ADHD: How to Get Work Done When You Can’t Focus | Episode #172

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Almost nobody actually works for four hours straight almost ever.
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You don't want to set a standard for yourself that's based on nonsense.
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And I'm super, super excited about chatting with you guys about this today because it is...
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a very deep breakdown of a ton of the stuff that I learned about how to do more focused, better deep work with ADHD.
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These strategies are the ones that worked best for me.
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This means they won't necessarily be your ideal go-to strategies, but many of them, maybe even most of them, can help you a ton.
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So, if you want to get better at work, better at productivity, better at focus,
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Here we go.
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First, take your actual deadline, like when your project at work or at school is due, and move that deadline back like a third.
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Like if you have three weeks until the work submission is due, pretend the deadline is two weeks from now, right?
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One third less.
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And hold yourself to it.
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In the worst case, if you miss your deadline, quote unquote, you'll be almost done when you miss the pretend deadline and easily submit by the actual one.
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And in the best case, you're gonna get it done way earlier and be just be sitting pretty, walking free, low stress.
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Guys, I cannot overstate how big of an unlock this practice is.
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Seriously, give it some thought, give it a try.
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Because rushing last minute is some shit you do not want to put yourself through if you already have trouble with focus and attention.
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Next tip, deep work time boxing.
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Folks with amazing attention spans can do their homework in the car on the way back from school.
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I've seen that done.
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Dylan, can you imagine that doing that?
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No.
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It's insane.
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Or during lunch break or in a busy, noisy office between meetings every 45 minutes.
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They just go back to work and do their work.
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But if you struggle with attention span, you need to give yourself the edge.
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You want the best conditions.
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And the edge in this case is a scheduled session of deep work where you have a clear goal of what you need to get done, an optimized environment in which to do it, and a time box of how long you have to work.
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This will revolutionize your productivity if you struggle with attention.
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To me, it's non-negotiable in my workflow.
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Almost all of my best work has been done during deep work sessions, hands down.
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Guys, this is how serious people, for the most part, get mega projects done.
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They don't just scribble them on a notepad in the middle of a restaurant.
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They isolate themselves and go deep.
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But their question here now is, how long should those sessions be?
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Now, it very much depends on the individual and their attention span.
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For those who are very much deeply struggling, an hour with two five-minute breaks inside of it might be pushing it, and that's maybe where you need to start.
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And that's okay.
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Start there.
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For folks who are more seasoned or have amazing environments, we'll get to soon how to make those environments of your deep work really good, or have better but maybe not great attention spans, two to four hours with some breaks in there is likely the ideal.
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And you might be thinking that, like, okay, four hours, two to four hours, let's call it three, of deep work in one session.
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It's cool and all, but, like, I've seen movies about mathematicians and successful coders, and they work for 15 hours, and they piss themselves in the chair or whatever the hell because they're so focused.
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Let me tell you guys something that is very good to understand.
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And here it is.
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Almost nobody actually works for four hours straight almost ever.
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You don't want to set a standard for yourself that's based on nonsense.
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Dylan, you ever hear guys in bodybuilding talking about like their workouts are four hours long?
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Yeah.
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I've heard that my whole life.
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And when you are in the sport and you know like up from down, if someone tells you that, your first thought in your head as they're telling it is like,
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Motherfucker, shut the hell up.
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I've seen you, you talk to people for 20 minutes at a time between sets.
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Yeah, you're here for four hours, motherfucker, and you ain't training hard for four hours.
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Nobody does that.
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Yeah, and every set is like 10 reps from failure.
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100%, like, oh, I get it.
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You're in the gym for that long, cool.
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Same thing with work.
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Few rare folks,
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can actually plow in deep, immersed attention for more than four hours.
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And usually when they're working on incredibly fun, incredibly immersive, incredibly passionate projects.
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But most people who tell you, and this is not to offend any people, we all have our lore, most people who tell you they work for four, six, or eight hours straight are exaggerating or giving you something they do once a week as if they do it daily.
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Do not need to set your standards here.
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Those are impossible standards.
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If you can do two three-hour deep work sessions in a day, and you can do that four days per week, that's six hours of work per day, by the way, that's 24 hours of work per week, if you count it like that, and one three-hour deep work session on Friday
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That's 27 hours total.
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If you can do that almost every week, you can conquer the fucking world.
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Two to four hours.
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That's how long to aim for most deep work sessions, guys.
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No joke.
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Four hours a day of deep work is research supported, by the way, because they've looked into this as the high end for most mega performers.
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Think about that.
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Now, you can do as little as one hour, but in those cases, knowing exactly what needs to be done and how before helps a lot.
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Otherwise, it's 20 minutes of warming up and only 40 minutes of work and you screwed up.
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This is something you have to personally play with.
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For me, an hour sucks.
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It's just not enough.
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I get into the groove and then I'm out of the groove.
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For you, some simpler tasks that are well understood up front, it might be gold.
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But I would just say two to four hours is where most of the good stuff happens when you start planning your deep work.
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And that's including breaks and stuff like that.
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And it's not just consistent work for that long, but even the idea that you're in doing that task with occasional five-minute breaks, that's a two to four-hour situation if you're really frying the brain.
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Next, extra time allotment per any given task that you assign deep work to.
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Your mind, because if you're listening to this, you might have some struggles with attention.
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You might need help on productivity.
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So let's say maybe your mind wanders a bit more than average or a lot more than average.
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No problem.
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For every session of deep work that you need to do for a task, give yourself extra time.
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It's your time.
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You're not like on a testing center for the ACT on a clock.
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It's your decision.
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If you think that realistically a task will take you two hours,
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Or a teacher says it should take the average student two hours.
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Give yourself three.
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Worst case, it takes three.
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Best case, it takes an hour and a half.
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And you could either do extra work there or take care of tomorrow or next week's work or just leave and start relaxing earlier that day.
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It's a huge, huge win-win.
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Almost every time I give myself an allotment to do a job and I try to be like, I can do this pretty quickly.
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It screws me.
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Allot yourself more than you think, and you'll never live it down.
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Worst case scenario, you just done earlier.
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If you have a task that will take longer than two to four hours with the extra time, then schedule it into multiple deep work sessions.
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Trying to one-shot extra-large tasks will usually lead to quality degradation towards the end.
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Dylan, you ever see those drawings of like – it was like how Game of Thrones ended their last season and it was like the drawing on the right-hand side begins as a beautiful horse and then at the end is just a guy penciling in like a circle ass for an animal.
