Brian Johnson ("Bry") records a short vlog-style video reporting on recent projects and a personal sleep/HRV experiment, then connects his improved performance to the psychological "audience effect." He describes finishing and uploading a long "mastery series" walkthrough and printing a 159-page workbook for coaches. Johnson ran a sleep experiment (in bed 9h12; 7h53 sleep; 86% efficiency) and recorded unusually low resting heart rates (as low as 39 bpm; average ~42 bpm) and very high heart-rate-variability (average ~92; a reported max of 254). He links increased accountability/visibility to better performance, cites a 2011 Newcastle University study that used posters of eyes to increase prosocial behavior, quotes Angela Duckworth on joining a gritty culture, and promotes the Optimize Coach community (mentions 500 attendees at a recent graduation and upcoming class start).
Questions this video answers
August 13, 2020
9 hours 12 minutes
7 hours 53 minutes
86% efficiency
As low as 39 bpm; resting heart rate average reported ~42 bpm
Chapters
Hey, guys, what's up? This is Bry. We have a late edition of our number one. I'm calling these number ones. The number one thing I'm thinking about today. The number one thing I was thinking about today was finishing our mastery series. We uploaded a walkthrough I did of it that was 1 hour, 11 minutes, 30 something seconds, 1 take. Thought it'd be like a half an hour. Then I kind of got on a roll. My life's work in an hour and 11 minutes. I shared that with you today. You'll see that. And then I hit the barn studio out there that we converted into a studio and filmed it for module zero. You can check that out, watch it for free at Optimize Me Coach. Get a bunch of other free stuff. Now the printer's blowing up. Messy office. Got these cards that I'm FedExing to our film. Genius. This is like precious gems right here. Going out this afternoon. I'm printing out the workbook for our coaches. It's like 159 pages. Every single session here has its own worksheet, right? So this is the mastery series. Seven modules, module zero. And then every single one of our worksheets exercises has a worksheet. And then our head coach, Michael, walks you through them in his practice. Videos are super cool. Anyway, I'll talk more about that tomorrow. Today, 1, 2, 3. Okay. So yesterday I ran an experiment, right? And I gave myself a little bit less sleep, and it told me, you need a little more sleep. I was in bed for eight hours and I got seven hours of sleep. And I told you I felt a little tired, I needed more sleep. So today I ran the experiment and I stayed in bed for 9 hours. I was tempted to stay in bed for 10 just to see what that would do, but I decided that today would be nine hours. And my temperature was up a little bit for some reason. Otherwise it just would have been epic. So I stayed in bed for nine hours and I got nearly eight hours of sleep. But this is just crazy. So my resting heart rate came down to 39, which I hit. I think I've hit 38 before, but usually I'm like 40. See, 41, 41, 42, 40. The heart rate variability number is insane. That's the second highest number I've ever gotten. 100 is the highest I've ever gotten. Frankly, I think that they. I think something must have gone wrong in their system because check this out. Heart rate variability. If you know anything about heart rate variability as measured by aura, you know this is crazy. 92 average, right? But I maxed out at 254. I look at that, I'm like, no, I broke there. There's no way that's right. Anyway, I laughed. I've gotten 150 or something, which I believe, but I'm not sure what I think about 254. Resting heart rate average was 42, which is really good for me. 39, etc. But anyway, the real experiment was sleep. So I was in bed for 9 hours and 12 minutes. I got 7 hours and 53 minutes of sleep. 86% efficiency, and I feel way better. That hour totally changes my overall energy, which I used and put to work today on this. Good stuff. So that's the, the primary lesson for today. Nice to see the experiment come through. But then, you know, I was thinking this morning about this study that's been done. It's called the audience effect. So I searched my Mac. Here we have 600 plus philosopher's notes. I'm like, where was that study? Literally searched eyeballs. I knew I talked about eyeballs, right? And I found this. I printed it out. I'll be doing a PNTV on this. I don't think I've done one on this yet. How bad do you want it? Great book. So I'm just going to share this with you today. And the point here is that my performance is going up because now I know I'm accountable to you. I'm going to share my data with you every day. What, what I did, what I didn't do. You talk about like humbling. You better be showing up. You know, you really being a professional philosopher over here, Bry, get to work. So there's actually research on this. I'm just gonna share it with you right now. The Audience Effect. Philosopher's note on how bad do you want it? Great book. Matt Fitzgerald. Well done. Here we go. Psychologists have a name for this phenomenon, the audience effect. The online psychology dictionary defines it as the influence of the presence of other people on an individual's behavior. Psychologists believe that the audience effect is mediated by a so called sociometer, a mechanism involving multiple regions of the brain, including the anterior insula and the inferior gyrus. Gyrus. Through this mechanism, people notice and interpret the attention of those around them and use this input to adjust their behavior in ways that are likely to earn more positive attention. Hmm. Your eyeballs are on my aura score. Might be adjusting my behavior even more. I'm just even that much more committed. I already was, but now it's gone up a level. And the point here is, how can you do something like this? In essence, the audience effect coaxes people into holding themselves to higher standards. Always a good thing. If you want to play the game of life. Well, consider a 2011 study conducted by psychologists at Newcastle University published An Evolution in Human Behavior which found that college students were more likely to clean up after themselves in a cafeteria when posters depicting human eyes were conspicuously displayed on the walls. What a great. Who came up with that? The audience effect elevates people's standards not only for moral behavior, but also for any kind of task performance that might be judged. We humans want to be seen as being good at whatever we do in the presence of others. End quote. Thousand second timer. Thank you, Timex. Isn't that fascinating? There we go. And, oh, by the way, here we go. Angela Duckworth, Grit. The bottom line on culture and grit is this. If you want to be grittier, find a gritty culture and join it. If you're a leader and you want the people in your organization to be grittier, create a gritty culture. Now, I didn't intend to make this another opportunity to promote optimized coach, but you want to join a gritty community, come join us. Optimize coach. Class three starts in less than two weeks. You will be paired up with an optimized buddy, a swim buddy who will hold you. We are all going to hold ourselves to high standards, and it's crazy how much people love our community. Let me see if I can find something here. Air graduation. There it is. Okay, I don't know if that's going to come through, but check it out. My Internet is painfully slow here in the country. I love it at a satellite dish right out there that got a bird's nest in it. It's pretty epic. Anyway, we had 500 optimizers come together for graduation in LA. Coach class one. And it was just so epic. We did a Spartan race together. We meditated together. Oh, I'm getting tears in my eyes just looking at these pictures. Families came together. We have a lot of couples that came. Me and our head coach, Michael. Yeah. Alexandra, Eleanor. Hanging out with some coaches. Yeah, we do. We got the puppy families. This is our first optimized baby Noah, appropriately named. That's so good. Our French contingency. Yeah. Optimized coach. There's my physical therapist who got my arm back in order so fast. Love you, Dr. J. Anyway, community, we're all about it. Maxine. Oh, and Julia, you guys are awesome. Maxine lost a crazy amount of weight. Just crazy. Crush the Spartan race, dance party. Big hugs. Everybody got a hug when they got their certificate. There it is, Leo. Love you, man. All right. There you go. Community. Eyeballs. Crazy heart rate variabilities. 1, 2, 3. Let's get a little better today.
