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Optimize each day, not a rulebook
Optimizing within constraints
The constraints are real: a sick family member, jet lag, a deadline, a newborn, or a vacation after plenty of rest. Optimization has to meet those conditions, and it looks across a window that fits them, whether that is the next month or two before a deadline or the next six to twelve months with a newborn. There is no simple rule like cutting back on exercise when traveling, since some people exercise more and eat better on the road and others take a vacation as a chance to do nothing at all.
Protocols that last
The protocols that last are the ones a person enjoys and that clearly give energy, because a liked protocol is more likely to get done. Consistency is the second test. Six exercise sessions a week can work when some are brief, such as a high-intensity interval session of six to twelve minutes. Feeling that everything has to be done all the time leads to burnout or to resentment of the whole protocol project.
Obligation and burnout
Stress from feeling an obligation can be addressed one of three ways: changing the attitude toward the habit, checking whether it can be done consistently, and checking for resentment, which turns on oneself or on whoever prescribed it. A neurotic effort to get everything exactly right can lead, in the long run, to a kind of health optimization burnout.
How do researchers measure burnout?
Christina Maslach and Susan Jackson published the Maslach Burnout Inventory in 1981. It scores three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, cynicism or detachment, and a reduced sense of accomplishment. The World Health Organization's ICD-11 describes burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
How long does a habit take to become automatic?
Phillippa Lally and colleagues at University College London followed 96 volunteers who each picked a daily behavior. Their 2009 paper in the European Journal of Social Psychology found that reaching automaticity took anywhere from 18 to 254 days. The median was 66 days. Missing a single day did not noticeably derail the process.
Why do short interval sessions work?
Martin Gibala and colleagues at McMaster University compared sprint interval training with traditional endurance training in a 2006 study in The Journal of Physiology. Sprint training took roughly a quarter of the training time. Both groups showed similar gains in muscle oxidative capacity, the muscle's ability to use oxygen for energy.
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