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You're like, okay.
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Yeah.
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Clearly, this didn't go well towards the end.
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That's what's going to end up happening if you try to cram in too much.
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Guys, cramming in a bunch of stuff, there is no award for.
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People do it just because they're rushing or because they get crazy optimistic.
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Both of those are stupid.
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Not only does trying to cram too much produce worse outcomes, it's also demoralizing.
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It's like walking across the marathon line, a finish line, six hours after starting, but you started in a full-off sprint.
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You're like, oh, I can do this quickly.
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And you burned out.
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That does not bode well for your confidence about your next session.
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So what you want to do is stack deep work sessions week over week, month over month, year over year, such that you know the process so well and it works so well because you set yourself up to succeed that if someone's like, hey, can you do this big dig project?
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You're like, yeah.
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They're like, really?
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You think like, yeah, I do this kind of stuff all the time.
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No big deal.
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Next is the deep work start time selection.
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When do you actually schedule deep work?
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Like at what time of the day?
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There are four considerations here I want you guys to think about.
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Number one, the morning and the evening are usually best.
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If you have control over your own schedule, which you may or may not, or to what extent you do, doing a deep work run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then another one from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. is often a very good approach.
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Some people love deep work from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., but for many, this time is best spent eating lunch, working out, doing phone calls and meetings.
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It's that whole midday siesta thing, like some question mark about what gets done in the middle of the day.
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Number two consideration, whatever works best for you.
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I personally don't like this about myself at all.
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It's just luck of the draw.
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But I do some of my best deep work between the hours of 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
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This is super tough, because then my mind is on fire in like a good way after the session.
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I can't go to bed until like 1 a.m.
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So for bodybuilding, that does not comport.
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So I basically never do this, even though I want to.
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But if important shit has to get done, do your best deep work during the time of the day that works best for you.
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So if you know you're an evening crusher,
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Like, all right, this is a super important project.
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I have to get it done by next week, tonight at 6 p.m.
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I'm gonna start.
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And dude, by 10 p.m. you're like, I have this 80% finished.
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I just have to come in tomorrow for two hours and it'll be done, unbelievable.
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Okay, so I go to bed a little late tonight, no big deal.
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Put yourself on your best terms.
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Number three piece of advice is you have to do whatever your schedule constrains you to.
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You know what wastes some of your best deep work time?
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This is screwed up.
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Sitting in class at school.
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I know, I know I'm not supposed to say that.
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But, you know, do you best pay attention?
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Do your best.
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Pay attention, interact in school, do your job at school.
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But then when you come home, have a snack, take five-minute walk, and then get to your homework.
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Ideally, you would do your schoolwork like your homework in school, but I don't let you do that.
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So like you just have to do your second best.
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Whatever schedule constrains you.
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Some of us don't have a choice.
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Last piece of advice, number four way to figure out when your deep work is, I would highly recommend to schedule your session earlier rather than later.
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If you love evening work, maybe start at 5 p.m. instead of 6 p.m., for example.
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Starting earlier means more time, less rush, which is huge.
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Nothing throws off your focus like rushing.
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Less pressure and better work.
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Worst case, you finish on time.
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Best case, you finish way ahead of time.
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Next.
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Pre-work nutrition and hydration.
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Yes, this is really a concern.
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Remember, you're trying to make yourself a fucking work machine.
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Machines need fuel.
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What seems to work best here is to eat a meal...
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that stops your hunger entirely, but doesn't make you too full.
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It's that middle ground.
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If you're hungry, you're not going to be able to focus.
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If you're too full, you're going to be half asleep and you can kiss your attention span goodbye because you're so busy digesting your brain's like, I don't even want to pay attention to anything.
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So that is where you want to thread that needle.
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Some folks need carbs to do deep work.
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Some need lower carbs and higher fats.
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Everybody needs protein.
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So what I like best is high protein for me, moderate carb, moderate fat.
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Like very healthy, by the way, healthy food makes you focus way better than junk food.
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So like healthy, slow-digesting carbs, chicken, veggies, three pieces of fruit, handful of nuts.
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If I have that meal an hour, 30 minutes before I go to do deep work, holy crap, that's like four hours of deep work for me psychologically, physically, et cetera.
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How much food and what time of the day matters too.
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So you'll have to experiment with this on yourself.
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I can personally work super well in the morning with only a protein shake in me.
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But in the PM, in the evening times, I need more food or I just start getting hungry.
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Because I'm just not really hungry in the morning, but in the evening I get hungry.
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The big take-home thing here is this.
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Eat healthy foods.
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Keep the calories moderate.
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If you starve yourself or if you gut-bomb yourself with eight slices of pizza, your attention span will not thank you for it.
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Is it important that you pay attention to things like food for your attention span?
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It depends.
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How optimized do you want your attention span to be?
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If you want to do your best work, give yourself all the advantages.
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If you're like, yeah, I'll eat a slice of pizza and I can do work just fine.
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Hey, no big deal.
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Awesome.
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Next, ooh, the deep work environment.
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I have all sorts of feelings about this and you may as well.
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Folks who don't struggle with attention span, who can just do the thing, can do miraculous shit like working in a loud coffee shop or working on a plane or working while also gossiping with their friends at the lunch table.
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It just blows me away.
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That is not for me, and that is not for most people who struggle with attention span.
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Let me give you my recommendations here so you can take as many or as few of them as you need.
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The theoretical ideal here we're trending to in work environment for deep work is the hyperbolic time chamber from Dragon Ball Z.
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You can look into that if you don't know what it is.
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It's this giant room.
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There's no one else in the room.
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The walls stretch out to infinity.
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There's no noise.
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There's nothing.
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Nothing to see.
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No one around.
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No sound.
218
00:14:55.138 --> 00:14:55.918
Just you and your work.
219
00:14:57.118 --> 00:14:58.919
That is one hell of a way to pay attention.
220
00:15:00.219 --> 00:15:01.439
So how do we make that in real life?
221
00:15:01.499 --> 00:15:04.500
First, working alone is massive.
222
00:15:05.375 --> 00:15:10.279
I'm not saying this is always the right answer, but for folks who struggle with attention, other humans sure as shit are distracting.
223
00:15:11.700 --> 00:15:14.883
Lock yourself in your room or office and get to work.
224
00:15:16.484 --> 00:15:19.027
If you can study in work groups with others, that's amazing.
