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Does it take time to develop a 18 hour work ethic?

Anything related to matters of the mind

Bruhmoment

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I'm a 19-year-old from Bangladesh (third world country) and studying in 2nd Year of A levels (12th Grade).

Currently, along with my hard studies, I'm creating content for my Youtube Channel in which I'm focusing on Quality over quantity like @Valier and learning Java to build up my Extracurricular activity resume. Basically what I'm trying to do is get admission to a foreign college and study there and get citizenship of that country.

I can't start any startup in my current country as corruption is Rampant here, so admission to foreign college is a must. I'm doing youtube to get a chance at paying for my college degree in case I don't get a scholarship/ fee waiver.

I want to develop an insane work ethic like Elon Musk - 18 hours a day which in reality is a must for me as to even have a minimum chance at this. I have tried hard for 2 straight months and could only get it up to 10 hours per day. Mind you the year before I spent doing nothing productive due to serious depression caused by a plethora of problems(All of them get solved if I manage to succeed at this).

I quite literally got it to 10 hours from 0 hours in two months.

So my question to you guys is, Is this work ethic progression normal? Or did any of you Fastelaners manage to get it up to 18 hours a day within days and if so HOW??

TLDR- My life is fricked to the point where 18-hour work ethic is the only option left to solve my problems and I wanna know if it takes time to get it to 18 hours.
 
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Jerma

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I am also a fan of Elon Musk and people with crazy work ethic. I think that unless you actually witness it, you should take those stories with a grain of salt. Also Musk isn't doing the same kind of work you are doing. At this point he's mostly absorbing information, going to meetings and shuffling emails around I think.

There has been studies that points to the fact that productivity drops hard over the 50-hour mark and that productivity reduce dramatically when you multitask. Also you want a work schedule that is sustainable if you want to achieve anything meaningful because those things takes time.

From my own experiments, my productivity drastically increased when I focused on working deeply instead of a working long hours. Check out the book "Deep Work" and this blog post for a good strategy imo. You should do the same thing, track your output, gather data and experiment with different strategies! Good luck
 

Odysseus M Jones

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I'm a 19-year-old from Bangladesh (third world country) and studying in 2nd Year of A levels (12th Grade).

Currently, along with my hard studies, I'm creating content for my Youtube Channel in which I'm focusing on Quality over quantity like @Valier and learning Java to build up my Extracurricular activity resume. Basically what I'm trying to do is get admission to a foreign college and study there and get citizenship of that country.

I can't start any startup in my current country as corruption is Rampant here, so admission to foreign college is a must. I'm doing youtube to get a chance at paying for my college degree in case I don't get a scholarship/ fee waiver.

I want to develop an insane work ethic like Elon Musk - 18 hours a day which in reality is a must for me as to even have a minimum chance at this. I have tried hard for 2 straight months and could only get it up to 10 hours per day. Mind you the year before I spent doing nothing productive due to serious depression caused by a plethora of problems(All of them get solved if I manage to succeed at this).

I quite literally got it to 10 hours from 0 hours in two months.

So my question to you guys is, Is this work ethic progression normal? Or did any of you Fastelaners manage to get it up to 18 hours a day within days and if so HOW??

TLDR- My life is fricked to the point where 18-hour work ethic is the only option left to solve my problems and I wanna know if it takes time to get it to 18 hours.
If you enjoy your work you'll do it automatically.
If you don't, you won't.
Anyway, it's not how long you work it's what's you accomplish.
That's not too say you can goof off, you still have to put in the hours.
People like Elon work 18 hours because they enjoy it.
Apart from wage slaves who works 18 hours daily & doesn't enjoy it?
Sorry, I'm just a lowly Gen X, I've no magic formula for you, I'm sure the Andy F 100 hard & the no fap boys will be along with their snake oil soon.
 

The-J

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Your assumptions are all so wrong.

Elon Musk doesn't work 18 hours a day every day. He's said that 120 hours a week is insanity, and that 80 hours is much more manageable (that's about 14 hours a day 6 days a week). I Googled his work schedule: it looks like the lie of him working 18 hours a day is perpetuated in the subcontinent. Nobody on this side of the world believes that.

Second of all, you're focusing on the wrong measure. "What gets measured gets done", and if you're focusing on hours worked, then you're inevitably going to waste work hours doing meaningless tasks and busy work that only results in action fakes.

