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The 90 Day Focus Challenge

Fox

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I think a few of you would have seen the discipline challenge thread around "75 hard" on here.
A lot of us have been making massive progress around work ethic, drive and fitness.

From doing that challenge for over 3 months now I also wanted to start in on my focus.
I think the ability to focus is one of the key areas a lot of people struggle with when growing a business.

Emails, social media, TV, games, entertainment, partying - it has never been easier to be sidetracked from your core goals.

With that in mind, I wanted to make a progressive 90-day focus challenge.

It will start off easier and then get more challenging as we work on our focus abilities.

If you want in then just post up below.

RULES:

- There are 3 x 30 day stages
- If you fail a stage then you restart that stage from the start
- If you fail stage 2 or 3 more than 3 times (per stage) then you restart the whole thing
- No changing the rules or switching out/in your own rules


Stage One - The first 30 days
- Wake up before 9 am every day
- Write out 2 big tasks to complete each day BEFORE starting to work
- Complete all tasks every day
- Minimum of 90 minutes of deep work a day (zero distractions)
- Less than 3 hours of phone usage per day
- 1/2 days off per week to fully recharge (your call)


Stage Two - The second 30 days
- Wake up before 8 am every day
- Write out 3 big tasks to complete each day BEFORE starting to work
- Complete all tasks every day
- Minimum of 3 hours of deep work a day (zero distractions)
- Less than 2 hours of phone usage per day
- 1/2 days off per week to fully recharge (your call)


Stage Three - The final 30 days
- Wake up before 7 am every day
- Write out 4 big tasks to complete The NIGHT BEFORE starting to work
- Complete all tasks every day
- Minimum of 4 hours of deep work a day (zero distractions)
- Less than 1.5 hours of phone usage per day
- 1/2 days off per week to fully recharge (your call)

And that is it.

FAQs
"But I like to wake up at 2pm" - okay this challenge isn't for you.
"But I like to take more than two days off a week" - okay this challenge isn't for you.
"I want to use my phone all the time" - okay this challenge isn't for you.
"The system that I like to use is to..." - okay this challenge isn't for you.


Notes:
1/2 days off is for you to call.
The challenge is about rewarding focused work - not how many hours you put in.
If you feel like you did enough then feel free to take 2 days off per week.

"Big tasks" means real action based tasks that mover a business forward.
"Write 3,000 words" < big task
"Clean my desk" < not big task
If you don't complete all tasks you set every day it is a fail.
At the same time don't set small tasks just so you can pass them.
They must be real actions that move your business forward.


Deep work is in a row.
"3 hours deep work" is not 3 x 1 hours - it is 3 hours in a row.


------

I start tomorrow - who is in?
 
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BD64

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This reminds me of the phase 1/2/3 parts of Andy's full livehard program (75hard is phase 0).

He starts to throw in his powerlist which is his version of a daily to-do list
 

Charnell

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I'm 100% in, starting stage 1 this coming Saturday and doing "stage 0" during the week. Put in my 2 weeks a week ago so I'm still at that j-o-b but I can see how this will keep me on track to not have to get another one.

This is gonna be good.
 

1step

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I need to work on my focus so I am in.

My biggest challenge will be the phone, I’ve used the moment app for awhile and average 2.5 hours of phone use a day.
 

Bertram

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I think a few of you would have seen the discipline challenge thread around "75 hard" on here.
A lot of us have been making massive progress around work ethic, drive and fitness.

From doing that challenge for over 3 months now I also wanted to start in on my focus.
I think the ability to focus is one of the key areas a lot of people struggle with when growing a business.

Emails, social media, TV, games, entertainment, partying - it has never been easier to be sidetracked from your core goals.

With that in mind, I wanted to make a progressive 90-day focus challenge.

It will start off easier and then get more challenging as we work on our focus abilities.

If you want in then just post up below.

RULES:

- There are 3 x 30 day stages
- If you fail a stage then you restart that stage from the start
- If you fail stage 2 or 3 more than 3 times (per stage) then you restart the whole thing
- No changing the rules or switching out/in your own rules


Stage One - The first 30 days
- Wake up before 9 am every day
- Write out 2 big tasks to complete each day BEFORE starting to work
- Complete all tasks every day
- Minimum of 90 minutes of deep work a day (zero distractions)
- Less than 3 hours of phone usage per day
- 1/2 days off per week to fully recharge (your call)


Stage Two - The second 30 days
- Wake up before 8 am every day
- Write out 3 big tasks to complete each day BEFORE starting to work
- Complete all tasks every day
- Minimum of 3 hours of deep work a day (zero distractions)
- Less than 2 hours of phone usage per day
- 1/2 days off per week to fully recharge (your call)


Stage Three - The final 30 days
- Wake up before 7 am every day
- Write out 4 big tasks to complete The NIGHT BEFORE starting to work
- Complete all tasks every day
- Minimum of 4 hours of deep work a day (zero distractions)
- Less than 1.5 hours of phone usage per day
- 1/2 days off per week to fully recharge (your call)

And that is it.

