Last week we talked about deep work as your new superpower to make you the master of your
craft.
This week we want to get into the details of how and practically some of the things
you can do to be kind to your mind.
You know your brain is wired to function in a certain way.
In the same way you would create muscle memory, your brain creates a working memory.
And this working memory can be shaped by you.
And it's really amazing because when we looked at reframing in a previous training we learned
that your brain believes the reframe.
So it's a little bit of that.
So remember the idea here is we want to get into a place where we can really push deep
work.
Where we can concentrate for longer on more intense things.
And we talked a little about the problem of switching costs.
Switching from one task to another, even though your mind has moved to the next thing,
your brain hasn't fully committed all of the resources you need for that.
So you might think you're working on the next thing but you're really not fully engaged
in that.
Your brain takes time.
So what we want to do is rewire our brains to learn to be able to do this deep work thing.
Where without switching costs and focusing on one task for an extended period of time,
that is massive and that is what's going to make you a deep work professional.
That's what's going to really build the superpower in your life.
Now the goal here is to get to four hours a day.
But for many people starting off maybe one hour a day is the starting point.
But if you're doing four hours a day, you're there.
You've nailed the deep work thing.
And so we want to really rewire our minds.
To do this I want to share two things.
I want to share four deep work modes to show you that deep work can have different types
of expressions.
And I want to share some power hacks, four power hacks to help you take your deep work
to the next level.
Okay, so let's get into the four modes.
The first mode we might call the monastic mode.
If you want more information about this, by the way, you can read Cal Newport's book
called Deep Work.
He gets into this quite a lot of detail.
Now we've modified some of these elements to fit our particular training, you know,
so that we can function as a team together.
So monastic mode, think of a monastery.
Think of a monk going away in a monastery, or maybe you go away in a monastery, there's
no cell phone service, and you just stay there for extended periods of time.
Great way to write a book or to work on something really big, a big project that needs several
weeks maybe.
And so these people who live like this literally see shallow work as a way of fragmenting and
reducing their life's contributions.
And they're not wrong.
So this is typically authors, researchers.
Now my business partner, Graham Cook, is very much a monastic thinker.
So Graham, we've organized our business around him so that he can have extended periods of
time to be in this monastic mode.
Because what comes out of it is so worth it.
Now the second mode is what we call innovation mode.
This is like a weekly mode where you're giving one of those buckets to deep work.
Remember last week we talked about the idea that every week has five, ten buckets, two
a day, and you dedicate one bucket to this mode.
Now this is really important because in future training we're going to use this fact that
you have an innovation mode running, that you have a certain amount of deep work sessions
available, maybe at least one a week, available for doing innovation things.
Remember deep work is about doing new work, whereas focused work is about doing existing
work.
So we're talking about how are you going to become an innovator.
You have to start creating this habit, the superpower, in your weekly schedule.
Because later on when we're doing a project we're going to ask this question, how many
deep work sessions is it going to take for you to produce that?
So if you don't have any deep work sessions, this is where you might feel left behind.
So get into this straight away.
This is really useful.
The next mode is called daily mode.
This is one my wife, Bridget, when she was writing her book, she'd get up every morning
at 5 a.m., so from 5 till 8, every morning she did this for months while she was writing
her parenting book.
So this is somebody who sees this as a daily habit.
And this may appeal to you.
If you're that kind of person that likes that kind of predictability, likes structure, likes
the framework of that, that may work for you.
And by the way, daily mode will help you with innovation too.
You can definitely count that towards your innovation goals.
blocks we'll talk about later. The last one is on the fly mode. Now I even hesitate to share this
mode because it's such an advanced mode and everyone I know who tried to start with this
mode never turned deep work into habit. I'm not saying it's impossible, I've just never seen it
because it's the hardest mode of all. It's advanced. What you're doing here is on the fly,
you're finding an hour, two hours, three hours. So for me, example of this is I live on the east
coast and I work on the west coast. So every time I'm flying to Santa Barbara, California,
there's no direct flights. I have two flights there, two flights back. So I turned it into
a deep work, two deep work sessions, either direction. So that gave me four deep work
sessions in one week. And so I was literally on the fly, deep work session. Okay. So those
are the four modes, monastic mode, innovation mode, which is weekly, daily mode, on the fly
mode. All right, let's talk about four power hacks to really help you get practical and get
into this deep work thing and change your working memory. We talked about training your brain.
