Deep house music is slowly playing out through the white, dusty stereo speakers above me as I sit in a specialty brewery-coffeehouse fusion. I have my journal to my left, having already written down my Gratitude List, my Get-To-Do List, and my Accomplished List. My idea bank is already brimming.

I was up sharply at 4:38 this morning. I washed my face with pearl powder, washed my body with probiotic soap, did breathwork to activate my inner chi, did some red-light therapy, and then did a light full-body workout.

It’s 7:42 AM.

This morning routine has created some of the best days of my life.

It allows me to start my day bursting with energy, purpose, compassion, and yes, some amazing writing ideas.

In fact, a lot of what I do in the morning relates to better writing.

Because I truly believe when you become healthier you become a better writer.

And a better human.

This is not about becoming “tough” or winning the day while people sleep.

This is about true self care, optimizing mind body and spirit and becoming your best self.

Let’s dive in.

1. Mind

What are the thoughts entering your mind in the morning?

Over the years, I have learned that the thoughts that begin my day are the thoughts that will stay with me during the day.

So if I wake up thinking, “I am so exhausted,” or “Man, this day is going to suck,” or “Man, I’ve got to go to this bullshit job now,” I typically experience those emotions the whole day.

On the other hand, waking up and saying, “Wow, I am happy to be alive and I feel great and ready for an amazing day,” or “I am an ethereal being who is jumping with mitochondrial energy and the short-chain fatty acids are firing on all cylinders”—these thoughts prime your mind for looking for these patterns throughout the day.

So the very first thing I do when I wake up is just try and think positive thoughts.

Not every day is the best day ever, but we can always control how we are thinking about our situation, no matter the circumstance.

A few positive thoughts to steal for your morning: ☀️

• Okay, another day. Let’s do something amazing today.

• I am happy I get to wake up and drink another coffee.

• I feel well rested and happy I got to sleep in a warm and safe bed.

• Oh, this day is going to be lit, I get to see my friends today. Stuff like that.

After this, I go into my bathroom where I focus on some biohacked TLC.

2. Muscle (and the Morning Spa)

Now it’s spa time.

Time to feel like I am going into a retreat center mixed with a med spa.

This is when I brush my teeth, floss, and do tongue scraping and oil pulling.

I go in the shower and do the oil pulling while I wash my face gently as well as wash my body lightly.

This self-care act allows me to start the day fresh, refresh my skin microbiome, and focus on my oral microbiome—which is incredibly important and directly correlates with not only your gut microbiome but your heart health as well! Believe it or not.

As you know, cosmetics contain lots of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, so I focus on non-toxic and holistic products.

Note: I’ve dropped the full list of my favorite gear and the links to these products at the bottom of this post! 👇

The Morning Spa Lineup:

• Toothpaste: Dr. Bronner’s or Living Libations

• Toothbrush: PRIMALS or Feno toothbrush

• Floss: Dr. Tung’s

• Tongue Scraper: Dr. Tung’s

• Oil Pull: Living Libations

• Shower Filter: AquaTru

• Hair Care: Living Libations

• Skin Care: Alitura

From there, I turn on the red-light panel in my bathroom. I hop out of the shower and apply my moisturizer. I use Alitura’s Gold Serum. It’s my absolute favorite. It has copper tripeptide and sea marine collagen which help boost skin production.

💡 Biohack with Jack Tip: While standing in front of the red-light panel, close your eyes and massage your face and hair with this oil. It brings blood flow everywhere, improving elasticity and making sure you don’t get wrinkles.

3. Clean Like a Monk 🧘‍♂️

I head up to the kitchen where I wash dishes and scrub. I scrub the crap out of everything. The kitchen is my domain. I call myself the Kitchen Captain.

I heard a video somewhere of a girl explaining how the monks wake up and the first thing they do is clean. They believe it primes inner focus and gratitude for the day. So I like to activate my inner monk. I scrub the grill and all the surfaces with essential oils and Dr. Bronner’s—these have profound anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties.

• Favorite cleaning products: Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds and Organic Thieves Oil.

Boom. Kitchen clean, body clean, feeling goooood.

4. Movement🏃‍♂️

I figured out this profound realization when I was in my freshman year of college back.

If you stretch and move, you feel a whole lot better as the day goes on.

Before that, I literally thought stretching and doing anything of the “touch your toes” nature was bizarre and irrelevant, and dare I say, feminine.

But now I don’t go a day without it.

