Increasing productivity using biohacking methods
Performance of small companies is closely related to personal productivity of entrepreneurs. Their burnout, tiredness and sicknesses are no less damaging to the business than crises and pandemics. Biohacking can help prevent that.
According to renowned biohacker Sviatoslav Khanenko, the way a business manager or owner keeps a close eye on a balanced scorecard (finance, internal business processes, customers, business development) should also be applied to everything that belongs to personal and professional life. Like to project management of comprehensive wellbeing.
Biohacking is a set of actions aimed to increase the quality and duration of human life. It often includes correction of diet, physical exercising and meditations, taking special drugs and psychological trainings. Biohackers build all life improving actions on the basis of analyses and medical tests: taking a test – starting a “treatment”, taking a test again – making corrections. They look for the ways of “optimizing” the state and capabilities of humans based on five blocks of parameters that comprise the notion of health: body, spirit, mind, social relations and environment, Sviatoslav explains. There are almost 2000 of these parameters, including weight, percentage content of visceral fat, screening analyses, etc. A medical biohacker processes and analyzes the data they gather, finds deviations, makes comparisons, builds the cause-and-effect relationship, and prepares a health improvement program.
Certain technological solutions are usually expected from a method with such a pretentious name. But as it turns out, the principles of “hacking” into the human body are quite simple.
The first block of prescriptions issued by specialists consists of basic recommendations in six areas: drinking regime (half a liter of water in the morning, and drinking the total of 80% of the entire daily intake by 4 pm), nutrition (reducing consumption of fast carbohydrates), physical exercises, psycho-emotional state (meditation), quitting bad habits. If you take at least three recommendations from each area, that would make 18 new habits, and to develop them you will need energy. Therefore, the first steps toward management of a health project must be minimal. In biohacking, it is important to evenly spread efforts to achieve the desired results. You can expect the first expressive positive changes in three months.
Top 10 “biohacks” that improve business effectiveness
1. Tempering
Tempering increases your workability, reduces proneness to sickness and improves your general state. Choose a procedure you’d be comfortable with: rubdown, contrast shower, dousing or cryosauna. A vivid example of this biohack is Wim Hof’s achievements.
2. Working in 90-minute periods
Anders Eriksson, a professor at Florida State University, studied activity of renowned specialists and concluded that to achieve greater productivity, one has to start working in the morning and split work tasks into three 90-minute sessions. He applied this technique to write a book, and completed it two times faster than his previous book on which he worked 10 hours a day, not 4.5 as on the second one.
3. White noise
According to studies, the sound of a message arriving to your phone or a workmate talking on the phone is very distracting, just like music. Our brain is “geared” toward saving life first, and before it realizes that no danger is coming from the emanating sound, you have already lost your focus. White noise, which is the best suppressor of irritating sounds, may become the solution to this problem and to the sleeplessness caused by unusual noises. A lot of white noise records can be found on YouTube. But even in this case, you have to take into account your personal preferences and watch the reaction of your body to sounds.
4. Box breathing
Breathing practices can lower your stress level, help you fall asleep fast, improve digestion and increase productivity. Take note of the box breathing techniques used by special operations troops, which are recommended by Mark Divine, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL Commander. Breathe in slowly, imagining that you are climbing on the side of a box by four counts. Hold your breath for four counts, and then walk on the top of the box while counting from one to four. Keep going like that along the entire perimeter. This breathing rhythm allows to focus attention in a stressful situation.
5. Nutrition and biologically active additives
To ensure productivity, it is obviously important to maintain the right diet and water balance, minimize sugar and alcohol consumption, drink meltwater, etc. However, you can also maximize the energy of your body by taking bioactive compounds, such as, for example, polyphenols, Omega 3 polyunsaturated fats, creatine, vitamin D3, magnesium, coenzyme Q10.
6. Light therapy
Red light therapy and near infrared light therapy (RLT/NIR) helps increase functionality of your body’s cells. By absorbing this light, cell mitochondria transform it into energy, charging batteries of the carrier of these cells and rejuvenating the entire body.
7. Ozone therapy
It is used as a treatment and rejuvenation method with the energy inflow effect. Administered intravenously.
8. Transcranial electrical stimulation by alternating/direct current
During this procedure, a computer determines the exact form of electromagnetic waves that can change the brain’s activity in the best way: if electric current passes through your body, you will be producing energy faster.
9. Sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber
In this chamber, a person breathes pure oxygen under pressure. A recommended course consists of 20 sessions. One hour is enough to recover from a hard day or a long flight. However, it is recommended to sleep without additional oxygen feed.
10. Physical exercising
From the viewpoint of evolutionary medicine, in the event of low-active lifestyle typical for today’s society, human brain adapts itself to that and lowers its cognitive ability, submitting to the most energy-efficient strategy. As the person becomes older, it leads to the brain atrophy. Therefore, scientists recommend intensive aerobic exercises for those who want to remain productive as long as possible.
