Hey friends, can you finish a month’s worth of work in just one day? I want you to comment and let me know whether you think it’s possible or not. But before that, hold on.
Listen to what I have to say first. I read in a book once, where an author talks about Elon Musk—you must have heard of him. He runs so many companies, does so many things The author explains why Elon Musk is able to accomplish so many things.
One reason behind it is that he gives himself ridiculous deadlines. For example, if there’s a task that would normally take a week to complete, Elon Musk thinks about how it could be done in just half an hour. And because he sets such ridiculous deadlines for himself, what happens as a result Maybe he doesn’t finish the task that normally takes a week in half an hour, or even an hour, but at least he gets it done in a day.
And this is the mindset you need to adopt, which won’t be easy. But trust me, today’s video will definitely multiply your productivity by ten or even a hundred times if you understand and apply everything discussed in the video properly. But before that Yes, if you haven’t subscribed yet, make sure to subscribe to Seeken.
I’ll keep bringing you interesting insights from books and mentors that will help you grow in your life. Now, let’s start. There was a man named Sanjay who was very troubled in his life because he had big dreams He wanted to accomplish big things in life, but the problem was that he couldn’t get anything done.
His biggest issues were laziness and procrastination. He would set goals many times, but he couldn’t achieve them. One day, he was sharing his pain and struggles with a friend.
That’s when Sanjay learned about a doctor whom people called “Dr Book. ” Now, this Dr Book had learned a lot of amazing things from various books and mentors in his life. Instead of prescribing medicine to cure people’s ailments, he would recommend books and share insights from them.
Because of this, many patients had improved their lives. They had resolved their problems. Now, Sanjay’s friend told him many good things about Dr Book, which made Sanjay very excited.
He said, “I need to meet this doctor too. ” He got the doctor’s number from his friend. But when he tried to book an appointment, he was given a time slot for one month later.
Sanjay found this a bit frustrating. His friend explained, “Look, this doctor is really good. He usually doesn’t give time easily, but if he does, he will give you a solution to your problem for sure.
” Understanding this and realizing the high demand for the doctor, Sanjay calmed down, showed some patience, and said, “That’s fine. “If it takes a month, so be it. But I will definitely learn from him.
” A month passes by, and finally, it’s time for his appointment. Sanjay goes to the doctor and starts sharing his pain and struggles with him. He begins to explain how he has a lot of ambition in life and wants to achieve so much, but he gets distracted very easily.
Despite trying hard, he isn’t able to work on his life or grow as a person. Sanjay shares how he has a dream of writing a book, but for several months, he hasn’t been able to make any progress on it. Hearing this, the doctor smiles and tells him about a study.
The doctor says, “Do you know, Sanjay, I recently read a study in a book that explained how maximum people. Despite their best efforts, nowadays people can only focus on work for about 11 minutes before getting distracted. It often takes people 25 minutes or even more to get back to that focus.
This means that even when people say they work for eight hours, in reality, they don’t work effectively for even two hours. And this problem isn’t just yours; it’s something many people face Now Sanjay responds, “Yes, doctor, you’re right. I try very hard to focus, but I get distracted and then it’s very difficult for me to refocus.
What should I do about this? ” The doctor gives a slight smile and starts to explain, “What if I tell you about a science-backed protocol? I’ll share something that will help you learn deep work, leading to such an improvement in your life that your productivity could increase by up to four hundred percent.
“Think about how many levels of focus you could achieve. If I share these insights with you, you might be able to complete a month’s worth of work in a single day. ” Sanjay responds, “Yes, doctor, please tell me what I can do.
What should I do? Step by step. ” The doctor says, “I recently read a book related to this topic called Manage Your Day-to-Day by Jocelyn K.
Glei. This book provides a solution to your problem. Jocelyn has—now Jocelyn, who is essentially an author and a productivity expert herself—wrote this book by interviewing several other interesting productivity experts, such as Cal Newport.
If you know him, he is the author of amazing books like Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, which are so good that they can’t be ignored. She interviewed Tim Ferriss, who is a well-known podcaster and author, as well as James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, and Scott Young. With the help of these super-achievers and interesting people, she wrote this book.
