How to make more progress by working less (my deep work routine)

 

I’ve had 2 ideas rummaging around in my head for the past few weeks.

They’re like a wildfire that won’t stop.

Everything I do, see, think, hear, or read seems to bring me back to these 2 ideas.

1. You must take responsibility for your work life

2. You must figure out who you want to become and live like that person NOW

2 ideas that, if you lived by them, would without a doubt improve your life.

But they got me thinking;

What can I do every single day to make sure I live by these ideas?

After some digging around inside my mind, I realised the answer was already in front of me.

Deep work.

 

The Impact Of Deep Work:

 

Deep work is the act of completing an important task that drives results with complete and utter focus without distraction.

But why is it important and how can it help us live by these 2 ideas?

Well, there’s a few reasons.

 

1. It’s an act of taking responsibility

You have goals.

Whether you have made these goals conscious or not (which you should), you as a human, have a direction you want to go to and things you want to achieve.

And since you only have 1 life on this earth, you have a responsibility to strive toward these goals.

To make progress, to fail, to learn, and to eventually, hopefully, achieve them.

Deep work is the act of taking action toward these goals.

Every time you do deep work you are taking responsibility for an aspect of your life, either tiny or huge, depending on the significance and meaning of your goal.

This act of taking responsibility is a skill.

It can ripple into every area of your life.

It can urge you to take responsibility for the rest of your life.

 

2. It builds a powerful skill

Deep work requires your full cognitive capabilities to be placed on the task in front of you.

It requires focus.

And in the modern world, there is no skill greater than focus.

By practicing deep work, you’re building your ability to place and control your attention, you’re actively controlling your mind.

And that’s essential for living a good life.

After all, how can you go anywhere you want to go if you’re not able to control what you focus on?

 

3. Maximises quality of work

By focusing, you’re increasing your brain’s output on 1 specific task.

You’re placing all the output your conscious mind has on doing 1 thing.

And there’s a simple law of the universe;

Creating something GREAT requires a tonne of energy.

With a more concentrated output of energy on 1 task, you’re no longer diluting that energy.

You’re giving it all to 1 task, increasing the likelihood of greatness.

And if not greatness, at the very least, you’re increasing the likelihood of progress. 

 

4. Improves productivity

With deep work, your energy isn’t diluted between multiple tasks.

The same concentration of energy that increases the quality of your work also increases the efficiency of your work.

You’re able to get more done, to a higher standard, in less time.

If you get more done you’re increasing your quantity of work.

If you get it done to a higher standard you’re increasing the quality of your work.

Both of which combined mean you’ll make more progress.

So in other words, with deep work, you’re able to make more progress in less time OR by working LESS.

 

5. Adds meaning to your day-to-day

Deep work is an act of taking responsibility for working toward your goals.

Goals are inherently meaningful, some more than others, but all have some sense of meaning behind them.

Especially if you’ve taken the time to get to know yourself, what you want and then set goals that will help you get there.

So simply by taking on the responsibility of working on something meaningful, you’re adding meaning to your day-to-day life.

Something that is crucial for building a life you love.

 

6. It allows you to live in accordance with who you want to become

Most people, although they think otherwise, don’t want to live a life of 0 work.

A life of 0 work is a life with 0 responsibility and 0 meaning.

This sort of life sounds great. 

And it might be great for a week.

But eventually, you will fall into the deep pit of a meaningless existence.

What most people actually want, is to do what they want and work on what they want.

They want autonomy.

With deep work, if you want to be a creator, you’re able to block off 2-4 hours of your day and be a creator, you get to IDENTIFY as a creator.

You can apply this to anything you want to be.

It allows you to and actually encourages you to be who you want to be.

And sure, it might only be for 2-4 hours but there’s what’s stopping you from carrying it throughout the rest of your day?

Nothing.

Deep work is an essential part of living a fulfilled life.

 

 

Guiding Principles:

Before I tell you my exact routine, you need to understand the guiding principles of deep work and general productivity.

• Distractions removed

Especially your phone.

The last thing you want is to be focusing on a task and get distracted by a notification.

• 1 lever moving task at a time.

The task needs to be important, it needs to be challenging.

And likely it’s the task you’re avoiding.

Complete it and then move on to the next lever-moving task.

• 60-120 minutes blocked off

You work for the entire work block.

No pomodoro timers.

