Day 3 – Optimise | Design Your Day: Strengthen Focus, Willpower, and Brain State Control

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In Day 3 – Optimise | Design Your Day: Strengthen Focus, Willpower & Brain State Control, we show how to lead AI by managing your own brain state, building a practical 30-day performance plan, and using the Day Designer to script a focused, energised 24 hours.

The goal is simple: protect deep work, automate recovery, and use AI to accelerate routine “ice-cube” tasks so you can sculpt meaningful results with full attention.

You’ll explore:
• Why the AI Revolution is a once-in-a-lifetime leverage window
• How to measure Brain States and match task difficulty for flow
• The danger of Medium-Charge work and its impact on quality
• Applying the AI Success Cycle across a 30-day rhythm
• The Day Designer timeline — from wake to sleep
• Scheduling deep work, breaks, exercise, and shutdown rituals
• Super Habits for sleep, diet, exercise, and stress control
• Taking ownership for accuracy and accountability when using AI
• Building momentum — and coaching others to use the same system

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello, habit mechanics, Dr.
John Finn here.
Hope you're having a fantasticday so far.
We are into day three of ourfour-day train your brain for
the AI revolution challenge,where we're going to be talking
about how to thrive, how tobecome unstoppable in the AI
era, how to capitalise on thisonce-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

(00:22):
So you don't look back in sixmonths or twelve months and
regret not getting ahead of thiscurve that's going to move
faster than anything we've seenbefore.
We are actually having somebuilding works around Tucker
Mind's office today.
So if you hear any of that,that's what that is.
But I don't think it shoulddistract us.
So you should by now havemeasured your brain states and

(00:47):
have a brain state score.
If you haven't done that, goback to day one.
You can see it further down thefeed.
You should have also started tomap out your future ambitious,
meaningful story.
And most crucially for today,have a good sense of the type of
medium charge tasks and the typeof high charge tasks that you

(01:09):
want to get completed in thenext 30 days.
Remember, medium charge tasks wethink of as freezing ice cubes
and high charge tasks we thinkof building up ice sculptures.
And for our medium charge icecube freezing tasks, there is
lots of that work now that wecan start to outsource to

(01:30):
agentic AI.
And you're probably doing someof that already without even
calling it that.

Warning (02:26):
do not try to do high charge work with an LLM when
you're in a medium-charge brainstate.
That's going to lead to poorquality work, lots of mistakes.
You may have seen a news storyrecently where I don't want to

(02:49):
um say the wrong name.
So it was a big one of the bigfour consultancy firms got sued
by the Australian government formaking a sizeable error in some
documents they provided.
My suspicion would be that is ahuman error because the human

(03:11):
was over-relying on the AI, andthey were working with the AI,
not in their high-charge brainstate.
When we're working withgenerative AI tools, we're not
outsourcing the responsibilityto them.
We are still the leader.
The book stops with us from uhtypos, which you won't get many

(03:32):
of, if any, with thistechnology, but certainly um
data being correct.
Where's it being sourced from?
Um you have to be theresponsible for ultimately the
validity and the reliability ofthe document that you submit to

(03:57):
your clients.
You cannot outsource that to theAI, but the AI will help you to
get there faster.
Um so what we're gonna do todayis, and I'm just gonna share my
screen.
So this is also on YouTube ifyou want to watch the video.
Um so I've just brought up theAI success cycle, which is from

(04:18):
train your breath or the AIrevolution.
If you've got your copy in frontof you whilst we're doing this,
that's helpful.
Or you might just listen throughand then revisit the copy later.
You can get a copy for what justone dollar on uh our website or
a link via this uh podcast orvideo, depending on what which

(04:41):
medium you're consuming thiscontent.
So, yeah, the four-step uh uhsuccess cycle.
Number one, measure your brainstates.
That's what we did on day one ofthe challenge.
Number two, plan.
So work with the task directorto work out your long-term
strategic plan and understandhow that long-term vision works

(05:02):
back to today.
Um, very much focused on thenext 30 days.
Um so having that clear list ofice cubes, ice sculptures, or
medium charge, high chargetasks, prioritize it, okay,
especially for your um highcharge work, how long each task

(05:25):
is gonna take.
So if you've got a five-hourtask in high charge brain state,
you're probably gonna struggleto do that in one day.
So you might break it up acrosstwo or three or even four or
five days.
And then today we're gonna moveon to working with the day
designer.
And slight, well, it's not adetour, but just talking about

(05:47):
the details of this.
So anyone who's read the habitmechanic, you know the
lighthouse brain.
Um, horribly unhelpful emotions,your hue controls the beam of
your lighthouse brain, that beamof light, essentially your
attention, which is focused onthe the present, the past, and

(06:09):
the future, looking forproblems, worries, stresses.
And then the other character,which is Will Amina Power or
Will Power, that lives in thelighthouse's library and acts as
uh Q's mentor.
And what we're doing in TrainYour Brain for Their Evolution
is we're we're introducing someof Will Power's assistants.

