You Can Wake up at 10AM, Focus for 4 Hours, and Become Insanely Productive
Here's how it works so you can implement it.
Most of the workday is a waste.
We piss time up against the wall unconsciously. We shoot the sh*t with one too many people in the work kitchen. We make work phone calls that are really just “Hey, how r ya mate? Wassup?”
The typical idea of a productive workday is broken.
Cold shower preachers tell us to get up at 5AM, drink a bulletproof coffee, do yoga, download complex productivity software, color code the crap out of our calendar, and work a stupid number of hours. This idea is stupid.
Here’s how I’m learning to do 4 hours of productive work per day. Steal the strategy or borrow parts from it to get back the precious hours of your life.
Most forms of work are stupid
Defining what work is, is crucial.
Email and direct messages are work in a way. But not really.
Most emails and messages can be left unread or deleted.
"Emails are a suggestion but not an obligation"
– James AltucherIf a direct message is important most people will either call you or follow up a couple of times. I use that as a gauge to how important the message is. Single messages almost never get replied to unless they’re from someone I work directly with or my wife and family.
Twice a day I go through and delete emails like an ax murderer on a rampage. The time it takes to reply to unsolicited emails is too much.
One other hack will save you time:
Every email you respond to creates more email. If you don’t want more emails then don’t reply to emails.
I define real work as finished content. If I’m not writing a tweet, article, or newsletter then I’m not working. Get clear on what real work is for you to free up enormous amounts of time.
Kickstart your brain
I am prone to procrastination. Most people are too. Throughout coroni-macaroni I have not been able to go to the gym. Recently, I started back at the gym. I was reluctant. Do I really need gym?
A huge insight knocked me out after a few days back at the gym.
The gym gets my brain fired up. Without gym, I have a lot less energy and have to rely on motivating myself to get started. With gym, I get home and it’s piss-easy to turn on my computer and get to work for 4 hours.
Intense exercise releases endorphins. Endorphins are the friend of deep work.
When you feel good you work good.
The trap door to another world
If you’re *not* using flow states you’re wasting your life.
When I discovered flow states I felt like Superman. I couldn’t believe how simple the idea was.
Flow states are where you get into a deep level of focus. Time in a flow state feels shorter than it is. Work doesn’t feel like work when in flow.
The hard part is starting a flow state. I found the best way to get into flow is to start small. When I want to do a writing session, I start with the tiny goal of writing one tweet. A tweet is 1-2 sentences. It takes me no more than two minutes to write one.
Once I’ve written one I start to write a few more. After a few tweets I’m in a flow state. Then I open a brand new Medium dot com article and start to type the title, then the subtitle, then the first sentence, then the intro.
Before I know it, I’m in a deep flow state. The outside world is filtered out. My attention is hyper-focused. I feel powerful. Work flows out of me like a waterfall. All I can hear in flow are my thoughts and ideas bursting out of me.
Here are a few flow state amplifiers:
Drink coffee before a flow state.
Take a work idea with you to a warm shower and think about it. Come out and start to work on it.
Close the door of your work room.
Use electronic music to put you in a trance.
Turn off all phone, tablet, laptop, and desktop notifications. Notifications turn flow states into roadkill.
Interruptions are the enemy of flow.
Know why you do the work
Many of us are terrified to admit that the reason we work is for money. That’s a lame form of motivation that will make getting work done harder.
If money is your motivation then when you lose dollars you’ll feel lifeless.
I’ve lost money multiple times in my life. No matter how careful I was, the nature of business and investing is that you’ll eventually lose a substantial amount. It’s in those moments where your work why becomes critical.
Money is an endless game that never ends. A work why is what gives depth to your work. The trick is to attach your work to another person(s).
When you do that your work goes from selfish to unselfish. Unselfish work gives you extreme accountability.
It’s how I feel when I write. People depend on my words to help figure out their lives. If I stop doing my work then people will suffer. That thought hurts too much for me to stop. Hence, I have automated motivation.
The speed of work happens faster with a powerful reason to do it.
Deadlines prevent laziness
A deadline is crucial to make 4 hours of work for the day effective. If you think you have all day, you’ll goof off and let google and youtube take control.
When I start work at 10AM I tell myself I have to be done by 2PM. I book a calendar event, like a walk, in my schedule. The walk acts as both a deadline and a reward for my 4 hours of focused work.
Use deadlines to create urgency.
Do 4 hours of deep work per day and change your life
Maybe starting work at 10AM works for you. Maybe you need to work for 5 hours to get your work done. The details are semantics.
The point of this article is to try doing 4 hours of deep work per day with a tiny warm-up at the start. Once you experience deep work you’ll never go back. It will be an idea that changes how you think, and therefore, changes how you work.
I don’t care if you want to become a 4-hour per day weirdo like me. I care that you experience deep work for yourself.
Takeaway:
Decide what real work is. Choose a work why. Do a short 15-minute warm-up and then finish your work within 4 hours. Reflect. Examine. Pay attention to whether you reached a flow state. Repeat. Optimize.
4 hours of work per day is possible with intense focus. Try it.
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A few hours of DEEP WORK will set me up as an efficient being. Quite strange but I have written a message for myself that I see every day whenever I'm on the laptop- "I want to put in minimum working hours and attain maximum returns"
It seems like an excellent combination to me; 4 hours of deep work can take you a long way without burning your brains out.