‘t understand this. They
think they can fix things quickly, ―if only they wanted to‖.
Then they wake up with a mid-life crisis around age 30-40.
They don‘t see that the act of gaining momentum is like buying a house:
you need to put in a down payment. This down payment consists of
putting in a lot of time and effort condensed into a short period of time.
Then you have your momentum and things get easier.
But, this is hard to do because it violates homeostasis.
Homeostasis acts on your physiology in a similar way that Gravity is

counterbalanced by the Normal Force; or how a fast-rolling truck is slowed
by friction of the wheels against the ground.
74. Start your day well; or go to hell

How many kick-ass productive days have you had when you got up late
and passed the first few hours watching TV series?
Probably not that many.
This is because the longer you wait to do a thing, and put yourself in a
certain state of mind, the harder it gets for you to break that pattern. So,
in the case of watching TV first thing in the day, you set up the pattern of
getting stimulation without having to put in any effort.
An object in motion will stay in motion. And vice versa, an object at rest
will stay at rest until acted upon by an outside force.
This means if you can just get started, and force yourself into action, you
will soon want to keep doing whatever it is that you‘re doing.
So, the smart thing is to get in the feedback loop of activating your brain
or taking action ASAP. For example, like this in the morning:
1. To read and learn a new thing.

2. To take care of an important task.
Both of these things – activating the brain or taking action – have a

positive influence on each other and will build momentum.
On the other hand, doing nothing, watching TV, or getting on social media
does not have any positive influence at all. It only fosters further inaction!
It may sound strange, but you actually need to put in energy and effort to
get out even more energy. It‘s how the body works.

Your brain and body are either ON or they are OFF. It takes some time
switching between each mode. As in chemistry, a certain amount of
Activation Energy is required to create a catalytic process.
75. Motion creates emotion and order

I told you earlier that it's easier to act your way into right action, than
trying to think your way into right action. It is so.
When you're feeling despondent and don't want to do a thing except lying
in bed, you need to get up and MOVE. Move man.
Another great thing you can do is to write. Just start writing about
anything that comes to mind. Don‘t have any standards for what to write.
If you‘re at the computer, you can just start typing away. It‘ll be great.
This often leads to good ideas and clarifies what you need to do next.
Writing will put your mind back on track. Writing will bring order to your
thoughts. For this reason it‘s a good idea to keep notepads by your bed.
76. Your emotions determine your thoughts – and vice versa

Your brain and body are in constant synchronization by means of
bidirectional communication.
This means what you feel affects what you think–and vice versa: what you
think will also affect how you feel. This creates a feedback loop that can
keep itself going for a long time.
—This is why the way you start the day can matter much.
It‘s also why being depressed and sitting still too much sucks. It becomes
self-reinforcing. You feel depressed, so you don‘t feel like doing anything.
And when you don‘t do anything, you feel depressed. It goes both ways.
You must break the cycle once you spot it. Or better yet, try to stay in a
positive mood for as long as possible and squeeze the most you can out of
it. Both approaches work.
When you're already feeling good you will think positive and empowering
thoughts, which in turn will produce more good emotions, and then the
cycle reinforces itself.
This means you need to feel good and think about cool things as much as
you can. In this particular state, you should deliberately avoid thinking of
things that can make you feel bad.

When you feel good you will often get good ideas. So, to become inspired
and get great ideas you should strive to Break out of Homeostasis as often
as you can, and then your thoughts will reflect your positive feelings.
77. Pull through periods of low motivation

When Napoleon Bonaparte got a letter from his grieving sister saying she
felt awful because a family member had died, what did he do?
He told her get to work. To occupy herself with some activity so that she
would have less time to beat up on herself about how sad her life was.
Napoleon, like most other highly successful people, knew something very
important about the nature of motivation. He knew that if you‘re
depressed, your situation will not get any better from dwelling on it. You
don‘t think your way out of it. You act your way out of it.
78. Stop Pitying Yourself