225
00:15:19.287 --> 00:15:21.249
It never worked for me in a million years.
226
00:15:21.489 --> 00:15:22.430
If you can, God bless you.
227
00:15:23.110 --> 00:15:25.452
I like to hang out with my friends after I get my work done.
228
00:15:27.174 --> 00:15:31.317
Another thing that you can think of is having a distraction-free interior space.
229
00:15:31.397 --> 00:15:32.358
Okay, you're by yourself.
230
00:15:32.418 --> 00:15:33.339
Cool, you took that advice.
231
00:15:34.696 --> 00:15:37.579
My current work setup is a room in my apartment.
232
00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:40.983
I think that was supposed to be a walk-in closet, to be completely honest.
233
00:15:41.944 --> 00:15:43.026
It's like eight feet by eight feet.
234
00:15:43.486 --> 00:15:44.307
It's pure white.
235
00:15:44.527 --> 00:15:50.794
It has only my computer, my desk, my chair, and outside of an electrical switch box has no features whatsoever.
236
00:15:50.854 --> 00:15:55.720
It doesn't have a window, which I love because I don't do windows when I do deep work.
237
00:15:58.625 --> 00:15:58.885
Why?
238
00:15:59.065 --> 00:16:03.587
Because there's shit happens outside the window and there's light changes and there's flickering and there's birds and shit.
239
00:16:03.707 --> 00:16:04.907
I don't want to see all that stuff.
240
00:16:05.647 --> 00:16:06.608
I will get distracted.
241
00:16:07.628 --> 00:16:08.188
You might too.
242
00:16:09.769 --> 00:16:14.350
I know lots of folks that love windows in their workspaces, but I can't do it.
243
00:16:17.171 --> 00:16:20.672
And you could ask the question and be like, dude, isn't your work set up like a little sterile?
244
00:16:20.872 --> 00:16:21.212
Yes.
245
00:16:21.853 --> 00:16:22.613
That's the point.
246
00:16:23.471 --> 00:16:31.119
If my mind wanders during work, it ends up looking at a white wall, which is way less stimulating than my work, and then refocusing is super, super easy.
247
00:16:31.779 --> 00:16:33.441
There's nothing to distract you, really.
248
00:16:33.881 --> 00:16:39.908
If I had posters on my walls or a window or plants or whatever else, that wouldn't work.
249
00:16:40.548 --> 00:16:41.449
It would just distract me.
250
00:16:41.669 --> 00:16:43.291
I know this from deep personal experience.
251
00:16:43.771 --> 00:16:45.153
Not everyone is psychotic like me.
252
00:16:46.375 --> 00:16:48.616
but deep work is non-negotiable for me.
253
00:16:48.816 --> 00:16:49.456
Give it some thought.
254
00:16:50.196 --> 00:16:52.697
And at least try to simplify your workspace.
255
00:16:52.837 --> 00:16:53.897
Clean up your desk.
256
00:16:53.957 --> 00:16:55.297
Declutter your desktop.
257
00:16:56.198 --> 00:16:57.658
Have fewer things to look at.
258
00:16:59.659 --> 00:17:07.281
Dylan, you ever been in class and it's like warm outside and some of the students are trying to beg the teacher to like let their class meet outside that day?
259
00:17:07.421 --> 00:17:08.681
Can we go outside to learn?
260
00:17:09.753 --> 00:17:12.514
Yeah, that's just so that we don't have to learn and we can be outside.
261
00:17:12.534 --> 00:17:13.195
100%.
262
00:17:13.415 --> 00:17:14.776
That's always a scam.
263
00:17:15.296 --> 00:17:25.681
So when people ask about what about working outside, look, if you can work outside effectively, you probably don't need any of this advice, your God-tier ability to focus.
264
00:17:27.382 --> 00:17:30.023
Next, noise management is massive.
265
00:17:31.124 --> 00:17:32.765
I often have headphones on during work.
266
00:17:33.205 --> 00:17:36.927
Sometimes they play ambient work music, sometimes static, sometimes nothing.
267
00:17:38.534 --> 00:17:41.315
Some folks do better with ambient noise, some with pure silence.
268
00:17:41.815 --> 00:17:45.316
To me, lyrics and even structured music waves are a non-starter.
269
00:17:45.336 --> 00:17:46.656
My brain just starts paying attention to that.
270
00:17:48.196 --> 00:17:58.479
Now, if you are working in a dormitory or at school or in a noisy office, earplugs in over-ear headphones and ideally noise-canceling headphones are next level.
271
00:17:59.059 --> 00:18:03.940
Then you put some static on them issues and all of a sudden you can't hear, like the building behind you could blow up.
272
00:18:03.980 --> 00:18:04.660
You didn't hear about it.
273
00:18:05.228 --> 00:18:09.671
So you can actually work because believe it or not, a lot of distraction is auditory.
274
00:18:10.572 --> 00:18:16.917
Even if there's stuff moving around you, if you have your work in front of you and you don't hear anything, you look up at people who are like talking to each other or yelling.
275
00:18:17.398 --> 00:18:18.458
You can't see what they're saying.
276
00:18:18.478 --> 00:18:19.339
You can't hear what they're saying.
277
00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:20.060
You're like, whatever.
278
00:18:20.220 --> 00:18:21.201
That doesn't affect me.
279
00:18:21.701 --> 00:18:26.204
And if you're inside of an office and you can't hear, holy crap, like we're in the time chamber now.
280
00:18:27.966 --> 00:18:31.789
Next one, cell phone management is massive.
281
00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:36.604
While you're in deep work, try this on, ready?
282
00:18:37.264 --> 00:18:39.127
You don't have a phone.
283
00:18:39.647 --> 00:18:45.415
Your phone's broken or you're dead as far as anyone wants to be concerned with contacting you.
284
00:18:46.376 --> 00:18:48.959
If you're on a call for work,
285
00:18:51.040 --> 00:18:52.901
Okay, don't do this if you're on call.
286
00:18:53.242 --> 00:18:56.063
If you have young children that need you regularly, fine, don't do this.
287
00:18:56.103 --> 00:18:56.924
You can modify this.
288
00:18:57.444 --> 00:18:59.085
But probably neither one of those are true.
289
00:18:59.706 --> 00:19:11.674
So literally what I do is put my phone on silent and do not disturb mode at the same time, and I put it away that I can't reach it, and I don't check it either until my break or until the whole deep work session is over, ideally the latter.