FAQs
"But I like to wake up at 2pm" - okay this challenge isn't for you.
"But I like to take more than two days off a week" - okay this challenge isn't for you.
"I want to use my phone all the time" - okay this challenge isn't for you.
"The system that I like to use is to..." - okay this challenge isn't for you.


Notes:
1/2 days off is for you to call.
The challenge is about rewarding focused work - not how many hours you put in.
If you feel like you did enough then feel free to take 2 days off per week.

"Big tasks" means real action based tasks that mover a business forward.
"Write 3,000 words" < big task
"Clean my desk" < not big task
If you don't complete all tasks you set every day it is a fail.
At the same time don't set small tasks just so you can pass them.
They must be real actions that move your business forward.


Deep work is in a row.
"3 hours deep work" is not 3 x 1 hours - it is 3 hours in a row.


------

I start tomorrow - who is in?
Looks mostly painless.
I've just changed my outlook on my business potential, just found some courage last week, and created a new mindset change that starts tomorrow exactly.
Lifestyle games are fun for motivation. I'm in.
The massive change for me will be limited phone use.
Thanks for the games @Fox, very valuable!
 
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Last edited:

MitchC

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“Big tasks" means real action based tasks that mover a business forward.
"Write 3,000 words" < big task
"Clean my desk" < not big task

Sam ovens has a really good video where he talks about how he does this. The way he classifies tasks is “does this make the ship move faster?” Day to day tasks do not make the ship move faster and should be outsourced so you can focus entirely on tasks that make the ship move faster. He wakes up in the morning and has his phone turned off in another room while he focuses entirely on these tasks.
 

Nick M.

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I'm in as well! Should be a fun game.

Especially for Stage One, I suspect the hard part is not doing everything, but doing it every day consistently.
 
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JordanK

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I’m in! Going to be interesting to see what sort of creative tasks I can achieve for my property/real estate business in Ireland while I’m halfway across the world on holidays. At first I thought this challenge wouldn’t apply to my circumstances but now I realize that it’s the perfect time to take a quarterbacks view of my business instead of just completing my busy work tasks like usual.
 
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BellaPippin

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Fine I'll try

HOWEVER how would you modify this
- Write out 2 big tasks to complete each day BEFORE starting to work

I wake up at 5 to leave at 6 for my 7-4. I've been fitting journaling and breakfast and/or meditation in that first hour so far. The waking up early challenge will be for the weekends.
 

Fox

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Fine I'll try

HOWEVER how would you modify this
- Write out 2 big tasks to complete each day BEFORE starting to work

I wake up at 5 to leave at 6 for my 7-4. I've been fitting journaling and breakfast and/or meditation in that first hour so far. The waking up early challenge will be for the weekends.

Write out in the morning what you will do that evening when you return.

It is more about planning ahead and then following your plan. So it is still possible to work around a job or uni - as long as you plan it out in advance and complete it later.

Waking up at 5am puts you in a good place for this already ha.
 

A_Random_Guy

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I'm in.
I'm sure this challenge will give each day its meaning. Normally, some days I find days to just pass by and I don't remember what I did the previous day. Achieving daily goals is a great morale booster. Waking up early and reducting time on phone are activities that help achieve those goals.

90 hours of focussed work = 180 hours of "good" work = 3 hours of work everyday = 90 hours of productive work a month. Investing 90 hours on a skill will definitely make us a semi-pro.

Quoting Dan Lok, "Break your yearly financial target into daily income goals (DIG). That way you won't need to waste an entire year to know that you're going wrong."
 
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Charnell

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I have a fat stack of legal pads coming in the mail as well to serve as a daily task list & diary of sorts.

Used to do it per the old thread by @Vigilante, was a great tool to keep track of everything.

 

Torsten

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I am in!
 

SpongeGod

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Hey guys! What would be an example of a big task for you?
@Fox already mentioned writing 3000 words (Which sounds like a lot of writing for one day) and I am curious to see what kind of tasks you guys set out to finish. I am also interested in how you guys spend your days.

I am still in college, so I go to my classes of course and spend the rest of my time at the library reading books to improve my skillset. Some topics that interest me at the moment are NLP, Speed Seduction (a facet of NLP), Copywriting, Python Programming, and Machine Learning. I guess for now my big tasks would be to read and take notes on my fields of interest. Once I have enough knowledge, I can act on them. For instance, I can apply the principles I learned in NLP and Speed Seduction in my relationships and take notes on what I did right or wrong. I can also code programming projects in Python for Machine Learning.
When I am done with my college classes and have finished my homework (I like to finish ahead of time to not worry about it later), I like to spend as much time learning and developing these skills.

