Ep 116 | How You Can Use the 20-5-3 Rule to Improve Your Well-Being, a Lesson from Michael Easter

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today we are going to get better at health. It's been a little while since we've had a health conversation. And so I want to make sure we tackle this subject today. And what I'd like to share comes from my friend Michael Easter, the author of The Comfort Crisis, and a guy that hung out with my Metrics Masterminds group a few weeks back, talked around a lot of great things. But there was one thing specifically that I wanted to tackle, and that's his 25/3 rule. 25/3 rule, which is basically a rule that Michael's put together around about how much time we should be spending outside. Now, What made me think about this? Well, Huberman, the Huberman Lab, many of you may listen to that podcast, just recently did a short podcast. I think it's a 20, 25-minute podcast on the benefits of being out in nature. Actually, I think it was a listener question around what are the benefits of spending time in nature, and Huberman talked through the many benefits, and it got me thinking around Michael's 25/3 rule, and I thought I'd share it with all of you today. So the 25/3 rule, what Michael's referring to, it's a simple way to more or less think through or remember how much time you should shoot to spend in nature to reduce your stress and live a healthier life. 20. What he's referring to is 20 minutes. That's the amount of time you should spend outside in nature, like a park or, or the desert or any sort of, any sort of forested area. 20 minutes, 3 times a week. Just get outside, get around some grass, some trees, or whatever it may be. 20 minutes in a park, 3 times a week. There's been many a study that shows that something as, as easy, as painless as a 20-minute stroll through a garden, what it can do to boost your memory and cognition, as well as just improve your feelings of wellbeing. Try it out. You'll feel it for yourself. A simple walk in nature has so many benefits. And while there may not be a ton of scientific proof, as even Huberman will say, go try it. Go see what happens when you walk in a garden or a park or a nature-like area for 20 minutes and do so 3 times a week, as Michael Easter says. See how you feel. So 20 minutes outside 3 times a week is a great dose of nature. Now, the 5. What does the 5 stand for? Remember, it's the 25/3 rule. The 5 stands for 5 hours. And what Michael Easter says, 5 hours is the minimum length of time each month you should spend in a semi-wild nature, like a forested state park or deep out in the desert. Or trees, whatever you may have in your backyard, and get into what Michael would describe as a, a wilder space, something that is a little bit more disconnected from city life, uh, in comparison to like the gardens or the parks. This is getting even more disconnected. So 5 hours, the minimum length of time you spend each month in a semi-wild environment. Now, if you got benefits by walking in a park or a garden, you can imagine that if you spend 5 hours per month walking in a more natural environment than that, what kind of benefit you might have. So think big trees, think river systems, think mountain ranges, think beaches or seashells. Cities don't have these things. So you're introducing this to your world 5 hours per month. Lastly is the 3. Remember, it's the 25/3 rule. 3, 3 days. As Michael would tell you, this is the top of the pyramid. 3 is the number of days you should spend each year off the grid entirely. Off the grid, in nature. Maybe it's camping. Maybe it's renting a house that's far, far away. Doing it with friends or doing it by yourself doesn't so much matter, but this is the 3 days in a place where cell reception's pretty poor, where there's a good chance you bump into or see some sort of wild animal, where there truly is very little sound. This dose of the wildest nature, as Michael would describe it, is sort of like an extended meditation retreat, except that you can talk and things of that nature, but you're out and you're far away. You're secluded and you're doing it for 3 days a year. Again, this is the top of the pyramid. This sort of trip will completely reset your thinking. It'll boost your creativity. If you're feeling a little burned out, it's going to rejuvenate you and it's just going to make you feel better. For me, I'm fortunate enough to go away on a couple trips a year where I do disappear totally off the grid. Maybe I'm hunting, or maybe I'm hiking, but we'll go do some things where I'm off the grid. And yeah, it is hard at the very start to be that disconnected. But I'll tell you, once you find your groove, it's an amazing feeling. There are studies galore that talk around the benefit of this. Maybe one of the best studies I saw was was at— pertained to US military vets and how trips like this helped with their PTSD symptoms. And it brought their stress levels down and it made them happier. And that was just taking a few days. Okay? So the 25/3 rule, 20 minutes, 3 times a week outside in a park or something like that, 5 hours minimum length of time each month where you're out in a semi-wild nature, like a forested state park or a desert or whatever it may be. And then 3 days, 3 days totally off the grid on an annual basis. Try it out. The truth of the matter is, the reality is, you get out in nature, you get some sun, you disconnect from the hustle and bustle, you spend some time in a meditative sort of state, And I assure you, you'll feel pretty damn good. You'll feel pretty good. That's all I have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.