So let's talk about how we can train our brain and give it the support it needs so that it can
take you to a whole different level. Number one, he has four questions. To help you with these
power hacks, you have four questions. Number one, where will I work and for how long? So this is
where you specify exactly that you'd never allow an open ended session. Well, I'll start at eight
and then whenever. So it's things like I will work at the coffee shop from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
on Wednesday. I will work in my office with a sign on the door from 8 a.m. to noon, which is what
goes on in our office in Santa Barbara. There's literally signs on the doors when people are in
deep work. Or I will work from my home office and arrange with my spouse and I'll work from 6 p.m.
to 10 p.m. OK, question number two, how will I work? So here we're trying to bring clarity so
you don't vacillate it. You don't sit down to start your deep work and then just flounder around. I
see a lot of people that are on their browser. I'm doing research, but they're really not doing
anything. So the idea here is to really make sure you have a strong start. How will I work? And so
obviously, just before you start, you want to protect your interruption. So I am going to protect
from interruptions by turning off all devices. So I can't get social media, text and all that
stuff. Turn off all my devices. Then the next question is what exactly how are you going to
work? So here's three examples. Writing. I will. I want to write a chapter in that for an editor.
This is one I've actually used every Thursday morning. I wrote a chapter and edited that
chapter until I finished my 25 chapter book. So that's that was really helpful to me. I knew
exactly what I was doing when I sat down. I knew what what the plan was or I'm going to do research
for my business. I want to you know, I want to find three vendors and create a table comparing
them. So that's really clear. Or if I'm in an innovation, I want to write a proposal for a new
product or service and I want that to be at least four pages long so you can get the idea. We want
to be really clear about how I'm going to work. Number three. What ritual will I use? What do I
mean by ritual? I'm talking about the way you regularly go about getting ready to start working
practically. So that means getting things like coffee and snacks and food and then just planning
your walk. So when I get up to walk, I'm going to walk around, you know, the park or I'm going to
walk around my backyard or whatever it is where you're going to walk. And you just plan your walk
then back. But try not to get interrupted. So try and take a walk that's not going to get you
engaged in conversations with other co-workers. And then what materials do I need? Clear your desk,
put the materials you need. If you need physical materials, put them next to you. So you have your
coffee, your snacks and so. So the idea here is really the ritual is referring to how you're going
to physically support your deep work session. Number four. Do I need to make a grand gesture?
Now, this is such a fun one and it's fun that we can end on this one because grand gestures tell
your brain this is really important. And I love the way Cal Newport uses the example of J.K.
Rawlings when she was writing Deathly Hallows. That was actually written in a hotel, Balmoral,
sorry, known as one of England's most luxurious hotels. And it was this classic Victorian
building complete with all the ornate stonework, you know, the tall clock tower. And you may now
start recognizing some of the aspects of Hogwarts if you've read the books or if you're a fan. And
so, you know, if you're a Harry Potter fan, you know what I'm referring to. But what she did is
she gave herself the grand gesture. You know, when
When I first heard that, I took it up immediately and I booked a resort for a week to finish
my book Acuity.
I think I left the resort twice for 15 minutes each and I just went heads down.
It was a grand gesture.
I had to pay for that and I was investing in the grand gesture to tell my brain this
is super important, you know, so it really helps.
Maybe for you it's going to a library, you know, for a whole day or, you know, whatever
the grand gesture may be for you.
So the four Power Hack questions are 1.
Where will I work and for how long?
2.
How will I work?
3.
What ritual will I use?
And 4.
Do I need a grand gesture?
Enjoy becoming a deep work professional.
Thanks for listening.