If you think you have it bad then you can read about Jakob Walter and his
experience as a soldier in Napoleon‘s march on Russia. Then you can be
glad you‘re not taken from your home and forced to drink the coagulated
blood of horses to survive.
79. Your mood often plays tricks on you

Perhaps you‘re feeling horrible today and your mind can only see failure
everywhere you look. When this happens, your best bet is to heed the
wise words of Colin Powell:
"It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning."
Maybe you are ill or injured? Maybe you ate something strange? Maybe
you didn‘t sleep last night?
Whatever. It‘ll probably be better in the morning. Postpone all important

decisions until tomorrow.
80. When Not to Trust Your Mood

Consistency is the best principle to stick by if you‘re uncertain what to do
next, or if you‘re feeling bored and depressed. However…
There are situations when you should take the day off and wait to do
something the next day when you feel normal again.
The ability to make this decision depends on developed intuition.
AKA: Gut Feeling.

If you‘re currently a failure at life, you can‘t trust yourself. In fact, this is
probably the WHOLE reason why you‘re a failure. Your body is tricking
you. You‘re led astray by the Siren Song that is your Homeostasis.
On the other hand, to make an extreme example, if you can act up like
Charlie Sheen or Jordan Belfort (before they went too far with the drugs),
your Homeostasis is probably exceptionally trustworthy.
81. Should you talk about your goals or not?

There are two philosophies on this:
(1) Should Not = you might lose motivation to do the thing because you
tell others. When you tell others, it rewards your brain pre-emptively
without accomplishing the deed.
(2) Should = you will receive an extra repetition to your brain on the goal;
etching it more firmly, hopefully making it top-of-mind. Especially when
declaimed publically for others to keep your accountable.
Which one is the right answer? It depends.
In theory, you should always talk about your goals.
In practice, you often should not.
It depends on these two things:
A) Will you receive support?

B) Or will people try to sabotage you? (Crabs in a bucket)
This is why so-called mastermind groups exist.
82. Build up a Winner Effect

The Winner Effect is a term that describes the bidirectional influences
between Dopamine and Testosterone; it is a particularly powerful effect
among males. It is probably the most powerful driver of motivation.
Every big star you can think of is in a Winner Effect (or at least was when
they were doing their best stuff).
The way to attain it is by improving consistently, getting fast feedback,

seeing validation from hard work, having sex, and breaking records.
The younger you are, the easier it is to get into a Winner Effect. Mostly so
because you may not have done it before, and your brain doesn‘t have a
reference point. But if you‘ve done it before, it can be hard not to
compare it to past ―highs‖; this is why celebrities and movie stars always
look back on when they were young and pretty and most popular.

The best/easiest way to build a winner effect for young guys is by learning
new things and going to the gym lifting heavier weights. This is very easy
to do if you are out of shape and haven‘t read many books already.
Study the success of fighters and athletes… a surprisingly large amount of

the best ones were brought up by smart parent-coaches who put them in
a winner effect. Tiger Woods, Mike Tyson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, etc.
But take heed: for while it‘s fun to be in a winner effect, rationality and
logic thinking are put in the back seat.
83. Enter the Gauntlet

I wrote this piece a few years back, and I think it‘s only more relevant
now, with all the pampering preachers emerging into popular culture.
People are bored and aimless, like the quote from Thoreau, walking
around as if in a daze. Looking like they‘ve been beat down by life.
So they want hope and meaning and motivation. Nothing wrong with that.
It‘s called Coping Mechanisms. The human body is built for relieving
physiological stress through coping mechanisms.
The problem is when you become addicted. Then you lose the ability to
create hope, meaning and motivation from within. You then have to rely
on the pampering preacher to deliver his soothing sermon whenever you
become upset. Like the motivational speech of the guy who tells you to
want to become successful as bad as you want to breathe.
This has now happened on a global scale.
If you're under 30 years old and male, read this:
Enter The Gauntlet
Some do, some don‘t. Some will, some won‘t.

