Articles

If you’re tired of shelling out $6 for a fancy latte every morning, it’s time to invest in a home coffee machine. We’ve scoured the web and tried out our own fair share of coffee machines to bring you the 10 best home coffee machines.

Have you ever heard the term “smart drugs?” If so, you may have already done some research into nootropics to see how they can change your life. If not, let me introduce you!  Nootropics, a.k.a. “smart drugs,” are a wide variety of different substances that can improve memory, focus, brain function, and even athletic performance. The best nootropics occur naturally in our bodies and diets, although most of us don’t have a diet rich enough in the right foods to get the most benefit from these compounds. Luckily, we have the opportunity to supplement our diet with an array of nootropics in the form of pills, powders, and liquid additives that can completely change your ability to perform. I’m a huge proponent of these smart drugs, and benefit greatly from supplementing additional nootropic drugs into my diet every day.  In this article I want to introduce what nootropics are, the ones I take on a daily basis, and how you can couple these same nootropics with your foods to maximize mental clarity and getting sh*t done - i.e. productivity. What exactly are Nootropics? By definition, nootropic is a compound that increases mental functions including memory, motivation, concentration, attention, energy levels, happiness, and even overall physical performance. Some of these compounds exist already in the brain like phosphatidylserine, some come from our diet like caffeine, and some are synthetic like Piracetam. Everything from the caffeine molecules in coffee, to pharmaceuticals like Adderall are considered nootropics as they have an effect on neurotransmitters in the brain and subsequently how the brain functions.  There are dozens of nootropics available both over the counter and with a prescription, but in this article I’m only going to introduce 5 non-prescription nootropics that I take on a daily basis to increase focus, memory, and even athletic performance. 5 Common Nootropics I Use Daily L-Theanine L-Theanine is an amino acid that has structural similarity to glutamine and both neurotransmitters that are produced from it (GABA and glutamate). Benefits include reduced anxiety and stress as well as an increased ability to relax. If taken close to sleep times, this effect likely also leads to an increase in sleep quality. My main use for L-Theanine is as an antagonist to caffeine where it can reduce high blood pressure and jitters from high doses of caffeine. The combo of caffeine and L-theanine reportedly promotes focus and cognition. Phosphatidylserine Phosphatidylserine, or PS, is one of the most significant phospholipids in the brain, a compound similar to a dietary fat that comprises and protects certain types of brain tissue. It is vital for cognitive function, and although the body synthesizes it, supplementation in older individuals seems to improve memory and cognitive capacity. Alpha-GPC Alpha-GPC (Alpha-glycerophosphocholine is a choline-containing supplement that appears to be pharmacologically active at higher doses and it appears to have cognitive-enhancing properties and attenuate the rate of cognitive decline in the elderly. Alpha-GPC at high doses (1,200 mg) appears in studies to be effective in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. In terms of athletic performance, alpha-GPC has been shown to increase growth hormone production and enhance power output.  Caffeine (Coffee) Found in or synthesized primarily from coffee, Caffeine is a powerful stimulant, and it can be used to improve physical strength and endurance. Habitual caffeine use is also shown to reduce risk of Alzheimer's, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Caffeine provides increased energy through a sense of wakefulness by competing with adenosine in the brain, the molecule that tells your brain you’re tired.   Creatine One of the most heavily researched supplements in the world, Creatine is a molecule that's produced in the body from amino acids and carries a phosphate group that can be added to ADP to create ATP, or if you remember from high school biology, the body’s primary energy carrier. This increased ATP availability can increase muscular endurance and power output in anaerobic fitness as well as highly demanding mental activity. There is also some evidence that shows a possible correlation to increased testosterone through creatine supplementation, although there may be other factors that influenced increased testosterone in each of these studies. *Disclaimer* Always consult your physician before adding any supplements to your routine.  Where Can You Find Nootropics The nootropics I’ve listed above are all supplements I consume in powder form, but they can all come from natural sources. As a side note, I add all of these supplements to my morning coffee, just before I get to the grind of things like writing these articles! Creatine can be found in red meat and fish. L-Theanine is found in large amounts of tea. Phosphatidylserine in cow brains, pig spleen and chicken hearts. Alpha-GPC in red meat products and organ tissue. And of course, caffeine in coffee, tea, and cacao. Most of these are incredibly difficult to get from foods in doses concentrated enough to actually benefit cognition or performance, so I’ve built my primary supplement stack around these 5.   