“What you choose to focus on and what you choose to ignore – plays in defining the quality of your life.”
– Cal Newport
In the past, I’ve written about the value of creating time blocks to do ‘Deep Work’ and focus on moving your most important projects forward. The essence of this idea is to eliminate distractions and create more time and space for deep focus.
This struck a chord with many of you and I’ve heard from several people who implemented this strategy with great success. Many of you found real value with creating uninterrupted time in your day to accomplish deeply meaningful (instead of urgent) work.
Having implemented this in my own life and work, I started experimenting with enhancing the process with something I call the “Ramp Up Sequence.”
In today’s article, I’d like to share the Ramp Up Sequence – what it is, why it will boost your productivity, and how to build your own.
The Ramp Up Sequence
If you’re anything like me, when you go for a run, do yoga, or go skiing, you warm up your body by doing some light movement and stretching your muscles to prepare.
This sequence ensures that my tight hamstrings are ready for the coming onslaught of intensity that I’m about to put them through during the next few minutes/hours.
Preparing to do uninterrupted work for an extended period of time – to function optimally as we make progress on something important – is similar to warming up your body for a rigorous workout. We need to prime and prepare our mind, body and environment for focus.
We need a Ramp Up Sequence!
The Ramp Up Sequence is a fixed set of actions and environmental cues that mentally and physically mark the start of your work session.
While it can be used for any work session, I find it particularly impactful and valuable when priming for a deep work session (daily focused work on the “most important thing”).
The sequence becomes a doorway to the flow state that we all want to enter.
An effective, repeatable Ramp Up Sequence will allow you to increase your productivity by enabling you to quickly and consistently enter your flow state and execute deep, focused work on your most important projects.
Let’s talk about how to build your Ramp Up Sequence …
The 5 Elements of the Sequence
When crafting my Ramp Up Sequence, I decided to build it around the five core elements that would be engaged:
- Touch: What movement/action you engaged in prior to start.
- Taste: What you’re drinking, chewing on, or snacking on.
- Sight: What you see in your environment.
- Sound: What you hear in your environment.
- Smell: What you smell in your environment.
Using this simple framing, I built a Ramp Up Sequence that looks like this:
- Touch: Prior to sitting down for a deep work session, I go for a 5-10 minute walk outside or do 25 pushups. Both of these actions unlock my creative energy and prime my system.
- Taste: I always have a cup of coffee or tea that I will sip on prior to the start of the session (iced coffee or tea in the warmer months) and have it next to me during the session. The caffeine helps, but it’s mostly psychological comfort.
- Sight: My current workspace faces an image of conifer trees next to a lake with birds flying over the lake. I also have a window to my left that looks out to trees and a few potted plants. I also need my space to be visually clean and clutter free.
- Sound: I listen to a Spotify playlist called Classical Essentials or Brainwave Binaural Systems.
- Smell: I love the smell of wood, trees and nature, so my writing space has cedarwood/sandalwood/juniper/pine candles or oils. Both have been shown to help with focus.
I typically go through this sequence twice each day – once first thing in the morning when I start my first deep work session and once in the afternoon after lunch when I start my second deep work session. Going through this sequence has become an incredibly effective routine that gets me into the appropriate state to enter my deep work sessions.
To build your Ramp Up Sequence, sit down and walk through each of the five elements.
For each element, think about a time when you were truly in flow: How was that element engaged during (or before) that session? Write down all of the different ways these elements were engaged in prior periods of flow to give you a sense of the range of options at your disposal.
Select the option for each element that is most actionable and repeatable. If you were in flow state while sitting at a cafe overlooking the Amalfi Coast while sipping $10 espresso, that’s probably not repeatable (if it is, please trade lives with me!).
If you were in flow state while sitting at your local coffee shop and listening to your favorite house track, that’s probably quite repeatable.
Once you’ve established your actionable, repeatable options for each of the five elements, write down your full Ramp Up Sequence. Until it becomes a habit, check the items off the list as you “ramp up” for a deep work session.
The 3/5 Rule
In a perfect world, we establish this Ramp Up Sequence and are able to do it every single day.
Unfortunately, we don’t always live in a perfect world. Sometimes life gets in the way – maybe it’s work or personal travel, family challenges, or something random that throws you out of your routine. The point is that we need a way to execute despite imperfect circumstances.
Enter the 3/5 Rule:
If you aren’t able to execute your full, ideal Ramp Up Sequence, simply aim to nail 3 out of the 5 elements of the sequence. My experience suggests that 3 out of 5 is achievable under a variety of circumstances, and it’s enough to create the mental and physical entryway into your flow state.
For example, say I’m on the road for a work trip that I decided to take at the last minute. I’m in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere and I need to get an important presentation done.
There are several things that are clearly out of my control, but let’s play by the 3/5 Rule:
- Touch: I can probably do a quick 5-10 minute walk outside to engage my body and get my creative energy flowing.
- Taste: I may not be able to get my favorite coffee, but I can definitely get some form of coffee or tea to simulate it.
- Sight: My options are ugly hotel wallpaper or a crowded hotel lobby. Neither one is great.
- Sound: As long as I have my phone and headphones with me, I can hit the sounds.
- Smell: The smell of a musty hotel room is not on the list of most cherished scents for a reason.
Sight and Smell are out, but I am in control of Touch, Taste, and Sound. I have 3 out of 5 and am able to make it work. It’s not my perfect Ramp Up Sequence, but it’s good enough.
The point of the 3/5 Rule is simple: It’s not always going to be perfect, but if you focus on the controllables, you can make the most of every deep work session.
Ramping Up
As I began writing more this year, I needed a way to consistently escape the day-to-day distractions and find my flow. The Ramp Up Sequence has allowed me to quickly, and consistently enter that mode and stay in it longer than I thought possible.
If you’re searching for a way to make more progress on your “most important thing”, I’d encourage you to try creating your own Ramp Up Sequence. I’m confident it will help you become more focused and accomplish more of the important work you’ve been wanting to do.
Live bravely,
Michael