Big Picture Concepts
84. Eradicate the Magic Pill Mentality

Everyone has problems.
Or, phrased more democratically: everyone has room for improvement.
The first step to solving a problem is to acknowledge its existence. The

second step is to get rid of the illusion of a quick fix. Only after that, will
you be in a mentally conducive state to take care of the problem.
If you want to get a 6-pack, you‘re not going to get it by buying

supplements. If you want to become smart, you‘re not going to achieve
that by learning some secret method of Speed-Reading. If you want to get
rich, you‘re not going to achieve that by buying into some ―Make-Money-
Sitting-In-Your-Underwear‖ Internet marketing scheme.
There is no magic pill. Just learning, hard work, and understanding.
Nothing in life is free. You have to pay the price.
85. Acknowledge Evolutionary Mismatches

This is even less of a quick fix than the last piece of advice. But it‘s very
important. Humans are poorly adapted to modern society. In so many
words: Too much stimuli.
We are tricked many ways each day, not to mention week. This is done
both by clever marketers/designers, and ourselves. I believe it is more
constructive to blame ourselves. So let‘s just say it‘s 80% our fault.
In this article I go through 7 of the biggest evolutionary mismatches.
1: Overindulgence of Processed Foods and Sugar
2: Overstimulation from: Smart Phones, Social Media, Dating Apps, etc..
3: Conformity and Misinformation from Mainstream Media:
4: Passive and Sedentary Lifestyle from Automation and Technology
5: Chronic Stress and Broken Recovery Cycles
6: Lack of Loyalty and Strong, Intimate, Relationships
7: Homeostasis, Fewer External Motivators, and Self-deception

86. Reconsider the Current Education System (University)
Are you in university, or considering attending it?
Perhaps in a country with expensive tuition fees? Then read this article:
School is for Fools: Ten Reasons the Education System is a Failure
1. The School System Was Created for the 18th Century

2. School Teaches You to Fit in…to an Obsolete Economy!
3. School Turns You Into a Sissy Conformist
4. School Breaks Down Most People’s Will to Learn
5. School Doesn’t Cultivate Self-Knowledge
6. School Turns Independent People into Co-dependent Peons
7. School is Full of Propaganda
8. School Doesn’t Teach You How to Think & Develop Your Own Style
9. School Gives You a False Certainty about Things You Can’t Know
10. School Indoctrinates False Rules That Handicap You for the Real World
I got a lot of shit for this. Probably because much of it is true.
Note: If you‘re out of university, or never attended, then don‘t waste your
time reading that long article.
87. Study Future Skills

A future skill is a skill that will become more valuable or harder to replace
in the future. How far into the future? Let‘s say next 5-20 years.
What characterizes a future skill is the following: It is put at a premium.
This means the value chain of an industry is rearranged in such a way that
a new profession/skillset suddenly becomes more important than before.
Like how programmers (and computer skills) went from being rare and
unseemly in the 90s, to having now become a fixture of everyday life.
However, some people believe soft skills will be put at a premium for the new
generation, and going forward.
Stay ahead of the curve:
20 Future Skills and My Selection of Expert Advice

How to Brainwash Yourself (For Success)
I am a firm believer in that you need to consistently, persistently, and

efficiently ―brainwash yourself‖ to your goals and to the idea of success.
Because if you don‘t you‘ll be normal. And normal people lead normal lives.
You need to become a bit more extreme in your way. You can‘t be OK with
what most other people want, or settle for. Don‘t let the blind lead you.
One of the best ways of accomplishing this is by ―brainwashing yourself‖ as
much as you can over a long period of time. With lots and lots of
repetitions on your intended message. Slowly, but surely, you will change.
Quick question,
Do you know why the Nazis were able to control the German population so
efficiently during WW2?
Because they were masters of propaganda and understood the importance
of repetition. Repeat something often enough and you think it‘s true.
The act of brainwashing yourself is similar to efficient learning strategies.
Both things are about making use of the subconscious mind and putting it
to work as much as possible. The easiest way of doing this is by exposing
yourself to as many repetitions of a message as possible.
Here are a couple of easy ways for how you can get more repetitions into
your life and speed up your brainwashing:
88. Get yourself a whiteboard