If you’re interested in trying any of the supplements in my list check out nvrrest.com for coffee, supplements, and more. Don't Want To Take Supplements?  If you’re not interested in supplementation then try to ensure a diet full of healthy fats, meats and fish, eggs, greens, and definitely coffee :) If you avoid breakfasts and lunches with heavy sugars you’ll have a clearer head regardless of supplementation. If you’re eating heavy breakfasts or lunches like sugary cereal you may experience huge dips in energy and motivation. This is due to the quick release of glucose that spikes insulin and makes you crash. Instead, eating breakfasts and lunches with complex carbohydrates will release glucose more slowly and allow your blood sugar to remain stable while providing you a more consistent stream of energy.  Proteins like eggs and bacon are on my top foods for breakfast, just make sure you stay light on the bacon due to it’s sodium content. Nuts, yogurts, and greens are also amazing breakfast, lunch, and snack foods. Now, one important thing to clarify is that your diet and meal timing has to be specific to you. Lunch and dinner refers more to the times of day you would want to be most productive. If you’re an endurance athlete and are looking to consume heavier portions of carbohydrates, you may want to put those meals toward the end of your day and front load the more protein and fat heavy meals to maximize both productivity and recovery for your body.  Diet varies significantly for all of us, but the general rules apply to most of the population - avoid processed foods, sugars, alcohol, and try your best to source foods that are sustainable and clean. Sources: https://examine.com/refer/devinl_11 https://examine.com/supplements/theanine/ https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/ https://examine.com/supplements/phosphatidylserine/ https://examine.com/supplements/caffeine/ https://examine.com/nutrition/creatine-testosterone/ https://examine.com/supplements/alpha-gpc/ https://nootropicsexpert.com/nootropic-foods-the-effects-of-nutrients-on-brain-function/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4258547/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5021479/

This article is packed with some really kick-a** high level takeaways on how to make new habits stick (and how to dump bad habits). We’ll cover the following: Stage 2 of the Habit Feedback Loop – Craving Making good Habits Attractive Habit Stacking Stage 3 – The Response The Path of Least Resistance – or Making Habits Easy 2 Minute Rule In the last article we talked about defining cues for good and bad habits. Now were going to talk about the next stage, the craving. This stage of the Habit Feedback Loop is where our mind and body decide we really want something and we’ll do just about anything to get it. The more attractive this craving is the more likely we are to follow through and respond to that craving. We tend to act fast on attractive habits and the more attractive a habit is the easier it is to act on. The idea is to make good habits attractive and bad habits ugly!   How do we make habits more or less attractive? Well, there are 3 main groups that influence our decisions and help decide whether a general behavior is attractive or unattractive in society. The Close Friends and family The Many Culture/ society We imitate desirable habits to be accepted by the tribe The Powerful Those at the top If you’ve ever heard that you’re the average of the 5 closest people in your life the first rule makes sense. We tend to imitate these groups of people because it means we’re a cohesive part of our tribe. Displaying unattractive behavior is a good way to be kicked out of the group. Similarly, “The Many” is a much larger group that could be a handful of people or even the world as a whole. We find behavior like selflessness and giving as attractive, and of course universally punish theft and malice. Finally, The Powerful – those at the top of the world. The rich, famous, and overall successful tend to grab our attention more than any other group, although it’s much more difficult to imitate this group because we don’t interact with the true character of these individuals on a daily basis. Until we become these individuals through first good, then great habits. Make It Attractive This can be difficult at times, but the idea of making good habits attractive and bad habits unattractive is a great place to start. Here are three general rules that I’ll provide some insight to below. To make a habit attractive you can: Use temptation bundling Join groups of people that carry out the habits you find desirable Change your mindset Use Temptation Bundling This is a great way to set your good habits up for success using a small hack – you simply pair your desired habit with a reward. Now, instead of pairing a bad reward with a good habit (like cookies with hitting the gym), you’re pairing a habit you must do with a habit you want to do. It looks like this: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED]. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT]. Example: If you want to be more grateful, but want to be on social media After I get my morning coffee, I will write one thing I’m grateful for today (need). After I write one thing I’m grateful for, I will look at Instagram for 5 minutes (want).   Join Groups of People with Desirable Traits This is a great way to stay accountable and grow fast. When we’re around the behavior we want to display or around those who demonstrate success we receive constant reminders and feedback on how to get better. This could be for the intention of doing better in business, fitness, family, faith, and so much more. Groups that are easy to join include churches, class-based gyms, online and in-person business groups, and even podcasts or YouTube channels. The idea is to replace silence with constant positive feedback. So go choose a goal or two and find a group that is already a step or two ahead of where you want to be! Change Your Mindset Mindset is a daily, possibly even hourly, habit in and of itself. If we condition ourselves to be in a positive mindset through good habits we make it easier to be in the mindset to succeed. If we constantly respond in unhealthy manners to negative feelings we’re more likely to have a negative mindset overall. Here’s an example, someone points out a mistake you’ve made in your work. You know it may be true, but instead of taking offense you fram your mindset to always be learning and growing. You take the advice with a smile, and now you’re 1% better. Things like, “I’m nervous,[on stage, before competition, in presentations]” become “I’m excited and am getting an adrenaline rush to help me focus.” Last note: always breath and smile. Make It Easy Now, think back to cues. By making the cue invisible we decrease our craving, and by making the cue obvious we increase the strength of that craving. Unfortunately, making the cue of a bad habit doesn’t mean we’ll get rid of the craving entirely. Take watching tv as an example, a habit millions of us have engrained deep into our being. We could make the cue of the remote invisible by putting it in the closet, but that may not be enough. We have to take larger action and make the habit difficult to act on by doing something drastic – try putting the tv in the closet or even storage. Conversely, we have to make good habits easy to act on. Companies do things like making toothpaste tasty to keep us coming back for more, offering automatic bill pay, and even setting automatic alarms to go to sleep and wake up early. There are a few secrets to doing this in our own lives and they’re simple. Below we’ll cover habit Stacking, the path of least resistance, and the two minute rule! Habit stacking Habit stacking is simply taking our already existing habits and stacking the new desired habit right on top. We make the existing habit part of the cue and make the transition to the new habit easy to perform. The formula is as follows: After I [CURRENT HABIT] I will [NEW HABIT] After I brush my teeth, I will do 25 push-ups. After I make coffee, I will write 1 page. Brush teeth > do 25 push-ups > make coffee > write 1 page Examples of Making It Easy To make the examples above easy you’ll need some prior planning and preparation. The night before, when you’re wide awake and have more will power than you will in the morning you may do something like this: Place your yoga mat in the bathroom and sticky note on the mirror that has a personal note to self “don’t slack on pushups” so that after you brush your teeth you just need to drop down and do your pushups. The next piece is to think about what you’ll write the next day for a moment, jot that topic down on another stick note, and then a place it next to the coffee machine in plain sight. Now you’ve spent the time thinking about where and what you’ll do, you just need to act! Making these habits stick will take time, so keep at it until they’re second nature. As a general rule remember that practice is the best form of learning and it’ll take just as long, or longer, to break the bad habits as it will to make the new habits stick. The 2 Minute Rule Finally, we’ll talk about the two-minute rule. No, it doesn’t have anything to do with your sex life, but it does have to do with making a habit stick. When we have really boring or difficult habits we know we need to implement but just can’t get started with, we use the 2 minute rule. This simply means to start doing the habit for 2 minutes. Folding laundry: Fold two pairs of socks. Learning to code: try 2 minutes. Going to the gym: drive there, walk in, and do something for two minutes. The idea is that once we’ve set ourselves in motion it’s harder to stop than it is to keep going. Just 2 minutes, 2 reps, or even the process of starting in the direction of our goal will keep us going in the right direction. These tips are from James Clear’s Atomic Habits. I highly recommend you grab a copy if you’re interested in leveling up and becoming a better human. If you don’t read and want to start just remember - Make it obvious, make it easy, and start with 2 minutes!  

