No Limits: The Art and Science of High Performance

by Mukesh Bansal

Performance Hack #4: Schedule Standing Meetings You might have heard the catchphrase, ‘Sitting is the new smoking.’ Well, if you find yourself sitting for numerous hours a day, you might want to experiment with standing meetings. Not just does standing eliminate many harmful physiological effects caused by long periods of sitting, but studies have found that standing meetings are shorter and more to the point, therefore more productive. People are more alert and less likely to get distracted or doze off. Research has also found that people are more creative and collaborative when standing during a meeting.

Short of giving up your urban lifestyle and moving to the hills, there are only a few simple precautions you can take, like wearing a pollution mask when you’re on the street, putting the windows up when you’re driving in traffic, and spending as much time as you can in nature.

The blood flows through an extensive network of arteries, veins and capillaries that add up to almost a 100 kilometres if laid out from end to end. As we age, some of our arteries suffer from wear and tear and deposits build up on their inner lining, quite similar to how a pipe may get choked over a period of time.

The best way to keep our hearts and arteries in good shape is to follow a clean, plant-based diet and to ensure regular exercise and good mental health.

Performance Hack #5: Drink Water First Thing in the Morning After sleeping for (hopefully) seven to eight hours each night, your body wakes up slightly dehydrated. The best thing you can do for your overall health and energy levels is to drink at least two glasses of water first thing in the morning, even before brushing your teeth. Hydrating can boost your energy levels and make you feel alert, rather than sluggish and slow, which might be how you wake up. Water also fuels the brain, as it is essentially 75 per cent water, keeping it well-hydrated for the day ahead. In addition to this, drinking water on an empty stomach in the morning is known to improve immunity by flushing out toxins and is related to weight loss as it stimulates metabolism. This might be one of the simplest changes you can make to your morning routine to make sure you’re at your productive best through the day.

‘There is a wisdom in the body that is older and more reliable than clocks and calendars.’ – John Harold Johnson

Performance Hack #6: Find Your Biological Prime Time Have you ever observed the time of the day when you feel most alert and active? This is called your biological prime time (BPT), and while for most adults this is early in the morning, it could differ from person to person. To harness your potential and make the most of your day, identify your BPT and plan your work around it. If you find that you hit your peak in the morning, schedule the most important or difficult tasks for the first quarter of your day. On the other hand, if you find yourself hitting your peak towards the evening, finish your busy work in the morning and save up the tough tasks for the evening. Identifying your BPT and scheduling your day according to it can be a simple but powerful way of discovering your most productive self.

‘Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.’ – William Shakespeare

Performance Hack #7: Get Some Sun Think about how you spend the first few hours of your morning. Do you stay in bed and read emails on your phone in a darkened room? Or do you get into an air-conditioned car with tinted windows to keep out the glare of the sun? What you should be doing instead is getting a little morning sunlight! Studies have shown that getting some sunlight first thing in the morning can stabilise your circadian rhythm, boost your performance and elevate your mood. People who are exposed to sunlight early in the day experience fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression and are less fatigued through the day. So go for a run in your neighbourhood or do some yoga on the terrace every morning, soaking up enough sunshine to keep yourself productive and positive throughout the day.

Performance Hack #8: Eat Mindfully We often speak of mindfulness in meditation, but have you heard of mindful eating? Given that most of us are all about working lunches and Netflix dinners, not to mention skipping breakfast and binge eating when depressed, mindful eating can lead to a healthier lifestyle that can boost your performance journey. Mindful eating is nothing but paying more attention to what you eat, when, how and why. When we eat mindlessly, we don’t pay attention to when we’re full, often eat while we are engaged in a different task, eat randomly at any time, eat alone and eat junk. Mindful eating, on the other hand, involves listening when our body tells us whether it’s hungry or full, focusing completely on eating at regular mealtimes, eating in the company of others and focusing on a nutritious meal while knowing where it came from. These little efforts at paying attention and being thoughtful about the food we eat can truly change our approach to meals and our health.

But you can start to make incremental changes, one at a time. Once you learn the trigger-action-reward loop of building habits in Chapter 9, it will become easier for you to start making dietary changes one step at a time.

The TB12 Method, which is quite instructional about how much effort he puts into maintaining his body in top shape. From getting eight to ten hours of sleep, almost always going to bed by 9 p.m., never missing a workout and following all his recovery techniques to eating a mostly plant-based diet, Brady not only manages to stay in good shape but also remains almost injury-free in one of the most injury-prone professional sports.

‘When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.’ – Lao Tzu

‘Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows.’ – Daniel J. Siegel

The average human brain weighs about fourteen hundred grams, is slightly bigger than a cricket ball and will easily fit into the palm of your hand.

‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’ – George Bernard Shaw

‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’

Performance Hack #9: Train Your Brain To take advantage of the incredible capacity of the mind, it is important to keep it active. Train your mind by doing the crossword or Sudoku puzzles and use brain training apps like Lumosity and Peak as a workout for your mind. These activities improve one’s memory, logic, verbal skills and more. Challenging your brain in this way can make you more efficient at handling the challenges that you might face on your journey to high performance.

