WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.420 Last week we talked about deep work as your new superpower to make you the master of your 2 00:00:08.420 --> 00:00:09.900 craft. 3 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:15.100 This week we want to get into the details of how and practically some of the things 4 00:00:15.100 --> 00:00:18.380 you can do to be kind to your mind. 5 00:00:18.380 --> 00:00:23.860 You know your brain is wired to function in a certain way. 6 00:00:23.860 --> 00:00:29.700 In the same way you would create muscle memory, your brain creates a working memory. 7 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:34.100 And this working memory can be shaped by you. 8 00:00:34.100 --> 00:00:39.300 And it's really amazing because when we looked at reframing in a previous training we learned 9 00:00:39.300 --> 00:00:42.140 that your brain believes the reframe. 10 00:00:42.140 --> 00:00:43.320 So it's a little bit of that. 11 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:48.660 So remember the idea here is we want to get into a place where we can really push deep 12 00:00:48.660 --> 00:00:49.660 work. 13 00:00:49.660 --> 00:00:53.180 Where we can concentrate for longer on more intense things. 14 00:00:53.180 --> 00:00:56.500 And we talked a little about the problem of switching costs. 15 00:00:56.500 --> 00:01:00.860 Switching from one task to another, even though your mind has moved to the next thing, 16 00:01:00.860 --> 00:01:05.620 your brain hasn't fully committed all of the resources you need for that. 17 00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:09.980 So you might think you're working on the next thing but you're really not fully engaged 18 00:01:09.980 --> 00:01:10.980 in that. 19 00:01:10.980 --> 00:01:12.300 Your brain takes time. 20 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:18.420 So what we want to do is rewire our brains to learn to be able to do this deep work thing. 21 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:23.900 Where without switching costs and focusing on one task for an extended period of time, 22 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:29.420 that is massive and that is what's going to make you a deep work professional. 23 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:34.140 That's what's going to really build the superpower in your life. 24 00:01:34.140 --> 00:01:37.340 Now the goal here is to get to four hours a day. 25 00:01:37.340 --> 00:01:41.780 But for many people starting off maybe one hour a day is the starting point. 26 00:01:41.780 --> 00:01:44.860 But if you're doing four hours a day, you're there. 27 00:01:44.860 --> 00:01:46.340 You've nailed the deep work thing. 28 00:01:46.340 --> 00:01:48.940 And so we want to really rewire our minds. 29 00:01:48.940 --> 00:01:51.340 To do this I want to share two things. 30 00:01:51.340 --> 00:01:56.780 I want to share four deep work modes to show you that deep work can have different types 31 00:01:56.780 --> 00:01:58.380 of expressions. 32 00:01:58.380 --> 00:02:04.420 And I want to share some power hacks, four power hacks to help you take your deep work 33 00:02:04.420 --> 00:02:05.420 to the next level. 34 00:02:05.420 --> 00:02:07.620 Okay, so let's get into the four modes. 35 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:10.660 The first mode we might call the monastic mode. 36 00:02:10.660 --> 00:02:15.380 If you want more information about this, by the way, you can read Cal Newport's book 37 00:02:15.380 --> 00:02:16.380 called Deep Work. 38 00:02:16.380 --> 00:02:18.180 He gets into this quite a lot of detail. 39 00:02:18.180 --> 00:02:23.580 Now we've modified some of these elements to fit our particular training, you know, 40 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:25.900 so that we can function as a team together. 41 00:02:25.900 --> 00:02:28.340 So monastic mode, think of a monastery. 42 00:02:28.340 --> 00:02:32.300 Think of a monk going away in a monastery, or maybe you go away in a monastery, there's 43 00:02:32.300 --> 00:02:37.300 no cell phone service, and you just stay there for extended periods of time. 44 00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:43.380 Great way to write a book or to work on something really big, a big project that needs several 45 00:02:43.380 --> 00:02:45.100 weeks maybe. 46 00:02:45.100 --> 00:02:52.020 And so these people who live like this literally see shallow work as a way of fragmenting and 47 00:02:52.020 --> 00:02:54.060 reducing their life's contributions. 48 00:02:54.060 --> 00:02:55.560 And they're not wrong. 49 00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:57.740 So this is typically authors, researchers. 50 00:02:57.740 --> 00:03:03.000 Now my business partner, Graham Cook, is very much a monastic thinker. 51 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:08.420 So Graham, we've organized our business around him so that he can have extended periods of 52 00:03:08.420 --> 00:03:11.500 time to be in this monastic mode. 53 00:03:11.500 --> 00:03:15.020 Because what comes out of it is so worth it. 54 00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:18.380 Now the second mode is what we call innovation mode. 55 00:03:18.380 --> 00:03:23.420 This is like a weekly mode where you're giving one of those buckets to deep work. 56 00:03:23.420 --> 00:03:28.820 Remember last week we talked about the idea that every week has five, ten buckets, two 57 00:03:28.820 --> 00:03:34.260 a day, and you dedicate one bucket to this mode. 58 00:03:34.260 --> 00:03:41.260 Now this is really important because in future training we're going to use this fact that 59 00:03:41.420 --> 00:03:47.100 you have an innovation mode running, that you have a certain amount of deep work sessions 60 00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:51.540 available, maybe at least one a week, available for doing innovation things. 