290
00:19:13.150 --> 00:19:15.912
I'll have more on this during the breaks discussion that we're going to have in a little bit.
291
00:19:16.432 --> 00:19:24.738
But having your phone on, like not silent, and having notifications ping or checking for text every few minutes is the great killer of deep work.
292
00:19:25.858 --> 00:19:26.519
Just don't do it.
293
00:19:26.659 --> 00:19:28.120
It's the worst idea of all time.
294
00:19:29.020 --> 00:19:29.961
There may be nothing worse.
295
00:19:31.962 --> 00:19:35.425
I often need my phone for deep work because I have notes on it and stuff like that.
296
00:19:35.445 --> 00:19:38.827
But when I can, I literally just leave it in another room while I go do deep work.
297
00:19:39.757 --> 00:19:44.041
Everybody important in my life knows that when I'm in deep work, I'm unreachable.
298
00:19:44.522 --> 00:19:45.583
You could come to my apartment.
299
00:19:45.763 --> 00:19:47.925
Dylan, if I'm not responding, just come to my apartment.
300
00:19:48.952 --> 00:19:49.412
You feel me?
301
00:19:49.573 --> 00:19:51.114
Yeah, I hear that.
302
00:19:51.234 --> 00:19:56.019
And so Dylan is one of my most tightly knit colleagues.
303
00:19:56.579 --> 00:20:00.043
I will text and call Dylan and he won't respond to me for a whole day.
304
00:20:00.303 --> 00:20:02.785
And I love that because he's not addicted to his phone.
305
00:20:02.805 --> 00:20:04.347
He's out there working for real, for real.
306
00:20:04.367 --> 00:20:06.128
And this guy's productive like you wouldn't believe.
307
00:20:06.609 --> 00:20:07.630
But Dylan's in the basement.
308
00:20:07.650 --> 00:20:08.491
He's not accessible.
309
00:20:08.691 --> 00:20:09.151
Amazing.
310
00:20:09.271 --> 00:20:10.553
More of us need to be doing that.
311
00:20:11.190 --> 00:20:12.492
Yeah, I got the same rules you do, Mike.
312
00:20:12.732 --> 00:20:15.115
Yeah, like I'm doing deep work.
313
00:20:15.495 --> 00:20:17.397
I had better hear the asteroid hit the Earth.
314
00:20:17.417 --> 00:20:19.760
That's the only way I'm fucking I'm getting up.
315
00:20:21.588 --> 00:20:24.910
Another one, tabs management can be important as well.
316
00:20:25.490 --> 00:20:32.933
I do not love having 15 website tabs open in my browser while I try to do deep work between ChatGPT and my workflow app.
317
00:20:33.774 --> 00:20:48.521
Ideally, what you want to do is surface a new window with tabs or close out all the other old tabs, especially your email, and just have the window in front of you have only the tabs that you need for work and nothing else.
318
00:20:50.185 --> 00:20:54.527
When you're done with deep work, you can close out and go back to your normal 20-tab confusion window.
319
00:20:54.607 --> 00:20:55.187
God bless you.
320
00:20:56.907 --> 00:20:57.187
Next.
321
00:20:58.728 --> 00:21:02.109
And this is where my advice diverges a little bit from stuff you might have heard before.
322
00:21:03.310 --> 00:21:04.770
So take mine with a grain of salt.
323
00:21:05.170 --> 00:21:06.591
Consider other people's advice here.
324
00:21:07.131 --> 00:21:09.332
See what you like the best here.
325
00:21:10.032 --> 00:21:10.692
Here's my shit.
326
00:21:11.052 --> 00:21:12.493
Physical comfort is huge.
327
00:21:13.847 --> 00:21:22.729
So having a chair that's really comfy for you to sit in when you do deep work lets you have a few comfortable positions to rotate through is a big deal.
328
00:21:23.829 --> 00:21:25.909
Same for the desk and the keyboard positioning.
329
00:21:27.609 --> 00:21:32.210
Oh, and I'll say this because I actually am qualified to say this based on my profession.
330
00:21:33.791 --> 00:21:40.592
Almost everything you've ever heard about ideal sitting posture and how much it affects everything is unadulterated bullshit.
331
00:21:40.972 --> 00:21:41.432
Slop.
332
00:21:42.685 --> 00:21:49.566
Sit how you're comfortable, then get 10,000 steps a day and train hard outside of your work, and you're good.
333
00:21:50.066 --> 00:21:54.127
All those, oh, your slouching posture will destroy your back claims are pretty much BS.
334
00:21:54.687 --> 00:21:55.948
It's just total nonsense.
335
00:21:55.968 --> 00:22:00.229
If you need more insight on that, go to Instagram, search Adam Meekins.
336
00:22:01.229 --> 00:22:07.630
He's an expert in this kind of injury stuff, and he will, over time, dissuade you of paying attention to any of this crap.
337
00:22:08.586 --> 00:22:12.770
Dylan, can you imagine an orthopedic surgeon seeing someone in practice who mangled their spine?
338
00:22:12.790 --> 00:22:16.553
He's like, this guy sat in an office slouched, huh?
339
00:22:16.614 --> 00:22:18.035
Like, yeah, he did it yesterday.
340
00:22:18.355 --> 00:22:19.116
Careless fuck.
341
00:22:20.197 --> 00:22:24.401
Drags a cigarette and then starts working on your spine when you're out on the surgery table.
342
00:22:24.421 --> 00:22:26.182
He's like, I can't believe people still do that.
343
00:22:26.823 --> 00:22:27.183
Yeah.
344
00:22:27.304 --> 00:22:30.386
Unfortunately, I think this actually does happen too often.
345
00:22:33.305 --> 00:22:34.885
Which part?
346
00:22:35.846 --> 00:22:39.567
The prescription of the sitting being the cause of like your back problems.
347
00:22:39.767 --> 00:22:40.207
All the time.
348
00:22:41.147 --> 00:22:41.547
All the time.
349
00:22:41.567 --> 00:22:43.988
And then the cigarette smoking in the Auburn.
350
00:22:44.028 --> 00:22:44.608
That's just cool.
351
00:22:45.908 --> 00:22:54.570
You know, like people will over index on this like crazy and they'll end up like sitting completely upright in a vertical chair like it's Catholic school or some shit.
