0:00 imagine completing a month's worth of work before dinner sounds ridiculous right well the science shows there's an unconventional but proven way to actually do this and it's the ultimate hack for Peak Performance and work life balance and it will permanently redefine what productivity actually means to you now I'm ran Daris co-founder and CEO of the flow research Collective we've used neuroscience-based principles to train everyone from Audi centure to the US Air Force to access states of flow at will it turns out there's a new of science-based protocol to compress 30 days of output into 11 hours I'm going to break that down for you in a moment this is a protocol you can run to take yourself to an intentionally unsustainable extreme with the benefit of knowing that it's temporary and that
0:45 it's time bound so that you can produce an extreme result A month's worth of work progress achievement in a single day it's an Olympian level feat challenging to pull off but doable and it's called the on month day I'll never forget my first one Monon day I was temporarily living in New York working on my masters in applied Neuroscience I did everything I'm about to break down in this video I managed to write half of the thesis in one day proofread it convert it into the necessary academic format and submit the thing and I left the library high as a kite finished at 11:30 p.m. on Friday and couldn't believe I had done it all and was able to take the whole weekend off it was a Heavenly feeling ever since the one month day has been an indispensable part of my pig performance toolkit but before
1:30 I break down how to execute the one-month day how is it possible to accomplish A month's worth of work in a single day well let's run the map research suggests that the average knowledge worker does real work for only 2.3 hours per day or about 46 hours per month in contrast research done by McKenzie has shown that Executives can increase their productivity by up to 500% when in a flow State at work psychologist Mii jmi describes flow as a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing external seems to matter a characteristic of the flow state is a potent mix of brain chemicals dopamine nephrine endorphins anandamide and serotonin that directly enhance our performance and this neurochemical change is highlighted in research conducted by Arna Dietrich of the
2:16 American University of Beirut dopamine and norepinephrine sharpen focus and boost pattern recognition and motivation endorphins and anandamide increase endurance and enhance creative thinking and serotonin elevates our mood and helps us stick with ch alling tasks now considering these neurological shifts it's easy to see how a 500% productivity boost is possible but this 500% figure though astounding is actually kind of conservative Believe It or Not we've seen Elite performers match a full-time day in just 60 to 90 minutes of dedicated time spent on the right work in a flow State and when you do the Flow State stacking we about to cover 500% productivity boosts start to sound inevitable still for our one Monon day calculation let's be conservative and assume a 400% a 4X increase in
3:01 productivity at four times productivity for 11 hours you can achieve the equivalent of 44 hours of average work output in that single day now to show you that a one- Monon day is possible let's walk through exactly how to pull it off in order to make the one month day a reality requires maximizing the four pillars of flow first you have to remove all the flow blockers things that make flow imp possible then you have to increase your flow proness that is your tendency and likelihood of accessing flow at any given moment third you make expert use of flow triggers all throughout the day these are the preconditions that pop you into a flow State and finally you enter and exit the flow cycle multiple times in the day to ensure your brain can sustain the neurochemistry of flow for the entire day now don't worry we're going to cover
3:47 these along the way as we break down how to set up schedule and run the one month day and that brings us to step one which is isolate the target the first part of the one month day happens before the day even begins you want to take a moment to consider everything that's on your plate consider your current goals and your current plan for the next 30 days or so if you could snap your fingers and have something be completed in a day that would normally take you about a month what would that piece of work be when I was studying neuroscience at King's College in London I knew exactly what I wished I could wave a magic wand and finish it was my masters in Neuroscience thesis now as an example you may want to rebuild a complex system in your business or complete several chapters for a book that you're working on or develop an entirely new skill after all flow increases learning rates by up to
