Should I exercise first or harvest my prime time first?

THERE IS A CONFLICT

There is a conflict, at least seemingly, between doing our exercise first thing in the morning and using our biological prime time for thinking and productivity.


THE BENEFITS OF EARLY EXERCISE

It is fully established that one will gain benefits for the next 12 hours from exercising to a reasonable degree.

That would mean that we should exercise in the morning, to increase our metabolism and mood for the day.  And if we do our exercise first thing in the morning, it will be guaranteed to have been done and to not be blown off later in the day - exercising later "when we can fit it in" or when we are tired (when our willpower is at a low and we very likely will not do it, for whatever "lower mind" reason).

Makes sense.


THE BENEFITS OF USING OUR "HIGH FUNCTIONING" TIME EARLY IN THE DAY

But, it is also fully established that we should fully utilize our biological prime time, where we are most alert, most able to learn and assimilate, most able to think and make good decisions, most able to be productive in general.  Only a fool (unwise or unknowledgeable person) would waste this golden time to purchase what is worth mere pennies in life.

And, surely, it seems that a 1/2 to 1 hour of exercise in the morning would interrupt this prime time (for most people prime time occurs first thing in the day, as we get "tired" and far, far less able later in the day).


ENGAGING "SUPERHERO"!

Yes, we have a true conflict here.

So it is time to engage our SuperHero, that we were given at birth, to resolve the conflict, right now!!!!.

Our Higher Brain, which is "designed" to do the "executive", high level thinking and formulating and planning, is our SuperHero, available at any time when notified.

The "available at any time" is true, but it is barely available at times, such as when the overall brain system is in fear (and in a type of fear called anxiety) or we are fatigued (at a lower level of functioning capability).

During the those latter times, we have to have already installed a capability to "turn on the switch" to get the attention of the higher brain, even if we have to stagger to it.

To be able to do that, we must install the "neuronal pathway" (roughly "memory trigger") by using the higher brain to "train" the lower brain to automatically see that something is awry and that it is time to bring in "SuperBrain" to save the day (or least some of it)!!!!
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Daniel Kahnemann, the psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics(!), writes on how to do this in his bestselling book Thinking, Fast And Slow,  summarized on the site in the piece System One And System Two- Our Gifts To Work With,  The "systems" are, of course, our higher brain and our lower brain.


AND, THE DECISION IS...!!!!

My decision, as is frequently true of decisions, is to make a tradeoff.

From my observations of myself, it is vital that I do the exercise in the morning, but I also make it easier for me to do it, so that my lower brain is less likely to pull me off course.

#1.  It assures that I do it.
#2.  I feel better all morning
#3.  It adds to my biological prime time (from my observations, and also logical)

While the exercise may only add as little as, say, a 1/2 hour of biological primetime (but probably more), doing the exercise is valuable in itself that it is more important to assure that I do it than to do it at "the optimal time".  Of course, I will not be doing it at the optimal time, if I don't do it in the first place!  I have observed that the failure rate is far greater when I put it off to the famously unproductive "later".

And, so it goes, I now have the habit of "early in the morning", right after my stabilization time (eat, coffee, inspirational reading and/or using my Reminders Notebook top readings), exercising and then, religiously utilizing my biological prime time without any wasting of it to create that which is most valuable in my life.

So, I recommend that you "bother to" engage your higher brain to make a decision that is vital to your having a great life.

Will you do it?

Let me know, if you will, your thoughts and/or experiences with this.

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A little side note:

An intelligent "nice person" who "intends well" and who diligently tries to gather information to improve his life will often fail to do so if he does not follow these rules:

1.  Engage and use the higher brain for planning, learning, assimilating and decision making.
2.  Harvest all of the information you get so that you reach the point of being able to use it.  (Not doing the latter causes the gathering of information to be of zero value - a major, major, major mistake in life.  Do not even start gathering information you will not use - instead, take the time to harvest the information that is useful!!!) [See Effective Learning.]
3.  Utilize your golden biological prime time for ONLY that which requires the higher brain functioning well and high value productivity!!!!
4.  Always do FIRST that which is of more value, never allow the "minors to push out the majors" of life.

Daniel, our prototypical "stuck" person, sporadically uses "productivity time blocks" to "produce work units" but almost never engages his higher brain (his intelligence) to run the show OR he is so fatigued or anxious that he can't functionally use his higher brain.

Consequently, he makes decisions that are often faulty and counterproductive and "ruinous" (his words)to his life and happiness.

To succeed, he needs to learn that he MUST engage, and set aside time for using his Higher Brain for many hours of the day.  He makes the mistake, for instance, of allocating the most valuable activity (Life Learning And Implementation) to "fitting in the cracks, when he has time...later" or into his low productivity hours.

Besides planning and "thinking" (Warren Buffett spends a huge number of hours doing this in addition to his huge number of hours reading.), one might use the Higher Brain time to analyze and correct erroneous beliefs and to redesign one's systems and actions to produce more happiness and productivity.  Without these, people will tend to leave their lives "stuck" in the no-progress zone.
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(In order to make more of a difference in people's lives, the reach of this website must be increased by word of mouth.  I have not publicized it yet, so it only has a few people who have randomly discovered it, among 100's of millions of sites.

You referring it to others is the only way to get the word out - and to get people to at least be exposed to the good that it can do, for those who choose to use it.  By doing this, you will be contributing to others - and perhaps be courageous in doing so, in standing for others having a better life, not that there is anything wrong with them, but because they can learn so much more that will make their lives better. See How You Can Help - Without A Boost From You The Mission Might Not Happen.)