352
00:22:55.390 --> 00:22:59.211
And they're like, oh, man, I can only focus for like 20 minutes because my back starts hurting.
353
00:22:59.231 --> 00:23:01.912
Like, yeah, your spinal erectors are on trying to keep you upright.
354
00:23:01.972 --> 00:23:02.472
What are you doing?
355
00:23:03.412 --> 00:23:06.233
recline your chair, relax, relax.
356
00:23:06.393 --> 00:23:08.734
Your body should not be a concern of yours.
357
00:23:10.414 --> 00:23:12.655
When you're on the couch chilling, your mind is clear.
358
00:23:13.115 --> 00:23:14.576
But for some reason, you're like, I'm at work.
359
00:23:14.596 --> 00:23:17.336
I had to make my physical posture more inconvenient.
360
00:23:18.237 --> 00:23:18.637
Like again,
361
00:23:19.665 --> 00:23:27.311
Sitting in a posture that you find comfortable and rounding your back does not cause deleterious maladaptations in your physical health.
362
00:23:27.612 --> 00:23:27.932
It doesn't.
363
00:23:28.172 --> 00:23:28.612
It just doesn't.
364
00:23:29.133 --> 00:23:29.994
There's just no other way to see it.
365
00:23:30.214 --> 00:23:31.395
Jill, can you imagine if that was true?
366
00:23:31.995 --> 00:23:36.979
You'd show up to like an NBA superstar's house and you see him lounging on the couch between training sessions.
367
00:23:36.999 --> 00:23:38.561
Like, what are you doing, young man?
368
00:23:39.061 --> 00:23:40.422
You had better sit upright.
369
00:23:41.143 --> 00:23:41.923
Like, I'm sorry.
370
00:23:42.083 --> 00:23:43.204
Telling about us in this chair.
371
00:23:43.224 --> 00:23:43.565
Yeah.
372
00:23:44.826 --> 00:23:47.467
I'm standing upright for four hours in practice.
373
00:23:47.527 --> 00:23:48.448
Like, no, no, no, no.
374
00:23:48.608 --> 00:23:49.769
You need to do this all the time.
375
00:23:50.209 --> 00:23:50.730
It's nuts.
376
00:23:53.792 --> 00:24:02.698
Next, a magical miracle tool for your focus and deep work is deep work to-do lists.
377
00:24:03.598 --> 00:24:08.502
When I'm on my best grind, every day of my life has a to-do list.
378
00:24:10.042 --> 00:24:12.143
that list are the key tasks for that whole day.
379
00:24:12.183 --> 00:24:14.323
For example, number one, train.
380
00:24:15.024 --> 00:24:17.604
Number two, make two scripts for the progress channel.
381
00:24:18.285 --> 00:24:20.265
Number three, make one RP channel script.
382
00:24:21.026 --> 00:24:24.187
And then I have the Mind Pump podcast at 5 p.m. through Zoom.
383
00:24:24.707 --> 00:24:26.167
And then I have Jiu-Jitsu at 7.30.
384
00:24:27.528 --> 00:24:29.668
That's what my day sometimes looks like.
385
00:24:31.069 --> 00:24:37.231
If your deep work, in this case for me the three scripts, is not in a to-do list, how the hell do you know
386
00:24:38.372 --> 00:24:40.413
when to get it done or to get it done at all.
387
00:24:41.853 --> 00:24:51.977
And if you do have a to-do list, you know exactly what to do all day and you can check it off and live with super low stress afterwards and before, because you know what needs to be done.
388
00:24:53.077 --> 00:25:02.140
If you have notions of what you need to get done, floating in your head all day, maybe I should do this, maybe that, that's going to interfere with the deep work like crazy.
389
00:25:03.365 --> 00:25:08.247
Once you have a to-do list, whatever you're doing now can be the focus because everything else is already on the list.
390
00:25:08.267 --> 00:25:09.608
When you get it done, you cross it off.
391
00:25:09.628 --> 00:25:12.289
You don't have to hold in context all the stuff you have to do.
392
00:25:12.749 --> 00:25:17.511
You put that context onto a to-do list and you just don't have to think about it anymore because there it is for you.
393
00:25:17.771 --> 00:25:19.272
You externalize thinking.
394
00:25:21.233 --> 00:25:22.454
To-do lists are gold.
395
00:25:22.574 --> 00:25:24.474
I can't say enough good things about them.
396
00:25:25.135 --> 00:25:27.736
I do not like to live my life outside of a to-do list.
397
00:25:28.524 --> 00:25:30.564
And then sometimes I hear the back, like, really?
398
00:25:30.604 --> 00:25:32.505
Like your whole life's just like a to-do list.
399
00:25:32.565 --> 00:25:34.705
Like, yeah, but I'm in charge of that list.
400
00:25:35.185 --> 00:25:38.146
It's not like somebody gives me this list is like, you don't have any more agency.
401
00:25:38.166 --> 00:25:38.906
That's my list.
402
00:25:39.446 --> 00:25:40.746
I prefer to have my list.
403
00:25:41.226 --> 00:25:44.207
Dylan, can you imagine you're doing a workout program in the gym that you made?
404
00:25:44.547 --> 00:25:47.107
And someone's like, aren't you just like constraining yourself to this program?
405
00:25:47.127 --> 00:25:48.327
Should you do like what you feel like?
406
00:25:48.347 --> 00:25:49.048
You're like, what?
407
00:25:49.868 --> 00:25:50.048
Yeah.
408
00:25:50.068 --> 00:25:50.988
I picked all the exercises.
409
00:25:51.008 --> 00:25:53.868
This is, this is the best idea of what I'm supposed to be doing.
410
00:25:53.908 --> 00:25:54.649
Get out of my face.
411
00:25:57.149 --> 00:25:57.409
Next.
412
00:25:58.990 --> 00:26:03.294
try to have deep work per session simplicity.
413
00:26:04.475 --> 00:26:04.975
What does that mean?
414
00:26:05.136 --> 00:26:14.504
When you have a deep work session scheduled, try to make it that each session has only one or two tasks in it, just a few tasks.
415
00:26:15.625 --> 00:26:23.592
Doing five different things in a single deep work session is possible, but it's way better to stick to like one to three tasks per session.
416
00:26:24.856 --> 00:26:28.217
Switching from one task to another could be a big speed bump, context switch.
417
00:26:29.117 --> 00:26:36.559
So doing only one or a few tasks can get you massively into that flow state and grooving on your best work and deepest attention.