• The Goal: Prioritize at least 15 minutes of stretching, mobility, and foam rolling.

• The Result: When you open up your body, you really open up your mind and your heart.

• Favorite Yoga Channel: Breathe and Flow.

5. Breathwork 🌬️

Okay, my fellow guru holistic hackers. The body is open, the mind is in a positive place, the place is clean, and the body is clean. I mean dang, we already won the day, but there is much more fun to be done!

Now is a quick 10-minute breathwork routine. Remember, this is all fun to me. If this is not fun to you, do not force yourself. I am in the camp of pro-self-care, not pro-optimization.

Breathwork for me is the most profound way to clear the mind and feel really, really good.

There is a ton of amazing science on what happens when you breathe in these rhythmic patterns for a couple minutes a day.

Breathwork yields amazing benefits like:

• Reduced cortisol

• Improved mood

• Increased dopamine and serotonin

• Releasing stress and trauma

It sets my mind for total connection with myself and life. I do it every single day. I will never look back!

Biohack with Jack Tip: Try one video in the AM, see how you feel. YOU PICK! I love the Breathe with Sandy videos.

6. Microbiome

Time for self-care for the gut bugs. They need a little TLC too!

Quick 101: The gut microbiome means all the bacteria that make up your stomach. We have trillions of species in our body and the good guys—the good bacteria—live in a symbiotic relationship with us and do a bunch of useful things for us.

As we give them hospitality inside of us, they produce neurotransmitters for us, help us poop, carry 70% of our immune system, talk to our nervous system, keep us calm and cool and collected, and so much more. I talk about so much of this in my blog, so subscribe for more!

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But yes, one of the ways to take care of these bacteria is by feeding them with fiber. Fiber is their main fuel source, so I use prebiotic fiber as well as psyllium husk, which helps clear toxins and cleanse the internal system.

I’ve been using Bio.me products and they have been an absolute game-changer.

7. Nootropics 🧠

During this time I also take some yummy cognitive enhancers which feed my brain! I take some right before I head out in the morning, either their Upbeat or Dopa Drops.

• The Brand: Nootopia (The nootropic OGs).

One Last Ritual: One Set of Iron

From there, I get on the gym bro, toxic masculine attire and go bench press while I stare down dudes and hit on girls.

Just kidding, to all of that.

I literally just hit a couple of weights to warm up my metabolism, warm up the muscles, and get blood flow to my brain. It consists of:

• Hitting a couple of rows

• Maybe hitting the chest press a couple of times

• Getting on the bike

• Stretching a bit more

Done. It takes five minutes—just some nice self-care for the muscles and metabolism. Now I go in my car and head over to the coffee shop.

The Payoff

I mean, wow.

We’re in the car driving to the coffee shop for my two-hour writing block, and you could say I am peaking on life. But in this case, I really am just taking care of my mind, body, and spirit—all of which allows me to become a better writer.

This routine has allowed me to build my dream life, and it’s something I love doing every day. I wonder, what do you think about it? Anything mind-blowing to you?

Maybe try one or two of these things, or FaceTime me as we run through the biohacked morning routine gauntlet together!!!

Have a great week!

Jack

🛠️ The Biohacked Gear List

“If you can’t eat it, don’t put it near your mouth.”

Here is the exact toolkit I use to prime my mind, body, and microbiome every single morning.

Oral Care & “Morning Spa” 🪥

• Toothpaste: Living Libations Frankincense Fresh or Dr. Bronner’s All-One (Non-toxic, fluoride-free, and gut-safe).

• Toothbrush: PRIMALS or the Feno Smart Brush (20-second deep clean).

• Floss & Scraper: Dr. Tung’s Smart Floss and Stainless Steel Tongue Cleaner (The OG of oral hygiene).

• Oil Pulling: Living Libations Happy Gum Drops (Swish for 10 mins for a bacterial reset).

• Shower Filter: AquaTru Filtered Showerhead (Don’t let your skin absorb city chlorine).

• Skin & Hair Care: Alitura Gold Serum (Copper peptides + Marine Collagen = Liquid gold) and Living Libations shampoo + conditioner.

The “Clean Ship” Toolkit 🧼

• All-Purpose Scrub: Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds (The Kitchen Captain’s secret weapon).

• The Scent: Organic Thieves Oil (Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and smells like a fortress).

Gut & Brain Fuel 🧠

• Prebiotic Fiber: Bio.me Daily Prebiotic (Feeding the “good guys” with Sunfiber & Solnul).

