Life Isn’t an Assembly Line - Tap Into Your Brain’s Natural Rhythms for Peak Efficiency

Enhance mental efficiency and boost motivation when you harness your 'blue dot network' without wearing yourself out

Photo by Max Panamá on Unsplash

Over 20 years ago, I travelled across Australia, spending most nights in my car.

My backpacking pal and I adjusted to the natural flow of the day - exploring by sunlight, resting at sundown. It was one of the happiest times of my life.

We synced with nature, body, and mind. Now I wonder - where did that wisdom go?

This weekend I read Hyperefficient: Optimize Your Brain to Transform the Way you Work by Mithu Storoni, and she describes how the Ford assembly line idea was adopted into office-based knowledge work.

What we lost, or ignored, in this transition is we're not uniform machines. We expect to work like the assembly line for optimised efficiency and output, then beat ourselves up when we can't work at a constant, intense rate.

We limit re-fuelling, maintenance and downtime to go go go. No wonder burnout, anxiety and depression keep rising, even when our quality of life is supposedly better.

We’re not meant to work like machines so let’s get smarter about it

Storoni’s book is a great insight into a lesser-known but vital brain region and network - the locus coeruleus noradrenaline network.

The noradrenaline cells look blue, so it’s also called the blue dot network - I love this visual as an artist.

The blue dot network connects the locus coeruleus in the brainstem to other regions and networks of the brain, releasing noradrenaline to regulate the brain’s rhythms for attention, arousal, emotions, memory, and stress responses.

Understanding it reveals how your brain stays sharp and handles pressure. Harness it right and you’ll be less tired, wired and overloaded.

The blue dot network toggles your mind’s pace across three gears

From the research it seems the blue dot network acts as your mental pacemaker - the speed at which your brain functions.

I like the metaphorical Gear Model Storoni uses to explain our mental pace zones. You want to work at an efficient pace to make progress without overdoing it and causing wear and tear.

You also want quality as being efficient is pointless if you’re churning out garbage. Hyperefficiency blends quality from rhythmic working with efficient mental pacing.

The blue dot network works like a Gear Model, shifting your brain across three speeds based on how much noradrenaline is released:

• Gear 1 (Slow):

  • This is your mental recovery mode, ideal for clearing your mental slate. You feel relaxed, your attention is fuzzy, and you’re more in tune with your internal thoughts.

  • It’s hard to focus on a single task, making it perfect for resetting your attention and recharging through daydreaming.

• Gear 2 (Medium):

  • This is where your deep work happens. You’re fully engaged and can concentrate on a task, whether it’s internal problem-solving or external work.

  • Your attention is narrow and sticky, and you’re energised depending on the type of work. It’s the gear for concentration, critical thinking, and creativity.

• Gear 3 (Fast):

  • This is a high-energy state where you cycle through tasks quickly, but with less focus and more distraction. It’s automatic and intuitive, but feels overwhelming.

  • Great for quick decision-making in critical moments, but prone to mistakes. You’ll tire quickly and susceptible to visceral and emotionally-driven memories.

Your gear personality: how easily do you switch under pressure?

How easily you shift gears depends on your gear personality, and clues us into how you handle stress and pressure.

A mate of mine in high-pressure finance thrives in Gear 2, staying calm and hyperefficient under deadlines. They’ve got a sticky gear personality, needing that push to get into the zone, but staying constant once there. Nothing seems to phase them, but they use active restoration to reset.

I’m more of a springy gear personality - I switch gears fast with lower stimulation and easily jump from Gear 2 to Gear 3. Getting stuck in Gear 3 for too long leads to chronic stress and burnout.

I do better with quieter environments, like working from home, where the pressure is lower and there are fewer external distractions and stimulations.

If your natural rhythms don’t match your work environment, you’ll either feel bored or constantly overwhelmed. The key is aligning with your rhythms so you switch gears when needed, not when external forces push you.

The mind, body and nature work in interconnected rhythms when we let them

At our core, we're hunter gatherers, geared to intense bursts, problem-solving, implementation, and then rest. We're not built for intense and constant mental work for hours without recovery.

It's why we're all exhausted and detached from what we’re doing, even if we want to do it.

During my months in Australia, my mind and body aligned to the sun’s rhythm and my daily energy cycle. From years of suffering insomnia, I had the best sleep of my life in the back of that 1983 Holden station wagon.

It seems wild now, but it’s true. I recall the most amazing dawn chorus awaking us each morning. We were well rested and ready to go.

We’d target what we wanted to do during the day aligned to the weather, daylight hours and energy levels - pure Gear 2 efficiency.

The sub-zones of Gear 2 give you work-alignment options

Gear 2 is split into three modes depending on your energy levels, giving you options for mental work:

• Low Energy Gear 2: Perfect for spontaneous creativity, idea connections, and aha moments.

• Core Gear 2: Your laser-like focus zone, ideal for complex tasks. Less distracted.

• High Energy Gear 2: Helps you switch between wide and narrow focus for lateral thinking and curiosity-driven learning.

Your body’s natural rhythms work on 24-hour and 12-hour cycles (this explains that post-lunch dip).

Align your work tasks with your daily energy cycle to maximise productivity, as Storoni shows in her mental energy chart below.

Chart of Daily Mental Energy Cycle and Best Work Type from Hyperefficient by Mithu Storoni

Based on your daily energy cycle, geography and seasons, the hours might shift a couple of hours up and down. The more you align gear zone to work type, the more hyperefficient you’ll be.

Use your body and creativity to switch gears up and down for the task at hand

Recognise what you feel in each gear zone and match your tasks as needed. This way, you’ll balance efficiency with quality without burning out.

If you’re stuck in Gear 3 for too long, your work and health will suffer. Your decisions get sloppy, and you’ll take longer to finish tasks.

Storoni gives great examples to switch gears up and down using nature’s rhythms e.g., light, sound, body rhythms e.g., exercise, eye movement, and mind rhythms e.g., 90-minute work sessions, taking breaks.

Here are two methods to gear down and clear your mind for focused work:

• Slow breathing: Try deep breathing at around 6 breaths per minute - 5 seconds in, 7 seconds out.

• Creative immersion: Engage in mindful, repetitive practices like drawing, painting, mandala creation or doodling to enter a creative flow state and reset.

Key takeaways

The blue dot network regulates your brain’s mental pace across three gears - slow, medium, and fast - helping you navigate tasks efficiently.

How easily you switch between gears depends on your gear personality. Some people thrive in high-pressure environments (sticky gear), while others do better with lower stimulation (springy gear).

If your work environment doesn’t align with your natural rhythm, you’ll feel stuck or overwhelmed. Aligning with your internal rhythms helps you switch gears intentionally and maintain efficiency and health.

Gear 2 offers the perfect balance for focused, high-quality work. Staying in this gear prevents burnout and boosts productivity plus quality.

Use strategies like breathing exercises or creative immersion to shift gears when needed. When you’re in control of your mental pace, you’ve got more agency than letting external pressure dictate it.

Remember, you're wired for bursts, not nonstop work - that’s how we used to live.

Aligning with your natural rhythms promotes better sleep, energy, and peak efficiency.

Know and respect your limits, and adjust your work and environment to maintain high performance without pushing yourself into burnout.

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P.S. I’m writing an ebook called Break Free From Burnout: Discover Your Burnout Patterns and Create Your Burnout Recovery Plan (yep!!) It’ll be available to paid subscribers here when published, but I’m looking for 5 beta readers for valuable feedback and to keep me on message. If you’re interested, hit reply or send me a DM on Substack.