418
00:26:37.259 --> 00:26:37.919
It's huge.
419
00:26:43.560 --> 00:26:50.322
Now, next one is the order of operations list for deep work to whatever extent possible.
420
00:26:50.362 --> 00:26:51.522
It's not always as possible.
421
00:26:53.103 --> 00:26:53.623
Often it is.
422
00:26:54.849 --> 00:26:59.071
try to have an order of operations list for your deep work session tasks.
423
00:26:59.131 --> 00:27:01.853
Something like, number one, read chapter intro.
424
00:27:02.373 --> 00:27:04.134
Number two, read chapter content.
425
00:27:05.215 --> 00:27:07.136
Number three, do chapter problems.
426
00:27:07.176 --> 00:27:11.418
By the way, as you get through all these, you can literally green check mark them in your to-do list.
427
00:27:11.858 --> 00:27:13.039
Oh, so cathartic.
428
00:27:14.059 --> 00:27:18.582
Number four, make the next chapter's order of operations list for tomorrow.
429
00:27:19.977 --> 00:27:25.559
If you do something like that this way, you don't just sit down for deep work and go, okay, what am I supposed to do?
430
00:27:25.579 --> 00:27:28.620
Deep work studying for my neuroscience exam.
431
00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:29.781
What am I supposed to be doing?
432
00:27:30.341 --> 00:27:30.761
Nah.
433
00:27:32.182 --> 00:27:33.682
That is not the way to start.
434
00:27:35.783 --> 00:27:41.265
Or you try to do a bunch of things you've figured out you're supposed to do, but you do them out of order and it doesn't make any sense and it's not ideal.
435
00:27:42.806 --> 00:27:47.848
Orders of operation are great because everyone or every few can be places to put breaks, right?
436
00:27:48.576 --> 00:27:49.436
if you feel like taking them.
437
00:27:50.137 --> 00:27:56.199
So after you do your chapter problems, you take a break, for example, but not during, because you know you gotta grind it out, gotta crush it out.
438
00:27:57.839 --> 00:27:58.740
More on breaks later.
439
00:28:00.520 --> 00:28:05.222
For orders of operations, you basically want the cleanest now do this list that you can have.
440
00:28:06.403 --> 00:28:12.985
Not all tasks make this possible or easy, but to the extent that you can do this, it helps with keeping you on track massively.
441
00:28:13.785 --> 00:28:14.646
If you get distracted,
442
00:28:15.913 --> 00:28:18.674
Order of operations list is a cheat code to clue you back in.
443
00:28:18.694 --> 00:28:19.254
What was I doing?
444
00:28:19.354 --> 00:28:20.115
Oh, yeah, number three.
445
00:28:20.715 --> 00:28:20.975
Easy.
446
00:28:21.655 --> 00:28:27.817
Versus just the overall task might not be sufficiently broken up and can leave you kind of being like, okay, but what about it?
447
00:28:27.837 --> 00:28:28.398
Should I be doing?
448
00:28:30.919 --> 00:28:37.521
For real big serious deep work sessions, you also want to be concerned with the next point, which is warm-up tasks.
449
00:28:39.662 --> 00:28:44.824
When starting a deep work session, your mind is probably not really attuned to deep focus just yet.
450
00:28:44.884 --> 00:28:45.424
It'll get there.
451
00:28:46.828 --> 00:28:53.175
It can be super helpful to ease into the work before assuming your brain is ready for that heavy, heavy.
452
00:28:53.996 --> 00:28:55.518
There are a few ways to do this.
453
00:28:56.639 --> 00:29:03.487
Some folks like to put in some easier work first, like checking emails or setting schedules for like 15 minutes and then beginning your deep work.
454
00:29:03.547 --> 00:29:04.368
That's totally a thing.
455
00:29:05.707 --> 00:29:20.098
My preference is to construct and or refine my plan for deep work that day, making an order of operations list, queuing up bullet points of content reminders, checking to see how the interactions with other projects are going, et cetera, et cetera.
456
00:29:20.198 --> 00:29:23.701
This way, you're doing work that's more organizational.
457
00:29:23.721 --> 00:29:24.622
It's not too deep.
458
00:29:25.222 --> 00:29:31.287
But that work is both going to help you plow through the deep work ahead by forming a scaffold for the deep work.
459
00:29:32.327 --> 00:29:37.750
And very importantly, also, that process helps your mind ease into the context of the specific work.
460
00:29:38.531 --> 00:29:41.312
It's like, you know, I'm going to be doing a paper about microchips.
461
00:29:41.492 --> 00:29:44.354
And you arrange, okay, here's the sections of the paper.
462
00:29:44.454 --> 00:29:46.035
Here's the sources I got for microchips.
463
00:29:46.335 --> 00:29:49.677
The entire time, you're low-key thinking about the microchip situation.
464
00:29:50.377 --> 00:29:53.139
So when you start actually writing, you're like, right, hey, I'm here.
465
00:29:53.199 --> 00:29:54.220
I'm here in the task.
466
00:29:54.580 --> 00:29:58.222
It's a great onboard to do that structural work first.
467
00:30:01.540 --> 00:30:06.564
Next, big, big recommendation, you guys, especially for folks that have trouble paying attention.
468
00:30:07.965 --> 00:30:14.189
After your warmup, you want your, typically your toughest tasks of that session first.
469
00:30:15.970 --> 00:30:21.915
Once you've clued in and begin deep work, my biggest recommendation here is to do the hardest stuff first.
470
00:30:22.807 --> 00:30:32.431
Like, if you need to make strides in the core architecture of a problem, after which the sub-problems are way more obvious to inspect and resolve, I highly recommend doing that first.
471
00:30:33.751 --> 00:30:36.152
There are three reasons for this, at least.
472
00:30:37.833 --> 00:30:40.874
First, you're best when you're warmed up but fresh.
473
00:30:41.714 --> 00:30:50.738
Just like in the gym you want to lift your heaviest weights or do your fastest runs right after you are warmed up but fresh, you want to tackle the hardest intellectual problems first.
474
00:30:52.147 --> 00:30:53.648
That's probably when you're going to be at your best.
475
00:30:55.009 --> 00:31:05.457
Second, if you make some progress on the hard stuff early, but then tire out or just run aground, your brain's not doing the thing anymore, you can still switch to easier stuff and continue to be productive.
