How to maximize your performance and escape over-planning and under-doing. Designing systems for your biological peaks and dips.

What if the real problem isn’t your willpower, but your timing?

Today we dive into a very practical exploration of how your brain shifts across the day, and how to design a life that cooperates with those shifts instead of fighting them.  

From the morning’s high executive function to the evening’s predictable crash, we unpack why your 9 a.m. self feels like a sharp CEO while your 9 p.m. self behaves like a tired intern, and how to use that predictability to your advantage. 

We break down the predictability principle and share accessible, battle-tested tools that remove decision friction when you’re depleted. You’ll hear how to apply “system over hope” in real life. 

Then we get strategic about the high points. Guard your mornings for high-friction work like writing, strategy, complex learning, difficult conversations, when focus and clarity peak. Shift afternoons to nudge tasks like email, scheduling, and admin, so your best hours serve your most important goals. We also show why coaches wire new habits to early slots for dramatically better odds, and how to run a simple audit: identify where you’re pushing against your biology, realign tasks to your energy, and install one small system tonight to help your future self succeed. 

If you’re ready to reduce regret, increase follow-through, and build kinder systems that work even when you’re tired, this conversation is your playbook. Listen, try one tool today, and tell us: which habit are you moving to your morning slot? Subscribe, share with a friend who overplans mornings and underdoes nights, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.  

Transcript

Biology Over Willpower

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Sharina. I'm your host. I'm your partner in transformation, in change, in personal growth and collective evolution. Your executive coach 360, and just someone who is super passionate about human potential, developing, growing, and unlocking more of it, and most importantly, using it in our daily life to create something awesome for the most amazing version of our lives and the world around us. Today, guys, again, I'm gonna be joined by two AI co-hosts who will walk you through a new system of realigning your energy with your biological energy, your circadium rhythm that is governed by 24-hour sleep, wake, sun rotation cycle. Realigning that with your schedule and your aspirations and the things that you want to accomplish. I don't know about you, but I long time ago realized that I am, for example, two completely different people in the morning at 8 a.m. as it is right now, and at 7 or 6 or 5 p.m. at night, or also at 1 or 2 p.m. And it's not just me. Scientist figured it out, measured it, that humans are indeed very different creatures at different times of the day. And the point of today's podcast is to help you realize A, that you are a different person. Your brain is literally a different machine due to different brain-body chemistry at different parts of the day. And because of that, your psychological and physiological also felt and perceived and actual energy is quite different, and therefore you're better and worse suited for different tasks. But the purpose also of this podcast is not just to give you the awareness of this fact, it's also to give you a better toolkit, a better approach to then actually build a systems, design systems into your day so you don't just get to plan a lot in the morning hoping you're gonna show up today as your best self, and this time it's gonna be different, but also helping you to build systems to work with the fact how you're gonna feel at different parts of your day, notice your patterns, and instead of trying to willpower your way through it, actually build systems that help you to do your best even when you feel not your best. Like if you plan a lot in the morning, but then by the afternoon that somehow disappears and you start having completely different thoughts. And by night, when you might also have certain plans, you really don't feel like it, and a lot of times you act on your worst side of things, not at your best, whether that's your lifestyle, nutrition, relationships, or work. Now don't fight it or caffeinate yourself through it, because that will backfire. But instead, learn how to build better systems to support your best intentions and plans and work with as you are, not as you wish you were. It's this episode is all about finally realizing that hey, you're not a machine who is supposed to give the same output throughout the 24-hour cycle. You are a biological creation that follows a certain cycle's ebbs and flows. And today's episode will give you some advice on how to use the science, realign it with your schedule and ambition, build the right kind of systems who don't drain you but help you to sustain high performance long term, and um help you to do your absolute best as many times and times of the day as possible. So without further ado, please enjoy the fascinating con and very practical and applicable conversation between my amazing co-hosts, and at the end, you'll hear a little message again from me again. So enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Okay, let's just jump right in because I feel like every single person listening has lived this exact scenario.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

You wake up, it's Monday morning, you feel great, you're optimistic, and you map out this this perfect week. You're gonna work out every night, cook healthy meals.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

And you're finally gonna tackle that huge, difficult project after dinner.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yes. And then, what, twelve hours later, a completely different Percy is in charge. A tired, sort of pessimistic intern has taken over the controls.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

And that whole beautiful plan just melts away. You order takeout and that big project that gets pushed to tomorrow morning for sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Aaron Powell It's this universal thing. Our reading for this deep dive called it the overplanning in the morning and underdoing at night problem. And it feels like you're fighting yourself, you know?

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Aaron Powell Totally. It's like you have this sharp, enthusiastic CEO running things at 9 a.m. and then by 7 p.m. it's this completely exhausted intern who's just trying to survive. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Don't we always blame ourselves for that? We think it's a failure of willpower.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Right. But the core insight from the research we looked at is that this shift in your energy, your mood, your clarity, it's not random at all. It's a predictable pattern. It's this hidden variable behind almost every bad decision we regret later.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Aaron Powell So that's our mission for this deep dive. We're gonna stop blaming willpower because it's just it's not stable. We're exploring this idea of designing your life around predictable energy cycles.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Aaron Powell And stop pretending we're machines.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Aaron Ross Powell Exactly. Stop pretending we have this consistent 24-7 output. The goal here is to figure out how to stop fighting our own biology and start building systems that actually work with reality.

