One of the highlights of Craig Mod’s interview with Tim Ferriss was Craig’s story about going on long walks in Japan. It literally gave me goosebumps. He walked 8 hours during the day, did 4-5 hours of creative writing in the evening and then published 2000-word blogposts daily for 30 consecutive days. What struck a chord with me was what he said after,
“That’s when I lived my fullest life… Given the cards dealt to me of this day, there was no fuller version of this day.” 1
Image©Tim Ferriss Blog
This is a feeling you and I experience on our best days. Academics call this ‘maximum cognitive efficiency’, 2 and Mod was able to experience that for 30 straight days. Do you think you and I can repeat our best days so often and so regularly? Can you and I enter and exit our high-performance zone whenever we want? I believe the answer is a resounding yes.
When we say, ‘high-performance zone’, we’re NOT talking about ‘flow’ state, where you’re so immersed in the activity that you don’t realise when a ceiling collapses near you. Such a state would be desirable, but it’s an elusive, rare and involuntary event. In contrast, a high-performance zone is a state where you experience
“a lack of self-consciousness, a relaxed concentration, and a sense of effortlessness.” 3
It’s a zone you and I can enter and exit on demand.
How to know you’re in your ‘high-performance zone’
It’s not scientific, but here are some signs that can tell you you’re in fact operating in your high-performance zone.
✅ You feel energetic during and after you leave the zone
✅ You notice progress in whatever you’re doing
✅ You’re in an upbeat/optimistic mood
✅ You solve problems as they come along
✅ You feel you’ve produced high-quality work (by your own standards)
How to enter your High-Performance Zone
Many misunderstand, I was one of them, that our high-performance zone can only occur during our best hours of the day. As an early morning person, I thought I could produce my best work only during the early morning hours.
I was wrong. You can actually enter your high-performance zone every time you want as long as you have these two key ingredients.
1. Attention.
Attention is the ability to focus on “what you want and when you want.” 4 George Mumford, who has worked with some of the best NBA players, starts his athletes training session with an attention-training course. He tells his athletes,
“…if they pay attention, the zone will happen as a by-product.” 5
When you and I are able to absorb ourselves in a task in such a way that we aren’t carried away either by our internal self-talk or external distractions, we’ve opened doors to our high-performance zone.
I’m writing this post from a relatively busy cafe. The way I’m managing the distractions is by having turned off mobile data and the laptop’s wifi. I have chosen a seat in the corner of the cafe. I’ve put a time deadline to complete this section of the post and I’ve promised to go meet my wife right after, so there is added incentive for me. 😁 This doesn’t mean I ignore the old man who came in a few minutes ago and started making small talk. I couldn’t avoid him, so I just mentally reframed this distraction as a moment to ‘ธรรมบุญ’ (do good deeds) to stay in a positive mind frame.
Pro-tip One strategy I often use to enter this zone when I’m a little tired or feeling sleepy is to do a quick 4-5 minute breath-work. Thai people call this นั่งสมาธิ (mindful breathing). It helps me slow down my thoughts and gain control over my ability to focus.
2. Intention.
Craig Mod during the podcast also mentioned that in 2018, he was experiencing some sort of depression because he had spent a year writing a bunch of articles about his long walks and got rejected by every magazine and got ghosted by editors. During that time, he was also working on a novel, which he couldn’t sell. It was a difficult time for him.
But he had this deep desire to share his experience with the world. These walks had transformed him in inexplicable ways and he knew he had to give it a tangible shape. This strong intention gave birth to the idea of launching a membership program for his dedicated followers to fund his walks and in return they get to be a part of his walks through photos, blogposts and responses.
When your tasks are aligned with your goals or purpose in life, performing at your peak becomes that much easier. In your high-performance zone, ensure you have the clarity on what you’re doing and why you’re doing. Ensure it is connected to your broader goals or purpose in life. This blogpost is a part of our endeavour to help young ambitious adults gain deeper self-awareness and cultivate habits of high-performing individuals.
Your High-Performance Toolkit 🛠️
🔶 Break your high-performance streak into cycles (20-40 minute cycles; you choose)
🔶 Stick to one single high-value task during each cycle
🔶 If you can, isolate yourself from colleagues, friends or acquaintances
🔶 Sit in a bright spot, preferably with natural light
🔶 Ensure you have all the things you need with you (e.g. water, snack, pen, earphones, document, etc.)
🔶 Know that it’s okay to lose focus; just get back in it whenever you lose it
🔶 Keep a deadline or outcome that you must achieve by the end
What prohibits us from entering our High-Performing Zone
Multitasking
When you’re switching between tasks, what your brain essentially is doing is redirecting all its energy to place focus on the new task. It’s much easier to redirect energy when you’re doing tasks that are either automatised or don’t require a lot of focus. For example, speaking on the phone while driving your car, or writing a standard email while simultaneously chatting on the phone.
However, when you’re working on something that requires a higher level of focus like when you’re analysing data to gather insights or delivering a presentation to key stakeholders or writing a new piece of content to publish on social media, multitasking is like your brain is switching between two treadmills. It’s getting off one treadmill to get on another every time you’re switching tasks.
Self-consciousness
Internal self-talk is unavoidable. Our thoughts are like a monkey jumping around from one tree to another. Those trees are the stories and conversations we keep playing in our minds. Notice how these random thoughts pop up, ‘her hair looks ugly’. ‘I should have said that in the last meeting’, or you play an imaginary self-congratulatory future scene of how well you presented and everyone is giving you a standing ovation. On and on and on…
Image © Optimal by Goleman & Cherniss
One of the most prominent studies 6 published on people’s mind wandering found that the highest rate of mind wandering happens in three situations; during a commute, while looking at a video monitor (phones, laptops, televisions), and while at work. I can vouch for all three.
Unless you’re able to control that monkey, you’d be mentally consumed in those fantasies and conversations. You need to be able to immerse yourself in the task in a manner that lets you forget yourself, like the gamer playing a video game or when people attend a musical concert of their favourite artist. You lose track of time, space and self.
The Bottom Line
Peak performance isn’t some Olympic-level feat that happens once in a blue moon. It’s available to you every single day. Tonight, ask yourself Craig Mod’s question: “Have I lived my fullest life today?”
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References:
- Craig Mod on Tim Ferris Podcast – https://tim.blog/2025/03/28/craig-mod-returns/
- Hoffman, B. and Schraw, G, (2010) “Conceptions of Efficiency: Applications in Learning and Problem Solving”, Educational Psychologist
- (3, 4, & 5.) Goleman, D. and Cherniss, C. (2022), “Optimal: How to Sustain Excellence Every Day”, chapter 4, 39.
6. Killingsworth, M. and Gilbert, D. (Nov, 2012), “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind,” Science, 32.
#PerformanceOptimization #SelfAwareness #EmotionalIntelligence #Productivity #High-performance #Peak-performance