Now, Sanjay says, “Sir, I’ve heard of Cal Newport, Tim Ferriss, and James Clear. I know about Atomic Habits. “But who is Scott Young?
” The doctor responds, “You don’t know? Scott Young is also an author who has written amazing books like Ultralearning and Get Better at Anything. Let me tell you how interesting he is.
In 2013, when Scott Young wanted to learn Spanish, instead of attending lectures at a school, he went directly to Spain with a friend, where there was just one condition. They decided that for three months, they would not speak in English at all and would only speak in Spanish. Initially, they faced a lot of difficulties, but by the end of the three months, they both learned to speak decent Spanish without any books, courses, or teachers.
And it didn’t stop there. In the same way, within a year, he also learned Portuguese, Mandarin, Chinese, and Korean. Scott Young is the same person who completed a four-year MIT computer science curriculum in one year by using YouTube videos and MIT’s free courses.
Not only that, but he also improved his basic painting skills from here to here in just 30 days. In short, you could say Scott Young is a very interesting person who is highly skilled in learning and, you could directly say, is an expert in productivity. Now Sanjay finds all this information quite interesting.
He says, “Wow, with so many great authors, it must be amazing. Please start telling me their insights. ” The doctor, being playful, says, “Hold on a bit, be patient.
I’ll explain. The book I’m going to talk about today divides productivity into three phases. The first phase is Preparation, the second is Engage, and the third is Sustain.
This means what you need to do before starting work, what you should do while working, and what you need to do to sustainably and effectively continue that work in the long term. These are the three phases, which basically consist of seven steps, seven keys. If your energy is like a lock, these seven steps are the keys to unlock it, and I will explain each one to you Sanjay says, “Please, sir, tell me.
” The doctor explains that in his mid-20s, Tim Ferriss, who is known as a successful entrepreneur and productivity hacker, was busy with several major projects. In the midst of his life and many tasks, he also started working on his first book, The Four-Hour Workweek The purpose of the book was to share the unconventional strategies Tim Ferriss used to advance in his life, so that people could create successful businesses, just as he did. However, the issue was that he wasn’t able to complete the project.
Even after a long time, his book was still unfinished Tim found himself in a tough situation. Although he was a productivity expert, this time was different. Since it was supposed to take him a whole month to write the manuscript, he decided he would finish it in just one day.
He dedicated all his energy and focus to the book and started eliminating distractions Now, although he usually managed to get things done, the issue was that he needed to write not just any content, but content that would be impactful and change people’s lives once published. And since he was a productivity expert, he had to write something powerful, but he wasn’t able to accomplish this. Then, he started using the first strategy, which is Key One: Set Your Sights.
To achieve such a big task, Tim knew he needed to start with clear and specific goals. Just having the goal of finishing the book wouldn’t be enough to complete it. At that point, he had already written six chapters, with ten more chapters still remaining It had taken him months to complete the six chapters.
But for the remaining ten chapters, he decided he would finish them in one day. He thought, even if he couldn’t write a perfect script, he would at least prepare a basic draft. Essentially, he made his goal very clear: he needed to create a draft of all ten chapters within that day, by any means necessary It was very challenging, but not impossible, at least in his mind.
According to goal-setting theory, challenging but achievable goals can significantly boost performance because they greatly increase your focus, effort, and persistence. This means that if you have a clear goal that is challenging but not so difficult that it becomes unachievable, it will enhance your performance. Such goals are what will push you forward, and quickly.
Tim did exactly that. He didn’t just give himself a vague game plan like “write a few chapters” or “write half a chapter. ” He mapped out exactly what he needed to do to complete the book.
He detailed how many words he needed to write for each chapter, what key pointers each chapter should include, and so on He decided his goal with such specificity and confirmed his sights. After that, he moved on to the second lesson, which is Key Number Two: The Power of Pareto. The next step in Tim’s plan was prioritization.
He understood that each task has different levels of importance. Some chapters were crucial for the overall message and impact of his book Therefore, Tim started by focusing on these high-priority sections, so that even if time was short, the best part of his book would still be completed. And why did he do this?
