Day 7: Deep Work

Do you have the attention span of a cat?

Surely not, right?

But maybe you’d actually be glad about it.

Statistically speaking, the average attention span of a cat (5-10min) is up to 66x higher than that of an average adult (a mere 9 seconds)

That’s.. horrifying, to say the least.

And it’s the most common problem with productivity in the new day and age.

Believe me:

EVERYBODY you know was at this point somewhen in their life.

Yep, even the people you look up to.

All the “high performers”

But most people still have minimal attention spans (and maybe you’re one of them):

Dilly-dallying around during work sessions, losing concentration, switching tasks here and there, and doing nothing while thinking you’re working hard.

In the end?

You’ve wasted 2 hours of your time and have almost nothing to show for it.

You know that feeling.

The guilt.

The shame.

You were about to deliver.

You made grand plans on finally getting the most important task done.

You did everything right, you woke up in the morning, selected the highest priority task beforehand, you took care of your brain points-

and yet your ability to concentrate was worse than England's chance to ever win a cup title.

This soul-crushing experience?

It comes from this one simple problem:

You’re not able to focus.

duh.

To define focus:

Focus is the skill of directing attention.

Or in other words, focus is the ability to not get distracted by your environment or your own thoughts while engaging in a task.

Got that?

Great.

Luckily, there are multiple ways to improve your focus.

But you want to know about the one thing that exponentially, from one day to the next, increased mine?

I learned about Flow State.

You might have heard about this magical, almost surreal-sounding state before.

Athletes call it “getting into the zone”

Writers experience it while typing on their computers in seeming hyperspeed (like I am right now)

Coders, speakers, rock climbers and everybody else getting into Flow make use of it for this one reason:

Hyperfocus

When you’re in Flow State, something very interesting happens:

Your prefrontal cortex gets less involved during action.

What does it usually do?

• makes logical decisions

• creates a sense of time and self

• regulates emotion and behavior

Now the feeling of Flow makes sense.

Because this area of your brain is turned down in signaling, your brain operates without your constant “inner voice”.

You know that little asshole, doubting you, making you play random songs in your head on repeat, causing you to overthink, experience random anxiety, and gets you bloated with stress.

But in Flow?

The voice vanishes.

And so does your ability to get distracted by your own thoughts, which allows for something magical:

We find ourselves in a state of effortless execution.

It’s like being able to focus on video games for hours without switching your attention once.

But you can imagine the benefits of Flow while doing a work task:

• you created something of value

• you are able to feel proud and accomplished

• you just used your time in the most valuable way known to human

The Flow promise is a big one.

To sum up everything so far:

The solution to your distracted mind is getting into a Flow State.

The next question asks itself:

How do YOU abuse the magic of this state?

This is a topic of huge discussion, mega amounts of research, and I won’t be able to answer it in detail here-

so I tried to make the most comprehensive and simple Flow State guide the world has ever seen.

Here it is.

Step 1: Clarify

What do you clarify?

The task you will spend your time on working in Flow.

The most important activity that has to get done.

Hint:

It’s going to be one of your 80/20 of tasks.

The task you think of as “the frog”

For example, my flow state task right now (you might have guessed it), is writing this email.

To make it even more clear, specify exactly what you have to do in order:

• make a short draft of the email

• type out the email in BeeHiiv

• edit it once for big mistakes and logical correctness

• then let it sit for a while

This plan is essential for one crucial thing:

Creating clarity.

You’ll never, and I mean NEVER enter a good flow state if you have no idea what you’re doing.

Even if it’s only a touch of doubt that pops up in your mind.

That’s one thought.

A thought distracting you from full focus.

Step 2: Prepare

The 2 most important things to prepare for Flow:

1. get rid of distractions

2. set up your workspace

Point 1 is self-explanatory.

Get rid of your phone, don’t have anything distracting next to you, turn off notifications, don’t get distracted by others.

You know all the basic drills.

One more thing though:

Minimize the chance of getting distracted by your own thoughts.

If you’re stressed and overthinking because you haven’t sent a very important email for your 9-5, it’s going to be extremely hard to focus purely on working on your side hustle.

Get rid of all potential “stress & overthinking factors”

Easier said than done.

At least setting up your workspace is simpler.

Before you enter a flow state, you set up your workspace so that literally everything is ready.

The document you’ll type on.

The coffee you’ll drink.

Your water bottle.

Yes, they’re simple things, but they’d stack up if you didn’t prepare them.

• going to get water 5 minutes in

• making another coffee after 20 minutes

• having to search for your drafts and ideas before you can get going

It’s worth preparing and planning ahead.

Step 3: Getting into and Maintaining Flow

Preparation is half the work, honestly.

Now?

You just have to get into that Flow State.

A simple way to do that is by creating a “Flow State Routine”

You have unlimited options here.

• a few pushups

• short breath work

• staring at a word on your screen

• clarify in your head what you’re about to do

No distractions though (I really hope you weren’t thinking about checking your phone here)

Then you shoot straight in with full focus.

And when your mind tries to distract you?

It’s like meditation.

You have to FORCE your mind to refocus on the task at hand.

Eventually, you’ll enter a state of Flow.

Well done :)

One more thing though..

The most important tip for you:

Set the goal to get into Flow State.

The goal isn't to be as perfect as possible.

The goal is to get into a nice, deep session of focus, where you lose track of time and actually start enjoying your work.

Don’t stress.

You’ll get there if you keep practicing.

Here are your action steps:

• together with eating the frog tomorrow, set the intention of getting into a Flow State

• follow the 3 simple steps I outlined above

• try to stay in a state of flow for as long as you can

There is so much more to this state of optimal human experience..

and I’m sad to not be able to share it all in one email.

But.

I have something coming up.

Something that will change the way you approach any kind of work.

Something that will make you experience the world differently after you attend.

I’m going to launch…

something :)

As it’s my most requested topic to cover, it’s going to show you how YOU can abuse flow state to boost your productivity by up to 500%

…while making use of the written word.

More details coming soon.

Stay tuned (and hyped)

Thank you for reading!

See you soon,

Henri