and today is the first of a two-part series.
Deep Work is a phenomenal tool
that we're gonna learn about today.
It is specifically based on Cal Newport's book.
We're gonna pop that in the chat.
And Deep Work is a superpower
that will make you the master of your craft.
If that sounds good to you, pop a yes in the chat.
Let us know that you're ready to get started.
And my pro tip for today
is if something isn't working for you,
a tool or a concept that you've learned
as we've been joining The Edge
and going through this material, try again.
This is gradual growth.
So don't give up on something
if it didn't work the first time.
Remember, not one of us is static.
We're constantly growing and changing.
So imagine yourself in the future
and identify that your capacity
is going to be far beyond what it is today.
So keep in mind, if you're feeling stuck,
just keep trying, keep moving forward.
And you're probably, if you're feeling stuck,
you're probably right up against
the next level of your performance.
So keep pressing through, keep at it,
and keep trying.
Remember, making small changes every day
is going to have a really big return
over a long period of time.
Okay, Dion, we are ready for you.
So over to you.
Thank you very much, Dia.
Always appreciate that.
This is so much fun hanging out
with our family here on Wednesdays.
Love to have you all.
So today is a big day,
but before we get going,
I thought it might be helpful.
You know, I think as leaders,
it's always good every now and again
to hit the pause button
and summarize the distance you've covered recently.
I'm amazed how few leaders actually do this,
but it's really helpful to see,
hey, we've actually made progress.
So let me do that for just one second.
As you guys know, we're building this program
on four key pillars, on leadership,
culture, innovation, and of course, economics.
So culture, sorry, leadership,
culture, innovation, and economics.
And so far, we've done three leadership talks.
We talked about moving from success to prime.
We talked about what purpose does our business exist?
Remember, what are we doing?
Why are we doing it?
How do we fit in?
We also talked about the key management
as part of leading your own contribution.
Those were the three big leadership talks
we've done so far.
We also did one on economics.
We talked about the triple bottom line, the rule of three.
We talked about transparency,
so everyone knows how much we're making,
how it's working, and how what they're doing contributes.
So we did one on economics,
and then we did two on work culture, on culture.
We talked about creating a culture of trust,
and we also talked last week
about getting work done at work.
Today, I'm excited because this is our first one
we're doing on innovation.
And this week and next week,
we're gonna do Deep Work part one and Deep Work part two.
And I'm excited about what this will do for you specifically
because if you think about it, in the new economy,
in this knowledge economy
that we're all operating under now,
with the new AI, especially with the release of products
like ChatGPT, which maybe can have a bigger impact
than when we first had internet browsers.
So I remember in 1996 being one of the first companies
on the internet with technology.
And I remember the beginning of that year,
Bill Gates saying that the internet was a fad,
and Netscape was the browser back then,
and it was changing our lives.
We could just access so much information.
And a few months later, Bill Gates changed his mind.
I think he put about eight or 900 programs in a hall
and invented, came up with the Internet Explorer browser.
And it's just extraordinary the distance we've covered
since those early days of the internet.
And I think ChatGPT is probably the next generation
of AI tools that are gonna completely and utterly change
the internet for all of us.
So here's, if you think about this new economy,
how fast things are going, there are three types of people
that are gonna have a particular advantage
over everyone else.
The first of those who work with intelligent machines,
the AI and those kinds of technologies.
Second are gonna people who are owners of capital,
private equity people, people have access to capital.
And third are gonna be superstars
in their own field of work.
So I assume that you are not an AI programmer
and that's not your space,
or two, that you don't run a private equity firm.
So what I'm gonna assume for this talk
is that you are here to learn to become a superstar
in your own field of work.
Now, here's the cool thing.
Deep work.
is the superpower that's going to help you become the master of your craft and let's talk about why
that is. So first just to get us going let's just lay a few foundations. The first is that what do
we mean when we say deep work? What do we mean? So here's a definition. Deep work is focused
undistracted work on a task that pushes your cognitive abilities to the limit.