Because he understood a concept called the Pareto Principle. You might have heard of it. Sometimes, 80 percent of results come from just 20 percent of the effort 80 percent of income often comes from just 20 percent of customers.
80 percent of problems might come from 20 customers. 80 percent of the time, you wear 20 percent of your clothes. This is essentially the Pareto Principle, where 80 percent of results typically come from just 20 percent of efforts.
So, Tim started focusing on those 20 percent of chapters that would make his book 80 percent more powerful. But he made a slight modification to this. Instead of focusing on 20 percent of tasks, he concentrated on just 10 percent of tasks that would yield 90 percent of the results.
To do this, Tim also used a unique method called fear setting. For example, he asked himself which chapters, if even slightly deficient, would have the most negative impact on the quality and success of his book In other words, he identified the 10 percent core, most important aspects of his entire book that would determine its success or failure. Then, when he gave himself time to think about it, he started to become clear about which points were most important for him.
This way, he identified his critical tasks and focused all his time and energy on those chapters. And this isn’t something that only Tim Ferriss has done. In a way, you do it too, right?
For example, I have done it as well. When we had exams, we often didn’t read the entire chapter or the whole syllabus because we studied at the last minute. I remember using books like 20/20 that had answers to the questions that were most likely to appear on the exams Basically, we used to study the solutions to the question papers from the last five years.
We focused on the most important 10 percent of questions that appeared 80 percent of the time in exams. I’m sure you’ve done something similar too. Tim Ferriss did the same thing.
After that, he applied the third lesson, known as batch processing, which is Key Number Three for you. In the end, Tim used batch processing to boost his efficiency. He grouped similar tasks together and completed them in focused sessions.
For example, if he needed to do research, he would research all ten chapters at once. If he needed to write, he would focus on writing all ten chapters at once, rather than doing the research for one chapter and then writing it. Then writing, then researching, then writing again.
Essentially, he grouped his tasks into batches and integrated them, which reduced context switching. Context switching is when your mind shifts from one task to another, causing your focus to scatter and requiring significant time to refocus. Context switching is a major issue for productivity Research from the University of California shows that after an interruption, it can take an average of up to 23 minutes to regain focus.
This is why the technique of batch processing is so effective for maintaining focus. Additionally, a study published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies explains how switching from one task to another impacts productivity Your mind gets like a rebooted computer. Just as a computer takes time to restart after being shut down, your mind also takes time to return to peak performance after switching tasks.
Batch processing is a great solution to this problem, and it’s something Tim also started using For example, if I need to shoot multiple videos, it’s best for me to shoot them all at once rather than shooting one video each day. Similarly, if I need to shoot seven videos, it’s much more productive to sit down and shoot all of them in one day. If I have the script ready, it’s much more efficient compared to shooting one video each day.
Tim Ferriss did something similar. This was the first phase, Preparation, where you handle these three things. After that comes Phase Two, called Engage.
One evening, Chris Guillebeau took on a big challenge. Chris decided that he would create, launch, and sell a new digital product within 24 hours. His idea was “The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself,” which would help people leave their 9-to-5 jobs and start their own businesses.
Due to his tight schedule, working on this project was becoming difficult for Chris. He had two options: either he could stretch out the project for months, as he had been doing, or he could complete the entire project in one day. If he could manage the second option, not only would his product be launched, but he would also demonstrate the power of his productivity strategy.
Chris gladly accepted the challenge for this reason. He designed a product—writing, designing, and launching it—that would typically take weeks or even months, and he finished it all in just one day. He had to maintain quality.
But he knew that with his years of knowledge and experience, he could accomplish the task in one day. It wasn’t an impossible task, so he started working on it. Now, Chris also followed the preparation phase to some extent.
After that, he did three more things, with the first being what you need to know as the 4th key. Focused isolation. Chris knew that to complete such a big task, he needed to create an environment with focused isolation.
This wasn’t a simple task but a significant one because he had to organize his time in a way that would maintain deep focus and productivity. Focused isolation means not just working alone, but also involves time blocking and using techniques like the Pomodoro method. Combining these techniques, he created an environment where he could achieve deep concentration.
To achieve this, he used time blocking. Every task, such as writing “The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself,” designing the product, and setting up the website, was assigned a specific time block. During this time, he focused solely on that particular task.
