If you're wondering how to productively best utilise your time, then this video might be of
great importance as we understand how long you can realistically look to do deep and focused work,
but equally how you can utilise the rest of your time to benefit your output.
So one thing I've noticed that you may have too is that when working on something mentally taxing,
my brain tends to struggle with maintaining productivity after a handful of hours.
Sometimes this might be 3 hours, but most days when I feel well it's around 4, what I refer
to as the "4 hour rule". For others who don't regularly mentally strain themselves, it might
be limited to just 1 or 2 hours...and no, it's not that I or others are lazy, but it's built upon our
capacity for work in a day before we need rest. Today, I actually break down most of my days to
have set periods of time of up to around four hours where I do my most creative and
challenging work, because I understand what I'm capable of and equally my limitations.
And I'm in pretty good company here, for example Charles Darwin would work in his study from around
8am, staying in there for about an hour and a half. At 9:30 he would read his mail and write
letters. At 10:30, Darwin returned to more focused work, sometimes moving to his aviary or greenhouse
to conduct experiments. By 12pm, he would often finish his day's work and go for a long walk.
As you can see from his example, his average day would often have about 3 hours of focused work
where he devised and developed his greatest ideas and breakthroughs. Otherwise, his day was spent
doing smaller, less taxing tasks or resting. And this practice of great thinkers of the past
not working extensive hours in the day isn't actually that uncommon,
but... Why Is This?
In a study conducted by psychologist Karl Anders Ericsson, it was found that in training on music,
the best students on average did so for around the 4 or 5 hour mark.
The study itself is fascinating, as it delves into an idea of deliberate practice and forms the
foundations to Malcolm Gladwell's principle idea of the 10,000 hour rule to becoming an expert,
though I'll look to cover that in another video.
Now, it's not that everyone should abide to this idea of 4 hours of focused work, as while it works
for me, it may not for you. As Kalina Michalska, a developmental neuroscientist and assistant
professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California at Riverside says,
humans have individual differences “in attentional networks and circadian rhythms”.
Simply, we're all unique so it comes down to understanding your individual biology
to utilise your time most effectively. However, there's more to my working day on
average than the 4 hours, so... How Do I Apply The 4 Hour Rule?
First and foremost, the principle point that's of greatest importance to me when planning
what work I want to complete in a day is to identify those tasks which require me to think
the most and requires the most focus. For example, as someone who does software development this is
usually the time I'll spend on the most complex development that I need to do on that day.
Now in addition to that, I've found the time of the day I tend to be at my most productive
is between 9am and 1pm, so I'll look to book in and complete this work during that time,
including some short breaks to avoid burnout in the 4 hours.
Great, so now we've worked out that I've scheduled in time to complete the more
complex mental exercises for my day, but how do I utilise the rest of the time in my working day?
Well, if I'm totally honest it's rare that I do, in most cases I utilise some of the
hours around the 4 hour block, but on average I think I probably waste some of the time too,
either doing non-productive tasks or talking to colleagues or friends.
You might think this is quite an odd thing to say in a video about increasing productivity,
but in a study conducted in the UK, it was found that the average person only productively
used 2-3 hours of their working day. So even with me utilising the time the way I do,
I'm actually significantly more productive than the average person.
And in reality while I call it unproductive time, it's actually time for my personal development.
Now, I appreciate you might be wondering, why am I more productive?
Well, it's because I'm aware of the idea of the 4 hour rule, and I'm quite careful about how I
manage my schedule and time, meaning I'm actively recording how my time is utilised each day.
So now the question is, if I've done all the heavy lifting in my 4 hour block,
what do I do in the rest of time? While we've got a limited capacity of how
much we can do each day on a taxing task, you can still complete other less straining tasks
at other times. In essence, this is the time I use to complete admin tasks that really requires
little thought, usually responding to emails or planning for the coming days.
Going back to my example of Charles Darwin, this was the time he spent reading or writing letters,
or just resting or going for walks, which in itself is something beneficial as it's
been found that walking can help creativity. The point here is that tasks that are mentally
less taxing don't need to be completed in your focus block, rather they're tasks
that can be completed around that time. A great example of this is Tony Robbins,
who was a janitor when young and would work through the night to build up his business as
a performance coach. His job was something that provided an income to survive, but
wasn't something that would require deep thought. However, when the evening came, his time to spend
focused effort to build a business was utilised and well...I don't think I really need to tell
you how successful he's become since then. So understand your body and your psychology,
and apply something similar to the 4 hour rule to most productively utilise your day. Around this,
don't waste the time you have, but instead use it productively on less demanding tasks.
In doing so, you'll have an edge on the vast majority of people!