This Book Made Me Dangerously Productive

I feel like so many of us are experiencing this right now. You've been working since you got up at 7 a.m., emails, checking on your phone. The minute you wake up and a school run in between if you got kids. and then back to back work calls, messages paying on Microsoft Teams, a climb thing. that ran over a quick scroll on your phone that turned to 40 minutes, and then it was 9 p.m. and you realized you hadn't done the one thing that actually mattered, the thing that was going to move your dream forward. And that makes you think, why do I work so hard?

Yeah, I feel that I can't get anything done. Why does it feel like I never have enough time? I've been there. I'm an average person like everyone else. I'm not someone with a 4 a.m. morning routine. Jump into an ice bath and I'm telling you to do more. I have a daughter who is the love of my life. My husband and I, we both run separate businesses. and I did that for a while alongside also full time. job with parents were getting older and they need my care. So my life is full of ups and downs, just like yours probably is.

And I watch every year go by feeling like. I was behind on everything that actually mattered to me. So I want the answers. Not being busy for busy sake, but how to actually do work. that matters to me and living my life well. And here is the one book. that changed how I think about all of this deep work by Cal Newport. So in this video, I want to show you what you need to know. from Cal's research on how did you deep work well, and why your brain makes focus so hard, and how you change that.

And the solutions are actually much simpler than you think. And I also give you a four step system called the Deep Work Blueprint. that you can start using this week based on my own experience. But first, I'm to show you what's actually going on inside your brain when you try to focus. And it's really fascinating for me. So here are some of the things that some of you have said to me. when you're trying to focus and do your best work. There is just so many Chrome tabs you can open than doing the actual work. itself. I definitely been there. I'm a top hoarder myself.

I can't stay focus from more than a few minutes. before I automatically reach for my phone and get sidetracked. I definitely been there as well and I can't sit still while reading books. I just can't get my brain to focus on what I'm reading. So what is actually happening to our brain? First is that a lot of us tend to do our work surrounded by devices, mainly our phones. And here's what happens when you're trying to work near them. So researchers found that when we're near devices, we get pulled off. the things we're actually doing on average every 40s.

So just 40s. And here's what makes that even worse. Every single time your attention switches, even for a moment, part of your brain stays in the old task that you were trying to do earlier. And this is called the attention residue, which is basically the leftover thoughts. from your distractions. that reduces the focus on the things that you're trying to work on. And now Newport puts all of this into an equation, an actual equation of what makes high quality work work. So equals time spent multiplied by intensity of focus.

And the reason most of us feel like we're working constantly, but getting nowhere. is that we're actually optimizing for the wrong thing. Time. We're just trying to add more hours, but we're not touching the intensity part. So in fact, we are actually destroying it. But even just sitting next to our notifications pinging at us. every few seconds, and this is the reason why when I worked 60. plus hours weeks during my job, I felt like I got nothing done. I thought if I just carve out more time, it will get better. But it didn't because the problem was never time.

It was depth and it was something Cal calls deep work. So why is it work so hard to reach for some people? Why do some people slip into this beautiful flow while they're working. almost effortlessly, and others feel like they're at war with their own brain? That's why I want to find out. And I try that out myself. And I was really surprised. So when I first looked into this, although the quality of the advice online is to just discipline, that lack of discipline can be the root cause for everything. But I believe discipline alone is not enough.

What's interesting is that your brain has been rewired. And I mean, not literally, not as a metaphor, because our brains. are constantly reshaping themselves based on what we really do. Every single day. And that is called neuroplasticity. And we love talking about neuroplasticity because when that applies. to learning something new, how you can always pick up a new skill or form a new habit, for example. That's all great, but here's the part nobody talks about enough. neuroplasticity works on your bad habits too.

So every time you switch between different apps, you check notifications. Scroll to the next video. Besides being distracted, you're actually training. your brain to expect constant novelty and stimulation. So you're building what is similar to a shortcut in your mind. And then over time, those shortcuts, they become the easiest route for your brain. So when you sit down to do your deep work, to actually think hard. about one thing for 90 minutes, your brain will resist that.

Because your brain was so used to constant stimulation from scrolling and this is. because there is this slower, deeper pathways of not being used in a long time. It's like trying to run a marathon. We never even gone for a run. Not impossible, but definitely a lot harder. So most of us are trying to do deep work without ever even having trained for it. We just expect to sit down and concentrate at full capacity. in an environment designed to fragment our attention span, with a brain that is spent months being rewired towards craving distraction.

And that's the reason why I feel like a battle all the time. And I definitely felt that way. So what do people do. that can get them into flow or in the zone to actually do deep work? It turns out that the brain that built those distraction shortcuts. can actually rebuild the work pathways in the brain. And it turns out that some simple adjustment you can do starting today. So here's how to make neuroplasticity work for you instead of against you. And it's not something that you either have or you don't.

So here I want to reference. another great book in the companion read to Deep Work here. And that is a book called flow from the author Michelli. He's spent decades studying what he called flow, that state where you're completely absorbed in what you're doing. Think about it. The last time this happened to you. Like time seemed to stop. and you feel this deep sense of purpose and meaning in the work itself. And what you found is that flow is not random. It happens when difficulty of the task, it matches your skill level.

And there are no competing things in retention. So how long can an average person go into deep work mode? And the researcher called Andrew Erickson, the psychologist. who spent his career studying elite performances. Even high performers like people, like concert musicians, chess grandmasters and world class athletes. They typically sleep around four hours of real, deep work day, and then beyond that, the quality significantly drops. The brain is recovering from doing intensive thinking, but can recommend starting with just 30 minutes and then one hour.

and a 90 minutes and build your deep work muscle really slowly. So most of us are trying to eight, nine, ten hours of work, but almost none of it is deep. We're just grinding twice as long and getting half the results. So when I understood this, I tried a very small experiment. For two whole weeks, I treated my first 90 minutes. of the day as completely untouchable. I blocked out churning emails and no slack, no fill in the room. And the first week, it just felt really tough. I had this sense of unease and restlessness.