During this time, I will work on this task. For example, I will write about the product from 4 to 6, and set up the website from 7 to 8, and so on. This time blocking technique, which Elon Musk also uses, allowed Chris to focus on one task at a time.
It prevented him from feeling overwhelmed by other tasks and everything else. Additionally, he introduced another very powerful technique called the Pomodoro Technique. After setting up time blocks, he started using Pomodoro, which essentially involves a 25-minute timer.
During those 25 minutes, you focus solely on the task at hand and do nothing else. Afterward, you take a 5-minute break. The Pomodoro Technique is very powerful.
As the “Doctor Book” mentioned, which he himself uses, it helped Chris a lot in getting work done. After that, he followed the next lesson, which is to “Clear the Clutter. ” To further enhance his focus, Chris eliminated distractions completely.
For example, when he was working on his laptop, he turned off all notifications that might pop up on his screen. He put his phone on silent and placed it in his bag, and removed everything that could potentially distract him or was already distracting him. Because he wanted to be completely immersed in his work.
He knew one thing: distractions are the biggest enemy of deep work. A study from Carnegie Mellon University shows that even small interruptions, which may seem minor, can significantly impact our productivity. The university study showed that error rates can more than double due to small interruptions.
To avoid this, he used a variation of the Pomodoro Technique, which included a distraction note. This is quite interesting. Pay close attention, Sanjay.
When distractions occurred, for example, if he felt like procrastinating. . He kept a side note for using Instagram or any other distraction, where he would write down what was distracting him, which he called a distraction note.
After writing it down, he would immediately refocus on his work. Research published in cognitive psychology shows that acknowledging distractions helps significantly in refocusing on your work Because sometimes when something comes to our mind and we don’t acknowledge it, it continues to bother us. For example, when we sit down to study, you might have noticed that if we think of checking our phone, playing a game, or if we feel hungry, we can’t focus on our work until we address these distractions.
Until then, our focus can’t stay on the task at hand. If you try to work, you’ll be completely distracted, and ignoring these distractions also causes problems. So, Chris’s solution was the distraction note: write down any distractions that come to mind.
You can also tell yourself that you will address these distractions after you finish your work, which helps you avoid both problems. After implementing all these strategies—focus isolation, eliminating distractions, and clearing clutter—he used one final key that helped him successfully create, design, and launch his product in a single day, a task that might have taken weeks or months otherwise. Now we move to phase three: sustain.
Sanjay, you know, there was a very important night in American history. It was March 1963 when Dr Martin Luther King Jr. had to deliver a speech that would reach millions of people.
He probably didn’t even realize the full impact of this speech. But for him, it was crucial because the civil rights movement was in full swing and there was a lot of turmoil in the country. The speech obviously had to be powerful.
It had to be clear. And most importantly, the speech needed to be one that could inspire people. But the problem was that a significant portion of Dr King’s speech—arguably the majority of it—hadn’t been written yet.
While leading his movement, he hadn’t had enough time to focus properly on writing his speech. There were only a few hours left, and his speech wasn’t fully ready. The stakes were high, but he still managed to finish the speech.
He did this by using a key lesson known as activating flow. Although Dr King was under pressure, somewhat tired, and feeling sleepy after a full day of rallies, he knew he needed to enter a mental state where he could fully immerse himself in his work. And that’s exactly what he did by activating a flow state.
Flow, which you might also call “being in the zone,” is a state where you become so deeply immersed in your work that you don’t notice anything around you, and nothing can distract you. The concept of flow was introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It is achieved when we engage in an activity that we find highly interesting, allowing us to become so absorbed that everything else becomes irrelevant.
Where you lose track of time, and an hour feels like just 10 minutes, where you enjoy working so much that everything else in the world becomes irrelevant. Now, how to achieve this flow state is related to several factors I’ve already mentioned to you. But it’s important to focus on achieving this flow state.
To achieve a flow state, five principles apply. The first is to define your goals. As we discussed earlier, you can break your goals down into smaller, clear tasks so you know exactly what needs to be done.
