Lesson Two: Life Doesn’t Need to Be Exhausting

Next week, I’m opening registration for my new course Everyday Energy. In the last essay, I discussed why we’re living through a crisis of human energy. Today, I’d like to share some thoughts on how to fix that, with insights drawn from the first month of the three-month curriculum.

Energy starts with biology. All human physical and cognitive performance is constrained by the fundamental reality that each of us exists as a biological system. When we incur debts—in sleep, stamina or stress—that remain unpaid for too long, the result is breakdown of that system.

Data show that, biologically-speaking, there’s a lot we could be doing better to enjoy greater vitality.

We’re in denial about our fitness. According to self-reports, over half of Americans meet the recommended amounts of weekly exercise. But, when that figure was measured objectively using wearable devices, only one-in-ten actually met the recommendation.

And the recommendations aren’t even optimal! Indeed, while most of us would benefit from exercising more (and a few extreme individuals would benefit from exercising less), the recommended amount of exercise is still below the amount where health benefits plateau.

We sleep poorly. Roughly a third of us fail to get enough sleep. One in ten of us have insomnia. Even worse, our sleep consistency is a disaster. Nearly 85% of people exhibit some degree of “social jet lag” with diverging weekend and weekday sleep rhythms that have a negative impact on health and energy.

The culprit is biological. The clock cells in our brains run slightly longer than a normal twenty-four hour day. Strong light cues provided by the sun constantly adjust that clock backwards. But, in our environment of bright indoor lights, insufficient daytime sunshine, and non-stop screens, we don’t get the resetting signal. Instead, we live in a state of perpetual jet lag.

Our food is fast and low-quality. While our ancestors had to worry about caloric deficits, for most of us the problem is caloric excess. Ultra-processed diets lead to energy that spikes and crashes, and subtle micronutrient deficiencies can leave us tired all the time without us knowing why.

We live in an era of anxiety. Stress in bursts energizes us, but sustained stress leaves us exhausted. Non-stop psychological threats, increasing social isolation, and fewer outlets for coping have resulted in an explosion of mental health diagnoses, and the energy-sapping effects they entail.

Turning Back the Cycle

Worse, these continual shocks to our system can form a vicious cycle. We get overwhelmed at work, so we cut back on exercise. This degrades our body’s ability to turn down the stress response. The increase in stress causes us to eat more junk food and keeps us up at night. The cycle turns, and we end up even more exhausted than we were before.

The self-reinforcing cycle of fatigue can be debilitating. We lack the very energy we need to do the things we need to gain greater energy!

The solution is to take small steps to turn the vicious cycle of energy sapping into a virtuous cycle of energy replenishment. Go to sleep ten minutes earlier. Take a brief daily walk. Learn some relaxation exercises. Switch from a late-afternoon energy drink to a healthy snack.

Small changes, implemented consistently, can build up to a great deal more energy. While the overall trends undermining the biological sources of our energy are dire, they are not destiny. Each of us has the power to live in the way our body and brain were designed—even in our modern world.

In my upcoming course, Everyday Energy, we will spend the first month making concrete changes in our daily practices to build more energy. You’ll learn the science of caffeine, the biology of stress, the neuroscience of light, and even researched-based answers to questions like whether standing desks work or which dietary changes science backs as actually boosting energy.

Energy starts with biology, but it doesn’t stop there. In the next lesson, I’ll cover some ideas drawn from the second month of the course, flow, where we dive into the psychology of work and rest, and how we can build sustainable rhythms to do the work we need to get done.