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“It says I’m a Sage. This explains so much!” JW
Dear {{ first name | Legend}},
Have you ever felt a slump or a dip in your productivity?
One moment you’re in a flow state, cranking out pages or slides and the next moment you find yourself mindlessly scrolling on Instagram?
Most productivity advice centers around hacks, planners, timers or simply powering through 12 hour days. The truth is that 5 hours of focused work gets more accomplished than 12 distracted ones.
So how do we do that?
By going with along with how our brain works, not fight against it.
That’s what I learned after speaking with Dr. Brynn Winegard.
Dr. Brynn is an award-winning professor, neuroscientist, author and business speaker who bridges brain science and leadership. Her work translates decades of cognitive research into practical tools for better thinking, decision-making, and peak performance. She’s been featured in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Global News for helping leaders work smarter — literally. (Check out her book: The Working Brain)
In this issue, I’m going to distill our session into a playbook you can immediately put into practice.
Heartset: You can’t out-hustle your biology
When your brain hits that foggy wall, the one where your attention slips and you start craving sugar or scrolling your phone, that’s not weakness.
That’s your neurochemistry sending a signal.
“Your brain climbs, peaks, and falls, and then it needs about twenty minutes of rest for synapses to replenish and reorganize.”
Face it, we are simply a bag of chemicals with limbs. When we ignore these chemical signals and just try to “power through” we’re fighting against our biology and 9 out of 10 times, we will lose (it’s probably more like 10/10 😅.)
Mindset: Think of productivity not as binary, think of it as a wave
Stop treating productivity as you’re on or you’re off.
You are not a robot.
“Your brain doesn’t have infinite performance to give. The idea that you can power through to infinitum — that’s incorrect. When you try, your brain protects itself by making you emotionally volatile.”
Instead, think of productivity as a wave: rising, cresting, falling, and recovering.
High performance isn’t about intensity. It’s about recovery intelligence, the ability to know when to stop before you crash.
Skillset: The Ultradian Productivity Playbook
The word “ultradian” (from Latin ultra = “beyond” + dies = “day”) refers to cycles that repeat more than once in 24 hours.
It was first formally described by Nathaniel Kleitman in the 1950s, who identified the Basic Rest-Activity Cycle (BRAC) in sleep — roughly 90-minute intervals between REM and non-REM states.
Later, researchers such as Ernest Rossi and Lloyd and Rossi (1982) popularized the idea that this same ~90-minute cycle also governs waking performance, mood, and attention.
Dr. Brynn expanded on this and aligned productivity with neurophysiology.
Ride the Wave
A. The Climb (0–30 min)
You’re ramping up. Slight restlessness.
Energy building but not yet stable.
Feels like “warming up the engine.”
Ideal time for planning, outlining, or reviewing.
B. The Peak (30–75 min)
Hyperfocus.
Sense of effortless immersion.
Time distortion (“Whoa, it’s already been an hour?”).
Best time for deep work, creative synthesis, decisions.
C. The Fall (75–90 min)
Subtle irritability or fatigue.
Eyes wander. Attention fragments.
Desire for sugar, caffeine, or scrolling.
You’re entering the valley. Time to stop before burnout.
D. The Valley (90–110 min)
Step away. Move. Breathe.
Your synapses are replenishing neurotransmitters.
The rest is the work.
After ~20 minutes of genuine recovery (no screens), your next climb begins automatically.
Pro-tip 1: Schedule Distractions
The moment you start scrolling (Instagram, news, Slack), you are getting micro-doses of dopamine, which feels like relief but actually steals the neurochemical fuel you need for deep work.
So, during the 90-minute sprint:
Don’t scroll to escape focus.
Instead, write down distractions on a “Later” list.
Promise your brain it’ll get the dopamine treat during the valley, that’s when scrolling actually helps you recover.
If you can make this simple shift — postponing the scroll instead of prohibiting it — you’ll double your focus duration without feeling deprived.
Pro-tip 2: Watch for HALT
HALT = Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.
Those emotions are telling you that your brain is in the valley and it needs something else. Don’t make any critical decisions when you feel them, instead: stop... then eat something, perform a breathing exercise, call a friend or take a power nap. Once you’ve rested for close to 20 minutes, get back into your wave.
Pro-tip 3: Honor the Valley
Take 15–20 minutes of true rest. No phone, no inbox if possible. Walk, stretch, breathe, or just stare out a window. This is when your brain is resetting its chemicals, getting ready for the next wave.
Pro-tip 4: Protect Your Mornings
“There’s this crescendo effect where about forty-five to fifty minutes after you’ve woken up, that’s kind of your most productive self. Most people waste that miracle window doing the wrong things.”
Your most creative, high-fidelity brain shows up 45–60 minutes after waking.
Don’t waste it on emails. Use it for deep, strategic, creative work. Even better, Dr. Brynn recommends priming your brain the night before with a question or a problem to solve. Your brain will work through it overnight and in the morning, as you write, you might find a surprise solution waiting for you!
The takeaway here is that you can’t hack your biology, but you can partner with it.
🧭 Bonus: How to Find Your Rhythm
Everyone’s ultradian rhythm length varies slightly (some people have 70-minute cycles, others 110). Here’s how to personalize it:
Pick a morning. Work in silence, without meetings or caffeine.
Set a timer for 90 minutes but don’t watch the clock.
Notice the moment your focus naturally breaks — that’s your personal “fall.”
The total time from “energized” to “I need a break” is your rhythm length.
Once you’ve found it, protect it like a trade secret. Schedule your deepest work to match that arc.
If you like this issue about the neuroscience of productivity, you’ll love:
Master Your Mind: The Secret to Less Stress and More Meaningful Connections (3 scientifically proven tools you can use immediately.)
How to Influence Yourself to be Indestructible (4 steps to achieve anything you want in life.)
How to Unlock Your Super Memory…to Sell (Three memory strategies.)
Change behavior, change lives 🤘🏽
Howie Chan
Creator of Influence Anyone
P.S. If you haven’t already, go take the free assessment and find out your preferred influence style!
Don’t miss: The Influence Anyone Podcast
What if your exhaustion, irritability, and constant urge to scroll aren’t signs you’re doing something wrong but signs your brain is doing exactly what it evolved to do?
In this episode, I sit down with neuroscientist Dr. Brynn Winegard to explore the invisible forces shaping how we think, decide, and perform—and why being smart, experienced, or successful may actually make us more vulnerable to certain cognitive traps.
We dig into stories and ideas you won’t find in the newsletter:
Why the more of an expert you become, the less you rely on data and the more your brain defaults to shortcuts you don’t even notice
The uncomfortable truth about how high-stakes decisions are often made emotionally first and only rationalized after the fact
How leaders unknowingly sabotage their own judgment by trusting experience at the exact moment they should be questioning it
If you want to understand how expertise quietly changes the way your brain decides, why recovery shapes judgment more than intelligence, and how to design your workday to protect your thinking—not just your output—this episode will permanently change how you see performance and leadership.