Building Health Like Software: How I Rewired My Health, Incrementally and Sustainably (One Habit at a Time)
Simple habits that keep my mind clear, energy high, and body in shape while working full-time as a software engineer.
I track my health, regularly
It doesn’t matter which device you use, most of them do a great job. What matters most is using a tool you enjoy and tracking your health so you can stay consistently aware of your bad habits and improve your health regularly.
When you start tracking your health, you notice anomalies in your habits and overall lifestyle that you might not have initially seen as problems. Tracking also makes you realise that it truly matters, like a technical inspection to ensure everything is in order.
I ensure I have enough rest by tracking my sleep quality
WHOOP isn’t the best sleep tracker, with an extremely expensive subscription and a user-friendly app. Ultimately, the most important thing is to consistently track your health, regardless of the app you choose.
Regular breaks within the day
Recently, I was sharing in a vlog-style video the underestimated importance of work-life balance as a software engineer.
Your diet is your productivity-first engine in the long run
Taking care of your health, your diet, sleep, what you do consistently, and to whom you surround yourself with. Remember, you won’t outperform your inner circle, so surround yourself with people who force you to level up just to stay in the room.
Identify what kind of stresses/anxieties you have, at what moment and location, and “patch” these swollen holes to prevent yourself from being in a stressful environment that won’t allow you to be the best you can be.
Life is a show, and life certainly doesn’t deserve to be slowed down by people or an environment that holds you back. Be the person you will be proud of and glad about how you became. Be the inspiring and grateful person who takes full ownership of their life.
Eat well (and not too much either)
Eating well, two meals per day. By doing so, it can help you to fast for roughly 18 hours a day. Fasting has several benefits for your body. It gives your digestive system time to rest and allows your body to focus on repairing cells and reducing inflammation. It helps regulate blood sugar levels, improves insulin sensitivity, and can increase your energy and mental clarity. Over time, fasting supports fat loss, better digestion, and a more stable mood without the constant ups and downs of eating all day.
Make sure the day is well-balanced
A well-balanced life changes everything in terms of how you see priorities and duties that need to be done. Changing the way you could do them, for instance, going to a café or a nice co-working space instead of working from home, can make a whole difference.
Build an indescriptible solid resilience
Your resilience will determinate your life and your success.
Resilience is like muscle.
You have to build your resilience and keep a solid determination on a daily-basis.
Tired = Exercise needed!
Usually, when we are tired, we tend to have a nap. However, many studies have shown that doing physical exercises when we are tired make us better, avoid headaches and wake up our body.
Specific goals!
To be efficient with your work, you need specific goals and you absolutely have to know what you will be precisely doing.
If you don’t, you will spread your attention everywhere, and won’t accomplish things efficiently.
Each evening, plan your workflow for the next day. Keep a journal with what you want to accomplish for the following day.
The Power of Focus: Be in the Zone
The power of doing only one thing in the deepest environment gives you an incredible ability to accomplish anything.
Being focused on only one thing is the most powerful tool you can have.
Focus is king. It is the mindset that allows you to realise your goals.
For any project you want to complete, be 100% in it.
If you have to build a house, build it with full attention.
Think about it all the time.
Let your mind revolve around it until it becomes part of you.
Your brain will help you get better and better at it because the more you think about something, the stronger the connections your brain builds around it. This is the same principle behind what some people call the Law of Attraction.
The more you think about your work, the more insights your brain gives you.
The more you focus on one direction, the more progress you make.
The same mechanism also explains why negativity feeds on itself. People who constantly complain tend to see more things negatively. The brain builds highways for repeated thoughts and emotions, whether positive or negative.
That is why the more you focus on your craft, the sharper you become.
The more you repeat a pattern, the more natural it feels, and soon it becomes part of who you are.
When you work, the only thing you should do is your current task. Nothing else.
You will realise how difficult it can be to stay fully focused, and how hard it is to ignore all distractions and passing thoughts.
But this is the point.
The deeper you go into one single task, the more powerful your focus becomes.
Over time, you start to experience flow, that quiet zone where each step forward feels effortless.
That is how you achieve mastery: one task, one focus, one direction.
Daily Morning Routine Gives a Productive Day
A morning routine can start your day on good foundations.
Your daily morning routine is the foundation that can make everything else happen.
Distraction equals Devil
Once you are distracted, it turns out to waste you at least 15 minutes to be again in the mood of deep work. The mindset you need to be 100% in your workflow.
In order to be highly productive, you really need to be in a deep mindset. Doing only your work, nothing else.
Sometimes, we tend to think that eating or drinking during our work might be more pleasant and we could work better.
However, it is never the case.
We usually do those things when we aren’t actually motivated.
Music can increase concentration (especially white noise and music without lyrics), but not food or drink.
When we work from a coffee shop and order a coffee. And then, if we are really deep in our workflow, we usually find our coffee completely cold after a few hours of work. We forget everything else, the bar, the people, the walls, except our work.
Disable any distrusting devices
Switch off your mobile phone, turn off your Wi-Fi/mobile data (as much as possible), any distracting notifications, block access to distracted websites, and everything that might break your “deep work session”.
Tell your friends, family, colleagues that you are unreachable from HH:MM until HH:MM.
Go somewhere else, like a coffee shop, a hotel bar, ..., a place where you won’t have any distractions, where you can stay for a while without reordering every 30 minutes, a place not too busy, ... or even go to an Airbnb or book a cool hostel room.
Work with DeepWorkflow™ sprints
Work on a sprint of 30-90 minutes non-stop.
Split your big workflow into sprints.
Transform your environment around you to be adequate for focus. Remove everything that distracts you.
Between each sprint, do a quick break of 10-15 minutes. Go for a walk, get fresh air, have a tea / coffee break.
You can use apps like BeFocused, FlowApp.info, Forest (Forest has great background noise inbuilt) or other Pomodoro apps to remind you of specific time frames. A simple timer can be enough.
Be obsessed with an healthy proactive system
Anchor tasks into routines
Build things you absolutely have to accomplish thanks to inviolable habits / routines. Like a constitution you will follow each day no matter what.
You need to create an obsessional image, inviolable beliefs that cannot stop you.
A kind of deep belief that drives you to accomplish it until it’s completely done.
Create solid determination, obsessions around what you want to become.
For example, if you want to write something, writing 20 pages for a book each day (which means 18 books a year!), no matter how busy you are. It may look like a lot for the average person, but when you use this system, you will always do it. Maybe you will skip your dinner, your lunch, sleep less, not call your mom or your father but you will have to do it—the obsession will be there, so you won’t be able to skip your writing.
You must dedicate your life towards mastering your skills.
Don’t give up
Although it can seem a wise decision to save time and move on to another project, it’s rarely a good decision. Sometimes, it can be a good one, but almost every time it isn’t the case. So, better not to give up.