Second, you need to create a mechanism to track your progress towards these goals, so you can see how much you have accomplished. For example, if you are writing a book, you should track your progress regularly. Third, you need to give your full attention to the task.
Avoid multitasking and distractions, as mentioned in earlier points. Fourth, develop the skills needed to progress. Focus on improving your skills.
For example, if you need to write, work on writing effectively and improving your writing skills, not just writing for the sake of writing. Write in a way that uses your skills. Where you focus on the word and how to speak it.
What word to write first and then what to write. Basically focus on your writing skills and 5th keep raising the stakes, you will enjoy the work only when it is a little challenging. It should not be so easy that you start getting bored and it should not be so difficult that you quit it.
So, to balance that, set goals that are a bit challenging. If you want to learn more about the flow state in detail, I recommend a video by Seeken, which explains the flow state step by step. You can check it out later if you’re interested.
But for now, let’s move on to key number seven: the last and most important aspect of sustaining, which is keep the pace. In Dr King’s story, as the night progressed, the pressure to deliver a flawless speech was increasing, and fatigue was setting in. But Dr King understood that maintaining stress and energy levels was critically important.
This is because stress and energy are closely linked. Effectively managing both can greatly influence your productivity. Especially when you’re working on demanding tasks, the Yerkes-Dodson Law states that moderate levels of stress can significantly enhance performance.
However, if the stress is too low, you’ll feel sluggish, and if it’s too high, you’ll feel overwhelmed. Therefore, it’s essential to manage your energy effectively as well. Research published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology supports this same idea.
To sustain his energy, Dr King. . When he felt his focus waning, he also took short breaks.
It wasn’t that he just worked continuously; he maintained his hydration, used deep breathing techniques, kept himself engaged with tasks, and took brief walks to ensure good blood flow and a clear mind. These strategies helped him maintain his stress and energy levels. And now let me tell you a bonus: he was able to deliver one of the world’s best speeches, “I Have a Dram,” which is still considered one of the most famous speeches ever.
He achieved this because he spoke from the heart. He wrote the script with genuine interest, not by simply writing it mechanically but by truly caring about the message. He genuinely wanted to bring about change in the world.
He worked with his heart. He loved the work he was doing. And it was his passion and love that helped him perform so well.
More important than all these productivity hacks is the passion you have within you. Passion comes when you do work that you are truly interested in, work that genuinely fulfills your needs. Physiological, psychological, financial, love, health, happiness.
When you engage in work that fulfills these needs, achieving a flow state and being productive often becomes much easier. So, the final bonus lesson is this: If you want to write a book, learn to love books. Write a book that can bring changes to people’s lives after they read it.
When the doctor was saying all this, Sanjay didn’t say a word. He listened to everything attentively and took notes. After hearing all the advice, he thanked the doctor and left.
The next month, he made another appointment and came back to thank the doctor again. He told the doctor that although he tried to apply the many things the doctor had suggested, he wasn’t able to implement them all as effectively as he had hoped. But he was able to apply about 60% of the advice.
He set his goals and, within a week, completed the draft of his book and submitted it. He thanked the doctor for this. And look, friends, as the doctor mentioned, the most important thing is to work on whatever you choose with passion.
Just like I’m doing content creation and talking about books, doing it passionately makes a big difference. And trust me, if you create content in a field you’re passionate about and use these tips and tricks, your productivity will increase significantly. If you, like me, have any interest in content creation, no matter what field you’re in, you should definitely keep that interest alive.
Because no matter what field you’re in—whether you’re a doctor, engineer, working a job, or a housewife—if you create a complementary life alongside your primary life, where you produce content related to that field, you can achieve a lot more. This includes earning money, gaining recognition, and respect, just like I have. For example, take Mr Ramesh, a truck driver who earns around 25,000 INR through driving but has made over 1 million INR per month by creating content related to trucking.
Similarly, anyone in any field can achieve a lot by creating content. If you’re interested and want to learn from me, I have some good news. I’m organizing a 2-day boot camp where I’ll condense eight years of my knowledge and share with you everything related to content creation that will help you become a great content writer.
I have provided the registration link for this boot camp in the description. Go there and register. That’s all for now.
See you in the next video. Bye-bye and thanks for watching!