For part 3 of this series, I have one simple idea to share – the idea that self-control is bullsh*t! Sometimes people say they don’t know how I accomplish certain things and that they could never have the self-control to do the same. The sad truth is I have little self-control! Research shows that self-control is finite and it’s one of the precious resources we rebuild while we sleep. I imagine it as a gas meter - when I wake up for the day it’s at roughly 90-95%. I’ll explain why it’s not 100% in a minute. Many of the most successful people in the world’s top 1% of any field have the same idea about themselves, namely that it’s the habits they’ve built and the way they make “self-control” easy in their lives that makes them successful. The secret to self-control is simple: prepare your environment to limit the need to use self-control. The most successful people don’t have to worry about self-control because they don’t keep temptations around to deplete that gas meter! Here’s an example: You’re in the kitchen about to rush to work and need some breakfast. You know you shouldn’t eat out of the box of cookies for breakfast, but you haven’t made any eggs and you don’t have anything healthy quickly accessible. You have a decision to make now, make the eggs or grab a cookie. You’ve lost some of the gas in your self-control meter just by thinking about the decision and instead of making the eggs you grab a cookie anyway. The only way to avoid this decision and the loss of self-control is to get rid of the cookies and have a healthier option readily available prepped from a day before. Other common examples include keeping alcohol out of sight, your phone out of reach and out of mind, getting your gym clothes and morning ready the night before, and my personal favorite, putting your alarm away from your bed so you have to walk across the room or house to turn it off. Now here’s the “bad news” – you still need to have and use self-control in many of your daily decisions. The goal is to limit these decisions to important ones and avoid the possibility of bad decisions like cookies for breakfast. If your daily habits are sound you won’t have to worry about the little things that compound and make life more difficult. Sleep, diet, hygiene, physical fitness, and even the clothes you wear should be on autopilot as much as possible. You’ll have more self-control in the gas tank every time you can automate the simple things and more gas available for important things like business, financial, moral, and family decisions. Now, why do I start the day with 90-95% of my gas? It takes me a decent amount self-control not to hit snooze. I will literally sleep on the hardwood floor, naked, in the cold if I have the option to. It takes the first bit of self-control not to get back in bed every single day. I’ve always been a late sleeper and I can sleep almost anywhere so it takes the from the night before plus the first bit of my self-control to get the day started. My biggest and first task for every night is, “get up on time.” The good news is that it takes slightly less self-control each morning because I build the habit of getting up and getting more meaningful sh*t done every day. My task for you today is simple: If you’re reading this at night, use the last bit of self-control you have for the day to prepare your morning. Write the first 1-3 tasks you need to accomplish in the morning, prepare your clothes for the gym or work, set your phone and alarm out of reach of your bed, and read 2 pages of a book while you fall asleep. If this is your morning, write out the high-level tasks you have for the rest of the day and make a few small environment changes to limit your need for self-control. Throw away the junk food, fill up your water bottle, organize yourself enough to get to tonight, and prepare even better for tomorrow. Make the habits of self-control part of your habit stacking routine and go crush the day!

Part two of this series will introduce what’s called the Habit Feedback Loop, a secret weapon for learning how to break bad habits and build awesome new ones. The Habit Feedback Loop is simple; our habits, whether good or bad, are structured into 4 main stages. These are: Cue Craving Response Reward Most of our habits are so deeply engrained we don’t even know we have them. Brushing our teeth, biting our nails, or checking our email 47 times a day. All these habits begin with a cue that triggers a craving, motivating a response, and providing a reward. Let’s take a theoretical approach and use eating fast food as an example. It’s 5:30 pm and you’re on the drive home from a draining end of day meeting. You’re stuck in traffic and you catch the big golden arches out of the corner of your eye – the cue. Now you’re hungry (the craving) and you know you have another 30 minutes to get home before you can even start to cook food. Just this once, you pull off the highway and into the drive through to order – the response. You stuff your face, your hunger is satisfied with a quarter pound of beef and salty fries, and your dopamine has gone through the roof – the reward. Now “just this once” may become a slippery slope. Cue Golden Arches Craving Tasty Fast Food Response Order fast food Reward No longer hungry This feedback loop works the same for every habit we have and the great thing about this is that we can define what causes us to follow through with our bad habits while also setting ourselves up for success with good habits. For today we’ll focus on one idea – Define the cue for your habits and make them obvious or invisible. Good Cues should be made obvious and bad cues should be made invisible. Good Cue – Make it obvious. Want to take your vitamins more? Put them right next to your toothbrush so you can’t miss them. Want to continue moving towards your goals relentlessly? Put NVR REST gear all over your home! Bad Cue – Make it invisible. Want to stop eating cookies ever night? Throw away the cookies! Every time you perform a habit you want to get rid of define what the cue was and take note. For new habits, come up with an obvious cue to remind you to act. In the example above, the golden arches cue was incredibly obvious and could be avoided by taking a different route home. This makes that cue invisible. When figuring out how to implement new habits simply make the cue blatantly obvious like putting your vitamins in a high traffic area of yours like next to your toothbrush. If you can’t wait for the rest of this series to be written or if you just want to dive deeper, checkout Atomic Habits or Smarter, Fast, Better on our site. Leave some of your cues, good and bad, in the comments below!  

