In University, my professor made us take a throwaway online course from some Ivy league school (I think?) that lowkey ended up being one of the most valuable courses I took.
The name of the course?
I forget lol, but something along the lines of:
Learning how to learn (if I remember correctly… Kevin Rose also recommended this course on an episode of The Random Show way back in the day).
In a nutshell:
It wasn’t really a course on learning, but a course on the human brain and how to best work with it to get more out of your life.
And I remember taking that course and thinking:
This kind of runs contrary to all the hardcore hustle stuff I’ve read about in self help books (ashamed to say, but I must’ve read hundreds of self help books from the age of 14-20).
But what the hell… I’ll try it.
So try it, I did.
And the trial run was strange because I found myself doing the complete opposite of what my peers were doing.
In other words:
When they were studying in ‘study groups’...
I was studying alone.
When they were cramming 10-12 hour study marathons throughout the day…
I would wake up early and put in short bursts of deep study and be pretty much done with it (never missing a morning).
When they were pulling all nighters…
I was sleeping 9-10 hours/night & napping throughout the day.
When they were burying their nose into textbooks…
I was staring off into space.
When they were sacrificing everything in the pursuit of good grades…
I was partying, building businesses, and doing weird challenges to push myself outside my comfort zone.
When they were pounding coffee after coffee…
I was drinking the best water money could buy (or to put it more accurately… the best water I could afford at the time lol).
When they were studying with their phone beside them…
I didn’t even have a phone (let alone social media).
When they were aiming to get all their studying done before test day…
I would mentally decrease the date of the exam by 1 week and get done with all my studying 1 week prior to the exam (leaving the last week for light review and just chilling out/relaxing the mind/doing other things).
When they were “overloading” their brain with everything they possibly could during the last 24 hours leading up to the exam…
I was listening to rap music (“I got this” by Young Jeezy was my go to jam).
When they were experiencing test anxiety…
I was telling my brain: “You know everything you need to know. Now forget everything and go into the exam with a blank mind. And let the test question serve as a query that pulls the right answer from the vault of knowledge that is stored inside.”
When they were questioning how they would do in a class…
I was priming myself for success by writing “I am Tej Dosa and I got A+ in [Class 1], [Class 2], [Class 3], & [Class 4]” 10-15x every morning.
And the result of this experiment?
I went from being destined for academic probation to pretty much Acing every single course I took in University.
And the real kicker?
It was a complete breeeeeeeeeeze.
Now when you read that, you probably think to yourself:
“A complete breeze? Yeah, right. This sounds like marketing talk, Tej.”
And I get it, I am a marketer so guilty as charged.
But when I say it was a complete breeze, I mean exactly that and nothing less. It was such a breeze in fact that I stopped checking my grades altogether until months after the class finished because I already knew I aced it.
But puhleazeeeeee don’t get it twisted…
This doesn’t mean that it was a complete breeze for my peers.
My peers were going through hell (my major/school had a reputation at the time for being one of the hardest in the country).
They were struggling, flunking out, and cursing the academic gods.
And what was even wilder to see was…
The more they struggled, the more they “locked in” and studied.
But the more they studied, the worse they ended up doing.
“Why is this?!?!?!??!” they thought in frustration.
And I thought I had the answer (which was to work with your brain instead of against it) so I naively would share it, but you know how the game goes…
Nobody listens (especially not the people who need it the most).
So after a while, I said fuck it (the two most liberating words in the english language) and just kept it to myself and would quietly apply my learnings all throughout my University career.
(Probably the wisest thing to do because we were graded on a curve after all which meant you were “competing” with all your peers.)
And it served me well.
But then something strange happened.
What happened, you ask?
I graduated University and now the pressure was (really) on.
In other words, I gave myself 1 year to make my online business/copywriting pipe dreams take off to the next level or else I would throw in the towel and climb the investment banking ladder.
So with time ticking down and the weight of immigrant parents on my back, I found myself unknowingly deviating from the process that worked so well in University and aligning with the way of society.
This meant…
Instead of working alone, I was working with people all around me.
Instead of hyper focusing on the critical few and getting my high ROI work done in a couple hours, I was staring at the screen from 9 am to 9 pm.
Instead of sleeping 9-10 hours a night and napping throughout the day, I told myself I don’t have time for that shit and started sleeping 6-7 hours a night with 0 napping.
Instead of doing things outside of work to rest/reset my brain, I did nothing else but work, work, work.
Instead of hydrating myself with the best water I could find, I found myself standing in line at the coffee shop by day and pounding energy drinks by night.