Deep work is focused undistracted work on a single task that pushes your cognitive abilities
to their limit. So think of the gym if you went into the gym and you only used light weights
and you picked up these super light weights did some curls for about you know three or four put
it down was distracted went off ran on the treadmill for 30 seconds got off that went and
something else all you do is become a lightweight right so you wouldn't be anything you would never
develop any muscle power. Deep work is the same and most of us are like in the gym do a few on
the right arm get distracted go off get a drink of water come back most work is that and we call that
shallow work. So deep work is the way in which we take our very best ideas and we make a contribution
to the organization or to even our industry. So deep work comes from a place deep within yourself
in which you produce your most powerful work the most meaningful part of your contribution to your
organization. Shallow work on the other hand is things like answering emails producing reports
you know flipping from one meeting to another jumping on one zoom call to the next that's all
shallow work stuff. That in itself is work that's necessary to get your job done but it's not what
will make you you know give you your superpower. It's not what's going to make you a superstar
in your organization or a superstar in your industry. So because if you spend enough time
in that kind of state of frenetic shallowness you could permanently reduce your capacity to
perform deep work and it's really interesting that people who you know we talked last week
that multitasking makes you dumb and it more than makes you dumb it can actually make it harder and
harder and harder to learn to do deep work but all is not lost because with some practice and
some basic tools and some power tips which I'm going to share with you today you can develop
this this superpower this deep work superpower because deep work if you think about it is what
creates breakthrough in business ideas. It's you solving more complex problems deep work is when
you're making a contribution to your company you're working on the business you're not just
working in the business. Shallow work is working in the business doing the day-to-day answering
the emails going on the zoom call doing all that stuff but deep work is when you back out and say
you know what we need a new system that manages this part of our business better. I'm going to
go and do research, I'm going to develop a new system, I'm going to find out which companies
can come help us, I'm going to help move the organization forward, I'm going to work on the
business not just in it and that capability is what will separate you out from everyone else
and to do that it helps if you can decide what do you want to be best in the world at.
If you could pick something and say man I love what I do I love the job I do but I want to be
best in the world that to do that we're going to commit to growing that ability in you so that you
can become better and better and ultimately perhaps become best in the world or at least
be in the group that's considered best in the world at that specific thing. To do this you
genuinely have to love what you do and you have to respect yourself enough to make this kind of
investment in yourself and that's why we often say you know you're good soil and you're worth
making those kind of investments so this is a time investment in yourself in the thing you
want to become great at. So deep work is the critical tool that makes it happen.
So deep work is not only critical in terms of developing yourself as a knowledge worker
but it really helps you develop that new kind of muscle memory that new kind of
working memory that will allow you to perform at a much higher level.
So if you think about it it helps you deep work will help
help you develop new skills and employ those new skills
so that you can improve your productivity,
prove your output.
So it's new skills and deploying those new skills.
So not just learning a skill,
but learning to actually use them.
Because if you can do those both more effectively
than others, this puts you into a leading position.
So in this whole information economy that we're in,
it's gonna take people who are developed
this kind of skill.
So let me talk about the three challenges
or the three things that I've noticed
that cause people to struggle
with this concept of deep work.
I think a lot of people, when you explain it
like the way I'm explaining it now,
you know, they may say, no, I get it.
I can see it's really important,
but it's difficult for me.
You know, I tried to do deep work.
I was like 20 minutes into it.
I was bored out of my mind.
You know, so when I was 40 minutes into it,
it was like, let me out now.
So I wanna talk about why that is.
Why is it that we struggle to do this kind of work?
And the reason is, is we've been so conditioned
by the fast pace of our lives to do shallow work
that we've created a working memory
that only functions for shallow work.
And so deep work is a completely different mode.
It's a different modality.
It's a different way of getting work done.
And so when we recognize that, we can't just,
it's not just a, well, we'll put four hours aside
and try to focus on something.
It's a much more substantive skill than that.
So here are the three challenges most people struggle with.
Developing the ability to focus intensely
for long periods of time.
People say, well, I get distracted.
You know, I get this.
But we can learn, like all muscle, you can train yourself.
So this means being really patient with yourself.
So maybe your deep work starts at 30 minutes
and then becomes 45 minutes and becomes an hour.
And over time, you work up to four hours.
Second thing is your ability to resist distractions.
It's such a simple idea
that this has to be protected time
where there's no text messages going off,
no Slack messages, no sort of incoming information
other than you focusing on your turning off everything,
shutting yourself off from the world.
This ability is actually a skill.
It's the ability to resist distractions.
And, you know, that is one of the big things
people start off with the idea,
I'm gonna do this, that, and the next thing.
And that is why we started last week with the notion of,
this has to be organization-wide.
This can't just be you saying,
I'm gonna go and do deep work.
And then your boss calls you three times,
you know, during that session,
you feel you have to answer.