Performance Hack #10: Take a Nature Walk Nature walks aren’t just for school children. Recent research has found that going for a stroll amidst any sort of greenery can boost your mood, reduce stress and enhance cognitive abilities like thinking and reasoning. Our ancestors spent all of their lives out in the wilderness, and it seems as though there is something in our brains that still responds positively to nature. Even a brief walk through a neighbourhood park or your grandmother’s garden can be truly restorative. Find a green spot near your home and your workplace, and head there for a quick stroll whenever the going gets tough. You can be sure that this will improve your performance.

magnetoencephalography,

‘The human brain has hundred billion neurons, each neuron connected to ten thousand other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe.’ – Michio Kaku

Performance Hack #11: Practise a Mind Dump There is no productivity without a productive system. And just like any other system, you need input data for it to work. Most of us think that we can rely on our minds and our memories, but unfortunately, we are not perfect and often, too busy to keep track of the dozens of thoughts, tasks and ideas in our heads. The best way to deal with all this information is called a mind dump. Simply write down every single thing that’s on your mind on a piece of paper. You can include things to do, things you want to do, the seeds of ideas, and long-term goals. First, set aside some time to just put it all down and then proceed to organise it into lists of things that are actionable or need to be filed away or simply deleted. This method not only helps you organise your thoughts, but also clears the mind and prepares you for a productive day of work.

‘You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.’ – Marcus Aurelius

Performance Hack #12: Meditate We talk about meditation a lot in this book, and while it is a practice of great depth and complexity, in its simplest form, it truly is one of the most effective hacks for productivity and performance. Try an app with a ten-minute guided meditation every morning, or simply chant a single word or sound repeatedly to focus your mind. Make this a habit as science has proven that you will concentrate better, focus for longer periods, feel more positive, control your temper better and overall, just get more work done.

The brain fundamentally operates on five different wavelengths: gamma (30-100 Hz), beta (13-30 Hz), alpha (9-13 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz) and delta (1-3Hz).

‘Life is 10 per cent what happens to you and 90 per cent how you react to it.’ – Charles R Swindoll

Zen: It is practised sitting in the lotus pose or on a chair. There are two variations of this meditation. You focus on the breath or just on the moment and silently observe whatever is passing through your mind, acknowledging all your thoughts. Walking meditation is a variation of this technique where you pay attention to every small detail while walking.

Vipassana: The word ‘vipassana’ means ‘clear seeing’. This is an ancient Buddhist practice that was made popular by S.N. Goenka. It starts with a deep focus on your breath, down to the minute details like airflow, temperature and the nostrils. It then moves on to a deep scanning of the body and thoughts. You observe without attachment and label whatever you notice as a passive observer. Vipassana is supposed to make you realise that you are different from your thoughts and once you realise that, you can reach a state of pure tranquillity. Mindfulness meditation: Also of Buddhist origin, but made popular in the West by Thich Nhat Hanh and Jon Kabat-Zinn, this meditation boils down to cultivating the habit of being ‘in the moment’. According to practitioners, there is no past or future, only the present moment. In the middle of an active day or while taking a break, just pay attention to the present moment in a completely non-judgemental way. Mantra (Om): The object of focus in mantra meditation is a particular symbol or sound. ‘Om’ is obviously the most popular one, but there are many variations, designed for specific vibrations that each mantra generates. These vibrations from our vocal cords travel through the brain, further enhancing the frequency modulation and also drowning out other thoughts. This technique is quite easy to practise and very effective. Transcendental Meditation: If you can believe it, this is a copyrighted version of Mantra meditation by Maharishi Mah...

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,

‘None but ourselves can free our minds.’ – Bob Marley

The hippocampus is highly compromised after a sleep-deprived night and struggles to translate new learning into any permanent skill-building. During the deep phase of sleep, the hippocampus takes memories from short-term memory to long-term memory in the cortex. Once the short-term memory has been cleaned, it is fresh and free to receive new information and hence, the process of learning is a lot more effective after a good night’s rest. As any performance enhancement requires continuous practice, exposure to new information and learning new skills, the benefits of sleep are quite obvious. Many studies have shown that elite performers, from sports to music, get nine to ten hours of sleep every night, far higher than the recommended dosage of seven to eight hours for most people.

Performance Hack #13: Nap at Noon In an era of sleep deprivation and stress, let’s be honest and admit that we could all use a nap. And naps aren’t just for toddlers and pre-schoolers anymore, as research has proven that afternoon naps can actually boost productivity. Studies have shown that napping can mitigate the effects of sleep deprivation, making one more focused, perceptive and alert when they get back to work. Naps also help in reducing stress and have been proven to boost memory, learning and even creativity. Ideally, naps should last anywhere between thirty to ninety minutes, depending on what your work schedule allows. If you sleep for longer than that, you could suffer from sleep inertia, struggle to overcome the fog of sleep, and end up feeling groggier than before.