4:33 490 You' be shocked by how much Mastery you can attain with 11 hours spent in flow focusing on acquiring skill or knowledge On Any Given subject but whatever it is bring something to mind to accomplish during your one month day okay now that you've got that thing in mind we need to convert that outcome into what's called a clear goal and mihi chii's research on Flow State chmi identified several preconditions that cause flow to emerge and again these are called flow triggers but there's one precondition for flow that isn't just a trigger it's a prerequisite without this there's no flow and that trigger is called clear goals a clear goal is an action to take a target for your attention on the task level that will lead to the ultimate outcome clear goals aren't about the Finish Line they're about the next step selling a million
5:18 books is the dream writing 500 Words is today's clear goal now clear goals decrease cognitive load the number of items held in working memory so your brain isn't bogged down deciding what to do next this these more mental resources for actually doing the work and neurologically when a clear goal is set the prefrontal cortex filters out a relevant information allowing for deeper immersion in the task then as clear goals are hit dopamine floods your system this reward chemical makes the work feel good and keeps you motivated sustaining your attention in order to pull off the one month day you need to have your clear goals decided upon before the day even begins if you're not sure what to focus on ask number one what action if completed would progress my primary professional Pursuit the most or what task will allow me to do more with less or reduce future demands of my
6:04 time energy and attention that may be the target for your one month day remember the brain craves clear goals clear goals filter the noise and free you to focus now that you've isolated the target for your attention that brings us to the second steps for making the one month day work which is to clear the load in order to pull off the one month day your flow proness has to be high flow proness refers to your inherent tendency or likelihood to experience flow frequently and easily rather than leave this up to chance we can intentionally clear everything that suppresses flow proness in advance the first is to clear your allostatic load for the one month day your body and brain must be fully recovered flow requires neurochemicals that are expensive for the brain to produce it's not possible to sustain the state for long without proper recovery the way to recover is to clear your allostatic load
6:51 which is a fancy way of referring to the physical wear and tear that your body and brain accumulates throughout your day-to-day to clear your alistic load use active recovery protocols active recovery is different to passive recovery active recovery involves engaging actively in activity that accelerates the recovery process activates the parasympathetic nervous system and downregulates your sympathetic nervous system things like nature immersion cold plunges sauna and massage and of course get 7 to n hours of sleep the key to getting successful sleep is to go to bed deaf blind cold and hungry that's how we like to put it deaf means blocking out all sound and using some kind of earbuds blind is easiest done by using an shade cold means having the temperature cold and hungry means not eating at least 3 hours before bed and you can track how low
7:36 your allostatic load is and how high your recovery is before your one month day by looking at your heart rate variability your HRV which is a key indicator of Fitness stress and Readiness for Peak Performance you want to aim to get your HRV at or above your usual average 30-day range to heighten your flow proness and be fit for the one month day and if there are any acute stressors in your life save the one month day for another day you don't want to be doing a one Monon day on the break of getting sick or after having had a week of terrible sleep or being plagued with jet lag now the second piece is to clear your cognitive load after you've cleared your alistic load cognitive load refers to the number of items you're carrying and working memory research has shown that flow triggers work by decreasing cognitive load start with erasing all possible decisions from the
8:21 day don't wake up wondering where you're going to work what you'll wear or what you'll eat prep your clothes commute and food the night before save all decision making for your time spent in flow on the work rather than on the minutia within the day required to get to doing the work treat this process as if you're preparing for a 3:00 a.m. flight where every detail is planned out the night before your bags are packed you're checked in for the flight your boarding pass and passport already in your pocket and you have a ride to get to the airport that's the level of preparation needed to truly pull off a one Monon day the next step for clearing cognitive load is to wrap up all new sents go through all your text respond to everything as needed ping whoever you need to Ping and wrap up any final dangling tasks the rule here is zero open Loops are allowed for the one month day the final step for clearing your
