I’ve Tried Famous Huberman’s and Hof’s Method and I Have Only One Message for Them.
So, I’d really like to swap with some of these young, “Hustle -24 hour” dudes. To see what the real hustle is.
Ok, I get it.
It is incredibly healthy and will give you a long, (happy?) life if you pour over icing water or, even better, you dive into ice every morning. But let me tell you something, Wim Hoff and Andrew Huberman — I don’t want to do that!
I don’t want to be an icy statue. I don’t want to do that!
I’m an optimising junkie - always on a mission to optimise my entire life. I believe we can improve our habits and processes and become a better version of ourselves.
But after trying some of the methods recommend by overhyped online gurus, my conclusion is that all of them are made for white, single, privileged men.
They might also work for some other men and women, but that’s more of a statistic error. That’s an exception that proves the rule.
Over-optimised routine.
All these routines, cold showers, and dopamine resets are just gibberish and offence to all hard-working, overstressed, and overstretched men and women.
There’s no 1 per cent chance you can go over their over-optimised routine if you’re, for example, a mum of three who works full time.
That’s me.
How on Earth I could:
Get up at 5 AM and jump into a cold bath
Do 20 minutes of HIIT
Then, write morning pages for 15–20 minutes
Top it up with some meditation
Then, set up deep work for an hour or two
Followed by bulletproof coffee (with MCT oils, of course, because fasting)
And then fly lightly into the day?
My days, most of the time, look like this:
I get up at 5 AM, sleep-deprived
Plan my day — who has sport, who has a doctor's appointment, do I need to go to the shop
Empty my dishwasher, make coffee
Prepare lunchboxes for the kids and me
Wake up kids
Re-heat coffee
Prepare lunch/dinner for that day
Have 30 minutes of writing (if any) while drinking cold coffee
Wake up, kids; for the second time
Have a shower — not cold because I’m already awake and I hate cold water
Turn washing machine
Write a chore list for the kids
Running from home with kids to work/school
Then, I was told to prioritise!
OK, what to cut?
Feeding kids, eating, going to work, keeping my pet alive, or sleeping?
Where are little midgets to do all daunting housework instead of me, while I’m enjoying my ice bath?
So, I’d really like to swap with some of these young, “Hustle -24 hour” dudes. To see what the real hustle is.
I’ve cut my sleep for years; I spent the first 14 years of my parenting too tired, sleep-deprived, and half-crazy. I had a six-year-old, a three-year-old, and a newborn and worked two jobs.
If was offered me to implement Hoff- Huberman crazy protocols on top of that, I might have become a murderer as well.
Don’t get me wrong: I think these things are not bad, quite the opposite.
They are awesome.
But just for single, white, privileged men.
Unrealistic to implement.
Unsustainable for a long time.
And commercialised to the core.
Another “you’re not good enough” to sell more: videos, courses, books, ice baths — have you seen this guy from Adelaide who earned 1.7 million by selling ice baths???
Not everything is good for everyone
I’ve tried to take colder showers many times.
During summer, I don't have issues. I love them.
But, when it’s cold, a combination of my awful circulation and cold water results in more harm than benefit. I even went on an ice plunge at my favourite massage salon.
It was good.
Combined with the sauna, I felt refreshed and energised, only to have terrible joint pains for the next three weeks.
Not my cup of tea.
I’m 46.
I had my fair share of learning, growing, and implementing different things to grow.
My life has been a madhouse for years and decades, and I love it.
I learned to accept hard things and often to turn them to my advantage.
I’m resilient as f…; I came from a Third-World country and survived civil war, poverty, and hunger.
And I want to defend my right to have a hot shower, even in the morning. To plunge my tired, peri-menopausal body into warm, bubbly heaven in the evenings and not even read a self-improvement book.
Just to stare at the ceiling.
We have to draw red line somewhere. Mine is long, hot shower from time to time.
Hi, I am Angelina, and I usually do not rant about these things. But I felt inspired and love writing about productivity and self-improvement.
This story also relates to your marketing: not every method, hack, or routine will be a good fit for you. Experiment, and find your own “cold shower” that gives you focus and brings you the marketing results you want.
I recently published a book that might help you find your marketing focus - you can create a marketing action plan in less than 7 days. Check it out here and use Fairy1 discount code <3 (psst, my paid subscribers get this book for free).
Brilliant article. You might like this quote from a British writer James Marriott: “ Every chief executive, start-up founder and LinkedIn wannabe boasts of feats of industry. Tech types discussing their productivity regimes always leave me yearning for a Monty Python Four Californians sketch (“Call that work? I get up before I go to bed, send emails in my sleep, refresh myself with a 3am ultra marathon…”)
I live solo and still feel like I would not be able to do this! Well, I would not even try, honestly.
It is impressive how much you have accomplished with three kids. My sister has three as well, and I have witnessed all the things a mother needs to do in a day. Let alone the fact that something would literally come up out of nowhere every day, either in school or home, so aside from juggling too many things, you also need to be prepared for unexpected situations. That is a lot!