How Cold Showers Transformed My Professional Productivity
Readtime: 5 minutes
I love long hot showers.
Why would I even contemplate taking a cold shower?
That is what I thought before I took my first cold shower. And my second, and my third. Before I gave up and went back to long hot showers.
But, a really good friend of mine – Saurav, a very successful entrepreneur – told me I had to keep trying. That nailing cold showers is like gaining a superpower.
And he was right. In fact, I gained two superpowers.
The first is feeling unbelievably positive, confident and happy, for a good couple of hours following the shower.
The second is channelling that feeling into work – with amazing increases in productivity.
In this article, I go into how I got cold showers to work for me, in the hope that you can get them to work for you.
If you’re thinking – “why the hell would I want to do this?” – don’t worry (and see the first section below).
I was certainly not a ‘natural’. And, if it doesn’t work for you, then that’s obviously fine too.
But, if it does work, you are going to absolutely love it.
Note: I am not a medical professional. The benefits I've written about here are based on my personal experience and should not be taken as medical advice. In particular, do not immerse yourself in very cold water. Before starting any new health routine, it's always advisable to conduct your own research and consult with a qualified medical professional.
Let's ‘dive’ in. 😀
1. Why the hell would I want to do this?
As high-performing professionals, we can use benefits from the health and fitness world to get advantages in our work life.
The main advantage I get from a cold shower is the huge release of dopamine – the brain’s ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter.
I step out of the shower with bulletproof confidence, totally fired up for work.
It feels amazing and puts me in a great frame of mind for the next couple of hours.
I’m often so fired up immediately after the cold shower that I’m impatient to get to what I need to do next.
And I find it especially helpful when going straight into deep work.
Cold showers work via a triple-hit of dopamine:
First, the cold-water acts as an acute stressor, which activates your sympathetic nervous system – commonly known as the ‘fight or flight’ response – and dopamine is released.
Second, as you deliberately endure the cold, your brain’s reward circuit is activated, which means more dopamine is released.
Third, doing this regularly means that your brain anticipates the rewarding outcome of the cold shower, which makes the cold shower itself more rewarding. Yes, it can actually feel good whilst you’re having the shower.
There are other potential health benefits from cold showers, but even without these, the dopamine hit is a big enough win for me – and could well be for you.
So, how to do it?
2. Hot shower first? After? Not at all?
I’ve tried all three.
The best combination for me is a warm or slightly cold shower first, followed by a couple of minutes (or more) of proper cold shower.
If I’ve just come back from the gym and/or sauna, then I’ll typically start slightly cold rather than warm.
Only having a cold shower with no warm element doesn’t work for me.
I shave in the shower (face and head 😬) and shaving with cold water is no fun.
I have the warm water whilst shaving and applying shower gel, and then the cold to rinse off.
I like the fact that I must decide to shift from the warm to the cold each time. It both strengthens the discipline and makes the habit easier – due to the dopamine anticipation (see above).
The alternative, of having a cold shower first, followed by warm also doesn’t work for me. It seems to reverse some of the alerting and invigorating effects of the cold.
3. How long, how cold, and how often?
I started with about 30 seconds and have built up to 2 to 3 minutes.
Often, but not every time, I get past a particular point and the water doesn’t feel uncomfortably cold anymore. When that happens, I stay under a bit longer.
I live in London, so the water is colder in the winter than it is in the summer.
Earlier this year, in January and February, I would turn the temperature dial nearly all the way to cold, but leave a bit of a gap. Then, after a minute or so at that temperature, I would turn the dial as far as it goes.
Most of the time I could only really withstand that final temperature for 30 seconds or so and was keen to get out.
Since the end of April, I now just turn the temperature dial as far as it goes straightaway, because the water temperature is noticeably not as cold outside of winter.
My plan as we approach winter is to keep turning the dial all the way to cold straight away, and let each passing day reduce the temperature for me, as the mains water temperature gradually decreases.
I’ve researched scientific answers to how long and how cold, and the consensus seems to be:
As cold as you can for as long as you can, and
Ideally 2 to 3 minutes of it being pretty uncomfortable.
That will get you sympathetic nervous system response and the big release of dopamine you are after.
It works best if you start with the intention of having a cold shower every day. That way you embed the habit and you don’t need to decide on a daily basis.
That doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily have one every day, as some days you just won’t feel like it. Your Plausible Sabotage will kick in often - but you can overcome that here.
I’m currently up to about four days out of five.
4. What do I do when the cold water hits?
So, you’ve had a warm shower first and you’ve just turned the dial all the way to cold, what now?
Get your whole body, including your head, under the shower.
As the cold water hits, your initial instinct is going to be to get out, or to turn the dial back to warm.
So, you need to immediately distract yourself.
Here’s what I do:
Rub my hands together in the cold water above my head
Walk on the spot
Count to 60, with one beat for each leg shift
I do that for the first count of 60.
(Note that my counts to 60 are quicker than 60 seconds.)
For the second count of 60, I stop rubbing my hands together and walking on the spot, and rinse the shower gel off.
At this stage, I may just have the water run down the back of my neck, rather than having my head and whole body under.
For the final count of 60, I go back to what I did for the first 60. Head and full body back under. By now, I’ve normally got used to the temperature and start to feel amazing.
By this stage, you will feel the physical sensation in your head, not just from being under the cold water, but also a bit of a high.
Depending on how good I’m feeling, I may stay in a bit longer after the third 60.
Some days it feels better than others – if I’ve had enough, then I stop.
5. Celebration
Immediately after turning the cold water off, I celebrate.
This is an often overlooked element, but it’s essential for embedding habits.
You’ve just deliberately done something quite challenging, and that you know is good for you.
You are awesome - and that deserves a celebration.
For me, it’s a fist pump and a “woo”!
And that’s it.
I step out of the shower, head full of dopamine, feeling unbelievably positive, confident, and happy.
Knowing that my professional productivity is going to be elevated for the next couple of hours.
In Summary
You can feel great, and supercharge your productivity, from a few minutes of cold shower.
Congratulations, you now know how to do them right:
When done right, you’ll get a massive dopamine hit from your cold shower
That will fire you up and make you even more productive
You will also feel amazing
Warm shower first, followed by cold
As cold as you can stand
For as long as you can stand
Nearly every day
When the cold water hits – distract yourself
Once done – celebrate!
One quote to get you going
"You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
- Zig Ziglar
I would love to hear your thoughts. Please email me at coaching@mostynwilson.com.
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