Predictably Irrational Energy Cycles

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Aaron Powell Yeah. I mean, modern life really pushes this idea that we should have this high capacity, stable brain for a 16-hour day. But the psychological truth, the neurological truth, is that your energy isn't stable, but it is predictable.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

And that's the key.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

That's the whole key. Predictability is a tool. You can structure your entire life around it.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Okay, so let's start there with what we can call the predictability principle. The basic idea is if we accept that just hoping to feel like it is a recipe for failure.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Which it is.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Then the only real path forward is to design a life where, you know, the structure itself stops you from making decisions you're gonna regret five minutes later.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

And that means accepting a biological reality. The research in behavioral economics and neuroscience, it all supports this idea that you literally have a different brain at different times of the day.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Okay, unpack that a little. A different brain. What does that mean in practice beyond just feeling a bit tired?

SPEAKER_02 7:04

So think of it like this: your morning brain is sort of primed for high-level thinking, abstract thoughts, making tough trade-offs, learning new things. That all requires a lot of executive function.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Aaron Powell Impulse control, planning, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Exactly. And that executive function runs on what you could call decision fuel. It's a finite resource. And as the day goes on, you use it up. So by 7 p.m., your brain isn't failing you morally. It's just it's chemically tired. It's looking for the path of least resistance.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Aaron Powell That reframes everything. It really does. I love that observation from one of the behavioral strategists we read who said that this idea of working with humans as they actually are messy and variable. Is somehow treated as this radical new idea. But it should be completely obvious.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Aaron Powell Well, it just goes against this cultural myth that successful people are like perfect clocks. We build our plans, even corporate policies, around this ideal, stable human that just doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Aaron Ross Powell But once you accept that your energy and your mood have a pattern, then you gain all the power back. Which brings us right to that concept from Dan O'Reilly: predictably irrational.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yes. And that's the crucial mental shift for you, the listener. Irrationality sounds like chaos, right? But when it's predictable, it's an asset. Aaron Ross Powell How so Well, if you can reliably count on the fact that your 9 p.m. self is always going to make a worse choice than your 9 a.m. self, whether that's eating junk food or putting off saving money or sending that angry email. Oh, definitely. That prediction is so much more useful than any amount of willpower. You can actually design your environment around that known weakness.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Aaron Powell So if we know we're predictably irrational at certain times, the only logical thing to do is build, I guess, build defensive systems around those low energy states.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Exactly. You have to focus on the points of maximum failure. And that evening crash is the perfect example. That's the moment that needs a system, not just hope.

System Over Hope

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Aaron Powell So let's get into strategy. The research was really clear on this. You don't hope to feel good. You prepare to feel bad, and you put systems in place that just bypass the need to make a decision at all.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Aaron Ross Powell System over hope. That's the mantra. If you have, say, a gym session planned for the evening, you have to assume that little voice in your head is going to show up.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

The one that wants to cancel everything and just watch TV.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

That's the one. And instead of wrestling with that voice, which is exhausting, you just execute a preset, very low friction plan.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Aaron Powell Okay, this is where the specific hacks are so important. Let's use that gym example. The second that internal monologue starts trying to talk you out of it, the system kicks in. So what are the tools?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

It's all about using momentum and sensory input. So first, you do not engage the thought. Don't argue with it. That's a fight you're probably going to lose when you're tired. Second, you use preloaded sensory cues. You have a specific energizing playlist that you just hit play on. No thinking. You have your gym clothes already laid out from the morning, so there's no friction there.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

And there was that interesting detail in the reading about using something like a dark hot chocolate. Why does a small thing like that actually work?

SPEAKER_02 10:11

That's a great example of what you call a substitution ritual. Your low-energy brain is screaming for a dopamine hit, right? Usually from scrolling your phone or eating sugar. You don't fight that urge for comfort.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

You redirect it.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

You redirect it. You substitute a prepared, low-cost ritual, a specific tea or a small piece of dark chocolate. It gives you warmth, a sensory input, a momentary pause. It's like a little reset for your nervous system. And that's often just enough to let the bigger system, the music, the clothes take over without you having to make a hard choice.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

That makes so much sense. You're working with the urge, not against it. And the same idea applies to battling cravings, which is another huge area of a predictable regret for so many people.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Aaron Powell Right. If you know that at 8 30 p.m. you always want to raid the kitchen, the approach isn't to fight it. You don't stand there and have a debate with yourself. You set the stage with non-combative tools.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Aaron Powell Because cravings just feed on attention, right? The more you fight them.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

The stronger they get. The insight here is that if you stop feeding them attention, they often just dissolve.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Aaron Powell So instead of that standoff in front of the fridge, what is that non-combative system look like?