That's why we have to have a cultural understanding
in our organization that says, I am doing deep work.
That doesn't just mean I'm trying to get stuff done.
It means I'm trying to step into a deeper level of thought
and I'm trying to make a contribution to the company
and to do that, I need to be left undistracted.
So at Brilliant, we made a rule.
And the rule is, you do not have to respond to anyone
faster than one bucket, four hours.
So if you respond within four hours,
so if I contact you in the morning
and you respond in the afternoon,
or I contact you in the afternoon
and you respond the next morning,
you are really quick,
which means we have to redefine
what it means to be that great team player.
For most of us, we may take some pride
in I'm the person, they put it on Slack
and man, 30 seconds later, I answered.
They texted me within a minute, I responded to them.
Yeah, that is great for shallow work.
And shallow work plays a role.
We'll get to that in just a second.
But for deep work to exist,
we have to have an understanding
that I'm gonna respond to you in four hours.
I'm gonna respond to you in one bucket length of time.
And that has to be good enough.
Now, if there's a genuine crisis, as we've said before,
we can have a system like, hey, I'll text you twice
or I'll call you twice so that it goes through your,
I know you have your phone turned off,
but if you call twice, you can set it up on your phone
so that it comes through anyway.
Maybe some means for people to get you
in a genuine emergency.
At the offices at Brilliant,
we actually have signs made up.
I should have had it here.
Maybe somebody can grab one from Brilliant.
We have signs that says focused work
or deep work in session.
And so we know not to bother one another
when that sign's on the door.
Now, many of us are virtual.
And so we can't put a sign on the door,
but maybe we can do the equivalent of a sign on the door.
or maybe in a Slack channel we have a deep work saying you just say I'm doing deep work from
Tuesday mornings, while I'm doing deep work from this time to this time, it'll be the sign on the
door electronic version. But whatever it is, we have to develop skills and abilities that help us
manage and resist distractions. Number three challenge that most people struggle with is
reframing this type of work as something you actually love, making it really an amazing
thing like saying it's not just something like you say oh I have to do deep work, it's like I
love this part of my job, I love this part of this is my favorite four hours of the week, I get to
work on something new, I get to make a contribution and that reframing it from it's a discipline to a
delight that's really important and thanks for bringing this in for me but this is the deep work
or on the back focus work sign that we throw up on the you know on our door here we have a little
thing that hangs up and we can put them on and it's a way to let the rest organization know
do not talk to me until that sign goes down. So those three challenges developing your ability
to focus more intensely or for longer periods of time to developing the ability to resist
distractions and three reframing this as something you're delighted something you love not a discipline
you have to do. All right so I want to share with you five key thoughts or five keys that will help
you develop this superpower. So key number one is a clear understanding. Understand that in order to
produce your absolutely best stuff you're capable of you need to commit to the concept of deep work
right so it's a commitment. Two, a goal. Set yourself the goal that you want to develop the ability to
quickly master difficult things, the ability to quickly master hard things. So this is the ability
to kind of deliver at an elite level both in terms of quality and speed. This is what
makes it deep work. It's that incredible ability to learn hard things quickly and to focus intensely
without distraction. So that's the goal here. The goal is to develop the superpower this ability to
master hard things quickly to focus for extended periods of time and to get complex or difficult
problems solved. Now you may be listening to say man that's just not me. Actually this is available
to everyone. That's why I'm wanting to enroll you in this. I want this to become your personal goal.
I want you to enroll in this idea that deep work is a superpower that's going to move you
in your career and move you to become a master of your own craft. Number three, time. Understanding
that it takes time to go deep to get to that deepest the best stuff you're capable of thinking
of the best kind of work you're capable of. It's like sleep. It takes time for you to go into deep sleep
and in deep work thinking it takes about 40 minutes from the time you start to start to get
into that deep thought state of mind where that state of mind of deep thought starts to occur
where your most creative most innovative part of you is there. You see this actually in like
brainstorming when people are in a brainstorming session right if you're leading a brainstorming
session what has happened is that brainstorming ideas come in like two waves. The first wave
is what I would just call all the obvious stuff all the we should do this we should do that or
have we tried this it's all the kind of what obvious stuff and then usually there's a silence
and then the second wave comes of really deep thought that the much more creative stuff
an inexperienced leader who doesn't know how to lead or hasn't been trained to lead brainstorming
usually when that silence happens they cut it off and move to the next point that's unfortunate
because the best ideas are about to come and it's the same when you go into deep work you you start
with doing all the obvious stuff all the obvious thoughts and then you flush and then there's like
this pause and then you go into this deeper state where you start to think at a much deeper level
now if you're interrupted or distracted you pull yourself out of that state and you start again
that's why deep work needs an extended uninterrupted time and if I keep saying it over
and over again is because no matter how many times I said people remain distracted and then they go
this deep thing doesn't deep work doesn't really work so like sleep if I kept waking you up every
minutes and interrupting you, you'd have to surface again and then go back into the deep
sleep cycle, then surface again, and you would feel pretty exhausted in the morning
because you were constantly interrupted. Deep work and deep thought is a lot like that.