(06:31):
So you've already met one ofthose assistants, which is the
task director.
Today we're going to meet asecond assistant, which is the
day designer.
And the day designer is workingas part of Will Power's team to
help you to strategically planyour day.
So you have a strategic plan forthe long-term future, but we

(06:52):
need to have a strategic planfor the next 24-hour period, and
that's what the willpower storyis for.
So the willpower story hasmultiple layers in terms of um
how sophisticated or simpleyours can be.
But if you're watching thevideo, that's a full overview of

(07:17):
the template, and essentiallyit's it acts as like a timeline
for your day, first andforemost.
And you can do this right now.
If you get a piece a piece ofpaper and a pen or a pencil, you
can just draw a line on I'd turnthe paper uh landscape so it's

(07:43):
as broad as it can be, and justdraw a line from one end to the
other.
On the left hand side, right inthe middle of the page, pause if
you need to go get the thenecessary uh learning materials.
But if you draw a line down themiddle, and then um you on the

(08:08):
left hand side write down eitherthe time right now or the time
you're gonna get up in themorning.
So if you're writing the timeright now, you're gonna plan the
rest of the day.
If you write the time you'regonna get up in the morning,
you're gonna plan tomorrow, thatnext 24 hour period.

(08:30):
And then at on the right handside of the line, write down
what time you want to go to bedeither tonight, if you wrote on
the left hand side the timeright now, or if you're planning
for tomorrow, think about whattime you're gonna go to bed
tomorrow night.
That's how far we have to planin advance if we want to give
ourselves the best chance ofbeing at our best.

(08:53):
And then what you have inbetween is the time that you
have.
So let's just think about it forif we're doing it for a full
24-hour period, like fortomorrow.
So, what you then start to do isyou look at your list of um
tasks that you need to completein the next 30 days, and you

(09:15):
identify the ones you'vehighlighted as the top priority
tasks.
So you might pick your toppriority um high charge brain
state eye sculpture buildingtask.
And because you might feel thatyou are cognitively most capable

(09:36):
and freshest because you becauseyou sleep well in the morning,
and if you're like me, you dosome exercise, and you I plan to
do some exercise before I evenstart work, then I'm gonna uh
block out a couple of hoursfirst thing to work on that
first that highest priority icesculpture building task.

(10:00):
And then what I might do is umplan a little bit of medium
charge work either side of lunchtime so you can look at the
tasks that you need to achieveagain from that list, and then
I'm also gonna put in thingslike um recharge breaks.

(10:22):
So at lunch time, I'm gonna gofor a walk where I just focus on
my breathing to reduce myactivation levels.
I might be thinking, what doesactivation mean?
Don't worry about that.
Um but it but in right now, butif you go to the uh appendices

(10:43):
of train your brain for the airevolution, uh there's a full
section in there aboutactivation.
Activation really is about theneurotransmitters that sit
behind brain states.
But we're not gonna worry aboutthat right now, but we're gonna
use this willpower story or justthe basic timeline that you've
you've drawn out, it's like acontainer for the day or a

(11:08):
container for the rest of theday, if you've just mapped it
out for the rest of the day.
And by planning ahead aroundwhat we're gonna do, and we're
not just talking about worktasks, we're talking about what
time we're gonna be in bed.
When do we need to drink ourwater, or how much water do we
need to drink today so we'rehydrated enough to sleep well,
for example?

(11:28):
When are we gonna stop drinkingcaffeine?
Like you don't have to list downevery single thing that you're
gonna do, but you want tospotlight the super behaviors
that are gonna give you the bestchance of being at your best.
So for me, going for that runfirst thing, for me, doing that,
having that exercise break atlunchtime where I focus on my

(11:50):
breathing, for me, finishingwork at a set time, for me, so
that I can properly switch off,sleep properly, and be ready
again for the next 24-hourperiod or the next the next day.
Um, making sure I do mythree-to-one reflection at the
end of the day.
And what starts to happen isthat um you just automate lots

(12:14):
of those super habits and theybecome second nature because
they're a habit, right?
And once you've automated one ofthem, you can then focus on
managing the next one.
So, this is what the Willpowerstory does.
It has layers of sophistication,but the core ingredients really

(12:35):
are your brain states,activation levels, which sit
behind brain states, and thethings that you need to
prioritize getting done.
Not just the things at work, butthe things you need to do to be
healthy, happy, and at yourbest, including high quality
sleep, eating properly,exercising properly, proactively
managing stress.