9:07 cognitive load is to set your workspace up to be a flow Dojo a chaotic physical environment mirrors mental chaos to organize your workspace as carefully as you would arrange the tree light stockings and gifts for the kids on Christmas morning for example instead of having to pull out your laptop untangle a cable and search for an outlet set your office up the day or night before so you can press a key and boom start working immediately now on the final kind of load we want to clear to nail our one month day we want to clear our life maintenance load life maintenance load is all the necessary but nonwork tasks that keep your personal World running think cooking cleaning errands it's the plate spinning that prevents a breakdown but doesn't actually Propel you forward for the one month day you must bring your life maintenance load as low as possible or find a way to safely pause it for a full day I had a list by
9:53 prepping a week's worth of meals Outsourcing laundry whenever possible and knocking out all minor errands the week before for the one month day I also make sure my primary relationships are in a good place and give friends family and work colleagues a heads up that I'll be completely offline for those 24 hours so now you've cleared the load to boost your flow proness it's time to guard yourself against everything that will threaten your ability to hit the target that we've already set during your one month day and that brings us to number three which is to build an impenetrable flow Fortress within which you're going to carry out your one month day now tell me if you can relate to this I'm deep in a crucial task the momentum is building I'm on a roll then my phone pings it's just a glance I think but that glance spirals into seconds minutes then hours this is distraction at work and it's the most immediate flow blocker before you kick off the one month day you must make
10:40 distractions and impossibility this means first free yourself from the phone if working at an office keep your phone at home leave it there if working at home turn it off and store it in the back shed lock it up or give it to your spouse whatever you got to do the rule here is simple it's Out Of Reach and hard to even access keeping your phone in the room even if it's off is like keeping your car car door open all night you'll drain the battery of your brain your brain has to work hard to ignore the phone's constant promise of effortless reward of easy dopamine my flow Fortress Is Here in LA in a garage and what I like to do is turn off the phone and put it in my bedroom which is on the floor above out of sight out of mind the next thing we want to do is to go dark no emails texts calls or instant messaging all notifications turned off and we want to inform people beforehand that we're not going to be available for the entire day everyone needs to know
11:27 you'll be unreachable and you need the of mind that you won't be interrupted and that all the Loops have been closed so that people aren't going to be wondering why you're unreachable they know where to find you in an emergency and then you want to block everything on your computer except what you're working on use tools like self-control or freedom to make accessing specific sources of distraction nearly impossible and of course you want to set up a disruption free environment research by Gloria Mark highlights the hidden cost of disrupted work even a small task switch increases stress drains cognitive resources and extends the time it takes to finish a task even after the disruption ends your brain needs a significant chunk of time about 21 minutes to regain concentration this is why trying to do a one-month day in an office with the disruptions of swarming colleagues or at home with kids running around will not work not even close if
12:14 needed check into a hotel or co-working space for the day there's even famous stories of people booking 15 plus hourong flights and doing their one mother day to protect themselves from Interruption you love having this kind of impenetrable attention and you'll notice how deep the flow state that you end up immersing in will become the last step in building a flow Fortress Is to make self-distraction impossible during the one month day you can count on this happening you're deep in the flow words flying code compiling creativity crackling and then bam an idea unrelated to your task Pops in an errand you forgot to run intrude with urgency or you think of something you need to tell a colleague well if you give into these distracting thoughts your focus will fracture like a dropped mirror shattering slowly into multiple pieces these sorts of thoughts are particularly likely to drop into your head when
13:00 you're offline that's because it's easy to get worried about not checking in the way to deal with this impulse to self-d distract is to take a note take a breath and then take a quick walk that is keep a notepad with you during your one month day specifically dedicated to externalizing the thoughts that will pop up so that rather than acting on those thoughts you jot them down you get it out of your head to lower cognitive load and then you get back into float with all distractions and disruptions guarded against it's time to dive into the one month day itself when you run the one month day you are flow stacking and specifically you are stacking flow blocks together now flow block is a discrete chunk of time usually one to two hours in which you allocate all of your attention to the task at hand such that you tap into flow and milk that flow state for all that it is worth here's how you can dive into your first