Okay, so there's number three was time. Number four, routines. You have to start to develop new
routines. So deep work is a habit, right? It's a habit that has to go beyond just good intentions.
You have to learn to add these rituals. We talked last week about priming rituals. What does that
mean? Preparing, like get your snacks ready and get your stuff ready. And if you're going to take
a walk through the deep work, you're still working on it, even though you've gone for a walk, you've
got up from your desk, you don't have to be stuck at your desk for four hours. But it does mean that
you learn to prepare, you're turning off all your social media things, you're turning off all your
all your communications, you're shutting it all down, you're putting stuff on silent,
you've got a routine that you go through a preparation or ritual that you go through in
preparing for deep work, that people are very good at this tend to prepare almost like the night
before. So if you're doing deep work in the morning, it's a great idea to prepare the night
before get everything ready, get your desk clear, get rid of the distractions on your desk papers,
bills that have to be paid, whatever, a clean desk creates space for yourself to think.
So these kind of priming rituals are really important. So, you know, it's going to take,
you know, that practice. So routines, and then the fifth and last point of the, you know, the
big keys is train your brain. Working memory is like muscle memory. So the ability to concentrate
is like a training, like training a muscle. So the reason you can't use it, or you're struggling
with it is because you've never trained it before. So, you know, if you train it in a
structured way, you can push yourself to the limit, you get stronger. If you go to the gym,
and you don't really push yourself, you don't develop muscle strength. So what you're really
trying to do here is push yourself a little bit on your on your cognitive go deep, look for that
deep idea, pull deeply from within yourself looking for that deepest, most creative idea,
push yourself saying that's not good enough, I can do more, I can do more. It's that like being
in the gym. And so, you know, you see, you may sit and say that doesn't sound like a lot of fun.
Strangely enough, it's amazingly satisfying. Strangely enough, it is incredibly rewarding
and meaningful. So the five things as I went through, understand, you know, commit to this
idea of deep work to set yourself a goal that you want to be able to master hard things quickly.
Three, give yourself time to go deep for develop routines preparing in advance that you get rid
of all those distractions. Five, train your brain, push, push, push, push for your deepest ideas,
greatest ideas. Cool. So we've talked a lot about deep work. But I want to give it a little bit of
context and say, there are three types of work that you're going to be doing deep work being
one of them. So we've talked a little bit about deep work. But think of the best analogy I can
give you for deep work is think of going to the mountain cabin, you go to the mountain cabin,
there's no cell phone reception there, none of your devices work, all your notifications off,
you're out there at the cabin for four hours in the mountain cabin doing deep work.
The second type of work is what we call focused work. This tends to be one to two hours.
And focused work is think of coffee shop mode, right? You got your headphones on, you're not
really talking to anyone, you know, and you know, every now and again, you check in with your
with your team. So maybe once an hour, once every two hours, you're checking with your team.
Now focused work is for doing existing work. Deep work is for doing new work. Deep work is to come
up with something new. Focused work is just taking time to focus on existing work. Does it make sense?
So focused work is one to two hours, coffee shop mode. Just let me focus, let me get this out. This
is just you doing your existing work and focusing on it so you can get it done quicker and get it
done faster and using, you know, a lot more concentrated effort with less distractions.
I didn't say no distractions, less distractions. And then the last one is what we just call the
is what we just call the general mode. General mode is shallow work. This is the storefront.
So imagine you have a store, you're in the storefront, you're speaking to customers,
you're working with a team, you're super responsive to your team, they put something on Slack,
you're responding seconds, you're super responsive, helpful, you're helping other
team members with their projects, with their goals, with what they're doing, right?
That's general mode, shallow mode, and that's fine.
there needs to be space for that. That's just part of being a team, it's part of working together.