• Nootropics: Nootopia Upbeat & Dopa Drops (Precision-grade cognitive enhancers to hit that 7:00 AM writing flow).

This article is part of a series on Biohack with Jack called The Biohacked Writer, where I explore how health, focus, and biohacking fuel your best creative work.

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Did you know some of the most iconic books, like Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, were written while the authors were peaking on cocaine and whiskey?

What is ironic is that these same books are taught in universities, quoted by leaders, and celebrated in creative circles, yet we rarely talk about the fact that their authors were high while pounding the keys.

Robert Louis Stevenson reportedly wrote most of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydein a six day frenzy fueled by cocaine. His wife said the pace of his writing actually frightened her.

Ernest Hemingway lived famously hard too.

When I read his biography by Mary V. Dearborn, I was both amazed and saddened to learn how his drinking and lifestyle habits eventually caught up with him. Of course, his time in war likely played a role in his decline, but his choices off the battlefield did not help.

But this is not just about drugs.

It is about health. The thing most writers forget until their work begins to suffer. When your body breaks down, your creativity follows. And when you take care of yourself, your writing transforms.

We’ll look at famous authors who burned out on chaos, those who chose biohacks instead, and simple health tips any writer can use to unlock their best work.

Let’s dive in.

Stephen King: From Cocaine Fueled To Biohacked

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, King was in full addiction mode.

• Snorting lines of cocaine to stay awake

• Chain smoking cigarettes

• Drinking a case of beer a night

He wrote at such a manic pace that he sometimes stuffed cotton in his nose to stop the bleeding. In interviews, he has described that period as a blur of powder and typewriter keys.

He chased the myth that drugs and alcohol gave his stories their edge, that altered consciousness somehow made the words flow. Looking back, he calls that belief one of the great pop intellectual myths of our time.

By the mid 1980s, his health collapsed.Friends staged an intervention. He detoxed, went to rehab, and slowly began rebuilding both his body and his process.

He quit drinking, stopped using cocaine, slept again, ate regular meals, started walking daily, and made writing an early morning discipline instead of an all night siege.

The outcome speaks for itself. Since getting clean, King has written more than forty books. Once his dopamine stopped swinging and his stress hormones calmed down, his creative focus sharpened.

By truly taking care of his body, King did not lose his edge.

He gained control of it.

Haruki Murakami: The Biohacked Writer

Haruki Murakami is the opposite archetype.

He is the disciplined, optimized creative.

In What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, he describes the routine he has followed for decades: up at 4 a.m., write for five or six hours, then run 10 kilometers or swim 1,500 meters in the afternoon, and be in bed by 9 p.m.

He calls writing a long novel a form of survival training and insists that physical strength is just as essential as artistic sensitivity.

Imagine being truly healthy, with low inflammation, an optimized circadian rhythm, balanced hormones, a strong gut, and steady neurotransmitter production.

When all of these systems work together, they create the foundation for becoming a sharper writer and a stronger version of yourself.

What Changed When I Got Healthy As A Writer

Here’s my archetype.

Two years ago, I hit rock bottom with my health.

I developed CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) from mold exposure in an old apartment. My body couldn’t detox properly, so inflammation stayed sky high, leaving me wiped out and super susceptible to every bug going around.

Writing? Forget it.

My brain felt like a radio stuck between stations, slightly detuned. I couldn’t find the focus or energy to string a sentence together. I’d grind for hours using every hack and tool, but the words landed flat, lifeless.

That’s when I got serious about biohacking, the stuff I teach all the time here on Biohack With Jack.

I attacked the mold toxicity head-on with binders like activated charcoal and bentonite clay, sauna sessions to sweat it out, and a full gut reset.

Then I nailed these basics:

• slept a solid 8 hours

• moved my body regularly (walks, light lifts)

• got sunlight first thing in the morning

• ate an anti-inflammatory, gut-friendly diet packed with plants, wild meats, fruits, herbs, and healthy fats like olive oil

• stacked supplements like high-dose fish oil, creatine, essential amino acids, and soil-based probiotics

Health didn’t hand me euphoria or lightning-bolt inspiration.

It gave me rock-solid stability. The steady, quiet focus I needed to dig into deep creative work without my thoughts derailing.

Now when my body and mind line up, writing flows naturally. Words hit harder.

And yeah, you feel incredible doing it.

That’s the real power of fixing the root cause, not just masking symptoms.