13:46 flow block when your brain is the most primed for flow that brings us to the fourth step to run a one- Monon day which is wake up and Float my partner stepen Cotler has written over a dozen best-selling books he wrote all of them by waking up at 3:00 a.m. which he's done for nearly 30 years now and then dropping straight into flow so to kick off the one month day instead of an elaborate routine wake up and dive into your highest priority task not in an hour within 90 seconds of opening your eyes why well because Alpha and Theta the neuroelectrical signature of flow are not far from Theta or Delta which are the brain waves active in sleep the struggle phase of flow is the movement from beta to the borderline between Alpha and Theta this is a way to shortcut it even if you're half asleep and groggy drop right into your most important task within 15 minutes you'll wake up in a flow State while working
14:32 this dream to waking state is when your flow proness is naturally at its peak it might be a struggle at first stage one of the flow cycle being the struggle phase but once you get through the initial rough patch you release into a flow State more quickly than fully waking up doing some elaborate morning routine and this brings us to the next critical step to increasing your flow proness treat each flow block as an event the average knowledge worker's day is a blur it's endless emails scattered projects and the nagging feeling of never truly being finished work bleed into life and back again the result a NeverEnding state of almost done this starkly contrasts the event-based work required for the one month day event-based work let you give your all to flow blocks then truly unplugg during breaks to maximize the flow you get during the one month day the key is to
15:18 approach each flow block as if you're a soldier about to enter the battlefield picture the tense focused Cal that envelops a soldier in the moments before action you're on the front line poised and ready you're is heightened awaiting the signal to advance with a deep steadying breath you prepare mentally and physically then the command is given and you surge forward Into The Fray every move calculated every action purposeful honing in on the Target or imagine yourself as an Olympian you've trained your whole life for this one shoted gold medal once you dive in you're all in when you treat each flow block as an event in this way you evoke resources within you that are otherwise inaccessible physiologically adrenaline surges heightening alertness the heart rate accelerates pumping oxygen rich blood to your muscles your body your brain and psychologically memory
16:04 circuits in hippocampus providing a mental blueprint for the actions that you're taking before any flow block that I do I always say to a friend or a colleague if they're there all right I'm going under as I put my headphones on and start that flow block a flow block should have some sort of trigger sipping a coffee closing a door putting on those headphones pull a trigger and drop into the slipstream of flow to help Ure you treat each flow block as an event we can enhance the stakes and specialness of the one one month day and that brings us to step six which is to cement the commitment during the one month day as you move through one flow block after another entering and exiting the flow cycle it's key to not let yourself get derailed during any of your quick breaks for me the biggest sabator of the one month day is when I let it specialness erode for example checking my WhatsApp just for a minute in the morning getting
16:50 one quick call in because it's really important and I felt I couldn't delay it I've learned that the one month day needs to be completely categorically distinct from every other day in your life you want to think of it like a cherished holiday tradition you Faithfully observe all the rituals that make it special you need the one month day to be sacrosanct too important valuable or special to be interfered with or it will erode into normaly and the composure will fall apart so to make the one-month day sacr synct we can leverage a powerful external flow trigger and use our cognitive biases to work for us instead of against us first we can embed the external flow trigger of high consequences as Action Sports athletes can attest a high consequence environment demands that we summon a higher degree of skill and focus than what is typically required in the brain the higher consequence flow trigger activates the amydala which processes
17:36 emotions like fear anxiety it signals to the rest of the brain that something important is at stake thereby increasing neurochemical responses adrenaline dopamine and nephrine are released sharpening focus and reaction time to heighten the high consequences ritualize the one month day treat it as a sacred experience you're dedicating yourself to accelerating your most meaningful impact or goals for example you can Check Into Your Dream Hotel work in the lobby during the day and buy the highest end massage in the spa pay to make it an event a special event a sacran day that you are backing with finances to create Financial Stakes there's immense pleasure in ritualizing this buy your favorite snacks or meal wear your favorite clothes schedule your favorite social gathering for the next day and do the most pleasurable recovery activities
