The Self-employed’s Guide To Getting 70% Of Your Day’s Work Done In Three Hours

I’m the living proof.

Most self-employed people could easily cut their work hours in half yet still achieve the same results.

As a former Consistent Performance Coaching instructor, I’ve seen it over and over.

You get up in the morning and spend just five minutes scrolling through your phone. You check your messages and answer a few emails. Before you know it, it’s time for breakfast or coffee and after that, lunch quickly rolls around.

When you’re full from your meal, the piled-up to-dos give you tier two anxiety. What could’ve been a productive day turns into a nerve-racking game of catch-up.

When you finally close your laptop, it’s too late and you’re too exhausted to enjoy the rest of your day.

But there’s another way.

I start working at 8:30 am and by the time lunch rolls around, I already have 70% of my day’s work done.

Se-ven-ty per-cent.

By 2:30 pm, I’m usually done with my day. Everything that comes after is free cake. By 3:30 pm, I close my laptop and have seven free hours left before I kiss the pillow.

Not bad for a working day.

There’s no magic secret.

Just a good system and simple tool — used the right way.

Here’s how you can do it, too.

This Is The Centerpiece Of Any Super-productive Day

As a self-employed person, deep work is the most powerful tool you have — so much that Cal Newport has written a bestselling book about it.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to read through it all — I’ll give you the gist.

Deep work is a period of highly-focused, uninterrupted work spent on the tasks that move the needle most.

Nailing this down makes the difference between driving on the Autobahn and being stuck in a series of red lights and traffic jams.

While it sounds simple, most freelancers and entrepreneurs aren’t nearly as efficient with their time as they could be.

• Highly-focused? Sure, let me just check this email, watch this video, and do a little bit of googling. Oh, what was I supposed to be working on again
• Uninterrupted? If I had a dollar for every push notification, email sound, or unexpected call these people get, I wouldn’t have to work another day in my life.
• Moving the needle? The harsh truth is that most people focus on what feels good instead of what they should do. This keeps you busy without making meaningful progress.

Let’s turn you into a deep work master instead, so you can plow through your tasks like a bullet train through fresh snow.

How To Win Half The Battle Before It Even Starts

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

— Abraham Lincoln

Deep work is for one thing and one thing only.

Execution.

Not planning. Not reading. Not sending emails.

That’s why preparation is key — if you have to change your tires every time you drive to the grocery store, your shopping will take a lot longer.

Being unprepared kills your progress.

When I write an article, I can’t stop mid-paragraph to google stuff. If you switch between planning, doing, and thinking about what comes next, you leave massive amounts of productivity on the table. Instead, you want to execute and execute only.

Here’s how you can make sure you’re ready to perform at your best when it counts.

If you want to get something done, make time for it

Big news: Time is your most valuable resource.

Yet, you often hand it out like candy without even noticing. A call here, a chat there, a quick scroll on Instagram. One hour of your valuable lifetime — gone.

If you don’t claim your time, somebody or something else will.

That’s why you have to create a time block for your deep work.

• Early morning is best. This way, you’ll be able to do what matters before the shit show starts and you’ll have to put out fires.
• Block around three hours. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to take quick breaks.

Now here’s the most important part.

Protect this time block like your newborn around a pedophile rehabilitation center.

No calls, no meetings, no funny cat pictures, no nothing.

Just time for your deep work.

Communication is key

This is a no-brainer, but it’s easy to overlook.

When I started my business working from home, other people assumed that because I wasn’t in an office, I was happy to chat with them or help with errands.

No, sucker. I’m trying to get shit done.

Tell people politely, but in a way that leaves no room for discussion:

“My deep work block is crucial to me and my business. A five-minute interruption will likely cost me an hour further down the line. We can talk in the afternoon, but unless the house burns down, I don’t want to be bothered with ANYTHING. Thank you for your understanding.”

You might have to repeat yourself a few times, but eventually, people will respect your boundaries.

Plan your OT and MITs

It’s finally time to whip out the fun acronyms.

First, your OT — your One Thing.

The idea comes from the bestselling book The One Thing. It’s super simple. Just ask yourself: “What’s the one thing I can do so that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary?”

If you tick it off, you’ve progressed your business, no matter what happens after.

My current One Thing is writing at least one article every day. No matter what happens after, I’ve honed my writing skills, earned money, and increased my reach.

Next, your MITs — your Most Important Tasks.

If everything’s important, nothing is important.

Productivity guru and best-selling author Chris Baley says:

“Having just three items to focus on throughout the day and week will help you stay centered and accomplish more, even on days when everything hits the fan.”

Everything else is on the back burner — ready to pick up if you have extra time, but not a priority.

Last but not least:

Plan tomorrow today.

The end of your workday is the perfect time to plan the next one. You know what you’ve done, what’s left, and what next steps to take. Doing so saves you the mental hustle of thinking about all the potential possibilities in the morning.

How To Have Your Most Productive Hours Ever

As a kid, I was crazy about Formula 1 races. Today, I use their principles to make the most out of my working hours.

Two factors make a car the fastest on the track.

First — the car’s speed and handling, determined by the engine, tires, and driver’s skill.

Second — few things slowing it down, like pitstops and risky overtakes.

Deep work is the same.

To make the most out of it, two factors have to come together: Laser focus and an absence of distractions.

How to create laser-focus

Throughout the years, I’ve amassed a bunch of tools that lock me into my work like an Alcatraz prisoner into his cell.