Elon Musk works as much as he does because he's a man on a mission: he wants to go to Mars, he wants to usher in the EV/AV revolution, and he wants to create a future of renewable energy for the human race. He's not only thinking big, he's 100% committed to it and believes that doing so is his calling. He's driven by a powerful WHY.

Admission to a foreign college also isn't a must. You have other options. You can start an American business from your home in Bangladesh. What's easier: you getting a scholarship to a foreign university, or saving up a few hundred bucks USD to start a business in the US? There are other countries you can start businesses in as a foreigner, like Canada. And the best part is that you don't have to set foot in the country even once!

I think your problem is that you're not actually interacting with the world, and so you're just thinking about things and coming up with ideas yourself. You're stuck in your own head, thinking that you need to do something in order to succeed. Ask yourself better questions, and put in time to seek answers!
 
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G

Guest1413tpa

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Your assumptions are all so wrong.

Elon Musk doesn't work 18 hours a day every day. He's said that 120 hours a week is insanity, and that 80 hours is much more manageable (that's about 14 hours a day 6 days a week). I Googled his work schedule: it looks like the lie of him working 18 hours a day is perpetuated in the subcontinent. Nobody on this side of the world believes that.

Second of all, you're focusing on the wrong measure. "What gets measured gets done", and if you're focusing on hours worked, then you're inevitably going to waste work hours doing meaningless tasks and busy work that only results in action fakes.

Elon Musk works as much as he does because he's a man on a mission: he wants to go to Mars, he wants to usher in the EV/AV revolution, and he wants to create a future of renewable energy for the human race. He's not only thinking big, he's 100% committed to it and believes that doing so is his calling. He's driven by a powerful WHY.

Admission to a foreign college also isn't a must. You have other options. You can start an American business from your home in Bangladesh. What's easier: you getting a scholarship to a foreign university, or saving up a few hundred bucks USD to start a business in the US? There are other countries you can start businesses in as a foreigner, like Canada. And the best part is that you don't have to set foot in the country even once!

I think your problem is that you're not actually interacting with the world, and so you're just thinking about things and coming up with ideas yourself. You're stuck in your own head, thinking that you need to do something in order to succeed. Ask yourself better questions, and put in time to seek answers!

In Cal Newport's book Deep Work, he mentions a stat that stuck with me.

Humans are only capable of 4 hours of deep work, but you have to train yourself to get there.

I 100% agree with what you are saying. But I would venture to say that most of his time is spent in shallow work rather than deep work.
 

The-J

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I 100% agree with what you are saying. But I would venture to say that most of his time is spent in shallow work rather than deep work.

Whose isn't?
 

Bruhmoment

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I am also a fan of Elon Musk and people with crazy work ethic. I think that unless you actually witness it, you should take those stories with a grain of salt. Also, Musk isn't doing the same kind of work you are doing. At this point, he's mostly absorbing information, going to meetings and shuffling emails around I think.
Elon doesn't need to work as hard right now, I'm comparing my current situation to the time when he worked 18 hours a day coding for zip2 (I remember him working 18 hours for a company not sure if it was zip2). That was a pivotal point in his career and so is mine right now.

There has been studies that points to the fact that productivity drops hard over the 50-hour mark and that productivity reduce dramatically when you multitask. Also you want a work schedule that is sustainable if you want to achieve anything meaningful because those things takes time.
Totally agree with the sustainable point. That's why I'm really taking my time and literally adjusting my lifestyle and getting used to it, because if I don't make it my lifestyle its not going to be sustainable for months or years.
From my own experiments, my productivity drastically increased when I focused on working deeply instead of a working long hours. Check out the book "Deep Work" and this blog post for a good strategy imo. You should do the same thing, track your output, gather data and experiment with different strategies! Good luck
Read about deep work in many places. I want to accompany deep work with "shallow work" because with consistency the shallow work becomes big, when months and years are taken into consideration.
 

Bruhmoment

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If you enjoy your work you'll do it automatically.
If you don't, you won't.
So I enjoy most of the work, but some parts are very hard to enjoy and get stressful at times aka research for Youtube videos, while I love editing videos and being creative with them the research part is where it becomes unenjoyable and slowww and consequentially take more time.
Really hoping with enough practice I get better as almost every work I enjoy now used to feel like a grind when i was just starting out.
 
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100ToOne

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I know some people might read my post and be like "screw you", but If you find in yourself that you are willing to work hard and benefit yourself and your host country - Canada, then here's a suggestion.