Whiteboards are cheap and underrated. Almost no one uses them, but
they should. Because a whiteboard is the simplest way of writing down:
 Ideas
 Goals
 Quotes
 Models or frameworks
 Acronyms
…And anything else you might want to learn or need to train your
subconscious to memorize and believe.
Whiteboards also fill a great motivational purpose. If you‘re doing

something that takes a bit of time and is challenging – like a big goal that
you‘ve concretized into a number of specific daily actions, then you can
write down daily actions on the whiteboard. Here are a few examples:

 Money made per day
 Scheduled workouts per week
 Strangers talked to
 Words/pages written per day
 Articles written per week
 Emails or messages sent to people per day
And so on…
I did this a lot when I was in university.
This is superb, because it helps you see the power of incremental progress
driven by consistent action towards a goal. This conditions you to
understand how much it really matters that do the work every day.
A whiteboard can also be useful for writing your to-do list, deadlines, or
things you‘ve planned into your schedule.
89. Use your computer background and screensaver

Ask yourself: ―What are my goals? What do I want? Where do I want to
live‖ and other big questions like that.
Perhaps you already know these things, perhaps you don‘t. Sometimes
your answer is just a feeling, and it might be challenging to translate that
feeling into specific words or images. And that‘s fine, but it will take
slightly longer to use this method if that‘s the case.
Next question. Ask yourself: ―How do these things look?‖
What is the physical equivalent of the answer to the questions you asked?
Here are a few random examples:
 Speaking: Images of crowds, as if looking at them from the stage.
 Money: Gold, silver, jewels, exactly $1.000.000, so you know what it

looks like in real life.
 Living: Mansions, castles, penthouses, and elegant buildings.
Then spend half an hour finding lots of cool wallpapers that represent
what you want, get‘em, put them in the same folder, and arrange for your
background image to be switched among them every 2 hours or so.
Over time this will give your subconscious lots of repetitions of the things
you want, and you will feel more entitled to getting those things.
90. Use your cell phone

Do the same thing as above—only using your phone background.

91. Carry notes with you
Long before Jim Carrey was famous and successful, when he was young,
broke, and miserable, he would visualize himself a successful comedian
and see in his mind‘s eye how he received praise from his idols.
One day Carrey decided to write himself an imaginary check for $10
million. He then kept this check in his wallet for many years and looked at
it often. Why don‘t you do the same thing?
It doesn‘t necessarily have to be a check (I personally tried the same

tactic, but it felt phony and didn‘t work for me, so I stopped).
Still, the idea is sound in principle. Ted Turner always carries with him a
note of the top 10 World Problems to stop.
I always keep a note of my daily to-do list.
What about you?
92: See recap on next page

You’re Done
Good job.
I hope you learned a thing or two.
Now that you‘ve gone through this ordeal, you deserve a break.
Take some time to reflect on which of these tips might be most
appropriate for you to use now.
If you‘re new to these things, don‘t feel overwhelmed.
Here are the four biggest takeaways:
1) Fix your health. Get in shape. Improve your gut health.
2) Stop eating breakfast.
3) Find your Biological Prime Time and make better use of it.
4) Start a Commonplace.
These are the four simplest, most actionable and important pieces of
advice in this report. If you‘re not doing these, each one will give you a
big benefit for a small cost; large life improvements in short time.
That‘s where I‘d put my energy in and get started, if I were to have read
this report when I was 20 and just got into self-improvement.

What to Do Next
Use what works, drop what doesn‘t. Keep experimenting.