476
00:31:05.477 --> 00:31:07.518
Imagine you did the easier stuff first, then got tired.
477
00:31:07.538 --> 00:31:08.038
What are you going to do?
478
00:31:08.058 --> 00:31:08.939
Do the harder stuff after?
479
00:31:08.979 --> 00:31:09.519
You're going to do that.
480
00:31:10.360 --> 00:31:16.802
But if you've done the hardest stuff and you're like, oh, that's a lot of hard stuff, then you're still like, oh, I got another session of work or I got another hour of work.
481
00:31:16.842 --> 00:31:17.342
What do I do?
482
00:31:17.362 --> 00:31:18.802
You look at your easier stuff that you have left.
483
00:31:18.822 --> 00:31:20.323
You're like, oh, oh, God, I could do this.
484
00:31:20.363 --> 00:31:20.943
No problem.
485
00:31:21.243 --> 00:31:22.883
Because going from harder to easier is easy.
486
00:31:23.003 --> 00:31:26.204
Going from easy to hard is real tough, way, way tougher.
487
00:31:28.745 --> 00:31:36.787
Lastly, the last reason is if you take a break or switch to easier stuff,
488
00:31:37.847 --> 00:31:51.855
but you thought hard about the tough problems early, your mind often does background connection forming such that you're more likely, at least in my experience, to have an aha moment of insight about the hard stuff later, like midway through the easy stuff.
489
00:31:51.875 --> 00:31:54.176
And you go back to your hard notes, your scribble notes, you're like, oh my God, great.
490
00:31:55.337 --> 00:31:59.499
Those three reasons are amazing reasons to do hard stuff first.
491
00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:06.563
Here's the thing, you might not wanna do the hard stuff first, but have a good warmup, bite the bullet, and you will be ultra thankful that you did.
492
00:32:08.003 --> 00:32:12.346
By the way, procrastination, as you could probably tell, is the antithesis of all of this.
493
00:32:14.668 --> 00:32:15.148
Next tip.
494
00:32:17.630 --> 00:32:23.175
You'll have thoughts come up about random stuff that isn't the task at hand or anything close.
495
00:32:23.555 --> 00:32:25.216
Intrusive thoughts will come.
496
00:32:27.318 --> 00:32:33.002
That is just a part of being a regular human, but especially a part if you struggle with attention spans.
497
00:32:35.371 --> 00:32:36.371
Do not try to avoid them.
498
00:32:36.572 --> 00:32:37.272
You can't avoid them.
499
00:32:37.292 --> 00:32:38.372
It's not up to you if they happen.
500
00:32:39.353 --> 00:32:42.334
But you can refuse to consciously give them horsepower.
501
00:32:42.354 --> 00:32:42.975
What does that mean?
502
00:32:44.235 --> 00:32:51.039
Your brain, just like chat GPT, believe it or not, has kind of two modes, instant mode, fast thinking, and reasoning mode, which is slow thinking.
503
00:32:52.039 --> 00:32:53.580
You don't really control instant mode too much.
504
00:32:53.600 --> 00:32:57.302
Sometimes it'll just bubble up and say like, oh, like what should I wear for Friday's date?
505
00:32:58.082 --> 00:33:00.383
And you're like, damn it, I'm trying to do math, brain.
506
00:33:02.644 --> 00:33:03.785
But now you're aware that.
507
00:33:05.131 --> 00:33:09.253
that what you're thinking about is what to wear instead of finishing your calculus homework.
508
00:33:10.433 --> 00:33:17.096
What you can do at that point is refuse to actually try to think, to reason, about the problem of what to wear.
509
00:33:18.642 --> 00:33:20.903
Don't try to think through it and get the correct answer.
510
00:33:20.963 --> 00:33:22.564
Whoa, I should just figure this out.
511
00:33:22.604 --> 00:33:30.347
Nope, because that is system two reasoning and it will very much throw you off track because you're busy using system two, your reasoning system for the actual work.
512
00:33:30.908 --> 00:33:33.649
What you wanna do instead is just relax and get back into your work.
513
00:33:34.189 --> 00:33:37.451
And if it comes up again or something else does, no big deal, just retool and recommit.
514
00:33:38.051 --> 00:33:40.172
Don't beat yourself up over it, we all do this.
515
00:33:41.012 --> 00:33:41.733
But there is a difference.
516
00:33:42.853 --> 00:33:44.694
In waking up in the middle of the night,
517
00:33:45.824 --> 00:33:49.685
You're about to go back to sleep and like tomorrow's homework starts being on your mind.
518
00:33:49.705 --> 00:33:51.586
There's a difference to be like, oh, I'm thinking about homework.
519
00:33:51.806 --> 00:33:52.526
Okay, whatever.
520
00:33:52.666 --> 00:33:53.326
Going back to sleep.
521
00:33:53.986 --> 00:33:56.107
Versus be like, oh, homework.
522
00:33:56.127 --> 00:33:59.468
Yeah, okay, so I'll have pre-algebra homework first.
523
00:33:59.768 --> 00:34:00.808
Okay, then social studies.
524
00:34:01.068 --> 00:34:06.070
Okay, now you're in the shit because your brain's waking up and doing reasoning and it's like, hey, you're not going to go back to sleep.
525
00:34:06.230 --> 00:34:07.430
It's the same idea here.
526
00:34:07.970 --> 00:34:09.831
When you get a random thought, just let it happen.
527
00:34:10.718 --> 00:34:14.160
but do not take your system to, your reasoning system, and point it at that random thought.
528
00:34:14.260 --> 00:34:15.300
Now is not the time for that.
529
00:34:15.640 --> 00:34:17.141
Okay, cool, back to work.
530
00:34:19.482 --> 00:34:20.843
And don't be hard on yourself, be gentle.
531
00:34:20.863 --> 00:34:22.043
It's okay, this happens to everybody.
532
00:34:23.504 --> 00:34:24.444
Don't beat yourself up over.
533
00:34:26.645 --> 00:34:33.828
Next, taking breaks, specifically auto-regulated breaks, because at some point you can no longer focus as well.
534
00:34:34.289 --> 00:34:35.189
Everybody has that point.
535
00:34:36.092 --> 00:34:38.454
Or you can focus, but it's like mostly empty space in there.
536
00:34:38.494 --> 00:34:39.614
There's no more big insights.
537
00:34:39.634 --> 00:34:40.515
Your brain is tired.
538
00:34:40.715 --> 00:34:41.196
No big deal.
