How to conquer the world from the toilet
The bathroom is an incredible place to build habits
The porcelain throne may as well be the 8th wonder of the world. One of very few sacred places remaining on earth. Going to the bathroom is something you do alone for the duration of your life. A socially acceptable reason to be absent. A vacation in the middle of the workday. A take 5 to rip a few text messages and inhale a YouTube video. No one can argue with it. No one can stop it. A few glorious minutes that are completely yours. Most of the time, the bathroom break is a magnificently intimate experience. Of course, sometimes it feels like you’re opening a portal to the underworld in there (see the speed run or the battle after a night out), but on average I think it’s typically an enjoyable experience, particularly if you’re regular.
Hopefully, (more on this later) you’re going to the bathroom consistently. A daily ritual that’s already scheduled into your day. 20 minutes where you get a little time to reset, check your phone, and do your business. Honestly, I’d argue the bathroom break has become more of an entertainment break than a time to go to the bathroom. I can speak from personal experience when I say the actual bathroom part takes 2-3 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of droiding around on my little super computer. Enjoyable? Absolutely. Useless? Pretty much. Now imagine this, you take your little “requirement” and use it to your advantage. You use those 20 minutes to build a new habit. Something meaningful. I mean, it’s not like it’s that hard, you’re already in there anyway.
On average, I’d imagine (or hope) that most people are going to the bathroom at least once per day. Myself, sometimes twice, but always about an hour after I have my morning coffee and banana (pre run fuel). Let’s pretend the bathroom break takes 15 minutes. For me, it’s probably closer to 20, but let’s call it 15—for science.
So if you spend 15 minutes per day on the toilet, you’re spending 90 hours per year doing your business. 90 hours! Many estimates say that in order to become above average at anything, it takes roughly 100 hours. Not far off. Now imagine if you spent your 15 minutes on the toilet doing something constructive. Something to work towards a goal. Language learning, writing, building a reading habit, journaling, whatever. What if you spent your break studying the stock market, or reading economics, calling family, or playing with AI? In one year’s time you’d be above average at that thing.
Why it Works
It’s not just the time that makes the toilet a great spot to build habits, it’s the process itself. The bathroom is an S-tier POI for habit formation. If you haven’t read James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, it’s one of those trademark self help books on how to get things done. Spoiler alert, it’s all about habit formation. How to build habits. In his book, he talks through a few different strategies you can deploy to get better at exactly that. Since his ideas have all but been ingrained into the self improvement hive mind, I won’t pretend these are ideas are mine. However, I want to talk through why taking a shit is an incredible time and place to build a new habit, using the tools that he discusses. Let’s pretend that you wanted to build a reading habit.
Habit stacking - Adding a habit to an already existing habit. (This is why the morning routine works). When you sit on the toilet, you will read 5 pages. Pavlov’s dogged instantly. You have to go to the bathroom daily so it’s a perfect choice.
Habit cue - A signal that means it’s time to do the thing. You have the urge to go to the bathroom, and your body knows it’s time to read. Cheeks hit the porcelain and it’s game on. Plus you can leave a book in the bathroom to help.
Make it attractive - Straightforward. Going to the bathroom is usually enjoyable. Won’t dread sitting down most of the time.
Make it easy - This is the bread and butter of the toilet habit strat. You’re already going anyway. No friction.
Frequency - Skills are acquired through reps. You get the reps for free.
Environment - No TV in there. No computer. Can choose to leave your phone behind and take a book instead. Completely alone too. No distractions.
Goldilocks rule - You don’t want the habit to be too hard or too easy. 1 minute not enough. 30 minutes too long. 10 minutes of reading is just enough time to build, and not so overwhelming that you burn out. A manageable chunk.
It’s literally perfect. Going to the bathroom is already carved into your day. It’s usually fun, so you won’t dread it. It’s frequent and of a comfortable duration—not too long, not too short, just the right temperature. All you have to do is choose to do something constructive.
Tips for Consistency in the Bathroom
This trick will only work if you’re going to the bathroom regularly, so we need to talk about that. A healthy gut is a healthy body. Sidebar: weirdly, when I think back to high school, all my friends who were the gassiest were the ones with the best skin. Active bowels. Healthy guts. I’ve personally noticed significantly better skin health since I started prioritizing gut health and “movement”—the more regular I am in the bathroom, the better my skin, and the more energy I have. If you aren’t going to the bathroom regularly, consistently, toxins are being reabsorbed into the bloodstream due to impaired excretion through the bowels. It is called waste for a reason. Simply put, going to the bathroom is so important for your overall health and wellbeing. Here are my blanket recommendations on how to fix your sluggish bowels (I’ll dive deeper into this topic in a future newsletter because it’s that important):
Consistency - We are aiming for consistency, are we not? Therefore what do you think we need to be? Consistent, yes yes. Our internal “body clocks” are remarkably powerful. Timing is everything. Timing with when we eat. Timing with when we sleep and wake. Certain cues that trigger movement. Eat at the same time every day without fail. You need to give your body time to understand your system.
Fiber - Apparently, our ancestors ate close to 100 grams of fiber from a variety of different sources daily. Compare this to modernity at roughly 15 grams per day. Not enough. Up your fiber intake, preferably from various plant sources. I like to focus on berries and cruciferous vegetables. Aim for 30 grams per day—build up as you tolerate.
Drink lots of water - Aim for half your body weight in ounces. Need to get some H2O into that stool. Lubricate the pipes. Add more water with extra activity. Good hydration is important anyway.
Supplementation - Fiber supplements such as psyllium husk and inulin work well. Do not rely on these, try to get fiber from food, but they’re a nice kickstarter. Magnesium is a wonderful supplement. You should probably be taking it as is. But it also helps with going numero dos. Magnesium citrate is the best for this, but I like magnesium glycinate. The taurate and threonate varieties are nice as well. Creatine is another supplement that accidentally helps and has nice benefits on the side. Lastly, taurine seems to help with detox and bowel movement. I like it. Works well for my friends that I’ve recommended it to.
Exercise - Straightforward. Helps kickstart digestion. Gets things loose. Stool gets moving and grooving.
Eat - This might seem counterintuitive, but I notice my digestion doesn’t really “turn on” until I’ve had something to eat. I’ve tried all kinds of intermittent fasting—all of which seems to slow my bowels. A good practice for certain reasons, but doesn’t seem to help me with going potty. Be mindful of this.
Coffee - Lots and lots of coffee. Chug jugs worth.
Gotta be going to the bathroom consistently. If not to build habits, than for robust health, energy, and mood.
The World’s Cockpit
The toilet is a beautiful little sanctuary. A place we do our business. Unequivocally important for our health. And an incredible place to build and sustain habits. If you wish to start something new, try giving it a stab while you’re going to the bathroom. It truly is such an easy way to be consistent, if you are consistent. All it takes is the tiniest shred of willpower to not go on Instagram for 10 minutes. You have all day to do that, just like usual.
My hope is that I can one day write a newsletter on how I learned Japanese entirely while going to the bathroom. Also, for those times where I go more than once, I find that I do some of my best writing while taking a deuce. Something about that beautiful little porcelain throne that induces a robust flow state. Hopefully, this gives you some ideas. Stay safe out there, and best of luck conquering the universe from the world’s cockpit.
Thanks for reading,
Dante