what does deep work actually look like

Summary

Cal Newport popularized deep work. the version most people implement is fake. they call answering email in a quiet room deep work. it isn’t.

real deep work has three pieces:

1. a clear, specific goal. not a vibe, not a task list. one outcome you are trying to produce. write it at the top of the page before you start.

2. uninterrupted blocks of time. phone in another room. notifications off. door closed. one to three hours minimum for the block to be worth anything.

3. work that actually advances the goal. cleaning out the inbox is not deep work, no matter how quiet the room is. deep work is the marketing strategy, the product redesign, the hiring decision, the thing that moves the needle by more than 1 percent.

Garage Gym Athlete and PT Biz were both built on deep work blocks. not on grind culture. not on 14-hour days. on two or three deep blocks per week, every week, for years. the compounding is invisible until it isn’t. it’s the same as following a great strength program instead of just showing up to the gym to do whatever. consistency in garbage produces garbage. consistency in deep work produces a business.

Transcript

introduction to the concept of deep work and its impact on business growth

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey.

So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. I have built every single company that I’m a part of solely on deep work. So let’s talk about deep work today. This is the Better Human Business Podcast. I’m Jerred Moon. And how I started is not exactly where I’m at now.

And how I started was very similar to how most people start a business and had very similar struggles. But the difference is in what I optimize for versus what other people may optimize for. So let me explain that a little bit more. When I started, I was very much in the fitness industry. And what I sold before it was really a thing were higher end fitness packages.

discussion on the transition from traditional work habits to deep work

So what I mean by that is I would sell people on either a three-month, six-month commitment, something like that. Most people only know about me and Garage Gym Athlete, which is a $25 per month membership site. That’s not where I started. Where I started was individualized coaching and programming.

And so I would get a client and I would have them for three or six months, charge them a larger sum, and then it would be completely individualized programming to them. And then it would also be a lot of communication with them. They would send me videos. I would review their mechanics. I would program for them.

They’d ask me nutrition tips, all these kind of things. And I came up with the similar struggles you may be struggling with as an entrepreneur. And that is, okay, I’m really stuck on fulfillment. I’m talking to athletes. I’m reviewing videos. I’m doing programming. I’m doing all these things. How do I have time to continue to scale this company?

practical steps for integrating deep work into your daily routine

How do I market? How do I build relationships? How do I sell? How do I develop new products? How do I work on the back end of my business? I had all of those problems because I eventually scaled up pretty quickly. I was full, but I was spending most of my time on fulfillment. And what I decided really after reading the book, The One Thing, was that I was going to start to optimize for deep work.

Now that’s not what I called it back then. I just realized that there was nobody, nobody was going to make more time for me. No one was going to help me figure this out. No one was going to do the work for me. If a new marketing campaign needed to happen, I needed to come up with it. I needed to press all the buttons.

I needed to fully create it because before you have a team, you’re the person doing it. And even when you have a team, your first hire is not going to be chief marketing officer. It might just be, hey, help me with fulfillment or help me with some administrative tasks. And you offload a little bit by little bit, but then optimize for, what I optimize for every time I’d hire is how can I get more deep work time, more deep work.

the importance of setting clear goals and preparing for deep work sessions

That’s what I needed because I knew deep work was going to be what would get me to the next level. And deep work, I honestly, if I look back at how everything I’ve ever built, it’s been deep work that got me there. Like it got to the success was having these large uninterrupted periods of being able to focus on tasks that are going to move the business forward.

And like when we, when I started a garage gym athlete, I just had to sit down to devote time to the deep work. Same with PT biz. Obviously when you start, there’s no, there’s no team, there’s no staff, there’s nobody to help you. There’s just do it. There’s just, you do the thing, right? And so you have to set aside the time and it’s very, very important.

And it’s important that you also don’t lose it. So if you’re looking to get, go down into this like rabbit hole of, Hey, I want to learn how to do this. What books can I read? Well, there are two that you could read. I already mentioned one, the one thing. And then there’s also deep work by Cal Newport.

strategies for maximizing productivity through focused work sessions

And honestly, read the books, don’t read the books. There’s no magic in the books. I’ll tell you exactly what you need to do so you can, you can get everything you need to in the next two minutes versus having to read or listen to those entire books. But all you need to do, step one, set a goal. And this is where I feel like a lot of people miss out on deep work.

So set a goal, whether this is for your day, your week, your quarter, your year, your five year, whatever. I have a lot of, a lot of stuff, content, even on this podcast and how to set goals, but I’m not going to get into all that. Just have a goal. Let’s say it’s your quarterly goal. Have a quarterly goal.

