The daily 3 part split

How to use the cortisol curve to your advantage

There are only 24 hours in a day. Factor in at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep and you only have about 16 hours in the day to eat, exercise, work, and play. If you are like me, you might also be in school, raising a family, trying to grow a personal business, and maintaining a typical 9 to 5 job. The last two years have been a constant struggle for me as I continue to try to jam my day with more items on a to-do list. Getting married, starting school, and having family obligations have made it even more difficult to finish what I want to start and spend time with children that are growing so fast. I don’t want to miss out on my life while I am trying to be productive!

There are days I feel so overwhelmed that I can’t even get started. I find that many of my clients feel the same way. We are caught up in the go do, more cycle that can leave us feeling so tapped out by midafternoon we use energy drinks or intense exercise to get a boost of energy. In reality, we are using stress hormones like epinephrine and norepinephrine as well as some cortisol to raise blood sugar and blood pressure so it feels like energy, a real vicious cycle to be trapped in. This “energy” boost only lasts so long and the crash that follows this stress response can lead to pleasure-seeking activities that cause a release of dopamine and serotonin to wind down. This only perpetuates the cycle because we will eventually need more and more dopamine to cause the same effect. So how do we get out of this?

I’ve tried just about everything to stay on task and get things done but nothing seems to be working. The more I put on my to do list the more overwhelmed I became. Yesterday, I watched an instructional video from a medical school student Elizabeth Filips, who found ways to consistently study while maintaining a full time job and building a brand on YouTube. What really resonated with me was the daily progression graph she drew that looked similar to the cortisol awakening response curve that I have studied in my adrenal and thyroid class. She uses this model to break her day into a 3-part split. Here is what I learned from her video, what I know about our natural daily rhythm, and why I think I can use these principles to decrease my stress and increase my work productivity.

The Daily Progression

Our bodies naturally follow a rhythm that aligns with the sun rising and setting. This is called the circadian rhythm. Our sleep/wake cycle is a balance of rising and fallling cortisol levels along with rising and following melatonin levels. If we understand our cortisol awakening response and subsequent decline in cortisol levels, we can use that to plan a day based on our natural energy production. When we wake our cortisol levels rise rapidly leading to peak concentrations about 30 minutes to an hour after we wake. At this point our energy is at the highest point of the day and our ability to resist temptation as well as perform activities in which we may be highly tempted to resist is at it’s highest. This makes sense from a physiological standpoint because the body needs a jump start to get organ systems functioning and performing optimally. One of cortisol’s primary jobs is to jump-start our organs and tissues.

Picture an energy jar in which we have the most energy here and therefore we can use our brain and muscle to get the job done. Peak cortisol levels may last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and then begins to gradually decline through the day. From the hours of 7am to about 11am is an optimal time to put tasks that you need the highest energy to complete and that you have the highest temptation to procrastinate. You need plenty of brain and muscle energy to get those task completed. This is the time period where I decided I needed to structure my day differently. I need to place those tasks that are hard for me to complete and the ones that I find I need to concentrate the most on. Activities like writing, studying, and posting on social media, all are activities that I either don’t enjoy or that require intense focus and creativity.

I used to schedule my day around what I deemed most important first and let the rest the day unfold as it will. This meant that I usually exercised first (something I love and have no problem doing anytime) and then got dressed, ate breakfast, checked email, studied new material and tried to “organize” my notes. By the time that was done it was lunch and my afternoons easily got derailed, leading me to try to complete harder tasks later in the day and evening when my energy levels were declining and the ability to resist temptation was at it’s lowest.

I have learned on my own health journey that healing adrenal and thyroid issues are complex and often times an up and down roller coaster. Last year, my cortisol-awakening response was inverted and I literally could not get out of the bed. It took me a year of consistent daily habits to correct that. My most recent hormone tests showed a cortisol-awakening response that looked fairly normal except for a rapid decline in the evening. Now this makes total sense because around 4 pm I feel unable to comeplete hard tasks and at times I will even go for a run (cortisol and epinephrine boosts) to be able to find some energy to keep studying. This scenario tracks right along with Elizabeth’s daily progression graph. Those of you who are mid-afternoon enegy drink junkies are doing the same thing. In essence, we are trying to boost our energy reserves to get through the day when instead, our body is naturally trying to prepare for the night. By trying to stimulate the body into producing more energy in the late afternoon to early evening, we are stressing the body and potentially causing a dysregulation in melatonin production which can lead to a decrease in quality and quantitiy of sleep. That was me a year ago.