Daily Biohacks Every Writer Should Practice

Writing at your highest level starts long before you open your laptop.

The way you move, eat, sleep, and recover sets the tone for your focus and creativity.

Here are simple daily biohacks that sharpen your brain, increase flow, and make writing feel easier.

1. Optimize Your Morning Routine

When you wake up, avoid your phone for a few minutes. Start by moving gently.

• Do five minutes of light tai chi shaking or slow joint circles to get energy moving through your body.

• Then take a 20 to 30 minute walk and focus on deep, slow breathing.

This wakes up your nervous system, increases blood flow to your brain, and sets you up for calmer, clearer thinking when you sit down to write.

2. Get Sunlight In Your Eyes Within 30 Minutes Of Waking

Morning light tells your brain that the day has started. It resets your internal clock, boosts serotonin, and helps regulate melatonin for better sleep at night.

If you cannot step outside right away, open a window and face the natural light while you breathe deeply. This simple habit can improve your mood and focus for the rest of your writing day.

3. Hydrate With Minerals Before Your Coffee

Before you reach for caffeine, drink 12 to 16 ounces of mineral rich water.

Good options include:

• Kaizen minerals added to water. Use code: BIOHACKWITHJACK

• Heavy metal free salts like Diamond Sea Salt in filtered water

• A high quality filter such as AquaTru to clean your base water

These minerals support mitochondrial energy production, which helps you stay focused and energized through long writing sessions without the jitters and crashes that come from drinking coffee on an empty system.

4. Move Often With Short Workout Snaps

Your body drives your brain. Instead of one long workout, sprinkle small, intense movements throughout the day.

For example:

• 15 squats when you refill your water

• 10 push ups before lunch

• A 10 minute walk after meals

• 30 seconds of kettlebell swings or jump squats in the afternoon

• A few minutes of stretching or mobility work before bed

These micro sessions keep your circulation and dopamine steady, which helps your imagination stay sharp and your mood stable while you write.

Also your metabolism stays boosted all day long and you keep fat burning on like a furnace!

5. Protect Your Sleep Like It Is Part Of Your Writing Process

Sleep is where creativity consolidates. During deep sleep, your brain files and organizes memories, language, and story ideas.

Aim for 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep, with a consistent bedtime and wake time. To support this:

• Keep lights dim for two hours before bed

• Avoid screens, or wear blue light blockers if you must use them

• Use magnesium glycinate or herbal teas like chamomile or lemon balm to help you relax if needed

When you are well rested, you can think metaphorically, make deeper connections, and write with more emotional clarity.

The Real Decision

It sounds simple, right? Health is wealth.

But for writers, health is something more—it’s the foundation of creative excellence. The energy, clarity, and mental endurance you build in your body are the same traits that sustain great writing.

That’s what I plan to explore here, on this blog: how to align mind, body, and creativity to produce your best work.

Thank you for reading—I genuinely love this community.

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The 7-9 a.m. Writer’s Club

Like Fight Club, but for writers.

This is me and my friend Victor.

We have been meeting at a coffee shop every day at 7 a.m. for the past six months.

Monday-Friday. Rain or shine, we show up and experience life.

It always starts simple, grab some coffee, lay our materials out for the day, talk about random stuff, make some jokes, and just settle ourselves in.

Today we were talking about IQ.

Victor will be taking the Real IQ 4 test to see what mode of processing his brain is as well as his specialties when it comes to learning. For instance you can learn if you are more of a visual learner, text style learner or more of doing in order to learn.

Then he mentioned the Hogan Personality Test which costs $1,650 and compares your personality traits in high performer situations (stressful confrontation, big meeting) with the rest of the world to determine your strengths.

Then we laughed at the idea of Elon Musk naming his kids based on engineering and math concepts. Victor has this Mexican accent that makes everything funnier, and he goes “How do you think Elon’s kids are going to grow up when they are named X Y and Z and go to meetings since they were 5 about making a rocketship to Mars?”

Victor is a real estate developer who created Santa Barbara Homes where he builds luxury homes, and he is about to drop a platform called Mindops that helps you develop the architecture of your dream life.

Summer Moon has oak flooring, a large wood coffee bar, old school glass lamps, a nice touch of boho. Different walks of life fill the place in the morning. Finance guys in suits, moms with their children and golden retrievers. The smell of oak roasted coffee and a jovial busy vibe. I have done this morning session in many different coffee shops but this one is my favorite.