61 00:03:51.540 --> 00:03:58.540 Remember deep work is about doing new work, whereas focused work is about doing existing 62 00:03:58.820 --> 00:03:58.980 work. 63 00:03:58.980 --> 00:04:02.300 So we're talking about how are you going to become an innovator. 64 00:04:02.300 --> 00:04:09.140 You have to start creating this habit, the superpower, in your weekly schedule. 65 00:04:09.180 --> 00:04:12.620 Because later on when we're doing a project we're going to ask this question, how many 66 00:04:12.620 --> 00:04:16.260 deep work sessions is it going to take for you to produce that? 67 00:04:16.260 --> 00:04:21.500 So if you don't have any deep work sessions, this is where you might feel left behind. 68 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:24.300 So get into this straight away. 69 00:04:24.300 --> 00:04:25.540 This is really useful. 70 00:04:25.540 --> 00:04:27.360 The next mode is called daily mode. 71 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:32.380 This is one my wife, Bridget, when she was writing her book, she'd get up every morning 72 00:04:32.380 --> 00:04:38.100 at 5 a.m., so from 5 till 8, every morning she did this for months while she was writing 73 00:04:38.100 --> 00:04:39.120 her parenting book. 74 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:42.800 So this is somebody who sees this as a daily habit. 75 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:44.760 And this may appeal to you. 76 00:04:44.760 --> 00:04:50.460 If you're that kind of person that likes that kind of predictability, likes structure, likes 77 00:04:50.460 --> 00:04:53.320 the framework of that, that may work for you. 78 00:04:53.320 --> 00:04:56.200 And by the way, daily mode will help you with innovation too. 79 00:04:56.200 --> 00:04:59.680 You can definitely count that towards your innovation goals. 80 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:05.840 blocks we'll talk about later. The last one is on the fly mode. Now I even hesitate to share this 81 00:05:05.840 --> 00:05:11.520 mode because it's such an advanced mode and everyone I know who tried to start with this 82 00:05:11.520 --> 00:05:17.440 mode never turned deep work into habit. I'm not saying it's impossible, I've just never seen it 83 00:05:17.440 --> 00:05:21.440 because it's the hardest mode of all. It's advanced. What you're doing here is on the fly, 84 00:05:21.440 --> 00:05:28.080 you're finding an hour, two hours, three hours. So for me, example of this is I live on the east 85 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:33.200 coast and I work on the west coast. So every time I'm flying to Santa Barbara, California, 86 00:05:33.200 --> 00:05:37.680 there's no direct flights. I have two flights there, two flights back. So I turned it into 87 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:41.920 a deep work, two deep work sessions, either direction. So that gave me four deep work 88 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:47.680 sessions in one week. And so I was literally on the fly, deep work session. Okay. So those 89 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:53.920 are the four modes, monastic mode, innovation mode, which is weekly, daily mode, on the fly 90 00:05:53.920 --> 00:06:00.480 mode. All right, let's talk about four power hacks to really help you get practical and get 91 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:06.240 into this deep work thing and change your working memory. We talked about training your brain. 92 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:11.520 So let's talk about how we can train our brain and give it the support it needs so that it can 93 00:06:11.520 --> 00:06:16.880 take you to a whole different level. Number one, he has four questions. To help you with these 94 00:06:16.880 --> 00:06:22.880 power hacks, you have four questions. Number one, where will I work and for how long? So this is 95 00:06:22.880 --> 00:06:28.480 where you specify exactly that you'd never allow an open ended session. Well, I'll start at eight 96 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:35.840 and then whenever. So it's things like I will work at the coffee shop from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. 97 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:41.760 on Wednesday. I will work in my office with a sign on the door from 8 a.m. to noon, which is what 98 00:06:41.760 --> 00:06:46.080 goes on in our office in Santa Barbara. There's literally signs on the doors when people are in 99 00:06:46.080 --> 00:06:52.800 deep work. Or I will work from my home office and arrange with my spouse and I'll work from 6 p.m. 100 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:59.920 to 10 p.m. OK, question number two, how will I work? So here we're trying to bring clarity so 101 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:05.840 you don't vacillate it. You don't sit down to start your deep work and then just flounder around. I 102 00:07:05.840 --> 00:07:09.840 see a lot of people that are on their browser. I'm doing research, but they're really not doing 103 00:07:09.840 --> 00:07:16.160 anything. So the idea here is to really make sure you have a strong start. How will I work? And so 104 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:22.240 obviously, just before you start, you want to protect your interruption. So I am going to protect 105 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:28.240 from interruptions by turning off all devices. So I can't get social media, text and all that 106 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:34.800 stuff. Turn off all my devices. Then the next question is what exactly how are you going to 107 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:41.680 work? So here's three examples. Writing. I will. I want to write a chapter in that for an editor. 