After seeing the daily progression graph and picturing the cortisol-awakening curve, I finally realize that the stratgies I was using and my tendency to pack my day full of things I never seem to finish, was not working! Instead of fighting my circadian clock, I need to align my day to fit my cortisol levels. I anticipate by doing this I can accomplish those difficult tasks that I seem to never complete and not feel so depleted in the evening that a glass of wine or piece of chocolate can’t be resisted.

The 3-part split

Elizabeth aligns her day into 3 parts. This directly correlates with the cortisol curve. Part 1 is reserved for high energy tasks and ones that have a high temptation to procrastinate. These activities are ones that you need the most energy to complete and that you don’t necessarily like to do. Ask yourself, how likely am I to not want to do this task and how much energy will this require? For me, things like writing and studying fall here.

Part 2 tasks still require a fair amount of energy but are low temptation items that you enjoy and want to accomplish. That means you need energy to complete but you actually like doing it, so it’s not hard to complete. I list working out and meal prepping here as well as taking my dog for a nice long walk and studying/reading articles and books that are very interesting (ones only a science geek love). Part 2 for me is somewhere between lunch and 4 to 5 pm. I know that after that my energy levels will then decline to a point in which I should not keep pushing or I will end up seeking out activities to falsely boost my energy levels (like excessive exercise leading to stress hormone release).

Part 3 is where activities that require low energy and high temptation to complete should be scheduled. I regulate this part of the day to reading books about lifestyle change and nutrition (something I love and I am always tempted to do earlier), going for a nice walk, or calling a friend or enjoying a good novel. I used to still be burning the midnight oil and forcing myself to study, concentrate, or even practice mediation. No wonder I never got around to mediation (something that is incredibly hard for me to actually do.)

Morning Glory

Our ability to say no dimishes throughout the day. How can we set ourselves up for actually completing activities that align with our goals and those that keep us healthy and happy? Using the 3-part split model can help us consistently study, write, build a brand, work, and live a healthy life. Biochemically, our mornings are the most energy-filled part of the day and should be considered the most important time of the day.

Part 1 of the day needs the most energy and should begin when your cortisol levels are highest. Consider the 30-minute window in which cortisol is on the rise. During that window, our bodies are waking up. I used to try to force myself to go into my home gym (my garage) and lift weights. But again, I was struggling to actually do this first thing in the morning. Then I would try to just sit down and type away at an article, but I found myself not fully engaged. Something wasn’t working? I wasn’t yet ready for high-energy tasks, not yet fully awake. So what can I do with this time between waking and being fully present? The cortisol rise should be a time where you begin to come into the day and start with an activity that aligns with that rise in energy. Elizabeth Fillips calls it the morning glory. She begins with something she enjoys and looks forward to, something that gets her out of the bed for about 5 minutes. I say go further than 5 minutes and really use that hormonal 30-minute rise to enjoy the morning in all its beautiful glory. Go for a walk, heck just go outside. Start with a guided meditation or even yoga, which is perfect for easing into your day. I naturally wake at 6 am before my alarm goes off and even if I have to go to work, I have plenty of time to walk or do yoga before getting a shower and leaving for work. Use a morning glory routine to set the foundation for a better day. No one can take this time away from you. This is a sacred time and one that can help you create a positive environment for your day to begin.

The scheduling formula

Using the 3- part model of daily progression and the morning glory routine applies to just about anything you can think of such as work, school, and lifestyle habits like exercise and meal planning. Many people do this naturally but others may procrastinate from the very beginning. If you start your day in a hurried rush to get out the door for work or begin with easy low energy tasks that you are tempted to do, that is most likely wrecking your ability to perform and is probably leading you to increase caffeine and sugary foods throughout the day just to keep your energy going. Maybe you are like I was a year ago or even a few days ago and you can’t seem to get it all done. Today is the day you can stop the cycle.

Get out a piece of paper and write down your daily activities into separate categories; high energy and high temptation, high energy and low temptation, low energy and high temptation. List what you want to schedule under each part. Use different colors and be creative. Next, create your morning glory routine. This should be something you can be consistent with every day no matter what. Keep this somewhere you can reference back to easily until you have the model mastered. I highly recommend watching Elizabeth Filip's video, “How I Consistently Study with a Full-Time Job: My Scheduling Formula” for more tips on scheduling and formulas.