So three modes, deep work, mountain cabin, radio silence, focus for hours, do something new,
push your limits. Number two, focused work, coffee shop mode, taking existing work and just getting
work done in a focused way. And so that's why even at our, at the office here, we have focused,
focused work as one of the options. We've got deep work and focused work. Focused work,
about two hours, little bit, maybe on the top of the hour, you're just checking with the team.
General mode, general work is just shallow work, storefront, working with the customers,
collaborating. The big pushback a lot of people give when they're talking about deep work is,
hey, I work in customer service. I can't do deep work. Well, customer service is always in general
mode. There's no question about that. But you still have to carve out four hours a week if
you're full-time or two hours a week if you're part-time, find time for focused work. So I'm
going to end there. I'm going to leave it there for a minute. But I wanted to give you context
because next week we're going to talk about how to use those three types of work. Your homework,
though, for next week is to pull off one deep work session next week. Anybody pull
off a deep work session this week? Show of hands, any brave people tried that this week?
No? Nobody got it right? Yep. A couple of hands. OK. We're going to keep doing this till we see
90% of the hands go up. All right. OK. I see a couple of hands. That's really great. Very cool.
OK. Back to you, Bia. Awesome. Again, I want to reiterate that deep work starts before. So as
I'm planning my week for the next week ahead, I'll identify a bucket that I'm dedicating to that. And
I kind of think to myself, if I was an assistant to myself and I was planning ahead for my deep
work, how could I facilitate eliminating distractions? What routine could I add? What
might I need during that time? And do all the prep work before I enter deep work. Otherwise,
it is really hard to go in. And again, it is a muscle. Practice, practice, practice. It will
get easier, especially those of you who are used to being interrupted all the time. I'm a mom. I
see there's a lot of other moms here, too. I understand what that's like. And it was very
challenging in the beginning practicing deep work. But now, deep work are my favorite days
when I can actually relax and get really creative discovery time. So that's been phenomenal. Dion,
before we hop into breakouts, I wanted to ask you, can you qualify for us, why is deep work
a crucial part of innovation? How does that fit in our innovation topic? Yeah, so thanks for saying
that, asking that, because we're going to build other innovation tools later on. And we're going
to measure projects by how many deep work sessions we're going to commit to those projects. So getting
the deep work component, we're going to talk more down the road about what to do in the deep work
session and how to deploy them in taking on and building bigger projects, complex projects. So
deep work is a critical building block for the future. So that's why it's really critical. If we
don't master this deep work thing or at least get it going now, it'll become harder and harder later
on when we're when we add on in the season two and season three, we'll be adding on how to, you
know, build projects on a larger scale using stacking deep work sessions. Thank you. And then
before we hop into breakouts, one more question. Can you give an example of someone who, I know
we have a lot of customer service people on the call, what would deep work look like for a customer
service position? Yeah, certainly. I think for a customer service, I know we have customer service
people on the call. So we could, we should ask them because they've been doing it. But so a
customer service person may take, obviously not speaking to customers, that's a distraction in
this case. So it'll be take four hours to work on, for instance, a new way or a new flow to handle
refunds, for instance. So maybe you're dealing with refunds, and maybe you're trying to come up
with a new system. And you want to script that much better, you want to have a better response,
or you often run into a certain type of question that's really stressful for the team.
So you want to take four hours and work on a better response or a better way of training.
And so you're now thinking you're working on the business, you're not in it answering a specific
customers, you know, issues, you're not thinking about customer service as a function, and how to
improve that function. Thank you, Dion. Okay, so we're going to hop into breakouts. Team leaders
in Solent, if you need the worksheet, go ahead and let us know in the comments, we'll post that in
the comments. And we'll hop into breakouts, we'll come back at about 1.15. And so you'll get a
notification that your session is ending and you'll come back in. If you
It looks like breakouts are active.
So go ahead and find your team, hop into breakouts.
If you are stuck, post the room or the team
that you should be in and we'll send you over manually.
Okay, let us know if you have any questions.
Yeah, I would like to meet with all the solo folks.
So if I could go to the solo breakout, that'd be great.
Thank you, yes, don't hop off.
If you're a solo entrepreneur,
do go into the breakout room for solos.
Dionne will have something to chat about.
I need to be moved to solo.
Awesome, was that Giovanni or Mark?
Sorry, I can't see who's talking.
Yeah, it's Mark.