Many people from your country and similar countries ask wealthy organisations/individuals to give them the bank statement/sponsorship papers to apply for a study permit and hopefully get accepted.

Then when you get there to a designated college, work and pay your living expenses and college. I'm sure if let's say 6 hours went to lectures and 12 hours went to illegal work, you'd be able to barely make it, but again that's a better method rather then trying to make it in hell (poor third world countries)

So many stuff I said here are illegal and in a just world and you shouldn't do it, but look at all your Bengali/Indian friends who made it to Canada, ask them how and try to follow the same path.

Canadian members, don't stone me please. Thanks
 
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Bruhmoment

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Second of all, you're focusing on the wrong measure. "What gets measured gets done", and if you're focusing on hours worked, then you're inevitably going to waste work hours doing meaningless tasks and busy work that only results in action fakes.
Action fake was a very real threat starting out, now i'm really strict and only track time when meaningful effort has been put
Admission to a foreign college also isn't a must. You have other options. You can start an American business from your home in Bangladesh. What's easier: you getting a scholarship to a foreign university, or saving up a few hundred bucks USD to start a business in the US? There are other countries you can start businesses in as a foreigner, like Canada. And the best part is that you don't have to set foot in the country even once!
I did not know I could do that in all honesty, and have no clue what type of businesses they are.
My best guess is that you meant an online business, but currently from what i see online businesses are a red market and there are tons of people who have more capital and experience than me who has no business experience yet.
I think your problem is that you're not actually interacting with the world, and so you're just thinking about things and coming up with ideas yourself. You're stuck in your own head, thinking that you need to do something in order to succeed. Ask yourself better questions, and put in time to seek answers!
This single parra had me thinking for 30 minutes straight had to rethink all my plans. You are right i am not actually interacting with the world but I don't think I have any other choice, all i have is a computer amidst a lockdown with no money in my pockets.
 

Bruhmoment

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Then when you get there to a designated college, work and pay your living expenses and college. I'm sure if let's say 6 hours went to lectures and 12 hours went to illegal work, you'd be able to barely make it, but again that's a better method rather then trying to make it in hell (poor third world countries)
Really grinding and working hard to remove the extra work after college bit. That will only dig me a hole with a sign that says "Slowlane"
So many stuff I said here are illegal and in a just world and you shouldn't do it, but look at all your Bengali/Indian friends who made it to Canada, ask them how and try to follow the same path.
From what I read it seems like some Canadians aren't really welcoming to people from other countries which is pretty discouraging considering I had put Canada right up there in the list of possible countries i could go to. But that's okay I can't expect people from the first world to know the living conditions of the third world.
 

100ToOne

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Really grinding and working hard to remove the extra work after college bit. That will only dig me a hole with a sign that says "Slowlane"

From what I read it seems like some Canadians aren't really welcoming to people from other countries which is pretty discouraging considering I had put Canada right up there in the list of possible countries i could go to. But that's okay I can't expect people from the first world to know the living conditions of the third world.
If you can save up from grinding in Bangladesh, then all power to you man. I thought it was like some countries around here, mine included, where grinding will barely get you basic necessities and nothing in savings.

I don't know what you've read, but I lived in a country with expats from 94 countries and my experience was that the Canadians were by far the best people in many ways. Very friendly, warm hearted, humble and fun people. So try and not believe everything you read online. One of the main reasons my friend doesn't want to leave Canada is due to people being nice there lol.
 
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Bruhmoment

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From what I read it seems like some Canadians aren't really welcoming to people from other countries which is pretty discouraging considering I had put Canada right up there in the list of possible countries i could go to. But that's okay I can't expect people from the first world to know the living conditions of the third world.
Oh, I thought they were unwelcoming from reading your post seeing how you don't want Canadians to stone you for giving me ideas lol.
Canadian members, don't stone me please. Thanks

I don't know what you've read, but I lived in a country with expats from 94 countries and my experience was that the Canadians were by far the best people to be around with. Very friendly, warm hearted, humble and fun people. So try and not believe everything you read online. One of the main reasons my friend doesn't want to leave Canada is due to people being nice there lol.
That's what I knew all these days and that's why I wanted to go there, feels good to know my assumptions were correct.
 

Kid

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Do you have zip2 that you would work on?

If not, you just masturbate with the numbers.
 

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