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Full Deep Work Guide - Rules for

Focused Success in a Distracted
World
Created @October 6, 2022 5:17 AM

Class PRODUCTIVITY

Materials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AYWOTSCSxA

Completed

Deep Work Guide

Who is this for?

Students who procrastinate

People who work or start businesses and are disappointed with their progress

Start doing work, but get distracted because of environment

90 minutes of deep work > 1 full day

What is Deep Work?

Hustle culture (Checking email 200x a day, flexing how busy you are, etc is toxic
and counter productive

Deep work is when you spend all your attention and energy on just a few absolutely
crucial tasks for just a few hours a day

Stop focusing on shallow tasks

Full Deep Work Guide - Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World 1
 80/20/ Rule = 20% of what we do = 80% of results

“Any Benefit Mindset” = Not Good (Don’t spend 80% of your time chasing minimal
benefit) Huge sacrifice

Periods of UNDISTRACTED, RELENTLESS FOCUS on the most important 20% of

tasks

Study from Kings College showed that being distracted is less productive than when
you are stoned

When you distract yourself, your brain pays for it by draining more energy

1 minute checking your phone isn’t really 1 minute, its about 15-17 minutes of
progress

Goal and Purpose Setting for Deep Work

New piece of paper and write your purpose on the top

Alpha Goals, Beta Goals, Weekly Lead Measures

Alpha Goals

Main Frame Goals, “Identity Goal”

Beta Goals

Motivational Goal, thing you look at and see what kind of result you get from
achieving it

Weekly Lead Measures

Habits

Alpha Goals
Write your goals as if you already achieved them

(e.g) “I am a top-grade student”, “I am a revolutionary youtuber”

Don’t write “I will” or “I want”

Start to frame your identity around these goals

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 Frame is so important, even if it doesn’t seem like it

You need to develop your frame, and identity at the start, and then the rest of the
world will step into your frame

Beta Goals
Follow the “Smart Goal Technique”

Purpose is to remind you why you are working towards this, what the rewards will
be for you at the end.

(e.g.) “Amass an audience of 50k”

This causes you to visualize the achievement of these goals and get excited about
them

Weekly Lead Measures

The habits you will complete to achieve on a weekly basis to achieve the Beta
Goals

(e.g) Beta Goal was: “Amass an audience of 50k”

Weekly Lead Measure is to make 2-4 high-quality videos a week

Your lead measure can be what you produce, videos, number of words, OR just
number of hours of DEEP WORK per week dedicated to beta goal

Setting Up Your Deep Work Routine

Hamza’s Routine
Bedtime: 9-9:30 PM, Wake up at 8AM

Immediately after waking:

1 min Gratitude Journaling

Meditate 30min

Get Coffee

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 Start 90 minute deep work session

Has not checked his phone once at this point.

DO NOT CHECK YOUR PHONE!

Hamza checked his phone one day and tracked his productivity was 25% lower
after just a few minutes of work

Uses a timer to count down from 90 minutes

Use a document to track deep work

Set a Goal for 90 minute session

Setting a goal for each session is competition with yourself

After 90 minute session he feels kind of tired but still ready to do another deep work
session

Takes a short break (5-10 min) then does another deep work session

Next 90 minute block he spends doing another activity

Finishes 2nd block of deep work at about 12 pm

Checks phone after 2nd block of deep work (3-4 hours after waking up)

After 2nd deep work block he goes about his regular day (work out, calls, clients
etc.)

How Can You Use This in Your Normal

Routine?
Probably can’t take everything, especially if you have obligations

Deep work first thing after waking up is the best scenario

At least 1 deep work block, that way priority tasks are being done before studies
or work or phone

If deep work in the AM isn’t possible, then you want to have the mindset of flexibly
putting deep work into your schedule

Quickly go and work

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 Shut Down Ritual
Very good work/life balance that very clearly defines when work ends

Good for students or self-employed people

Usually it feels like you are on the clock, all day, everyday

Hamza’s Shutdown Ritual (Done at 7pm)

Write down ideas for task list

Review ideas and confirm

Send WhatsApp messages

Send Discord messages

Check Calendar

Plan tomorrow

Write out checklist/to do for the next day

“My work is done for the day”

Reducing Environment Distractions

By intentionally reducing environment distractions, your productivity will be
drastically improved

Disable notifications on your phone

Turn on do not disturb, make sure that your phone doesn’t go off or light up
during deep work

Disable notifications on PC

Specific to you, but make sure that nothing pops up to distract you

Have the mindset to have a “pure morning”

A pure morning is when you are able to wake up and complete your deep work
without any outside influence

Not checking your phone actually allows you to answer messages more efficiently.