Okay, perfect.
It's not on the list.
Okay, I'll send you over.
.
you
note just note that you have to come
back and close them
you
okay looks like everyone is filtering
back in you have everyone just a few
minutes to
portal in back here
for those of you who are already here
with us how was your breakout room
all right
oh was someone going to share
maybe maybe okay everybody's back looks
like we're all hopping back in
fantastic we're still waiting on a few
people but i think we're gonna make it
back in okay so
everyone how was the breakout room let's
wave at me if you enjoyed
your breakout room
I heard a lot of good stuff, a lot of good chatter.
I could see wherever it was talking and contributing.
So let us know your key takeaways.
And if anyone has a question, we're entering into Q&A.
So if you have a question or maybe something
that from past week that's just not sticking
or you're having trouble facilitating,
go ahead and pop that in the comments
or raise your hand if you want a dialogue.
Also, those of you who have done deep work before,
I know we have a few teams who are actually
very proficient at deep work.
I'd love to hear from you.
So if you wouldn't mind popping in the chat
or raising your hand and letting us know,
what was it like when you first started doing deep work?
Was it easy?
Did it take some time?
What tips have you learned over the time?
And again, we'll be talking about it next week as well.
So keep your questions and let us know.
Recently we said we decided to delete Slack.
So problem solved.
I only doubt that, but that's funny.
Okay, go ahead, Diane.
I'm gonna ask you to unmute
and then let us know your question.
Okay, I think I am unmuted.
Yes?
Okay, just a quick question.
Diane, thank you so much.
I mean, this is just,
I look forward to this time every single week.
It's amazing.
Just a quick question about deep work.
Have you found that, is there a particular time of day
that works best for doing the deep work?
I mean, my thought would be to do it
first thing in the morning,
but just was wondering what your thoughts were on that,
or is it really just based on the individual
and when that person does their best deep work?
Yeah, definitely the latter of what you just said.
To use a phrase from last week,
try to match your energy level
with the importance of the work.
So when you have your highest energy level,
do your deep work.
When you have your lowest energy level,
do your shallow work.
So you don't wanna be answering emails
first thing in the morning if that's your prime time.
That's using shallow work.
That's a mismatch.
So try to match that up a little bit better.
And it doesn't have to be a perfect match every week,
just for deep work particularly.
Great, thank you.
Sure.
I know that Dion doesn't sleep either.
So sometimes his deep work sessions
are in the middle of the night.
I am a morning person, but not early morning.
So usually I start my first thing when I hop onto work,
but I could never do a deep work in the afternoon.
I would not get into it.
So just try it and tweak it if it doesn't work,
play around with it a little bit,
have the freedom to do that.
Okay, Elaine, coming to you.
I started some, I did deep work last week.
My office manager just was loving all of this.
And she put a sign on my door that said, do not disturb.
And my whole, it was really interesting
because my whole staff like was so excited about that.
Sometimes you don't realize that how distracted you are
until your staff goes, yay, she's going in there.
And everybody just was so supportive,
like don't bug her, right?
Then I also made this, I'll show you what I made here.
Oh, she's gonna fall apart.
I made this little folder,
this little stacker thing here on my desk
because I have papers all over my desk
and I go to do my deep work.
I'm like, okay, and these are my buckets.
So I made a folder for each one of my buckets
trying to figure out what goes in this folder and what is,
and this was really good for me today
because I was thinking deep work was everything.
And now to see the general that,
no, there's general work and there's deep work
and there's, what was that?
So now I have my,
this is hard to figure out what you do every day.
So I put all this in folders
and I put it right here on my desk.
So now when I have a piece of paper, I think, okay,
what is this gonna go into?
Now from this point, now I can start designing
like doing deep work and doing general work.
But I, and I love what you guys said yesterday
because I've been saying for years, I'm so disorganized.
I'm so disorganized.
I'm not proclaiming that anymore.
I am an organized, amazing person.
So I, but this is how, cause I'm so visual.
This is helping me having this on my desk
to figure out how to bucket it out.
And then now it's time for deep work.
I just grabbed my folder and do it.
So this is really, this is revolutionizing my life.
Everybody, I was having to cry a little bit
because this really is helping me
on a level that I didn't realize.
And then to see the feedback from my staff,
just to go, cause they all are for me
and they want me to be organized.
So that was my, is my, this is how I'm applying it.
Thank you so much.
And yeah, I know I was going to get tearful.