Step one, complete for deep work. Now you’re going to set aside time either daily or a couple of times per week or whatever you can fit into your schedule to where you’re going to have an uninterrupted period of anywhere from one to four hours where you start to work on specific tasks and project that help you achieve that goal.

And that’s it. That’s deep work. Now getting into the weeds of doing the deep work, it’s zero distractions. You turn your phone off, no notifications on your computer, anywhere. This is deep work. You don’t check email, you don’t check Instagram, no notifications anywhere, no phone calls, no getting up to talk to somebody, no getting up to get a snack.

There’s none of that. If you need water, you know, surgically attached to you like most people do these days, have a water bottle, have two water bottles. Don’t get up to get snacks. Don’t do any of these things that we’re just utilizing to distract ourselves from doing the most important thing, which is the work that’s going to help you achieve your goals.

Now here’s the thing. I’ll give you a fitness example real quick. People think that deep work is just about getting things done, right, GTD, is just set aside a four hour block and get things done. That is not deep work. That is marking things off of a task list, like task list. If you have a task list, cool, you need to get those things done, but that’s not what actually is driving your business forward.

If your task list is, you know, pay tax, tax bill, pay, you know, pay utility bill, like all these little things, write email, like all these like little, like crappy tasks that aren’t really deep work level tasks. That’s just like in fitness. It’s like being consistent, but with a crappy program, right?

If you want epic results, you just want to be like shredded or you want incredible performance. And again, fitness example, you want to be able to lift a huge amount of weight, run really fast or look amazing. You don’t just do that with consistency. Now consistency is awesome, but you don’t do just with consistency because you can be incredibly consistent in walking, which is great for your health.

I won’t throw any shade there, but all you’re doing is walking. You’re not going to see the six pack abs or running a five minute mile or 500 pound back squat. You don’t see that with being consistent in walking. So it takes two things. It takes being consistent, but it takes being consistent with an amazing program or an amazing coach.

So it’s the two things. And this is where people leave it out when they think they’re doing deep work. It’s the same as being consistent with walking. It’s yeah, that’s great. You have your time set aside to get your tasks done, but that’s not deep work. Deep work is more like being consistent, but with an amazing coach and amazing program.

It’s the difference between going to the Olympics and just being healthy for your family, right? Those are the difference. That’s the difference in deep work. So the deep work tasks should be tasks that really are going to help you achieve your goal. They’re the big projects. They’re the things that are really going to move the needle.

And that stresses people out because they don’t know what it is. Like what, what is that thing? You have to go figure that out and it has to do with what your goals are. You can’t sit there and just think, okay, what’s my one thing? What should it be? Don’t go that big. Okay. Don’t like, don’t go to what’s my life.

One thing we’ll get there, but don’t start there where I want you to start is what’s my quarterly goal? And then after I’m working on my quarterly goal, what are, what’s my deep work needed to achieve that goal? That’s it. Then at some point you can, you can start zooming out and you can get into, yeah, what’s my life, life’s mission and purpose and like, how is this driving me forward?

All of those kinds of things. You can get there, but I would not start there. Just focus on deep work. That’s going to move you forward because here’s the deal. Most people don’t truly understand what flow is. True flow. You’ve either experienced flow as an athlete or you’re just like you are in the zone, right?

But you will also know what flow is if you truly start to embrace deep work. If you’re getting three and four hour work periods that feel like 15 to 30 minutes, you’re starting to experience flow. You’re smart. You’re starting to get to a level of creativity. You’re starting to get to a level of productivity that’s just unparalleled that other people can’t do.

Most people will not do this. In fact, I would go ahead and say 95% of the people listening to this podcast won’t do it because it is so hard to do. It’s not just consistency, right? It’s consistency with a good program. It’s complete focus for three to four hours. Now, like I said, you can start with one hour and work your way up just like you would any kind of conditioning program.

This is mental conditioning, but you can work your way up. But you ultimately have to get to this new level and it might take a year, but you’ll start to truly experience what flow is like as a business owner, as a knowledge worker. You’ll start to truly understand when you’ve been working four hours on a project and it feels 15 minutes and you’re like, holy crap.

You just feel like you’re in a different zone and you start moving faster than any of your peers because you are unlocking a part of your brain that most people never will because they’re too busy scrolling Instagram. They’re too busy getting their snacks. They’re too busy checking their email. They’re too busy just dealing with tasks that don’t really matter.

So I want to challenge you to do deep work and then ask yourself, what will you build? What will I build if I were to truly embrace deep work? And then try harder.