And now here I am, writing this newsletter.

Coffee Shop Creative Therapy

Nothing has brought me more creativity, productivity and personal insight like my morning coffee shop work. It has been with me through tough times at work, tough times developing my brand, tough times in life in general. When I am having a hard time with my relationship with my girlfriend, when work is incredibly stressful, when family issues come up, when I am dealing with existential questions about what I am doing here in life.

The brain dump holds all of it.

The words I am typing right now is what allows me to process emotions, take the creativity out from my brain and transcribe it. Studies show this kind of unfiltered writing lowers cortisol and helps the brain process stress. I did not know the science when I started. I just knew it worked. It allows me to record beautiful moments like on the way here driving on the highway as the spring Texas sun begins gently brightening the sky, cars are beginning to come out and the excitement for the day is beginning. You feel the butterflies in the stomach, a twinge of dopamine and cannot wait for the commencement of the coffee shop day.

I love it.

One of the first things I do after we have our talk is I pull out my journal. It is a large Moleskine, 8.5x11, almost a standard piece of paper and I will write down the date, and then I will record the context of the day. For example: March 12th, beautiful Sunday and brisk day in Dallas, Texas, with my friend Victor at Summer Moon, today I feel relaxed and ready to see what happens.

This sets me up for my brain dump, which is the one thing I do every day that has allowed me to write my newsletter and create my dream life. The brain dump was an idea I pulled from Matthew Dicks’ “Storyworthy.” It was originally a way to create more ideas by simply setting a timer for 15 minutes and then writing whatever came to mind. The rules are the moment you have a new idea, you are supposed to write it down, and keep on writing down new ideas. You cannot stick to an idea if something new pops up. Hard and weird at first.

Brain Dump: Write as Many Dumb Things as You Can

I always like making up random brain dumps so here is a brain dump I will do for 30 seconds. This might also help you learn a little bit about me. Ready, go:

Well here I am, oh this beat is nice, what is this some tribal techno? Ok here we go again, lady walks up to the coffee shop, another lady pushes the baby stroller, here we go, the shaker and the techno lady, this is why it matters to eat the superfoods, the nutrients as Jack Black would say in his infamous role as Nacho in Nacho Libre, great movie, and my goodness these synths are beckoning from the realm of heavens!!!

This is what a brain dump looks like. Now imagine 15 minutes of that. The amount of thought and perception and idea transcribed onto the page is incredible.

James Pennebaker at UT Austin has studied this. When you allow someone to jot down their thoughts in this manner, not only does their creativity go up, but also their perception about themselves. Their stress markers like cortisol and adrenaline go down and they are better equipped to process tough emotions and learn new patterns.

This is how I feel as well. I have organized my whole work days around brain dump. This is where my article “Your Vibrator Is Probably Toxic” came from. I remember watching a podcast with Suzanne Bratton, the world renowned health expert on biohacked sex and having a healthy and positive sex life, and she was talking about vibrators containing microplastics. I began riffing on it and next thing you know I had a full article on vibrator health. A couple thousand people saw it. The ladies appreciated me.

I will say ah this article idea is amazing, what else should we do, oh and yes I forgot send that email here, and then we need to do that big work project here. Eventually after the 15-30 minute brain dump depending on how much time I have I will write the Get To Do list.

The Get To Do List: Change Your Perception, Change Your Reality

The Get To Do list is profound. I forgot where I found it, but I am proud to say I am an avid believer in it. The most amazing benefit of the Get To Do is the change of perception. When we have a Get To Do, we instantly transform into the frame that we get to do this task, like it is a gift that we were placed on this earth to do, like we have the privilege to do it. It takes a boring and mundane activity like work or laundry, and reframes it into, oh wait I get to do this job, that pays me money and helps support my family, or I get to do this laundry with my amazing laundry machine.

I used to not like my job. The Get To Do helped me see how profound it was. So many other kids probably wanted it. It helped me also to be proud of myself to write this newsletter, to share with the world and try to build my dream life. I get to do this. This is not what everyone gets to do. And I get to be myself. That is special.

I get to do this. This is not what everyone gets to do.

Also the Get To Do is a way to organize your day. “4000 Weeks” by Oliver Burkeman, one of the greatest books on real productivity I will add, states that we cannot get to do everything so we might as well pick the most important tasks (3-5) and stick to those, and do not do another thing until you finish one task at a time. Yesterday my Get To Do list was: 1 query, bio list stats about life and passions, chiropractor, message Paul about setting a session before his tournaments, take off Hoot Street, get booking. Read chapter 4 of the TIGER Protocol. Simple. Focused. Done.

