Brain Intervals for Productivity
the Ultradian Rhythm
Have you heard about ultradian rhythms? Neither had I… until recently when I heard about it on a podcast.
In brief, it’s ~90-minute cycles of when our brain is most productive.
There’s something about 90-minutes because we sleep in 90-minute intervals too, so out of curiosity, I dug into it a bit.
Naturally our bodies go through cycles of activity and recovery. If we work with the natural ebbs and flows… that’s how we can harness “peak productivity” or “flow state.”
Physiologically, we’re at our “peak” when dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine are optimally elevated.
As the ultradian rhythm comes to an end (after about 90 minutes), that’s when those 3 neurotransmitters are relatively depleted, and adenosine is built up (which makes you want rest/recovery).
Then a crazy thought crossed my mind – “could the Pomodoro Technique pair with Ultradian Rhythms?!”
Well, I say yes.
(The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method in which you do focused work during 25-minute intervals followed by 5 minutes of rest.)
Could you do 3 Pomodoro cycles inside 1 Ultradian cycle? That’d be 90 minutes.
So this is my theory:
You do 3 Ultradian cycles on a workday, and each cycle contains 3 Pomodoro cycles. Each Ultradian cycle is followed by 90 minutes of recovery.
9 Pomodoro Cycles within 3 Ultradian Cycles with Two 90-minute recovery intervals in between = a very productive 7.5 hour workday.
90 minutes ultradian
90 minutes recovery
90 minutes ultradian
90 minutes recovery
90 minutes ultradian
Obviously workdays aren’t inside a vacuum… but if yours are, here is your blueprint for MAX PRODUCTIVITY (haha).
Allllll that to say… whether brain intervals or sprint intervals…
Intervals are good for you 😄