The secret to making serious amounts of progress

I juggle a lot of things during the day and I’m sure you do too.

One of the things I do is manage my time using time blocking and as the saying goes ‘What gets measured, gets managed’.

My work revolves around using a critical part of the human body - the 🧠 (brain) and if you’re a student or full time employee, I’m sure you do the same.

Unfortunately, it’s a limited resource and, if not managed well can tire out before the day ends.

I realised this wasn’t sustainable and after some research came across a special method that was supposed to solve this problem

How do I not get everything done within 24 hours?

Here’s the rummy thing about our time. There is no differentiator. Everyone gets the same 24 hours so no one is ‘going ahead’ of you by getting more time (or are they?)

Well, you do get the same number of hours, but a question to ask yourself:

“Am I spending my time the way I think I do?”

You don’t need to tell me the answer, but deep within you know you’re not. You’re not alone, we all do this.

We’re surrounded by distractions:

• the buzzing phone

• the new episode notification on netflix

• that colleague walking over with a cup of coffee

• the message popping up on your laptop with a new email

Distractions derail us and reduce efficiency but there’s a way to combat this.

The answer?

Deep Work. Wait what?

Deep Work:

The skill of sitting for focused stretches to get more done is a popular 'productivity hack' based on Cal Newport's book 'Deep Work'.

It's far from a hack. It requires effort, but it gets results. How? Let's dive in.

Training your focus

The thing that makes deep work difficult is the ability to focus.

Our brains are conditioned to resort to distraction when we're bored. It can't sit still when it's bored.

Embrace boredom (even if it's for minutes).

How? 👇

There are two key components in this training:

1. General Habits

2. Specific Habits

General Habits include - eating well, sleeping well and hydrating well. These are crucial for your brains ability to focus.

Specific Habits refer to tasks. i.e. tasks that can help the brain improve it's focus

These include habits like reading (similar to a walk) and Roosevelt Dashes (similar to interval training for endurance runners).

Reading 📚

This is an activity that helps the brain improve focus. It's not overly stimulating like social media or gaming. When your brain is bored and you read, you're training it to go for a walk, as opposed to watching Netflix.

Roosevelt Dashes🏃‍♀️💨(If you pull this off, your brain will hurt, but thank you later)

Think of this as interval training for the brain.

Runners sprint for short durations to improve their overall pace.

Roosevelt had a practice where he performed intense tasks. His focus was so high, he managed to read a book a day in the White House.

How does this work?

• You start with a timer.

• Attempt to do a 'zero distraction' session.

• No phone, no looking around etc.

Let's say you took 20 minutes, that's your personal best. You do more of these 20 minute sessions. Eventually you're able to do 30-40 minutes and some day hit 90 (I haven’t. I lie around 60 minutes)

Combine this with time blocking⏰

These Roosevelt Dashes can be a planned part of your day.

You block chunks of time where you get difficult tasks done.

You leverage Deep Work to spend lesser time, more quality work in

(Here’s a quick intro to time blocking if you’re not aware of it)

Does this work? I doubt it

I understand the pessimism around any ‘magical’ way of working but it does work. It’s not easy. It’s a skill that improves over time.

I have used Deep Work to pump out projects at work in half the time I normally would (I use it sparingly to not tire out). I can definitely vouch for it.

Note: using Deep Work is subject to certain nuances like:

• Nature of your job

• Your environment

• Your current level of focus

• The type of task you’re working on

However, there are different aspects of it which, upon implementing give you a level of control (and output) that you’ve never seen before.

So, will you be trying Deep Work in the coming week?

Break it down. Identify tasks that can benefit from this. Knock it out of the park.

I look forward to seeing how far you go.

Until next time,
Cheers

Rainar