Substitution Rituals That Work

SPEAKER_02 11:20

It's all about creating a little bit of space, just a gap between the urge and the action. So when the urge hits, you have a prepared tool. Maybe it's brewing a really complex herbal tea. The act of making it gives you five minutes of distance. Okay. Or just closing your eyes for 60 seconds, or taking three very slow, deliberate exhales. These tiny actions interrupt that automatic loop in your brain. They calm your body down and break the intensity of the craving without a fight. The second you stop wrestling with it, you've already won.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

What's so powerful about both of these examples, showing up and managing cravings, is that the strategy is built on accepting that low energy state as a given. It's a known variable.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

You're not surprised by it anymore.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

And then you bypass the need for a big decision right at the moment you are least equipped to make one.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

It's the ultimate act of kindness to your future self. You're letting your clear-headed morning self protect your tired, vulnerable evening self.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Which is the perfect flip into our next section. If we've built defenses for the low points, we now have to be just as strategic about maximizing the high points. This is all about allocating your best brain power.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

We're circling right back to that different brain idea. If your morning is your peak cognitive window, and it is, cortisol levels are higher, you have more focus, you have to treat that time like it's gold. It's the only time you should be scheduling your high friction tasks.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Define that for us. What exactly is a high friction task?

SPEAKER_02 12:47

It's anything that requires deep, sustained focus and complex decision making. Things like writing a strategy document, learning a new technical skill, synthesizing a bunch of complicated data, or maybe having a difficult but important conversation that requires a lot of emotional intelligence.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Your eat the frog moments.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Exactly. You have to get them done first before that decision fuel starts running low. You want your internal CEO fully present and caffeinated for the really hard stuff.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Right. And then you contrast that with, say, the afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Completely different approach. As your energy predictably dips, maybe around 2.30 or 3.0 p.m., the tasks have to shift. The afternoon is for actions that need a nudge, not a battle.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Aaron Powell So what does a nudge task look like?

Non-Combative Tools For Cravings

SPEAKER_02 13:32

These are things that benefit from routine but don't require a huge strategic lift. Clearing out your email inbox, organizing files, doing your expense reports, scheduling meetings, purely procedural stuff. You use the inertia from the day to just glide through them, saving your best hours for the work that really matters.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

And this isn't just a personal productivity hack. We saw this in the research about professional coaching, the what they call the client strategy insight.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Absolutely. Behavioral strategists know this. If a client needs to build a new, really difficult habit, like a new daily sales outreach routine, they will wire it directly to that morning slot before 10 a.m. usually.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Because the odds of success are just so much higher than they're astronomically higher.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

If you try to install that same difficult habit at 4 p.m., you're setting yourself up to fail. You've already burned through your willpower on meetings and deadlines and traffic.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

It's just a predictable failure.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Precisely. Wiring it to the morning avoids that whole disastrous cycle of failing, feeling bad about it, and then trying to solve it with more willpower the next day. You're just substituting flow for friction.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

So as we start to bring this all together, the key question for you listening is pretty simple, but it does require some real honesty. Where do you need to realign your schedule so that your best states, your highest energy, your best mood, your most clarity are matched with the tasks that really demand them?

SPEAKER_02 14:54

I think that's the synthesis right there. The core finding of this deep dive is that our energy and emotional states, they aren't this chaotic mess we think they are. They have a pattern. They're predictable. And because of that, you can design for them.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

And the real power comes when you just stop. You stop that exhausting, pointless struggle against your own biology.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Yeah, and this isn't just about being more productive. It's about having more self-compassion, you know? Reducing regret. Stop relying on the brute force of willpower, which we know is a finite resource. Build the structure that catches you when you predictably dip.

Protect Evenings, Leverage Mornings

SPEAKER_01 15:29

So think about what you can do today. What is one tiny immediate step that one thing you always regret in the evening? Can you set up a playlist right now? Or put a specific teabag in a mug on your counter so the system is ready to go tonight?

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Don't wait until you feel like it. Prepare for the moment you know you won't.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

And as we close out this deep dive, we want to leave you with that final provocative thought, the next layer for you to explore, inspired by the research.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Just ask yourself this: where in your life right now are you pushing against your own biology? Where are you expecting consistent output from a fundamentally inconsistent machine?

SPEAKER_01 16:04

And maybe more practically. What specific areas of struggle could be solved almost immediately if you just installed one simple support system, that small non-combative hack that would remove the friction so you can succeed without having to try so hard? That's the real work of designing a better life.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

I hope you really enjoyed that conversation that helped you to think differently about your energy, your biology, how you are as a human, your productivity, your output, and building better systems to help you maximize your output and enjoyment of your life. So, again, to sum it up, at the end of this podcast, sit down and think about where am I pushing against my natural cycles? Number one, so ask your question when am I pushing against my natural cycles? Then number two, ask yourself, where can I realign the tasks that I need to do with my natural cycles of energy, of brain energy, of body energy, of your productivity? And number three, how can I build systems when I need more support, when my cycles and the output I need to produce are not exactly aligned, but I still need to do it. How can I build some systems that will support my execution without compromising my long-term wellness and performance? So, get answering these questions, realign your energy, your output, your ambition, and your systems. And till next time, keep growing, keep improving, and keep being or thriving to be your absolute best.