Full Deep Work Guide - Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World 5
 Replying slower allows messages to batch up, which allows you to answer
more efficiently

Prepare for the worst possible scenario

Try to reduce obligations

What do you have to do during deep work time or mornings?

Try to do it quickly or after your deep work session

Worst scenario is you start deep work then halfway through you get distracted
by family wanting you to do something

Think of your own tactics to do the work before or after deep work session

Scoreboard for Accountability

Keeps a piece of paper that tracks how many deep work sessions he does

Keeps it on his wall above his desk & tallies each session w/ pink sharpie

Really important, keep a “compelling scoreboard”

Update the tally every day, and upload to Hamza’s discord (Optional)

Accountability thread

Do it especially if you’re not happy with how many hours you have done

Rewards on the bottom of the scoreboard

Monetary rewards for accomplishing tasks

May or may not work

EX. 25 hours deep work = New Computer chair

Mindsets for Success

Have a “Scarcity Mindset”
Different from “abundance mindset”

Full Deep Work Guide - Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World 6
 Only have this mindset with your time

Most people want to feel busy with shallow work

View Shallow Tasks as Instant Gratification

Things like email, business plan, making a logo

Value your time because you are too important to be doing something that won’t
produce most value

Deep work = delayed gratification

Shallow work = instant gratification (doesn’t take effort)

What would your life be like if you did only deep work?
What would your life be like if you….

Focused on important deep work vs shallow work

You will spend less time working

Finish faster

You will have more time to unwind, which will make your deep work more
productive

Your work will be higher quality

Small bad things will happen because you won’t do unimportant tasks

i.e .. someone will get annoyed because you didn’t respond to email

Instead of replying to email or doing small tasks after deep work, you are better off
unplugging and unwinding

This will create higher quality work tomorrow or next deep work session

Attention Residue
Multitask shallow work

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 I.e. upload a video while checking email at the same time

DO NOT MULTITASK DEEP WORK

This leaves attention residue

What is Attention Residue?

It is when your attention is scattered across different places

This spreads out your mental focus which causes less productivity across the
board

Batching Shallow Work

Instead of replying to email as soon as you get it, reply at the end of the day. You
will let them “batch”

Now you are responding to 10 emails at once instead of 1-2 throughout the day

Would you just wash one piece of clothing at once?

You wait until the laundry basket is full to go and do the laundry

Same logic applies to shallow work

What Shallow Tasks Can You Batch?

This is specific to you, but some ideas are

Emails

Text messages

Notifications

The Grand Gesture

Invest a lot of money or commit to something to ensure that you will do it

EX. JK Rowling spent $1000 a night at a 5 star hotel and couldn’t leave until
she was done

Hamza’s coaching clients pay a lot of money to get his services so they are
committed to following through with their self improvement

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 Adherence to the plan or goal will be increased

Deep Working is a Skill

Deep work is capped to 4 hours max per day

Shallow tasks could be 8-12 hours

Don’t have an ego

Deep working is a skill, and you are low level at it

You might be able to increase your deep work time if you spend the blocks on
different tasks

Ex. Main task is to write

Next task could be something else Ex. Recording YT videos

Positive reinforcement is key

Praise yourself for doing deep work and following through

Every deep work block = progress

It makes you crave the progress you are getting

Have a hard budget for shallow tasks

Strong cut off time with shallow tasks

After your cut off time there is no more work

This allows you to have a work/life balance

If you don’t do this then as you are resting, you are going to be thinking about your
work, which then interferes with your rest, which interferes with your work the next
day

Conclusion
Deep work is one of the most important skills for the 21st Century

Hamza credits deep work as the reason for his productivity and success

Start taking action immediately

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 Its not going to be perfect because it is a skill, and you are a low level in this
skill

Focus on data collection

Figure out how much work you do during the deep work, this will allow you to
figure out what works for you.

Stick the scoreboard on your wall

Send it to the discord

After a few days/weeks/months

Review the mindsets for success section of this course previously

As you take action you will be able to appreciate it more

DO THE HARD WORK, ESPECIALLY WHEN

YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE IT!!

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