One of our most valuable resources in life is time. What if I could flip a switch and give you 26 hours a day instead of 24? By the end of this video, I’ll reveal how most of you will discover at least 2 hours a day with the magic of Transplanting Hours.
My name is Zach, and I was a doctor, but now I’m a consultant living in NYC. NYC is fun but there are lots of very smart and driven people here. And, being around these ambitious people inspires me to work harder and try to improve myself. One of the fastest ways I’ve done this in the past is by transplanting hours with my sleep and wake time to create extra time every single day.
Doing this got me into medical school, allowed me to launch a YouTube channel while in medical school, and gave me time to work towards my dream job while an internal medicine resident.
Let’s talk about transplanting hours.
Finding 2 “bad” hours a day
I’ve been waking up at 5 – 6 am for a couple of years now, but the first week was brutal. However, something magical happened once my sleep cycle settled – I discovered I wasn’t actually adding hours to my day (even though it felt like it), I was transplanting them:
- The Evening Problem: I am not productive after 7 pm and would stay awake until 10:30 pm (3.5 hours of nothing).
- The Morning Discovery: 5-7 am I am the most productive (but previously was asleep because I would wake up at 7 am).
- The Transplant Effect: Waking up earlier and going to bed earlier meant I was transplanting those evening “nothing” hours to morning productive hours. 5-7 am I am now awake. 8:30 PM I am now in bed and nearly asleep.
So, I take two hours away from the evening and transplant them to the morning. This gave me an additional 2 hours of productive time.
The Evening Problem
After finishing everything by 7 pm, I’d have these two golden hours for studying, YouTube work, or side projects. But I accomplished nothing. My brain was mush. I’d sit there scrolling or half-heartedly attempting work while my ability to produce anything worthwhile had completely tanked.
Research backs this up – our cognitive performance naturally declines throughout the day due to mental fatigue accumulation (this study from the Journal of Experimental Psychology shows how decision fatigue impacts evening productivity). Also, some people are naturally morning, mid-day, or nighttime people (your chronotype). And at those times, you are doing your best work. If you are a morning or mid-day person (75% of you) going to bed later is nearly always wasting “peak-brain” time.
*Caveat: some people are very productive at very specific tasks later at night, like creative writing, but, in general, overall productivity declines as the day proceeds.
The Morning Discovery
So I ran an experiment. I woke up at 5, and by 6:30 am I’ve eaten, meditated, showered and got dressed, and was ready for the day. Or, I’ll get my workout in. During these morning hours, I’m completing entire YouTube scripts, reading books, running miles – work that used to take an entire weekend now happens before I used to wake up.
The difference in output is insane. My morning brain versus my evening brain might as well be two different people.
The Transplant Effect
Here’s the key insight: I’m not actually adding two hours to my day. I’m transplanting them. I shifted my entire wake-sleep cycle two hours earlier – bed at 8 pm, up at 5 am. Those unproductive 8-10 pm hours? Gone. Replaced with laser-focused 6-8 am hours where I actually get things done.
Now, this is what works for me. Depending on someone’s chronotype and when they are most productive, this might actually be terrible advice. To effectively transplant, and not have your body reject the “new hours,” you have to introspect to find your best hours.
The Bottom Line
You know when you are most productive.
Expose your dead zones – those hours where you think you’re working but you’re really just messing around. Then experiment with transplanting them to your peak performance times (as found here). Maybe this means going to bed earlier. Maybe this means going to bed later. Maybe this means flipping your gym time and your work time. You don’t need more hours; you need better hours.