18:22 that ice bath and sauna that you love a beach workout pepper the day with pleasurable rewards investing in making the one month day acros leverages our cognitive biases in our favor in particular the sun cost policy once you've invested in setting up the perfect work conditions your brain will fight to avoid squandering the resources you spent on that setup this urges us to stay consistent and combats the temptation to give up and boost your motivation to power through the one month day and here's why this is so important every second counts you're going for an Olympian level feat here think about what you're trying to do you're trying to do a month of work in a day it sounds ridiculous and hyperbolic but again it's possible however there are no 5 minutes here or there in a one month day if we're actually going to pull this off no singular phone check no quick call with your doctor you might be having a productive day in that way but
19:08 with a one month day there's no margin for error it must be uncontaminated a single meeting or call however short can tilt the entire day while an open calendar allows you to get sucked into flow a scheduled meeting acts as a flow black hole sucking your Flow State into it the way to avoid this is to keep the one month day sacri make no exceptions for anything other than that Olympian level feet you're engaged in so now that you have the building blocks for running a one- month day let's dive into the actual hour by hour schedule now most people have one of two reactions to this when they see it reaction one isn't this a recipe for overworking and burnout well in reality working too hard isn't really a thing under recovering is and part of how we get in the right amount of recovery which replenishes our energy is by entering and exiting the flow cycle multiple times in a single day
19:53 which brings us to the second reaction people have to this schedule they're shocked by how many hours of recovery are contained within a one month day surely you got to get up at 5 and work straight until midnight in order to pull this kind of feet off right well no it's quite the opposite most people if they try to do this amount of work linearly just plowing through hours of work they'll hit a wall by the time they're 5 hours in they'll be sapped their composure will flop they'll check Instagram grab a sugary snack and boom the thing collapses instead who we're trying to multiply is our per hour output to do so we have to enter and exit the flow cycle over over and over with rapidity struggle release flow recovery On and On Again throughout the one month day the beauty with the one month day is that you are oscillating like an Olympian from extreme exertion
20:39 to extreme recovery and back to extreme exertion so let's bring this schedule to life with a quick play-by-play this is where you'll see how all the components of the one- Monon day fit together this play-by-play is based on the schedule of early risers those who wake up at around 5:00 a.m. Rising early isn't a prerequisite your biology will have its unique prime time to start when you're most flow prone historically if you are gener Riser move the start of the day up a few hours and run the equivalent schedule starting a little bit later here's what a one month day actually looks like so 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. we have flow block one your eyes open because you prioritize sleep you feel alert instead of grgy for the first flow block wake up and flow this is your body's Prime Time pull up the task you carefully targeted the night before and dive in push past any initial struggle and then let that momentum build most
21:25 people can flow for an hour before needing a quick boredom break focused attention draws on cognitive control resources which deplete over time a brief non-stimulating break allows these resources to replenish much like a muscle resting the key is to keep these brakes short and nonstimulating don't do anything that will suck you in and prevent you from getting back into flow just sit there and stare at a blank wall for a few minutes and you'll be surprised by how quickly you'll regain energy and be itching to get back to work now 8: to 9:00 a.m. we're going to do some nonstimulating recovery the buzzer sounds you banked 3 hours of ultra efficient time spent in flow you've moved through the flow cycle struggle release and flow now it's time to do the fourth phase recovery to recover take a longer break do a flow proness reboot meditate do yoga take a cold shower and incubate come up with
22:12 ideas from your work integrate what you've just completed ideally you remain in a fasted state food can often be a flow deterent depending on your metabolic fitness and health you can remove this variable for another 3 hours if needed have 100 Mig of caffeine to Stave off hunger and 200 Mig of althe for a significant cognitive boost with the alanine cutting down any angst the caffeine might bring on and this primes you for the next flow block 9:00 a.m. to 12: p.m. it's time to jump into another 3 hours of flow as long as you didn't get distracted you should be raring to go it's time to restart the flow cycle roll up your sleeves take a breath push past the struggle phase and watch tasks vanish steadily from your list as you continue your Relentless Pace from 12: to 1:00 p.m. we want non-stimulating recovery again you've moved through the first three phases of the flow cycle and
