Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness collaborate on Peak Performance, an exploration of the tools and habits from the most successful people today. Brad and Steve began their teenage and early adult years as successful people but ended up burning out because they did not manage their intense drive properly.
Below is a summary of the main concepts of Peak Performance with actionable steps that will help you maximise output for the long term and avoid burnout.
In the short term it is possible to give everything you've got working towards your goal, especially when you are young. But this is not sustainable and almost always leads to burnout.
Regardless of their field, the best performer's cycle between ferocious intensity and complete rest and recovery. Physical and mental work is exactly the same in this respect, without rest your performance degrades over time.
Find the point at which your work begins to suffer due to fatigue and make sure you take a break prior to that point. During your rest you must completely detach yourself from this task in order to recover completely before the next round.
It is this cycle of intense, focused work and recovery that is optimum for sustained growth over time.
Just like physical energy, your mental energy is finite and limited. While running a marathon you wouldn't stop periodically to do some weights, so don't interrupt your mental work with other distractions.
Brad and Steve discussed an experiment where participants were split into two groups. The participants were sat down in a room with freshly cooked cookies, one group was told they could eat as many cookies as they wanted and the second group was asked not to eat any. Both groups were then asked to perform a mentally challenging task.
The group who had to resist eating the cookies performed worse than the group who hadn't expended any energy resisting temptation. Our mental energy is limited and can be depleted on any other mental stress, even though it is a very different kind of stress.
A distraction in the form of a desirable image can even deplete your mental capacity. Think about the allure of social media, which is specifically designed to keep you engaged. Even a quick check of your social media accounts while trying to engage in deep mental work will deplete your limited reserves of energy. You're thinking of checking social media right now, aren't you?
During periods of deep work avoid all other distractions and keep focused. When you near your fatigue point rest and do not allow yourself to be distracted by something that will deplete your energy further. When it is time to rest you must rest fully.
Stress can be positive, triggering growth and desirable improvement, or it can be negative causing harm. Positive growth occurs when we push ourselves just beyond out limits and hold ourselves in that point of discomfort for a period of time.
Skills improve when we struggle. Brad and Steve discuss a study on students that found when they were allowed to struggle with difficult questions without help from the teacher they improved performance over students that were given help straight away.
Another study of student violinists looked at the difference between the practice of high performing students and those not doing as well. What they found is that it is not the actual time spent practicing that made the biggest difference, but the intensity and focus of the practice itself.
The difference between practice and perfect practice is deliberately focusing on a difficult task with the deepest of concentration. Practice in the zone where things are uncomfortable and stay in that discomfort. It is this discomfort, followed by rest, that stimulates growth.
Multitasking is not efficient and has been scientifically proven to be impossible. The brain doesn't hold two tasks in the head at one time but switches between one task and the next. This switching process comes at a cost, and according to Brad and Steve, it is this switching cost that degrades efficiency.
A common example of multitasking is when we chat on discord, even if it is with work colleagues, while we are working on our main task. Even if we switch tasks between one important task and another the over-all quality and quantity of our work suffers.
Do you like to check social media throughout the day? Social media is a productivity killer and even having your phone in visible range degrades your attention. Even if your phone is set to silent you might find your eyes wandering to the screen to see if you have any notifications.
Moving your phone out of view keeps it out of your mind and removes the cognitive bandwidth from constantly glancing at it. Cal Newport talks a lot about this in his book Deep Work.
Brad and Steve, in speaking to elite performers, found that they turn the feeling of stress into a positive experience by viewing it as excitement instead.
Simply telling yourself 'I am excited', according a study Brad and Steve site, shifts your response from a threat mindset to an opportunity mindset. How you view something fundamentally shifts how your brain responds to the stimulus. Viewing stress as excitement turns a 'negative' experience into a growth opportunity.
We have all heard that stress is bad and unhealthy, but did you know that studies actually show that if viewed in a positive light stress can increase life expectancy by up to 43%? (Source)
Mindfulness is the technique of being fully present in the moment, letting go of the constant intrusive thoughts and relaxing the mind. This relaxation and clearing of the mind leads the ability to focus more and increases creativity.