And yes, this might seem intimidating or scary because you don’t want to work without a break for such a “long’” period of time.

But that’s only because you’ve convinced yourself you can’t focus for that long.

You can.

Focus is a skill and you build it by doing deep work.

And when you consider the science of flow and focus, a pomodoro timer takes you out of focus before you EVEN ENTER IT.

So embrace the first ~25 minutes which will naturally be full of friction and discomfort as your brain “warms up” and you’ll enter flow where you and the task become 1.

These 3 things are essential for each block of deep work.

 

My deep work routine:

First off, I start my day at 5am with 10,000 steps.

Is this essential? No. 

But I’m testing it out as an experiment and I’m enjoying it.

After my 10,000 steps, I sit down for work block 1.

 

Work block 1: 6.30am - 8.30am

This first work block is my most important work block.

It’s where I complete the most important tasks for my business - which for me is content.

I normally spend 1-hour writing tweets (the base of my entire content system) and then another 30-60 minutes either editing content, writing a newsletter, or scripting a YouTube video.

Depending on the day of the week and what I have to do, this work block will be between 60 and 120 minutes.

This first block is my number 1 priority - hence why I do it first.

These are the essential tasks for my business.

 

Work block 2: 8.30am - 10.30am

Depending on when I finish my first work block, I’ll take between 15 and 30 minutes before starting this work block.

I’ll get up a cup of coffee and do whatever EXCEPT check my emails or dms.

The last thing I need is to see something that takes me away from the work I’m going to do.

This work block is dedicated to whatever project I’m building.

So for example, right now I’m building out Done In 4.

A live cohort showing you how to build your audience + creator business in 2-4 hours a day.

If you want to spend less time behind the screen and more time living a life you love, you can join the waitlist by clicking here.

So for the project, I’ll just do whatever is next on the “to-do list” to build it out.

Whether it’s writing launch emails, creating the slides for the presentation, or whatever else.

This block is typically 60-120 minutes, largely depending on the task I’m working on but also on the first work block.

 

Work block 3: 1.30pm-2pm

This work block isn’t really deep work.

I get all my deep work and essential tasks done before 10.30am.

This work block is more so for menial tasks such as emails, DMs, the actual posting of content, or any other tasks that need done but don’t move the needle.

This takes anything from 5 minutes to 30 minutes depending on the day and what needs done.

I typically do it at 1.30pm because I like to hit the gym at 11am and then get some food but this time isn’t set in stone, often I do it earlier.

 

 

Regardless, this deep work routine allows me to complete my entire day in 2-4 hours of work.

I have;

• 1 work block to manage all my essential tasks.

• 1 work block to build something

• 1 work block to do menial tasks

After 10.30am I can do whatever I want.

Whether I want to work more, walk more, learn, or do whatever, after 10.30, I can.

Take from this routine as you will.

You don’t have to, nor should you, do exactly as I do.

But take from it the guiding principles, organisation and layout and apply it to your own situation.

However, I will say I’m a massive proponent of 3 things.

1. Doing deep work

For reasons we discussed in the first half of this newsletter.

2. Doing your most important tasks first

3. Doing them as early in the day as possible.

Now you might be wondering “why Ross, I’m not a morning person, I like to do my work in the evening”

Willpower is limited.

The longer you leave it to do the tasks, the less likely you are to do them

If you’re planning on doing your work at night, your will power is depleted.

Combine this with how tasks you do in deep work are challenging and generally the ones you want to put off, you’re much less likely to do them.

And life likes to throw haymakers.

If you leave it until 9pm to do your work, the chances of something happening during the day and messing up your schedule is much higher than if you did your tasks at 6am.

And remember, deep work is an act of taking responsibility for your life.

If you can’t take responsibility as early in the day as possible, you sure as hell can’t take responsibility throughout your entire day.

So take responsibility and do the damn work EARLY.

- Ross.

 

I’m going to be running a live cohort showing you how to build your audience and creator business in just 2-4 hours a day - so you can spend less time behind a screen and more time living a life you love.

You can sign up for the waitlist here to get priority access and exclusive bonuses.

 

When you’re ready, here’s how I can help you

• Achieve Self-Mastery, unlock your true potential, and smash every goal you set with MasteryOS

• Learn how to build a multi-6-figure audience and business with Personal BrandBldr

• As a subscriber, you can get 50% off my Get Shit Done Productivity System by clicking here