Ah the simplicity of real productivity.

Organic Coffee Is Key

Ok, need to regain focus.

Between 7-9 a.m. this is what I am doing. Drinking organic wood roasted coffee from Summer Moon, talking with amazing people who are smart and arguably smarter than me, which makes me a better person, writing down my brain dump and my Get To Do. This practice has changed my life.

I wonder, how would your life change as a human, as a writer if you were to employ some activity like those of your own?

After that it is either time to read a chapter of a book or work on an article. Most times it is the article but if I need to learn more on something and pull some facts either for a piece about gut health or longevity I might read “Boundless” by Ben Greenfield or “Deep Nutrition” by Catherine Shanahan. This helps also prime the way I write, because by reading really good writing, you become a better writer in the process. Studies show exposure to quality prose actually changes how your brain constructs sentences.

So, this practice is beautiful. I usually finish at least 90% of an article by the time 9 a.m. is up, or at least a really strong idea. This is how I rewrote my favorite and most popular gut health article.

The original direction was not working at all, so I just took the article and did a full rewrite during my 7-9 a.m. brain dump and bam. I am not a robot, and although I love AI, I cannot get it to write for me, it is not right, but it is a great way to find your unique angle as well as create beautiful headlines at times, so AI is good, within context.

But yes, this routine is beautiful and I learned from Ryan Holiday that whatever you want to achieve, if you keep on showing up, and writing, even when you are tired and sick and even if the writing is not good, you are practicing your craft.

The Benefits of Having a Coffee Shop as a Home

The coffee shop has allowed me to literally do business in. I met some real estate leaders in there and have developed life long relationships, all from a morning coffee shop routine.

I met a girl named Victoria who has shot a ton of my photos for Biohack With Jack, including me holding the espresso shot and the ones of me working out. Just from being there drinking coffee. We even shot at a coffee shop.

You also develop a dope ass relationship with the coffee baristas and often time get to hear epic stories on their end. I love talking to the baristas, it is the greatest thing because they are my friends so I really feel like I am priming myself in a dope and beautiful way.

I have met business owners who are so nice and kind and show me the power of being kind to people. I have learned that being nice really goes a long way and buys you a ton of free coffee. I learned that business is a lot more chill than people think, and having a newsletter is a great way to connect with others.

And doing all of this has just made me a better person in general, who experiences a ton, who learns a ton, who meets a ton of amazing people, and this is what I am building my life on. My 7-9 a.m. coffee shop visit.

Sociologists call coffee shops “third places.” Not home, not work. Research shows regular presence in third places lowers baseline stress and increases sense of belonging. I did not know the term when I started. I just knew the feeling.

Ok, Conclusion

So the question I have for you is what is the routine that is building your life? Is it empowering you, filling you with love and amazing people?

Here is my challenge. Pick a coffee shop. Show up at 7 a.m. Bring a journal, a book, and a laptop. Do a brain dump. Write a Get To Do list. Write a gratitude list. Then write one article during this 7-9 a.m. window. Do it five days a week. Watch what happens.

I think you will find a lot of success and meet some amazing people along the way.

Send this to someone who needs a morning routine.

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Let’s build the 7-9 a.m. Writer’s Club together.

Drop a comment and tell me your coffee shop.

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In some crazy world I have not written a brain dump in over one year.

And that world is here!

I miss the brain dump. The 100 ideas. The perfect handwriting. Thank you technology. And thank you to my mind for making all of these crazy and obscure yet congruent connections with my thoughts.

This is the most effective way to really elaborate or develop an idea.

Claude and other AIs, they’re good, real good. I’m proud of them. But to get those ideas that really hit? Hit them with the brain dump.

15 minutes is a good start, 30 minutes is a journey.

You will be so amazed at what you find.

Frankly there are no rules to this game, but there are lessons to follow along.

Why Brain Dumping Unlocks Creativity for Writers

One: you must always be ready to switch the topic. If your brain says switch but your mind says no, still switch because what you are doing is developing your creativity muscles.

By interacting with a bunch of different ideas at once you give your brain the training grounds to create a connection to these, resulting in, well you guessed it, creativity.

Also what is so cool about the brain dump is that you can be typing away, and all of a sudden, you have a brand new article.