              If you’re on a journey to greatness setting strategic goals is paramount to your success. Strategic goals help us to define targets or end goals and mapping those targets to time intervals provides a step by step guide to hitting those targets successfully. If you’ve ever started a journey without a goal you may realize you’ve wandered around aimlessly until you’ve ended up somewhere. Somewhere is only good if you happen to be at the right place at the right time and end up in paradise. Even in paradise, what do you do without a goal? On the other side of that coin if you’ve ever set a goal but fallen short, or simply quit, it’s likely that one of the following was true: The goal was too broad The goal was not measurable The goal was unrealistic The goal had no timeline There was no risk mitigation plan associated with the goal If the above is true, we’ve got some tips to help you set better goals and even accomplish the impossible. When we set goals we always start with an outcome or an intention. The goal is the result or the thing we want to obtain, in order to create a map, we need to work backward from there. There are several great ways to do this, and my personal favorite is to set what are called SMART goals. If you haven’t heard of SMART goals before the here’s the gist: SMART Goals are – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timed. SMART metrics allow you to analyze your goal and decide not only how to reach the goal but to ensure that you’ve set the right goal in the first place. Here are some questions to ask when setting these goals: Specific - What is the goal and Why do I want to accomplish it? Who is involved? Where will the goal take place; in one place or many? What are the requirements to accomplish the goal? What are the constraints of the goal? What are the risks? Measurable - How much money will it cost? How many resources will it require? What are the indicators that the goal has been accomplished? Attainable – Is this goal attainable? How exactly can it be accomplished? What are the current actionable steps to reach the target? What is the mitigation plan for associated risks? Realistic/Relevant – Is this worthwhile in the bigger picture? Does it align with the existing goals of the family, business, organization, or team? (Vision and Purpose are great references here) Timed – When will this be completed? What are the milestones that must be hit along the way to accomplish the goal by the set date? This formula works for every goal I’ve ever set with the intention of accomplishing something. It takes a bit of upfront work, but once the goal is set you simpy maintain discipline and follow the plan. You may ask, “does this formula really help you become great?” In a way, yes. To ensure you reach extraordinary levels, you need one more key component – a stretch goal. Don’t worry it’s not an acronym, but it also isn’t for the faint-hearted. If you’re looking for greatness this is where you set yourself apart.               Stretch goals are goals that seem entirely impossible. The only viable solutions cost exorbitant amounts of money, time, or resources. You set out to accomplish the impossible anyway. That’s great! Now how do you plan on doing that? After you’ve made the decision that you’re going to do it, you add it to the top of your smart goals and accomplish it in chunks. One massive point that can’t go without mentioning is that impossible goals require teams of people, so find accountability partners and set triggers, reminders, and mission statements in various places all over your life to stay focused and disciplined. In conclusion: The clearer the goals are, the easier they are to follow, and the better the celebration is when you’ve reached the summit. SMART goals are a surefire way to accomplish any goal, and when your goal is to achieve greatness you add the stretch goal into the mix to see what you’re made of. You won’t accomplish the impossible on your own so find accountability partners, set triggers and reminders to stay focused and disciplined. Revisit these metrics and track progress on a regular basis to make sure you’re on target. There are a dozen other ways to set and achieve goals, and there are more factors to accomplishing more difficult goals – a great resource that I highly recommend for more info is Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg.   Drop your comments below, stay tuned for more, and keep up the grind. NVR REST