How Athena Screens and Trains Assistants

If you want more time, better energy, and a calmer mind, this episode gives you a blueprint for achieving it. Host Dave Asprey talks with entrepreneur Jonathan Swanson, who explains how delegation functions as a powerful form of biohacking that frees cognitive load, improves sleep quality, protects your mitochondria from chronic stress, and opens space for longevity, brain optimization, supplements, fasting, ketosis, and the full Human Upgrade approach. Jonathan shows how eliminating low value tasks can reclaim hours every day and upgrade your human performance far more than people realize.  

Watch this episode on YouTube for the full video experience: 

https://www.youtube.com/@DaveAspreyBPR 

Jonathan Swanson is the Founder and Chairman of Thumbtack and Athena, two global companies he scaled to more than one thousand team members each. He has raised over seven hundred million dollars from leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Google Capital, and Blackstone. At Thumbtack he built one of the top marketplaces for local services. At Athena he created an elite academy for executive assistants and leadership development. Jonathan also served in the West Wing for the President’s chief economic advisor, giving him rare insight into time leverage, decision making, and performance under pressure. 

Jonathan breaks down why overloaded to do lists elevate stress hormones, reduce neuroplasticity, interfere with recovery, and sabotage longevity goals. He explains how removing decision fatigue improves metabolism and cognitive function, how AI can accelerate human support instead of replacing it, and why even small forms of leverage increase ambition, resilience, and overall life satisfaction. Jonathan shares real examples from scaling billion dollar companies, building global teams, managing his own health routines, and designing systems that create more time for family, recovery, and meaningful work. 

You’ll Learn: 

• Why leverage comes before ambition, not after, and how that shift changes what you believe is possible in your life 

• How Jonathan went from 16 to 18 hour days and polyphasic sleep to becoming a “time billionaire” through ruthless delegation 

• The cardinal sin of delegation, why doing it yourself feels faster at first, and how that belief traps you in busywork 

• The stages of delegation, from single tasks to projects to goals to “clairvoyant delegation,” where you first hear about a task when it is already done 

• How to start at any budget level, from using AI as a starter assistant, to hiring directly on global platforms, to working with a fully trained Athena EA 

• Practical ways an assistant can support biohacking, sleep optimization, supplements, lab tracking, family logistics, and even creative life projects 

• How to build trust, set boundaries, and protect security when you work with remote assistants who have access to sensitive parts of your life

• Why human plus AI assistants beat AI alone, and how the next generation of support will supercharge human performance instead of replacing it 

• How to think about your hourly rate so you stop doing tasks that kill your metabolism, focus, and long term longevity 

Thank you to our sponsors! 

-BEYOND Conference 2026 | Register now at https://beyondconference.com/ 

-BrainTap | Go to http://braintap.com/dave to get $100 off the BrainTap Power Bundle. 

-Essentia | Go to https://myessentia.com/dave and use code DAVE for $100 off The Dave Asprey Upgrade. 

-Generation Lab | Go to http://generationlab.com/, use code Dave20 for $20 off, and see what your body’s really doing behind the surface. 

Dave Asprey is a four-time New York Times bestselling author, founder of Bulletproof Coffee, and the father of biohacking. With over 1,000 interviews and 1 million monthly listeners, The Human Upgrade brings you the knowledge to take control of your biology, extend your longevity, and optimize every system in your body and mind. Each episode delivers cutting-edge insights in health, performance, neuroscience, supplements, nutrition, biohacking, emotional intelligence, and conscious living. 

New episodes are released every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday (BONUS). Dave asks the questions no one else will and gives you real tools to become stronger, smarter, and more resilient. 

Keywords: time leverage, personal delegation, executive assistant training, Athena assistant, cognitive load reduction, decision fatigue relief, daily workflow optimization, biohacking time freedom, human plus AI support, inbox offloading, calendar management, task automation, overwhelm reduction, founder performance, global talent recruitment, delegation ladder, clairvoyant delegation, lifestyle efficiency, home logistics support, entrepreneurial time scaling 

Resources:   

• Athena Website: Go to https://athena.com/upgrade for a generous discount! 

• Dave Asprey's Latest News | Go to https://daveasprey.com/ to join Inside Track today.  

• Danger Coffee: https://dangercoffee.com/discount/dave15   

• My Daily Supplements: SuppGrade Labs (15% Off)   

• Favorite Blue Light Blocking Glasses: TrueDark (15% Off)   

• Dave Asprey’s BEYOND Conference: https://beyondconference.com   

• Dave Asprey’s New Book – Heavily Meditated: https://daveasprey.com/heavily-meditated  

• Upgrade Collective: https://www.ourupgradecollective.com   

• Upgrade Labs: https://upgradelabs.com   

• 40 Years of Zen: https://40yearsofzen.com   

Timestamps: 

0:00 - Trailer 

1:30 - Introduction 

2:44 - From 18 Hour Days to Delegation 

6:42 - Dave’s EA Journey 

10:43 - Overcoming Shame 

12:21 - Finding Trust 

15:00 - Delegation Options 

18:20 - Never Lift a Finger 

22:32 - Clairvoyant Delegation 

27:58 - Human + AI Future 

30:42 - Security and Boundaries 

43:10 - Creative Uses 

47:24 - Night Watch 

51:37 - Do Less, Do More 

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