(12:57):
Um, and the AI success cycle isjust the foundational system
that we put in place to give usa rhythm to every 30-day period.
What we then do is we focus on,if you read through step two
properly, you'll see that thenwe start to focus on um building

(13:19):
super habits, like some of thosethings I just mentioned.
So I want to build a bettersleep diet exercise habit, so
I'm gonna build in a dietexercise, sleep swap plan into
this.
I want to build a better stressmanagement habit, so I'm gonna
build in a daily wabber, awritten earth brain argument,
and so on and so forth.
So this is just the startingpoint, but it's the essential

(13:41):
foundation.
So we understand where our brainstates are at, we've got that
score.
We then have a sense of why wewant to be doing what we're
doing.
Um, our long-term strategic planin the fam story, we focus that
down to the next 30 days, andthen we every day we build this
core habit of creating awillpower story, even if it's

(14:04):
just as basic as mapping outthat timeline on a piece of
paper.
And the more we do this, thebetter we get at it.
So that's the that's day threeof the challenge, and again, you
can go into um so step threeoptimization with the day
designer starts on page 105 ofTrain Your Brain for the Air

(14:28):
Revolution, and it covers uhchapter 20, 21, 22.
Um, even if you look at theaudiobook, you'll you'll see the
the steps are very clearlydenoted.
So if you want to see what whatare the chapters for step two
again, just just look and you'llyou'll easily see them.
Um the book is organized aroundthese four steps, or there's

(14:51):
actually five steps because thebonus step is starting to learn
how to coach others, and that'sthe beauty of this system,
that's why we design it likethis.
This is the same system you usenot only to coach yourself but
to help others, whether it'syour children or your direct
reports, or you want to set upyour own coaching business.

(15:16):
And as I keep saying, the goldstandard of being able to do
this for yourself is becoming acertified having mechanic coach,
even if you don't actually wantto use these tools with anybody
else uh formally, because it'sthe set it's the old saying, you

(15:37):
don't know it until you canteach it.
Um the world is more complexthan ever before.
In the UK right now, there are5,000 people every single day
being signed off onto the sick,largely, so onto sick benefits,

(15:59):
largely with anxiety anddepression.
We're overwhelmed, right at thepoint in history where if our
brain is working really well, wehave this unprecedented ability
to supercharge being at our bestbecause AI is just like brain

(16:20):
power that's cheap andaccessible to everybody.
What most people are notrecognizing is these AI tools
that are now currently availablefor between free to maybe um
twenty dollars a month orsomething, they are like
enterprise level tools that havecost hundreds of billions of

(16:41):
dollars to put together.
They're at your fingertips.
Um I know, I know if you'relistening to this, I'm kind of
preaching to the convertedbecause you you're bought in and
you just want to get using yourbrain properly first, and then
slowly layer the tools on.
So that's it.

(17:02):
That's all I wanted to covertoday.
Um, but again, the key is notknowing this, not just listening
and saying, Yeah, that's a goodidea, John, is doing it and
putting it into practice.
I do this every day.
I do it every day.
You can do this on your days offbecause it gives you a better
chance of doing what you need todo on your days off to actually
recharge or actually get donewhat you need to get done.

(17:24):
It's spending minutes to savehours, and that doesn't do it
justice because you're spendingminutes to supercharge your
health, happiness, andperformance.
By I'd say, if I don't do awillpower story, if I don't get
my super habits fired up on awork day, for example, I'm

(17:46):
probably 50% less effective.
So I'm spending minutes to be50% more impactful on my day,
not just work.
That includes sleeping better,it includes eating more
healthily, it includes speakingto myself in a more helpful way.
So this is simple, but it's verycomplex in what you're doing.

(18:11):
But you don't need to know allof the complexity.
Like when you write this out, itactually activates your
neocortex, and that's why it'spowerful.
But we don't need to go there,you just need to do it.
Trust me.
Um these tools are not just madeup, they're developed over a
long period of time, um, with alot of thought and a lot of

(18:34):
refinement so that you can justuse them and start helping
others to do it as well.
So that's all I wanted to say.
Um, if you're if you need to,you can go back and just rework
through day day one, day two,day three.
You might be just touching thecore insights today, and then

(19:00):
you're gonna go back over theweekend, maybe where you feel
have a bit more time and justwork through all four on one day
or work through two steps onSaturday, two steps on Sunday,
or you have a bit more time,it's fine.
Uh do whatever you need to dothat's most helpful for you.
But the information is here.
If you don't have a copy of thebook, you just you can just get
it for uh one dollar free isfree.

(19:22):
But we just literally, anyonewho runs a business knows the
cost of of of software and billsare going sky high, so we do
have to charge a one dollar justfor processing fee.
We're still losing money onthat.
Um, but yeah, there you go.
Thank you so much for listening,and I will be back tomorrow.

(19:47):
And remember, you only have aone rent habit away.