Instead of operating without a phone, I found myself reaching for my phone and refreshing my email inbox like a crack addict.
Instead of completing projects in advance, I found myself working at the 9th hour to get them across the finish line.
Instead of chilling out and relaxing, I was filling my brain with as much copywriting/direct response knowledge as I possibly could during my “off hours”.
Instead of anticipating success and viewing it as already done, I was entertaining thoughts of doubt, uncertainty, and comparison.
And you know what happened as a result?
Nothing.
Nothing fucking happened lol.
So with pressure mounting and results lacking… I thought to myself:
“Things used to feel so easy. Now they feel hard. Why? Were the school days just school days and not reflective of the real world like everybody says? Or was there something else going on?”
I didn’t know, but I was determined to go out on my own terms.
So I decided:
“F it, I’m going to resist the noise of the world and apply the same process I applied in University to my online business and see what happens.”
And that’s exactly what I did.
Practically speaking, this meant:
Sleeping 8-9 hours a night
Trimming my work hours from 9a-9p to just knocking out 1-3 high ROI levers in a couple of hours. My levers at the time were the same each and every day and I would usually be done with em by noon. Leaving the rest of the day free. Lever #1. CopyHour (to build my direct response muscle) Lever #2. Writing copy to generate sales Lever #3. Fulfillment related task.
Waking up early and working alone
Setting constraints to improve performance/results
Prioritizing active forms of rest
Napping 20-30 minutes/day
Adding back hobbies & fuck around time
Anticipating success by writing out: “I am Tej Dosa and I easily make $x/month” 10-15x.
And you know what happened as a result?
Everything.
Or to put it more precisely:
I ended up making the yearly salary I would make if I went out and got a job with my College degree…
… in a matter of just 4 hours one day with my online business.
So with those results under my belt, the decision was made:
“F going corporate. Time to double down on online biz.”
And that’s exactly what I did and exactly what I’ve done for the last decade (never having to create a resume and enter the “real” world… whatever the F that means).
But that’s not why I’m sharing all the above with you today.
I’m sharing the above with you because there’s one concept I learned inside that learning course that was critical for me and that concept is what I want to shed light on inside this newsletter.
What’s the concept?
“Focused mode vs. diffused mode.”
This concept is the secret to working with your brain (instead of against it) and achieving peak performance (in any domain of life… university, business, athletics, etc.)
But the issue is…
Most people in today’s day and age are completely ignorant of this concept and thus experience lackluster results.
So with that being said:
Why exactly is this concept so important?
It’s important because it sheds light on the two modes of the brain that are needed in order to maximize learning, productivity, and performance.
Mode one is the mode all productivity gurus fixate on.
It’s the focused mode. In this mode, you are experiencing tunnel vision and hyper fixating on something. Maybe a task. Maybe a project. Maybe a problem. Whatever.
Mode two, on the other hand, is the mode hardly anybody talks about.
But it’s the mode that actually makes all your focused work bear fruit.
And that’s because:
It’s the diffused mode. In this mode, you are experiencing an expanded/relaxed state of awareness and focusing on nothing. Not a task. Not a project. Not a problem. Nothing.
By engaging in this mode, you allow the brain/subconscious to actually process and make sense of whatever inputs you fed it during your focused mode.
And this, my friend, was the secret I discovered in my university days that would go on to make all the difference.
In other words:
Contrary to what everybody tells you (including professors)…
It’s not enough to simply study.
You must also cultivate “white space” throughout the day that puts you in a more diffused mode so you can actually digest your studying.
It’s for this reason that I would decrease the exam date by 1 week, do a little bit each day, double down on sleeping/napping, and prioritize other forms of active rest (i.e. meditation/walking/listening to music) throughout the day...
So my brain could actually process, absorb, and commit to memory all of the studying that I was doing (which wasn’t much).
Without the white space and only studying (aka cramming), the brain doesn’t slip into the diffused mode of being so no real integration of the material happens.
This is why “cramming” at the last second is ineffective AF.
And this wasn’t just true academically, but also true when it comes to creativity and my marketing career.
When I was working 9a-9p and staring at the screen all day, I was only focusing on one side of the coin aka focused mode.
But the more time I spent in focused mode, the less money I made.
Because:
I wasn’t giving my brain/subconscious enough time to actually mine through all the work I was doing and turn it into gold.
This only happens during diffused mode.
