Optimization of Life – “How to Do It Right”

The word optimization is everywhere. People are using technology, wearables, and wellness and other guidelines to optimize different aspects of their life – perfect their sleep and readiness, recharge their body battery, gain the recommended number of steps and active minutes, optimize their caloric intake, or balance their cortisol levels. Perhaps using smart mattresses, sleep or infrared masks, or ice buckets to boost their recovery. The list goes on…  

It’s great that people are paying attention to how they live. Our lives are busy and the world is filled with uncertainty, not-so-great choices, temptations, and things that can seriously challenge our well-being. We need an “optimization strategy” to counter all that and keep ourselves sane – hopefully even happy and healthy. But is it meaningful to ask “how to do it right”, as I did in my title? Probably not! Rephrasing it as “how to find the right level of optimization” or “how to identify the strategies that work for me” might be a lot more beneficial.  

A LinkedIn post I read some weeks ago noted that “you must stabilize before you optimize” (thanks Sophia Hodges from Human Energy Optimisation). That’s it, spot-on! We need to get the basics right – stabilize our system – before we start looking at smaller details or experimenting with additional strategies. For example, popping melatonin is not going to help if your sleep routine and rhythm is all over the place. Or 5 mins of deep breathing is not going to fix your stress problem if you are running from one thing to the next all day, or if your workload is unsustainably high. You need to work on your sleep habits or address your overbooked day – and only after that, consider additional optimization strategies.  

Do You Have a Tendency to Over-Optimize?

To discuss this topic, a bit exaggeratedly, I grouped people into two broad “wellness personality” categories. Of course, most of us fit somewhere in between the extremes, but identifying what end of the spectrum you tend to navigate to can help you avoid some typical pitfalls.   

The “over-optimizers” try every trick in the book and tune-up all aspects of their life to maximize wellbeing and aim for a perfect balance, perhaps with a tendency to take this to costly, exhausting, or at times silly extremes… They might walk around the block at 9 pm to achieve their daily “step badge” – or stop the car on a highway shoulder in sleeting rain and run in place for a few minutes to reach their hourly movement goal (true story; I was there…). The scope of what’s possible might be quite narrow for over-optimizers, for example if the timing doesn’t fit their fully optimized daily schedule. When life throws a curve ball on their path, it can wreak havoc on their sense of control and balance. 

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for good strategies! I’m no stranger to having to skip fun-sounding evening events (or glasses of champagne…) to try to ensure good sleep. I book my gym workout in my calendar because I know it’s really good for me, but if it’s not in the calendar, I WILL find a way to skip it because it’s not my favorite form of exercise… But if optimization is taken to the extreme, it can start dictating our lives a bit too much and take away spontaneous enjoyment. There needs to be some wiggle room and flexibility even in the best optimization strategy! Sometimes the mental health benefits of a late night with friends or skipping a scheduled workout to just “be”, can be bigger than the temporary imbalance it causes in the overall plan.  

If some of those somewhat exaggerated characterizations sound familiar, make sure you also give yourself a break now and then. Grouping your strategies into “non-negotiables” versus “negotiables” can make it easier to know when to stick to your guns and when to ease off. Or perhaps consider the 80% principle – instead of aiming for rigid perfection in all areas, could it be enough to make the right choices 80% of the time?  

Is Under-Optimizing More Your Style?

The “under-optimizers” have a more laissez faire -approach to wellness and life. They prefer leaving things less structured and planned, figuring that a relaxed attitude will help them enjoy life, live in the moment, and avoid stress. Perhaps they skip exercise whenever they feel a bit tired or when the weather is bad – or put fun ahead of sleep every time because “who wants to sleep their life away.” Guidelines about exercise, sleep, nutrition or alcohol are fine – as long as they don’t interfere with life and enjoyment!  

A more relaxed attitude has its charm – and can even support better mental health. Over-performers and people with perfectionist tendencies have been shown to be more prone to burnout and some mental health conditions. But the relaxed attitude also comes with a caveat. If you put pleasure ahead of wellness guidelines too often or are very far from the 80% principle, it’s likely that little by little, your health and wellness risks will increase, whether it’s your cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, fitness, bad sleep, or lack of energy. With age, this will inevitably become more noticeable.  

If you recognize the tendency to under-optimize; opt for the comfortable and avoid guidelines, consider starting with just a few non-negotiables that you won’t compromise on (almost no matter what). Leave room for spontaneity but also be aware of the areas that will hurt your health and well-being unless you pay attention to them. Start respecting the importance of sleep. Consider the 80% rule for your eating habits. Build movement into your daily routines to make sure it’s not the 1st thing to go when life gets busy … 

Data Can Point You in the Right Direction

One of the biggest benefits of a 3-5-day Firstbeat Life measurement, done together with a wellness professional, is that it provides a unique view into daily life, allowing people to better understand their overall load and see the effect of daily habits on recovery – to help focus and personalize their wellness strategy. Sensible use of personal wearable devices can provide similar insights, as long as the data is not taken too literally. The example below highlights the value of data as a learning tool. It’s easy to see that the hard run at 8 pm (high blue bar, with a high heart rate spike) probably wasn’t the best sleep strategy after a long workday; it left the body wired for many hours. Understanding this can help the person balance their exercise and recovery in a sensible way over the course of the week and keep the overall load manageable.  

Figure 1. This Firstbeat Life result shows a long workday, followed by a hard evening run and poor recovery during sleep.  

Optimization Is a Highly Personal Matter

How much and what one should “optimize” is a highly personal matter. There are core wellness guidelines that everyone needs to pay attention to (“sleep enough – eat well – move”), but beyond that, recognizing your personality and your typical pitfalls and strengths can be a good next step. Build a strategy that works for you! Wellness is not easy – it requires some discipline – but it also shouldn’t be so hard that it wears us out or causes extra stress.   

Wellbeing Optimization: How to Find the Right Balance?

Key takeaways:

• Stabilize before you optimize: get the basics of sleep, recovery, movement, and nutrition in place first.
• Avoid chasing perfection: not every wellbeing metric needs to be optimized.
• Know your non-negotiables: identify the habits that have the greatest impact on your wellbeing.
• Stay flexible: Leave room for unplanned things and imperfections.
• Use data as a guide: physiological data can help you understand how your body responds to different choices.