539
00:34:41.236 --> 00:34:41.676
It happens.
540
00:34:41.776 --> 00:34:43.357
It is inevitable physiologically.
541
00:34:43.377 --> 00:34:44.198
It happens at some point.
542
00:34:46.439 --> 00:34:49.481
So like even every hour or so, you might need a break.
543
00:34:54.004 --> 00:35:00.869
Good breaks include simple things, not a whole deep other place to put your attention.
544
00:35:01.949 --> 00:35:04.031
So standing up and walking around.
545
00:35:04.867 --> 00:35:14.253
getting some water, using the bathroom, looking outside for a little bit, a quick snack, several slow breaths, jotting down the exact next action before stepping away.
546
00:35:15.614 --> 00:35:16.555
Those are great breaks.
547
00:35:17.035 --> 00:35:22.239
They free you up, they recharge you a little bit, a minute, two minutes, five minutes, then you're back.
548
00:35:23.500 --> 00:35:29.203
There is a way to do breaks to do riskier stuff that is likely to get your attention off course.
549
00:35:30.264 --> 00:35:31.185
Dylan, you ready for this one?
550
00:35:32.005 --> 00:35:32.325
Instagram.
551
00:35:32.345 --> 00:35:32.666
Instagram.
552
00:35:33.605 --> 00:35:34.225
When I never guessed.
553
00:35:34.245 --> 00:35:35.345
Never guessed.
554
00:35:36.265 --> 00:35:40.766
You're down a rabbit hole and you've got crazy context that's incredibly salient.
555
00:35:40.826 --> 00:35:44.467
People love social stuff in your brain displacing all the deep work at this point.
556
00:35:45.267 --> 00:35:46.667
Email is not a break.
557
00:35:47.288 --> 00:35:48.108
It is a terrible break.
558
00:35:48.168 --> 00:35:49.148
It switches your context.
559
00:35:49.868 --> 00:35:54.809
News, YouTube, K-holing into some other kind of subject altogether.
560
00:35:55.389 --> 00:35:56.209
Those are not breaks.
561
00:35:56.669 --> 00:36:00.590
They're technically breaks, but they just weave you completely off course.
562
00:36:02.447 --> 00:36:12.175
You probably want your breaks to last no more than about literally 10 minutes in most cases, with breaks of even a minute being quite effective and five often doing the trick.
563
00:36:13.756 --> 00:36:15.317
If you really feel out of it, take 10.
564
00:36:15.758 --> 00:36:23.144
If you take 10, but after three minutes, you're actually excited to work again, definitely go right back to work and ride the wave.
565
00:36:23.404 --> 00:36:26.106
So if you've taken a break and midway through the break, you're like, I'm good.
566
00:36:26.606 --> 00:36:27.347
Get right back to work.
567
00:36:27.947 --> 00:36:28.528
Ride that wave.
568
00:36:31.244 --> 00:36:34.127
Sometimes you need a 10-minute break every 40 minutes.
569
00:36:34.327 --> 00:36:34.887
No big deal.
570
00:36:35.308 --> 00:36:36.068
Take it when you need it.
571
00:36:36.609 --> 00:36:38.931
Sometimes you can go three hours with zero breaks.
572
00:36:39.091 --> 00:36:39.611
Amazing.
573
00:36:40.212 --> 00:36:41.593
Auto-regulation is the key.
574
00:36:42.514 --> 00:36:47.658
The only big recommendations I have here are know where to leave off before you break.
575
00:36:48.238 --> 00:36:51.902
I type in red and my documents, next section begins here.
576
00:36:52.022 --> 00:36:53.603
So when I come back, I'm like, oh, boom, that's it.
577
00:36:56.023 --> 00:37:00.407
And when you feel like taking a break before you do, try this.
578
00:37:00.968 --> 00:37:01.649
Just keep working.
579
00:37:02.970 --> 00:37:06.714
If your brain is giving you convincing reasons to take a break a few minutes later, then do it.
580
00:37:07.374 --> 00:37:10.798
But the first time your brain says take a break, recognize it and keep going.
581
00:37:10.818 --> 00:37:11.078
Hold up.
582
00:37:11.318 --> 00:37:12.239
Let's push it a little further.
583
00:37:15.522 --> 00:37:19.246
Only two break-needed signals are going to get you to actually break, not one.
584
00:37:20.591 --> 00:37:23.634
Sometimes you get the second signal 20 seconds later because your brain is fried.
585
00:37:23.654 --> 00:37:24.434
You're like, okay, fine.
586
00:37:24.474 --> 00:37:25.335
Yep, time for break.
587
00:37:25.956 --> 00:37:35.924
Or sometimes you'll be done with all of your deep work and two other tasks for the day before you come to realize like, oh, I wanted to take a break like an hour and a half ago and I didn't and I just kept crushing.
588
00:37:37.645 --> 00:37:40.167
Don't take your break mechanism too seriously.
589
00:37:41.688 --> 00:37:43.130
One little yell doesn't count.
590
00:37:43.710 --> 00:37:45.912
Two little yells, okay, consider taking a break.
591
00:37:53.730 --> 00:37:59.816
Now, on the topic of breaks, the topic itself is so rich.
592
00:38:00.757 --> 00:38:11.927
There's so much to say that I have to come back another time for part three, in which I'll talk about how to know when to cut your deep work sessions off, like there's no more deep work here to be found.
593
00:38:12.548 --> 00:38:17.793
We all get there, and how to support your deep work with organizing, scheduling, and
594
00:38:18.948 --> 00:38:21.874
Nutrition and sleep on the days structure.
595
00:38:22.455 --> 00:38:24.178
How to manage weekends and vacations.
596
00:38:25.199 --> 00:38:27.340
and how to keep passion and challenge in your work.
597
00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:34.044
Because I'm not trying to cut you guys a little overview of how to do the best focused deep work that you can.
598
00:38:34.424 --> 00:38:49.572
I'm trying to give you guys the holistic approach to a large fraction of your working life so that in every possible way you have set yourself up as the kind of person that crushes deep work relative to their abilities.
599
00:38:51.099 --> 00:38:56.965
And if you can do that, you can even be diagnosed with ADHD and people are like, how are you so successful?
600
00:38:57.005 --> 00:39:00.048
You're like, I give myself all of the advantages.
601
00:39:03.432 --> 00:39:04.493
I'll see you guys next time for that.