One task that I am set about accomplishing is writing my very own sales letter, especially since I just read a bunch of books on copywriting. Today I am just going to be reading books and taking notes for the most part after I finish all my assignments for the week.

Let me know what tasks you guys set and how your days are organized.
 

WillHurtDontCare

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I'm in. Here is a jumbled mess of things that I've been working on & goals that I have for the next 90 days.

I'll be updating this as I think of it.

  • Getting in better shape:
    • I have a gut & that is unacceptable
    • Problems:
      • Bad form
      • Insufficient nutrition (eat meat if you want to get big)
      • insufficient sleep (7.5 hours minimum)
      • muscle tightness & poor range of motion from desk jobs (get a standing desk if you can, they're good for your physical fitness & for your brain)
      • Plus never having a dedicated bodybuilding plan
    • Solutions:
      • Met with a personal trainer to have him create a bodybuilding routine
        • Fastlane mindset - hire someone smarter than you to tell you what to do - save time, get results.
      • Met with massage therapist to help with muscle tightness & correct posture problems
      • Cleaned up diet - removed unhealthy things that I pigged out on
        • Adding vegetables made digestion easier which led to better sleep
        • Just meat & vegetables. Less hungry that way.
      • Back to fasting & intermittent fasting for weight loss
      • Getting more sun has put me in a much better mood
      • Bought a scale - need to track progress daily
  • Fixing my fragmented attention span.
    • Float session scheduled
    • Getting back to meditating consistently
  • Finding 3 side projects.
    • Will likely join the local chamber of commerce soon.
 
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Last edited:

Fox

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Hey guys! What would be an example of a big task for you?
@Fox already mentioned writing 3000 words (Which sounds like a lot of writing for one day) and I am curious to see what kind of tasks you guys set out to finish. I am also interested in how you guys spend your days.

I am still in college, so I go to my classes of course and spend the rest of my time at the library reading books to improve my skillset. Some topics that interest me at the moment are NLP, Speed Seduction (a facet of NLP), Copywriting, Python Programming, and Machine Learning. I guess for now my big tasks would be to read and take notes on my fields of interest. Once I have enough knowledge, I can act on them. For instance, I can apply the principles I learned in NLP and Speed Seduction in my relationships and take notes on what I did right or wrong. I can also code programming projects in Python for Machine Learning.
When I am done with my college classes and have finished my homework (I like to finish ahead of time to not worry about it later), I like to spend as much time learning and developing these skills.

One task that I am set about accomplishing is writing my very own sales letter, especially since I just read a bunch of books on copywriting. Today I am just going to be reading books and taking notes for the most part after I finish all my assignments for the week.

Let me know what tasks you guys set and how your days are organized.

Things that move your business forward.

Talking to girls and reading books doesn't count.

Study is important but this challenge is based around action-based tasks - did you actually do something or did you only prepare to do something?
 

BellaPippin

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Do we hold ourselves accountable or do you guys wanna check in on this somehow?
 
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JustinY

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Hey @Fox, I've been following a lot of your posts and actually discovered 75 Hard from your other post.
That being said, have you been able to complete the program yet?

I'm only on day 23 and not a week goes by where I don't have at least one day where I struggle with the challenge. Whether that means walking 45 minutes at 10 PM at night or trying to finish the last liter of water by bedtime.

A lot of people combine the 75 Hard challenge with Andy's PowerList Idea and I've actually started that too, but I noticed a weird phenomenon. If I start working on the items on the list and something changed that made one of the items not possible to be accomplished anymore (a meeting or a call that I could no longer make), then I end up LESS motivated to complete the list because I have already LOST that day.

I think the same phenomenon happens when you have to do 75 Hard over and over again. Andy alluded to it in one of his recent podcasts that trying, but not completing the program can actually put you in a worse position than when you started. I believe the intent is to work on that voice in your head. To fight through those hard days where it's so easy to say, "f*ck it, why am I doing this", so that at the end of the 75 days you know that you can accomplish something that you've set your mind to through all the hard days.

I don't know about you, but I've had some super hard days with the 75 Hard Challenge and I'm re-considering not even doing the PowerList because I don't think I can consistently accomplish both right now. I'm just not good enough and I haven't built those habits yet. Those L's on the PowerList... well it certainly doesn't help the confidence I'm trying to build through 75 Hard.

My recommendation is to finish 75 Hard. All of it. Then worry about the next challenge.
 

Fox

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Do we hold ourselves accountable or do you guys wanna check in on this somehow?

Ya post up if you want.

My first day went great.

Had a productive day and got a lot done. Still a lot of room to improve on though.
 

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