If you found this helpful, feel free to email me at:
Ludvig@startgainingmomentum.com
Good luck and be well,
More from me:

Breaking out of Homeostasis: This book is about my philosophy for self-
improvement. Learn how to gain better control over your brain and body to have
more energy, think more and become smarter, be more introspective, and continue
to develop as you grow older. Much like this guide, it’s a combination of practical
advice from different areas; like fitness & health, neuroscience, philosophy,
business, history, and my study of great historic figures. It’s been well received.
The Ultimate Commonplace System: Learn how to think better, become more
organized, and to juggle multiple projects (if you want). You’ll also learn how to be
more creative, and how you can build up an archive over your work and studies
that you can turn it into sellable products or use at work to gain a promotion. It
took me 4 years of commonplacing to codify my process in a simple way. What you
learn in TUCS is how I think and work on a daily basis. I strongly recommend it if
you’re a knowledge worker, pro creative, or an entrepreneur (I’m a mix).
Future Skills Program: Apply for the Future Skills Program, a decision making and
career skills course by myself and investor Mikael Syding. Spots generally open up
only a few times per year.
Future Skills Podcast: Prepare yourself for a future of accelerating change. The
linked text takes you to an overview page of our episodes and written summaries.
Guests include: Finance billionaire Martin Sandquist, Philosopher Alexander Bard,

Economist Tyler Cowen, Psychologist Barry Schwartz, Harvard Business Review
Walter Kiechel, Poker Pro Annie Duke, Serial Entrepreneur Ola Ahlvarsson,
Neuroscientist Elkhonon Goldberg, Grandmaster of Memory Mattias Ribbing,
Hedge Fund Manager Erik Townsend, Author Seth Godin, Dr Pippa Malmgren,
Futurist Martin Ford, and many more.
Subscribe and listen on your preferred podcast platform:
Subscribe on: iTunes | Android | Spotify | Stitcher | Soundcloud

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Copyright© 2018

The following information on nutrition, health, and fitness is merely

About the Author:

Location: Sweden, Stockholm.

Mood: Tired from doing squats and working all day.

1. How to Boost Your Energy Levels

You don‘t need to read this from cover to cover.

Feel free to skip ahead to one of the 12 areas listed above.

Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 3

Your productivity – and enjoyment – is closely tied to your ability of

1. Work by your computer standing up

2. Sit with an upright posture

3. Move around or tense your muscles frequently

This is false. A certain degree of movement is necessary to remain

Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 4

4. Observe your mental state

By monitoring your mental state and your level of concentration you'll

2. You take a break for 5-15 minutes and return to work.

Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 5

There is a high likelihood you are – or will be – a knowledge worker:

Your ability to do quality work is therefore closely related to how quickly

The feeling of being interested is closely associated with being well-rested

But in 1-4 weeks. Trust me on this.

Important conclusion: You should do the majority of your creative work or

6. Take 5-30 min power naps

Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 6

2. When practiced consistently, it allows you to concentrate for longer

8. How to use music to increase your concentration

Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 7

This is one of the most important advice in this entire eBook.

10. Don’t do more than 1-3 ―big‖ things per day

11. Do one thing at a time – don't multitask. Single-task!

Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 8

There are two particularly useful types of to-do lists:

Here's an example of typical tasks that correspond to each quadrant:

a) Those that require you to be creative and focused, where you

b) Those that don't need to be performed at your best.

Here's an example of the two different categories:

a) Writing a text, creating a speech, or solving a unique problem.

b) Answering email, meeting a friend, cooking food.

13. Create a ―not to-do‖ list

Here are a couple of examples:

- I will not watch any TV this week.

14. Categorize your problems by these three types

2. Normal problems: These happen occasionally – just often enough to

3. Unique problems: These happen rarely, and are unpredictable. Since

Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 10

1. Cooking lots of food for the rest of the week

By doing this you filter out distractions. It‘s a form of single-tasking.

16. Respect the ―law of diminishing intent‖

This is a great rule of thumb when it comes to new ideas, thoughts, or

Now, pay attention: This is important.

The law of diminishing intent is a sort of simplified all-in-one package

Anyway, the law of diminishing intent works in three ways:

3. The longer you wait to do a thing the worse your result or

1. If you can do a thing in a few minutes or less, you should do it

Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 11

Remember this: concentration is usually the scarce resource. Not

18. Avoid information overload at all costs

1. Convenience: It feels a lot safer to know what you need to know

2. To save energy: Being fed interesting information from second-hand

19. Replace all unproductive activities with reading

Ludvig Sunstrom Page | 12