Researchers found that regular meditation increases the cortical thickness of the brain and slows the age related decline of the same brain area (source). A strong prefrontal cortex helps us respond better to both physical and mental stress.
Brad and Steve discuss athletes who are trained in mindfulness and how they are able to detach themselves from the pain they feel during intense exercise. Being able to detach themselves from the pain during a race helps them relax and reduce the overall stress of the event.
Have you ever been stuck on a difficult problem and been unable to solve it, only to have the solution pop into your head later after you have stopped thinking about it? Strangely, this is a function of how our mind works. Paradoxically by taking a break from thinking about a task can actually help solve the issue with spontaneous creative insights.
By taking breaks during difficult tasks that we aren't able to solve we give our brain space to come up with creative solutions. Brad and Steve suggest that the more difficult the problem the bigger the break should be.
By stepping away from our work it gives our subconscious mind time to work on it in the background. It is our subconscious mind that can come up with creative insights and new ways of looking at the problem. By not working on the problem directly we can improve our ability to solve the problem.
Mathew Walker talks about the importance of sleep in Why We Sleep. Poor sleep impacts every aspect of your physical and mental health. Next to healthy diet and exercise sleep is one of the three pillars to an optimum life.
Let's invert: If you want to degrade your mental and physical health, increase your risk of death from all causes, degrade your performance at work and look less attractive, sleeping poorly is how you would do it.
Good sleep is crucial for peak performance, and I highly recommend you read Mathew Walkers' book (linked above) for a deeper description of the benefits of sleep.
Stephen King describes how he gets into a state of creative flow: he turns up, at the same time every day, to his office and begins to type. Routine, King says, is being in the same place every day so that his 'muse' knows where to show up.
By creating good habits and routines that compliment our work we increase our ability to get into a flow state. A flow state is the optimum mental space where creativity and productivity are at their peak. Think of a guitarist in the midst of an epic solo on stage, as they effortlessly belt out the notes they are in a state of flow. This state of flow is what we get when our good habits of work, rest and looking after our health compound over time.
James Clear talks about consistency in his book Atomic Habits. Consistency over time is the key to being effective and producing results that matter. In the same way that investing in the stock market's S&P 500 produces staggering results when money is invested early and left alone to compound, consistently working towards a goal results in the greatest results.
In ordinary situations we will stop working well short of our limits. Have you ever heard of people performing unbelievable feats of strength when someone's life is in danger? This capability is something we can harness to improve our work capacity.
By focusing on a goal that is not just about us, but something of much greater importance, we can increase our work output and stamina over time. If we focus on something beyond ourselves it reduces our negative self talk and self limits, and we achieve more than we ever thought possible.
Human's are social creatures and perform best when in socially cohesive groups. By focusing on something greater than ourselves it not only improves motivation but increases the joy and fulfillment we get by working towards that goal.
There is lots of evidence that positive self talk improves our performance. The inverse of this is obviously true, when we indulge in negative self talk it degrades our work, decreases effectiveness and increases the likelihood that we will quit. Think of the difference between a parent who is constantly praising and encouraging you compared to one who continually points out your faults and failings.
From an outsider's perspective it seems like the USA is so successful in business because, on average, the population is constantly engaged in positive self talk. Positive self talk is also talked about a lot in the self-improvement literature in the form of journaling. When we journal and focus on all the positive aspects of our day, we live a happier and more productive life.
In situations of deep stress and difficulty, instead of viewing it as a negative turn it into a sign of excitement and a positive stimulus for growth. Channel the difficulty through positive self talk and realise that it is only through doing hard things that true growth and greatness occurs.
Brad and Steve have written an interesting and compelling book, well worth the read. This article is only my summary of the key points that resonated with me. Brad and Steve merge the science of peak performance with compelling real-world stories that make for an engaging read. I recommend you pick up the book yourself and incorporate their tools into your life.