This can be especially helpful for writers who feel like they are in a rut, myself included. But the moment that brain dump starts, within the first 5 minutes I already have a new idea and a couple 100 words written out about that topic.

So we got our brain dump, we have jotted down our notes, wrote down some random stuff about pigs flying, and see no clue how this made us better.

The Science: What Happens to Your Brain During a Brain Dump

Let me show you the epic brain workout you just did.

By engaging in a 15-30 minute “brain dump” or journaling session you just:

• Dropped cortisol by up to 19-23% after regular practice

• Activated your prefrontal cortex while calming your amygdala (reducing fear and stress responses)

• Improved working memory by freeing up mental resources that were stuck in rumination

And it was all because of this brain dump.

How Brain Dumps Help Writers Develop Their Voice

The brain dump has changed my life.

It has made me a more aware writer. It has allowed me to develop ideas into my own way of thinking. A lot of the time we are introduced to topics and don’t know how to write about them differently from others, or have trouble expressing what we even know about it. The brain dump helps you flesh that out.

The brain dump also has helped me remember a bunch of random stories in my life.

My weird theory I just thought of is that since I am engaging in this task of offloading all this imagery and story into my mind, my brain waves are becoming more chill, and into the delta or theta state where I can really mess around with my subconscious mind and lead to more stories that have been hidden from my daily consciousness like childhood, or the random times when boom, next thing, you are thinking about the time you took MDMA with your two best friends at your high school prom afterparty in Northern Wisconsin, and you wanted to drive home around 4am because all the kids fell asleep, so you asked the Mom to drive you to the train station!

Legendary day, and that is only the beginning with what you can surface when you try out the brain dump.

So if you’re like me, a fellow writer, researcher of the mind, developer of ideas, a bit too “head in the cloud but I like it there,” or just want to be more creative, less stressed, and see yourself in a birds eye view, try out the brain dump.

How to Start Brain Dumping: A Simple Morning Practice for Substack Writers

Here is how I would get started.

1. In the morning, before you start your day, lock in 15-30 minutes for yourself.

   You can set a timer on your alarm clock. I use brain.fm binaural beats which has a built in alarm clock. So 15-30 minutes depending on how much time you have. If it’s your first time, 15 minutes. If you are going for the fences and deep into the mind, 30 minutes. Sometimes the 15 turns into 30 so it doesn’t matter.

2. Then open up a blank Google doc, Scrivener, or a piece of paper.

   I like typing out the big brain dumps because my hand often gets tired during pencil journaling, but both are incredibly good, and writing with your real hand offers a plethora of benefits as well.

The Brain Dump Writing Process

So during this brain dump you will start what I like to call pounding keys.

Start mashing sentences together like you are a horrible artist that is being forced to make something cool. Most people have no idea what that means and neither did I.

“I don’t know what to say!”

Ok, start the brain dump there. And keep going.

Consistently typing out one word at a time until you have strung together sentences. Eventually you will begin to notice the sentences starting to make sense and maybe a road map being created. Keep going.

Next: if your mind changes to a new topic, a new thought or anything, you must change the topic at hand.

“What if I don’t want to!”

Well, I am a wellness coach and as the wellness coach I am your ally, not your dictator, so I say do what you want. But in order to get maximum benefits from this exercise, we need to switch, and switch often.

Keep going, don’t stop. You are just having fun.

Make sure to take deep slow nasal breaths as they put you in a parasympathetic state, which means the rest and digest part of your nervous system which allows you to go into more calming brain wave states and can help you achieve higher states of intuition, focus, creativity and introspection.

Breathwork Exercise: 4 Seconds in. 2 Seconds hold. 6 seconds out pursing your lips like you are breathing through a straw. 10 reps.

The Results: Less Stress, More Creativity, Better Writing

After all is said and done. And you have pressed the start button. You smashed keys. You learned, you laughed, you loved, you saw the beauty in typing a ton of words, randomly, sporadically, and that is how much you helped yourself today.

You made yourself a better thinker, learner, explorer of life. You had the courage to look within and explore your extraordinary being.

Congrats. I am proud of you.

Brain Dump is a fascinating tool. I am so glad I was taught it from Matthew Dicks. You can find how this journaling exercise was made from one of the best storytellers in the world. He is like the Novak Djokovic of storytelling.

Thank you for reading, you are my best friend. Keep thriving, keep writing, keep becoming the best version of yourself.

Amen.

Jack