Thank you, I really appreciate that.
Yeah, you know what I love about what you just said though
is that you're taking cognitive control of your work.
That feeling of being command,
that's what the Q book gives you.
That's what D book gives you.
You start to bring delight back into it,
not just all discipline, you know.
Love that cognitive control.
Okay, Robin, coming to you.
Yeah, hi guys.
Hey, we had a great time.
However, we only had one person commit to four hours.
Everybody else said, we can only do two hours.
And how do you, and obviously that's,
focused work is different from deep work.
Is there a way to ease into this slowly?
If you could talk to our team about that,
and I'm sure if some of the other people
probably feel in the same way.
Yeah, absolutely, Robin.
And I know that your team in particular,
you have quite a few part-time workers,
people that have other jobs maybe,
or whatever in your team.
So that makes sense.
But even if they're full-time workers,
if you get two hours
and you're starting the deep work journey,
you know the objective is to be able to do hard work
intensely and push your cognitive limits.
Just that exercise,
that new working memory you're starting to create,
that's the real value.
The reason we say four hours,
we set a big goal, that's where we wanna get to.
But if it takes you a year to get up to that,
that's totally fine.
The analogy we keep using is the ice cube,
we turn it up one degree per week,
we turn the temperature up, right?
And at some point the ice cube will melt,
and we keep going, at some point we'll have steam.
So if steam is the full four-hour deep work, it's okay.
Just keep heading in that direction
and don't take your eyes off the goal.
But be patient, you know.
So would you recommend that
instead of doing existing work for two hours,
that we would try to do a two-hour deep work session?
Yes, try to do something new.
Remember, deep work is new,
focused work is existing work,
general work is shallow work.
So if you can think of that,
try to do something new, try to work on the business.
What can I do to move the business forward?
You know, one of your guys had the idea
of maybe we get accreditation,
or I've forgotten the exact word he used.
So, you know, try to think of what would take the company
to the next level, not just doing,
not just getting through your existing work,
which is what focused work is.
Absolutely, yeah, sure.
Thanks for asking.
And that can look like so many different things too.
It could look like for me,
I'm gonna do copywriting for, you know, that many hours,
or we have a new,
we're doing an interview process for a new hire
and I can template out all of my replies
for the different people,
or can I streamline a process that we're consistently using,
or troubleshooting a pinpoint in the organization
that's just, we're not able to get past this,
or it causes a lot of frustration, right?
So you can sit down and think through those things there.
It can look like many, many, many different kinds
of deep work.
Okay, Nicole.
Yeah, I just wanted to kind of piggyback
on what Robin was saying,
and just sort of share from my own perspective.
So I kind of started doing the deep work thing
like last week,
and I noticed that in myself at like two and a half hours
of kind of sitting down and working on the same thing,
that I hit kind of like a mental fatigue.
So I just wanna like speak to the team and say that like,
honor what your body and your brain is telling you,
even though our goal is maybe four hours,
that that's like a muscle that we're building up over time.
And so like for me personally,
when I feel like I'm hitting that wall,
like I get up, go for a walk,
maybe I'm still thinking about that thing,
maybe I'm still organizing it,
maybe I'll send a message while I'm walking
just to like get the juices flowing.
And then when I sit back down,
like I might get another 30 minutes out or something.
And so I just wanted to say that and share that like,
maybe four hours is the goal,
but celebrate the way to getting there,
that two hours is still plenty good.
Yeah, beautifully said.
All right, Robin, one last thing,
and Adrian has to hop to another call at two o'clock.
So if you wanna squeeze it in real quick,
we can get to it.
Sure, absolutely.
I just wanted to comment that when I plan
a deep work session, that's a little more difficult,
but I found myself going in to deep work sometimes,
and I lose track of time.
And it's like, it's just, I'm in the zone.
So without it being planned,
sometimes I just fall into that.
That is the delight of it.
No question that you get swept into it.
So absolutely.
Thank you.
Well, thank you to everybody.
I'm gonna jump off, gonna leave it there to wrap it up.
I have to jump to another call.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely.
Thank you, everyone.
We're gonna go ahead and wrap today,
and I will post with the replay.
We have a visual that's helpful
to understand the different kinds of work.
So I'll post that in the slides for a quick printable.
Sorry, not in the slides, in the replay as a slide.
So let me know if you have any questions.
Send us an email at edge,
and we will see you next week, guys.
Thank you.