Stop Fighting Your Biology

Hi Friend,

Picture a river trying to flow uphill. That's what I looked like two years ago, staring at my color coded calendar—every hour blocked, every habit scheduled down to the minute.

6:00 AM: meditation. 7:15 AM: workout. 9:00 AM: deep work.

It was beautiful.

It was precise. And by day three, it was already falling apart.

Here's what nobody tells you about rigid schedules: they work brilliantly until Wednesday.

Then life happens. A meeting runs late. You wake up tired. Your brain feels like static when it's supposed to feel sharp.

And suddenly, you're not just missing your 9:00 AM deep work session—you're questioning whether you're capable of discipline at all.

I ran this same experiment for months. Built the perfect system. Watched it collapse.

Built it again. Collapsed again. Each time, I thought the problem was me—that I lacked willpower or consistency.

I was ignoring the fact that my body was already running its own schedule.

Then I came across a podcast from neuroscientist Andrew Huberman on habit formation, and something clicked. He wasn't talking about discipline or willpower.

He was talking about neurochemicals—the stuff your body is already producing in predictable waves throughout the day.

Your morning brain isn't the same as your afternoon brain. It's flooded with dopamine and epinephrine, making you alert and action-oriented.

By afternoon, that cocktail shifts toward serotonin—you're calmer, less sharp, better suited for things you've already automated.

What if, instead of fighting these phases, you worked with them?

Here's the reframe: you don't need a rigid schedule.

You need a flexible system anchored to your body's natural rhythm. I now work with six daily habits—but I don't force them into specific time slots.

Instead, I map them to three phases: morning (high-focus tasks like my two deep work sessions), afternoon (maintenance habits like my nap and lighter reading), evening (my walks, when I'm winding down). Some days I hit all six.

Most days I hit four or five. And here's the thing—that's the target. Not perfection. Just consistency with breathing room.

My deep work sessions actually happen because I'm not trying to do them when my brain is already spent.

I've stopped punishing myself for being human. And weirdly, that's when the habits started sticking.

So here's what I want you to do: write down six things you want to do daily.

Not ten. Not twenty. Six.

Then ask yourself—which of these need your sharpest, most energized self?

Put those in phase one.

Which are you already decent at and just need to maintain? Phase two.

Which help you wind down? Phase three.

Then aim for four to five completions a day. Not six. Not perfect.

Do this for 21 days—same rhythm, same six habits. Not to "complete" them, but to let your nervous system sync with the pattern.

After those 21 days, you'll notice which habits have become part of you and which still feel like work. That's when you assess.

That's when you might layer in something new, if you need to. Another 21 days. Same process.

This isn't a New Year's thing.

This isn't something you do once and forget.

This is how you build anything that matters—by working with your biology, not against it.

You're not broken. You're just trying to run uphill when your river was meant to flow with the current.

With you on this Journey. Always

Uthman