Exercise also considerably reduces the risk of brain strokes by expanding the blood vessels carrying blood to the brain and building additional capillaries for better blood circulation.40 By boosting memory capabilities, exercise also cuts down the risk of various cognitive decline diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.41

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011).

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (HarperCollins, 1990).

Mathew Walker, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (Penguin, 2017).

‘Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.’ – Jim Ryun

As they say, ‘Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.’

Performance Hack #14: Create Your Rituals Why did some of the finest thinkers in history have some of the strangest rituals? Ludwig van Beethoven, for example, would begin his day of work only after a breakfast of coffee made with exactly sixty beans. As weird as it may sound, the significance of rituals like this one lies in the role they play in preparing the body and mind for the day’s performance. When you do the exact same thing every single day, down to the minutest detail, your body and mind respond with the exact same behaviour each time. So, developing little rituals around your work, however quirky or simple, can help you in attending to your tasks with the same focus and intensity every time, bringing out your most productive self.

Performance Hack #15: Aim for Streaks It’s important to build good habits to be able to work productively at whatever you set your mind to. One of the best ways to develop habits is to aim for streaks. In the words of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who marked an ‘x’ on the calendar for every day that he wrote a joke, ‘Don’t break the chain.’ Look at the most important goals in your life currently, and it’s likely that every single one of them relies on consistency. To write your magnum opus, you need to write every single day. To get fit, you need to exercise every day. And you can’t learn a language without practising it, day in and day out. So, work on productivity streaks. However small the commitment, start today and make sure you don’t go a single day without the activity. It might help to have a calendar so your streaks become more visible and motivate you, or download an app that helps you to keep track of your daily activity and overall productivity.

Imagine setting an alarm for 5 a.m. to go out for an early morning run. If you make it to the run on the first day, you feel energised all day, are less tempted to eat unhealthy food, feel tired at night so you sleep early, and wake up again the next morning, fresh and charged up for another run. You repeat this cycle for a few days and weeks, and not only does waking up early become a new habit, but it also ends up changing many other habits along the way, which leads to a complete transformation after a few months.

Performance Hack #16: Same Task, Same Time, Every Day You might have read about priming the mind, or preparing yourself to perform well every single day. One of the ways to do this is to carve out a specific time to work on a particular task, and then repeat that task at the same time every day. While it seems unlikely that something like this could work, with time, you will discover that you automatically gravitate towards that task at the same time every day. If you workout at 7 a.m. every morning, then you’ll put on your shoes and head out for a run or go to the gym as soon as you wake up, without even thinking about it. Before you know it, your habit will set the tone for your entire morning and skipping the workout will leave you feeling lethargic and disoriented. Or if you want to write that book, sit at the desk at exactly the same time every day. Gradually, this habit will work itself into your daily schedule and you’ll be churning out pages at an amazing pace.

Keystone habits are those that have a ripple effect on other habits and pretty much dictate your day.

domino effect.

You can literally change yourself by changing one keystone habit.

Performance Hack #17: Summarise Your Day Wrapping up your workday is something you may not pay much attention to, but it can play an important role in improving your productivity. Apart from clearing out your inbox and organising your desk, one of the key tasks that you can include in your routine is to jot down a summary of your day in a diary. This summary can include the key tasks you completed, which will give you a sense of accomplishment, as well as your thoughts and perceptions on how the day went. In addition to this, you can list out the main tasks to be done the next day, thus clearing your mind of all pending and incomplete tasks. With this done, you can get on with an evening of relaxation, knowing that you’ve had a good day and that you’re clear about the next day’s schedule.

Performance Hack #18: Eat Your Frog First Sounds disgusting, right? But this might be the single most important change you can make to your daily schedule to perform at optimum productivity. Mark Twain famously said that if the first thing you do in the morning is eat a live frog, then the worst thing that could possibly happen to you that day is already behind you. The frog, in this analogy, is your most important task. It might seem frightful and impossible, and something you may have been dreading and putting off for weeks. But if you can make sure this task is the very first thing you attack in your day, you will find that it isn’t as bad as you thought and is quite doable. And once you’ve eaten that frog, you will be filled with a sense of accomplishment that will drive you to complete the rest of your to-do list.

Performance Hack #19: Take Ten Even on days when you feel like you just can’t afford to take a break because of how much you have to do, it’s still important to take one. In fact, it’s important to schedule breaks into your workday. One way of doing this is to set a timer for one hour and settle down to work. During this hour, don’t allow any distractions to hijack your attention, and stay focused on the task at hand. When the hour is up, set the timer again for ten minutes and give yourself a break. Ideally when you’re on your break, take a quick walk around your office or step onto the balcony for fresh air. But if you’ve been itching to check your email and social media notifications then do that, so you aren’t distracted by them once your next hour of work begins. You will find that working with ten-minute breaks every hour makes you more productive than if you work for several hours without a single break in-between.

Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Random House, 2012).