After more than eighteen years of testing things on myself, my list of what matters most is short: sleep, nutrition, movement, mind and connection. I call them the five dials. Each one already has a setting from your habits and your history, and you can turn any of them up or down.
So if you ask me what matters for healthy aging, that's my answer. Get these five right before you buy anything. They're also how I protect my peakspan, the years when I'm still at or near my best.
What's left when the gadgets go
My morning includes breathing exercises, red light and, when my data says I've recovered, an ice bath. Take the devices out and what's left is me waking up at the same time, drinking water with electrolytes, eating, moving, seeing people and going to bed at the same time. That costs almost nothing, and for me it does most of the work.
I call this the 20% that gives you 80%. Those numbers are my rule of thumb and nobody has measured them in a trial. Advanced tools work on top of the basics. If you're sleep-deprived, you can't biohack your way out of it.
The five dials
Sleep. At night your brain clears waste and your body repairs itself. If I could give you one habit, it would be waking up at the same time every morning, within about thirty minutes either way, even at weekends. It sets your body clock. If improving your sleep is the only change you ever make, it's probably the one you'll feel most.
Nutrition. I don't give diet plans. I eat whole, minimally processed food and try to keep my energy level through the day, without the peaks and crashes. Dinner is always at six. My own data shows my best deep sleep, and a resting heart rate of around 46, when digestion is done before ten at night. That's me. Yours may look different, which is why you test it.
Movement. A lot of people think regular walking or cycling is enough. You need strength and cardio together. Not moving enough is estimated to be behind roughly one in eleven early deaths worldwide. That's an estimate across whole populations, and it can't tell you anything about your own risk. I go to the gym five times a week, though the gym isn't what I'm after. I want the golf, because it makes me happy, and the hiking holidays with my wife.
Mind. Stress is the part you can feel, and I feel it in my body when it's too much. The mind goes deeper than stress, though. You can be in perfect health and still hit a wall if you've never paid attention to what's going on in your head.
Connection. This is the one that slides when we're busy. A review of 148 studies found that weak social ties raised the risk of early death about as much as smoking up to fifteen cigarettes a day. Those studies observe people, so they can't prove cause on their own, but it's a big enough signal that I now protect this dial on purpose. There's someone else at our table at least once a week.
The dials pull on each other
My trigger is working after six. Then I sleep badly, and my Monday mornings show it. Poor sleep also makes it harder for your body to handle glucose, so the next day you probably have more cravings and food is harder to get right.
While I was ill, unhealthy food comforted me. The weight piled on, feeling worse sent me straight back to the food, and I didn't see a loop at all. I thought I was a failure.
Don't turn all five at once
Most people who decide to get healthier start a new diet, join a fancy gym and pick up a new routine, all on Monday. I don't know many people who keep that up.
My coach Herman would ask me the same question every time I complained about a customer: "What could you have done to change it?" I hated that question. He kept asking for years, and then one day it landed. Your genes, your age and the years you've already spent are outside your circle of influence. The five dials are inside it.
I don't follow any of this perfectly. I stick to it about eighty percent of the time, so I can enjoy dinner with wine and bread once in a while without feeling bad about myself.
Three things you can do today
Score each dial from one to ten. Do you wake up rested? Is your energy steady? Does your body feel capable? Does rest restore you? Who would you call on a bad day? Nobody else sees the scores, so be honest.
Pick the lowest one. It's how I'd improve one of my companies. You find the part that isn't working and fix that, and leave the rest alone for now.
Change one small thing for a week. A fixed wake-up time is a good place to start if sleep is your lowest dial. Notice what happens, then keep it or drop it.
These scores describe your habits and can't diagnose anything. If you're exhausted however much you sleep, if your mood has been low for weeks, or if something has changed that you can't explain, see your doctor first.
The full method, with a chapter on each dial, is in my book, More Good Years. Find out more.
Eduard de Wilde has tracked and tested his own biology since 2008. He founded NoordCode and Livehelfi, co-founded the Syntony Institute, and wrote More Good Years. He isn't a doctor, and he sells some of the products discussed in this field. This article is for information and isn't medical advice.
