Ask HN - Do you use hunger for productivity? (Life Hacking) | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN - Do you use hunger for productivity? (Life Hacking)

3 pointsfactorialboy6 comments

Background: I've been meditating for a while and I have a good feel of myself and what's happening within. I can focus on things like feeling my blood circulation to toes / fingers, feeling heart beat etc.

Okay now I've realized that being a little hungry (not starvation) keeps me sharper and more focused especially while coding.

I think I'll try and remain slightly hungry as much as possible without risking nutrition and conduct a little self experiment to see how this goes.

The challenge is:

1. I don't know off a scientific way to define various states / stages of hunger

2. I don't know how to measure programming productivity

3. Obviously I don't know how to co-relate these two.

What I'll first do is ask you for your experience?

Have you noticed your work focus while hungry and after a meal?

Do you have a similar or contrary experience you want to share?

Do you think I'm crazy?

Look into intermittent fasting diets. They go by various names leangains, renegade, warrior diet, but all follow the same principles of 12 - 20hours of fasting and then a small eating window at night to get in all your nutrition. I've been doing various forms of intermittent fasting for about 3 years with great results. During the workday, which is the middle of your fast, I experience lots of energy and great focus.

These IF programs, like leangains, do not require you to fast during the day and only feed at night... it's up to you when you would like to do it; That's the beauty of it.

I definitely find that my focus is greater prior to eating. In fact, on days when I'm coding, I usually end up skipping lunch because, though I'm hungry, my brain is much more engaged in the process at hand.

Here's an idea: write a simple script to record key strokes during the time that you're coding; monitor your calorie intake; graph that shit. Science!

I am going to use that idea, if you don't mind

I fall to an extreme, but I do not eat much during the day on weekdays. Much higher alertness.

I know it certainly slows me down to be full, but I'm often very distracted when hungry.

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