108 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:46.080 This is one I've actually used every Thursday morning. I wrote a chapter and edited that 109 00:07:46.080 --> 00:07:52.800 chapter until I finished my 25 chapter book. So that's that was really helpful to me. I knew 110 00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:58.640 exactly what I was doing when I sat down. I knew what what the plan was or I'm going to do research 111 00:07:58.640 --> 00:08:04.560 for my business. I want to you know, I want to find three vendors and create a table comparing 112 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:09.680 them. So that's really clear. Or if I'm in an innovation, I want to write a proposal for a new 113 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:14.960 product or service and I want that to be at least four pages long so you can get the idea. We want 114 00:08:14.960 --> 00:08:20.800 to be really clear about how I'm going to work. Number three. What ritual will I use? What do I 115 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:27.600 mean by ritual? I'm talking about the way you regularly go about getting ready to start working 116 00:08:28.400 --> 00:08:33.600 practically. So that means getting things like coffee and snacks and food and then just planning 117 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:39.039 your walk. So when I get up to walk, I'm going to walk around, you know, the park or I'm going to 118 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:44.320 walk around my backyard or whatever it is where you're going to walk. And you just plan your walk 119 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:48.880 then back. But try not to get interrupted. So try and take a walk that's not going to get you 120 00:08:48.880 --> 00:08:55.760 engaged in conversations with other co-workers. And then what materials do I need? Clear your desk, 121 00:08:55.760 --> 00:09:00.800 put the materials you need. If you need physical materials, put them next to you. So you have your 122 00:09:00.800 --> 00:09:05.840 coffee, your snacks and so. So the idea here is really the ritual is referring to how you're going 123 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:12.560 to physically support your deep work session. Number four. Do I need to make a grand gesture? 124 00:09:12.560 --> 00:09:17.920 Now, this is such a fun one and it's fun that we can end on this one because grand gestures tell 125 00:09:17.920 --> 00:09:23.440 your brain this is really important. And I love the way Cal Newport uses the example of J.K. 126 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:33.360 Rawlings when she was writing Deathly Hallows. That was actually written in a hotel, Balmoral, 127 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:40.480 sorry, known as one of England's most luxurious hotels. And it was this classic Victorian 128 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:46.640 building complete with all the ornate stonework, you know, the tall clock tower. And you may now 129 00:09:46.640 --> 00:09:52.640 start recognizing some of the aspects of Hogwarts if you've read the books or if you're a fan. And 130 00:09:52.640 --> 00:09:57.120 so, you know, if you're a Harry Potter fan, you know what I'm referring to. But what she did is 131 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:59.920 she gave herself the grand gesture. You know, when 132 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:05.360 When I first heard that, I took it up immediately and I booked a resort for a week to finish 133 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:06.760 my book Acuity. 134 00:10:06.760 --> 00:10:12.740 I think I left the resort twice for 15 minutes each and I just went heads down. 135 00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:13.740 It was a grand gesture. 136 00:10:13.740 --> 00:10:20.000 I had to pay for that and I was investing in the grand gesture to tell my brain this 137 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.260 is super important, you know, so it really helps. 138 00:10:23.260 --> 00:10:28.400 Maybe for you it's going to a library, you know, for a whole day or, you know, whatever 139 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:30.960 the grand gesture may be for you. 140 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:34.160 So the four Power Hack questions are 1. 141 00:10:34.160 --> 00:10:36.160 Where will I work and for how long? 142 00:10:36.160 --> 00:10:37.160 2. 143 00:10:37.160 --> 00:10:39.160 How will I work? 144 00:10:39.160 --> 00:10:40.160 3. 145 00:10:40.160 --> 00:10:41.680 What ritual will I use? 146 00:10:41.680 --> 00:10:42.680 And 4. 147 00:10:42.680 --> 00:10:44.680 Do I need a grand gesture? 148 00:10:44.680 --> 00:10:47.880 Enjoy becoming a deep work professional. 149 00:10:47.880 --> 00:10:48.560 Thanks for listening.