22:58 G to the other side to keep this pace up a quick recovery is needed take a nap a quick walk or do some stretching eat a fuel meal food that will pump out more Flow State rather than give you lunch brain at this point you've already enjoyed 6 hours of focused work time spent in flow you're already two weeks ahead of the average knowledge work from 1: to 3: p.m. we're going to do our next flow Block it's time to dive back into flow but this time it'll likely only be about 2 hours the reason is that for most people these afternoon chunks come with energy troughs this is also by a nap beforehand in the prior recovery block can be a great idea we'll still move through the flow cycle but we'll be in flow for Less total time then from 3: to 5:00 p.m. we're going to do a longer active recovery block now you've hit the trough this deeper restoration will give you what you need for the final Sprint
23:44 soak in a bath hot or cold take a luxurious nap do a full workout for a strong parasympathetic rebound nitric oxide flush an injection of Feelgood anandamide which exercise brings out or have a sauna and an ice plunge if you plan to get a massage this is the time we've still got one more flow cycle to spin through which is from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. the fourth flow block this is it approach these last 3 hours of flow like it's the end of a marathon when competing with world class competitors it's that final stretch even the last 10 seconds that leads to Victory have water handy open the window for fresh air crank the air conditioner to keep you Vigilant blast some epic Tunes as you're working to stay in the zone leave nothing in the tank in this final flow Sprint persist and finish the day strong and then at 8m we want to recover and relax Congratulations by flow stacking
24:31 and repeatedly entering and exiting the flow cycle you've managed to get 11 intense deeply focused hours of Flow State wedged into a single day now it's time to land back to Earth and relish the fact that you just accomplished what most people manage to in a month and as you run the one month day you'll feel a satisfying intentional fatigue known as the flow Afterglow it's that deeply satisfying emptied out feeling of accomplishment that only comes after riding the wave of flow for an extended period in the brain the dopamine norepinephrine and serotonin of flow subsides and you're rewarded with relaxing neurochemicals like endorphins and endoc canabo as you learn to recognize and relish the flow Afterglow it becomes a self reinforcing cycle the more you experience it the more you want it and the more you push yourself to reach New Heights that makes it a Target to shoot for which boosts performance and achievement because you can only experience it by getting into flow and
25:17 sustaining it for a long time for this reason the one month day is one of the biggest drivers of the flow Afterglow once you experience the one month day you'll permanently elevate your Baseline and you'll pull your seemingly impossible goals towards you and by having this skill in your back pocket you gain self-confidence self-efficacy and conviction in your ability to execute it decreases stress knowing that you can deploy this whenever needed so now that you know how to run the one month day the next question is how often should you do it after all producing A month's worth of accomplishment in a single day May gain you progress but it's intense here are a few modes of Olympian productivity to consider each mode determines how often to run the one month day acceleration mode involves running a one Monon day once per month start your month with an intense surge of output that builds momentum you can
26:03 ride turbo mode is to run a one Monon day once per week do this to gain leverage that allows you to do more with less for the rest of the quarter finally there's light speed mode run a one month day for 5 days once per quarter this is for the Trailblazers the record Breakers the eat my dust Achievers sometimes this is needed to hit a book deadline to launch a new product before a competitor does or to get a new company off the ground in light speed mode you can accomplish what ends up feel like years worth of work in weeks or months this is how you achieve the impossible and if you want to take the one Monon day even further do the oneyear month Institute this once a year this is a 30-day period where you enter what we like to call Flow mode summoning from within a hitherto unseen level of performance to accomplish a superhuman feat every performance Improvement you know that
26:48 works for you becomes the default the mandatory Baseline feeding only steak and broccoli puts you at your best that's what you do for this 30 days if waking up at 4:00 a.m. puts you at your best that's what you do for these 30 days if having no phone whatsoever puts you at your best that's what you do for 30 days after a properly executed one month day you won't view yourself or life the same now there's a way to get even more out of the one month day and that is to supercharge your creative rumination before during and afterward to learn how click the video on screen