• Work with your BRAC cycle. You have a basic-rest-activity-cycle that works like the sleep cycles you go through at night. For most people, that means working in periods of roughly 90 minutes and taking 10-minute breaks in between.
• Use Pomodoro blocks. If you can’t stay focused for 90 minutes straight, try a Pomodoro timer. The basic concept is simple: 25-minute work blocks followed by 5-minute breaks.
• Listen to binaural beats. I’ve downloaded mine from YouTube because listening to them puts me in a mental flow state. There are different frequencies, so find out what works for you.
• Create a flow ritual. Every morning, I go through the same steps. Look at my vision board, run through my affirmations, open my To-Do list and tackle my One Thing. Create your ritual and condition your brain to focus mode. You can use sounds, incense, affirmations, meditations, movements, prayers — just keep it short and to the point.
• Use your breaks right. Your breaks should give your brain some rest. Don’t fucking scroll through Instagram or check your WhatsApp. Don’t think about your afternoon work. Walk a few steps, stretch, take some deep breaths, and shake off the tension. You’ll come back with fresh energy.

How to minimize distractions

Distractions kill your productivity.

Research shows it takes an average of 23 minutes to fully get back into your task after an interruption. Here’s how you can avoid them:

• Turn off all notifications. Notifications are to your focus what a needle is to a balloon animal. The bings and pop-up windows are an app’s way to draw your attention to them. I’ve turned all notifications off, both on my phone and laptop — and haven’t missed them ever since.
• Use noise-canceling headphones. I’m a very audio-sensitive person. Every time a baby cries, a car honks, or my upstairs neighbor screams Oh my god (she seems to be a very devoted Christian), I lose focus. My big, fat over-ears save me from the unwanted distractions.
• Keep your phone’s WiFi off before lunch and put it out of sight. This is a game-changer. Modern smartphones are useless without internet. Download your morning podcasts and meditations so you can keep your WiFi off. Also, put your phone where you can’t see it — out of sight, out of mind.
• Use an app blocker. If you need your phone for your deep work, use AppBlock or Freedom. For Chrome, I recommend Distraction Free Youtube or BlockSite. This way, you’ll only use your phone and laptop for what you’re supposed to do.
• Use a brain dump. Not all distractions are external — sometimes, you come up with an idea you don’t want to lose. I use Evernote to record it. With a quick keyboard shortcut, I can type and save my thoughts, then get back to what I was working on. Todoist has a similar function for recording to-dos.

Follow these steps and your focus will skyrocket while your distractions die out.

The result?

Crazy productivity and progress that allow you to get 70% of your day’s work done in a few hours.

Bonus: How To Handle The Last 30% Efficiently

If you sweat the small stuff, it becomes more important than the big stuff — but you can’t forget about it either.

As someone who’s self-employed, I know there are a ton of tiny little things you have to do.

• Take calls and answer emails
• Manage your team and assistants
• Explore new ways to grow your business
• Talk to clients
• Do administrative work

If you neglect them, they catch up to you when you least expect it.

If you give them too much space, you’ll chase rabbits while elephants trample your flower beds.

Instead, you want to treat them like a business owner: Block some time and use the best tool you can to work through them.

How to wipe away all the small stuff in one go with batching

Every time you answer an email, you have to go through several steps.

Open your email account.

Open the email.

Read through it.

Think of an answer.

Type it out.

Close your email account.

When you move back and forth between tasks, you lose valuable time with things like clicking, opening, and navigating.

It’s also hard for your brain to move from email mode to call mode to planning mode and back to email mode again.

These switching costs gnaw away at your productivity like a puppy on a shoe.

The solution?

Group similar tasks and work through them in one go.

Here are the batches I go through regularly, all scheduled in my calendar:

• Sorting and answering email (daily). I use Inbox Zero, a super-simple system that allows you to clear your inbox in minutes, no matter how full. Here’s a YouTube video that explains how to quickly set it up for Gmail.
• Learning and researching (weekly). As a business owner, you constantly have to look for new ways to improve yourself and grow your business. But if you read every article and watch every video right when you find it, you’ll waste a ton of time. Instead, block a few hours per week, choose the best material, and learn away.
• Administrative stuff and optimizing workflows (bi-weekly). Setting up a new Google Sheet or client template? Sorting out your taxes or managing your subscriptions? Do it all in one go and you’ll save yourself valuable time.

Summary To Help You Get Your Work Done Quicker Than Ever Before

Time is malleable.

How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you are. Just like that, the same task can take you an hour or five.

If you want to get 70% of your work done in three hours, follow these simple steps:

Proper preparation

• Block time for your deep work
• Communicate your boundaries clearly
• Plan tomorrow today (with your One Thing and Most Important Tasks)

Laser focus and blocking out all distractions

Laser focus:

• Work with your BRAC cycle or in Pomodoro blocks
• Create a flow ritual
• Listen to binaural beats
• Use your breaks right

Blocking out distractions:

• Turn off all notifications
• Keep your WiFi off and/or use an app blocker
• Put your phone out of sight when you don’t need it
• Wear noise-canceling headphones
• Use a brain dump to record your important ideas

Use batching to work through the small stuff

• Sort and answer email (e.g. with Inbox Zero)
• Learn and research
• Get admin work done and optimize your workflows

As business owners or even success-hungry freelancers, it’s easy to sacrifice hours upon hours chasing success.

But at the end of your life, there’s no medal for most time spent working.

At the end of your life, what will matter is what you’ve created — and how much time you’ve spent with the people you love.

Now you know what it takes — all that’s left is to do it.

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