Deep Work: How to Focus Better and Be More Productive
The typical work day is 8 hours. But how much of this 8 hours is actually productive? Research shows that the average person wastes over 2 hours a day at work and that the optimal length of time we should focus on a single task for is 90 minutes. Furthermore, the average person is capable of having only 1-2 of these 90 minute ultradian cycles per day.
What if you can get done the same amount of work in 3 hours that most people take 8 hours to complete? Well, you can. But there are some rules you need to follow. In this post I will show you how to enhance your levels of productivity and create more time for the things you enjoy doing outside of work.
First, lets look at some stats taken from Teamstage.io (full article can be found here)
Employees check their emails up to 121 times a day.
7.5 hours a week is spent browsing social media at work.
Even with some websites blocked, employees still spend 21 hours a week online.
91% of staff admit to daydreaming in meetings.
More than 53% of employees believe they are more productive when taking breaks.
Friday is the least productive day of the week, especially between 3 PM and 5 PM.
Employees waste 50 days a year doing menial, repetitive tasks.
Employees would have much more time to spend with friends and family, or focus on a hobby, their fitness, or a personal side hustle if we adopted this 4 hour workday. Employers would save loads of cash by not paying their employees for time wasted. It would be a win-win for everyone. This may seem great at first, but do you have the discipline to do what it takes in order to take full advantage of these 90 minute ultradian cycles?
Generally, these ultradian cycles include a 90 minute high intensity focussed session followed by a 20-30 minute unfocussed session. A focus session would look something like this:
Elimination of all potential distractions (social media, people, clutter, music, email etc)
Your energy is focussed on one single task (Im sorry, but you’re not as good at multitasking as you think you are)
Session lasts no longer than 90 minutes
Simple. Now let’s look at what an unfocussed session would look like:
A task that doesn’t involve deep thought and focus
Studies show that a walk in nature is the best place for this
Doing the dishes, singing a song, tai chi or talking to a friend would also be great examples of the optimal 20-30 minute break between focussed bouts
Where do people go wrong?
Even if you think you are a person who can multitask pretty well, statistics show that you’re probably not. The study mentioned above showed how only 2.5% of people are able to multitask effectively. The rest of us are just easily distracted. If we think of our focus as a pie chart, the more tasks or distractions we have, the more our focus gets distributed between these tasks. Basically, you do a bunch of things at a really low level rather than doing one thing to a high degree. This is why learning how to apply these ultradian cycles into our lives is so important; so we can perform at a higher level in a fraction of the time.
Here is the formula for applying this into your life.
Listen to specific frequencies before bouts of focussed work. These correlate to specific brainwaves that can enhance focus, memory, energy levels and concentration. You will want to find frequencies between 12-40Hz. I like doing this for 10 minutes before I get into whatever it is that I am about to do. There is a ton of free content on Youtube and Spotify you can use.. Try this one out.
Eliminate ALL potential distractions. Turn off your phone or put it on airplane mode. Close the door so that nobody disturbs you and make sure your area is free of clutter. Do not check your email, start another task or shift your focus to anything other than what you are doing in this current moment.
Stop whatever it is you are doing at the 90 minute mark. Even if you are not finished, or haven’t gotten your ideas out completely, stop. This may seem backwards at first, but your future focussed self will thank you.
Follow every 90 minute ultradian cycle with 20-30 minutes of unfocussed attention. A walk in nature has been shown to be the best way to do this.
This practice takes a ton of discipline, but it works. The hardest part for most people will be the elimination of distractions. A phone lighting up, pinging or buzzing can have drastic effects on your ability to remain focussed. You will leak energy into distractions even if you are not picking up your phone to look at where the notification came from. Setting up your environment is the most important thing you can do in order to take full advantage of these 90 minute work cycles.
The result? More productivity, higher quality work and more time to do the things you love. Its a win-win.
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Until next week - Im out.
Ty.