With that stated:
Nothing really changed for me until I embraced a focused/diffused work pattern. With this simple change, I was able to actually put in the focused work (during my focus blocks) AND receive brilliant ‘BIG IDEAS’ for marketing promotions during the diffused blocks. The more I implemented these ideas, the more money I made.
So with all that understood…
I’m mentioning this today because I feel most people spend their entire day in the focused mode and it’s quite costly.
Even the things they do to “take a break” are focused mode activities (i.e. scrolling social media, playing video games, swiping on dating apps, watching television/youtube videos, listening to podcasts, etc.).
So the brain never gets a chance to “reboot”. (This also F’s with your focus over time and diminishes it.)
(Here’s the way I think about all this: You know how on your Macbook you get that notification every now and then to restart the computer to install new updates? It’s the same thing that happens with our brain. When we put in focused work, we generate new updates. But in order to actually install those updates, you have to restart the computer (aka enter diffused mode). Most people never restart the computer aka enter diffused mode so they don’t benefit from the new updates)
This is a shame because not only are you working against your brain, but you also miss out on the power of compounding.
So on that note, the question now becomes…
How do you actually buck this trend?
And the answer is quite simple.
Schedule 1 focus block & 1 diffused block into your day.
(This is all you have to do.)
During the focus block, write down 1-3 high ROI levers that if completed would move you closer to fulfilling your main intention. Then open your laptop and work on knocking these levers out in 2-4 hours. Do this daily and ideally early morning (before the world wakes up).
During the diffused block, schedule 1-3 hours of white space in your calendar where you are doing nothing. Simply chill, meditate, lay on the grass, take a nap, sit under a tree, sing/hum, talk to the birds, listen to relaxing music, and think about nothing. Simply be. Do this daily and ideally during the heart of the day (when everybody else is working).
If you apply just the above two things, then you’ll start to notice your brain kicking into an extra gear and things getting easier and easier.
This is the case because the ‘diffused mode’ not only generates brilliant new ideas (without you consciously trying to), but also it ‘resets’ and ‘restores’ your focus and energy levels which over time makes your focused mode sessions infinitely more productive.
And this isn’t just true for you and I.
If you analyze the schedules of the world’s greatest creatives, you’ll notice this is pretty much how they operated.
Here’s Haruki Murakami’s daily schedule for example:
Wake up early
Make cup of coffee
Write for five or six hours (focused mode)
Afternoon: Nap, read books, listen to music (diffused mode)
Run for 1 hour (active rest for the mind)
Most people see this and love the ease/simplicity of it.
But if you look deeper, you’ll quickly realize:
Writing for five or six hours every day is no joke.
And IMO:
It’s actually the time spent napping, reading books, listening to music, and running that actually allows him to renew/reset to keep this rigorous writing routine intact.
(If he cut out all those diffused mode activities, I’d be willing to bet that he wouldn’t be able to sustain 5-6 hours of high quality writing/day.)
So that’s how it works.
But this isn’t really something you can read about.
It’s something you must experiment with…
So if you’ve been typing your fingers to the bone, then maybe just maybe it’s time to stop that way of being and enter a more diffused way of being.
If, on the other hand, you’ve been living a more diffused life, then maybe just maybe it’s time to add a focused block to your mornings.
Regardless:
One doesn’t work without the other.
So apply both and make the yin dance with the yang.
It’s a game changer.
A word of caution though:
If you operate under the belief that ‘work’ only happens when you’re ‘working’, then you may feel guilty for scheduling a 1-3 hour ‘diffused’ block into your day. Do it anyway. Start small. Even 30 minutes. Keep consistent. Allow yourself this gift. And quickly you’ll overcome this programming and realize the real work happens when your familiar self isn’t working, but something deeper and more powerful is (call it God or your subconscious or Life itself… whatever).
Once you realize this, everything changes.
And improves BIGLY.
So give it a shot.
(At the very least, you’ll achieve monk-like focus without having to give up your life).
Your friend,
/tej
P.S. When I was first taught how to focus by my favorite internet marketers, I was taught to ‘cut out all the things that aren’t work from your life’ so focus becomes the default/inevitable. So, this is what I did. But it didn’t work out too well for me. And that’s because I unknowingly cut out all the ‘diffused’ mode activities/non activities. It wasn’t until I added these back that I was able to unlock greater focus and greater results.
P.P.S. Unrelated, but I’ve been uploading one new podcast every Wednesday at 5:00 am EST with my friend Danny Miranda. The last one was a mind f*ck. Check it out here.
🙌!!!
Thank you for this