I really struggled with it. But in week two, it started to feel like a battle of my brain, and I started to focus longer for up to 60 minutes. By day ten, my brain was really shifting to a different gear. As soon as I sat down to work and I know that is actually focused deep work time. So I thought, why not document this? And I wrote down everything that worked for me since reading. this whole book and really experimenting it based on my own working life. the last few years. And here's the exact four steps that you can try to.

Step one is to audit your deep work ratio. So before you change anything, you need to see clearly what is actually happening in your days. And now he gives this really simple task for each task you do regularly. Ask yourself, how long would it take to train a smart, motivated person. to do this? If the answer is weeks or months, then that is deep work. But the answer is a day or two. Then there's probably shallow work. And most people only do this. All that. Honestly, they're just genuinely shocked because the majority of their time.

is going to work. That barely requires a bring it all. So answering messages, sitting in meetings with organizing notes, updating. spreadsheets, it just all feels very busy, but not moving anything forward. And nowadays, honestly, you can get AI to help you. so you can actually focus on the deep work side instead. So I did this all audit on my week, on my typical schedule, and I thought maybe 30 or 40% of my time was shallow. It was close to 70%, and that was really uncomfortable to see. But seeing it clearly is the first step to really help me change it myself.

And step two is design your deep work schedule. So Cao lays out four different approaches. The first one is complete seclusion being completely off. any distractions and then occasional deep work days. The third one's daily block. And the last one is ad hoc sessions. I think beyond this, unless you're an academic. or someone who's working for yourself, complete. seclusion from being completely off the grid and distractions. It probably is impossible for most people with real lives.

You got a full time job, a family, a business, or maybe all three, which was me two back then. The daily blog. The most realistic and the most powerful. The idea is very simple. You pick a window, maybe one hour. If you really struggle to carve it out, you protect it. and you treat it like a meeting with your most important client. For me is the first 2 or 3 hours of my morning. after dropping off my daughter at school, and that is my window of deep work. But yours can be completely different and no one has the same lives.

It's more about trial and error on. what works best for you and your current situation. But you need to make that commitment to carve those time out for yourself. And remember that deep work is a muscle you want to really build slowly over time. and add it from there. Step three is to build your environment for deep work. This one sounds really simple, basic, but everyone underestimated. and I was very clear about this is that managing your distractions. is not the same as removing your distraction, because studies. show that having your phone on your desk, even face down,

even on silent mode, is still affects your working memory in your brain. So your brain's spending energy managing the temptation. of having the phone there and forcing yourself not even look at it. So the environment for deep work is not about sitting near your phone. with better willpower. It's actually about removing the source in the first place. Just put your phone in other room in the drawer and say your notification. to off and have a specific location where you only ever do deep work. It could be your home office, a library, maybe a quiet corner in the café near you.

Your brain starts associate location. The time with working deeply and the environment does. some of the work for you, so you get to operate on autopilot. So step force embrace boredom to train your deep work muscle. And I would say definitely don't skip this part, because this is the one that determines whether this is. something you do for two weeks, or something. that actually sticks with you in the long term. And Carl, he makes his point about boredom that I think is one. of the most important ideas in the book. So every time you're reaching for your device during a boring moment,

maybe waiting for your coffee in the coffee shop, waiting the queue. at the checkout, your training, your brain to resist stillness is telling you. that a moment like this is a problem that can be solved with stimulation. And then you sit down your deep work session and wonder why. your brain keeps looking for that hit of stimulation again and again. So remember to deliberately let yourself be bored in those small moments. You will definitely feel very uncomfortable at first. Probably a bit fidgety, but that's fine.

See how long you can last. And try to do it longer each time. And then there's one more piece that I love. Set a clear metric for each deep work session. It's not a vague intention to work on this project. I'm a recovering procrastinator. And one thing I can usually push me off is this massive goal. Like working on a massive project without breaking it down to mini sprints. and deadlines. So when your brain has something concrete to aim for, the session becomes a game. You can try to win and D works time limit of 60 to 90 minutes.

It really helps you meet that scarcity of time. More motivating to get to the finish line and winning. Even small ways can help you build that habit faster than any amount. of motivation. And ultimately, as Carl said, a deep life is a good life. When you're fully absorbed in something that pushes you to your limit, when you're genuinely in that flow state, you experience. something that scrolling and meetings and email simply cannot give you.

Is this sense of meaning in the work itself, and it's time well spent. Being fully present for your own life. And when I look back, the days when I felt most alive. When I felt like I was actually building something I love. They were not the days I replied the most. Emails or shelves, the most calls. They were the days. I sat down and I went deep on something that really mattered to me. There will always be busy days in the day to day life that we all have. But on the days where I can do deep work, it mattered to me.

because I had to work on something that they really think deeply about. We live in this busy, distracted world. that is structurally designed to pull us towards the shallow end. So open offices, WhatsApp messages, social media, videos, AI chat bots, back to back meetings, right? All of it is optimized for removing our best ability to think deeply. So choosing to go deep is almost after resistance. to embrace what is uniquely our own human potential. It's a sign that the work that matters to you get your best hours,

not your leftover ones. And ultimately, I think this book is much more bigger than just a book about productivity. It was about what it feels like. to show fully for the work that you actually care about. And I think that is worth protecting. I'm Lori, thank you so much for being here. I'll see you in the next video.