Design Your Mental Ferrari

Are you getting things done on a regular basis?

Is that to-do list getting any shorter?

Are you making progress the way you want?

Because most people are currently more frustrated than ever with their work and progress.

They work so hard but get only so little done.

It feels like swimming and giving it your all while the current pulls you back every time. If you push, you stay constant; if you stand still, you go backward. But you never come to outrun the current.

And it doesn't matter if you have high potential or none.

The outcome is the same - little to zero progress.

Just have a look at how much time we have left this year.

This means you've already spent 81 days of the year without the outcomes you've planned to achieve.

And don't let this discourage you. I've been there, too, working late hours to figure out how to finally make things work, doubting myself, and trying to get traction to share my vision with others online.

However, this lack of progress isn't due to a lack of motivation.

We all are motivated.

Some more than others. But we all share that fire inside us that burns to be released.

So, if motivation isn't the problem, what is? Why are we not making progress the way we want? How can we get ahead of the current that pulls us back every time we try?

We need the proper vehicle to get us where we want to go.

As I said, we don't lack the motivation part, but we lack an execution system that we can rely on.

Your current execution system is not proper but rather a loosely constructed collection of quick hacks, tips gathered from social media, and a vague understanding of productivity.

This may sound harsh, but it will be true to some extent. My very own "system" looked exactly like this for the last few years. I never saw a problem until I realized that this system was not getting me anywhere and was the root of my problems.

This is why I dug deep and built a new system from scratch called the Execution Engine.

It lives inside Aevum, my personal operating g system.

Tied to this system is the matter we will discuss in this letter.

Deep Work.

To the few of you who have never heard about it.

Deep Work is about professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skills, and are hard to replicate.

This is the exact thing missing or not implemented correctly that you need to include and improve to push yourself and your work to the next level.

That’s why we will cover the following in the following sections.

• Why your brain is running like a rusty scooter

• and how to install your mental Ferrari

Let's start.

Why Your Brain Is Running Like A Rusty Scooter (Not A Ferrari)

5 am - your alarm goes off.

You set high expectations for this day.

You finally want to go after your dreams.

You start your Pc and want to get right to work.

But while you stare at the blank space of your writing program (I personally love using Kortex), other thoughts arise, and you remember that you need to fix one thing on your website that has boggled you since you found out yesterday.

You open the editor and get it done in quick 20 minutes.

Relieved it is finally taken care of, you return to your writing program to start working on your project.

But you can't stop thinking about minor tasks that you could check off instead.

Some quick wins.

And because your mind is stuck with the thought that more is better, you want to check off as many little tasks as possible before spending time on that big, time-consuming project.

You switch from one task to the other, never truly focusing on the task at hand.

You want to change the font on the latest Thumbnail. Look for inspiration on YouTube and get stuck there watching the latest AI Update news. You question your purpose and why on earth you should work if Ai can do anything for you.

This letter isn't about Ai potentially replacing you but about our constant fear of missing out and destroying our focus.

We get so easily distracted, and minutes spent outside our current project turn into hours. Hours turn into days, and days become weeks without progress on the tasks with the highest leverage.

We would rather spend time on minor problems, which might feel like a true accomplishment but are actually a complete waste of time.

What makes this task switching and laying of your main focus project even worse is attention residue.

Attention residue is that when you switch from some Task A to another Task B, your attention doesn’t immediately follow—a residue of your attention remains stuck thinking about the original task. This residue gets especially thick if your work on Task A was unbounded and of low intensity before you switched, but even if you finish Task A before moving on, your attention remains divided for a while

This is why your performance on your main project and high-leverage tasks is poor.

Concentrating on the easy tasks before working on your main project results in worse performance than if you had just started working on that project.

Now that your performance has dropped, you want to go back to some easy work. This will make it even harder for you to come back later to work on your main project because the more intense the residue, the worse the performance.

Instead you need to work on a single hard task first thing for a long time without switching (at best a task that has high leverage). This way, you can minimize the negative impact of attention residue from your other obligations, allowing you to maximize performance on this one task. You will simply work on a higher level of effectiveness, get the task done faster, and have more time to focus on the minor tasks after that.

This is why I write this newsletter first thing in the morning.

Because right now it is the highest leverage thing I can do.

Writing gives me clarity. I gain new knowledge by researching the topics I want to write about. It serves as the foundation for my social content and it serves as content for my course and guides I am currently building out about the Aevum system.

You should have realized that the multitasking and easy task-first approach is harmful and in no way productive.

To trade that rusty scooter you currently drive for a genuine supercar, we need to implement Deep Work the right way. And we start doing this now.

Installing Your Mental Ferrari: The Deep Work Protocol

 “Two Core Abilities for Thriving in the New Economy 1. The ability to quickly master hard things. 2. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of quality and speed.”

― Cal Newport

Most people are never going to feel the power deep work holds.

Their attention spans are too short, broken by social media and constant dopamine hits. They don't know how to master hard things and produce on an elite level because they don't have to, and they never will see a benefit from it.

They live a mediocre life, never excelling to their fullest potential.

Even if they wanted to, they couldn't because they lack the fundamentals of deep work that we are going through right now.

The fundamentals consist of 4 Steps.

1. Depth Scheduling

2. Environment Optimization

3. Depth Triggers

4. Depth Measurement

Step 1: Depth Scheduling

Most people think scheduling deep work is about finding more time.

But it's not.

It's about designing inevitability into your life through a strategic commitment of your highest-quality cognitive resources.

Look around you. Everyone's "busy" yet making zero meaningful progress on what actually matters. They spend 8, 10, 12 hours working, but achieve nothing of substance.

Why?

Because they never enter true depth. They live in an eternal state of shallow work, constantly reacting to others' priorities while their own dreams collect dust.

This is the first deadly trap of the borrowed operating system - it tricks you into thinking you're productive when you're just busy.

Let me share something that might shock you.

One hour of true deep work is worth more than 8 hours of distracted "effort."

I'm not exaggerating.

A Stanford productivity study found that people performing deep, focused work produced 500% more high-quality output than those working in traditional distracted environments. 500%. That's not a typo.

Yet most 20-year-olds can't focus on a single task for more than 3 minutes without checking their phone.

This is why Depth Scheduling is the foundation of my personal operating system.

To implement it, you first need to forget everything you've been told about "finding time" to work on your goals.

We're not finding time. We're creating it. We're carving it out with brutal intentionality.

Second, Start with just one hour of true deep work daily, and you'll already be outperforming 95% of the people around you.

Start Light

Most people fail at deep work because they attempt too much too soon. They try to jump from zero-focused work to 4-hour blocks. That's like trying to deadlift 400 pounds when you've never been to the gym.

Your focus muscle is weak. You need to build it gradually.

I started with just 60 minutes daily. One single hour. That's it.

But those 60 minutes were sacred. No phone. No internet. No distractions whatsoever.

Just me and my most important work.

That one hour changed everything. Within two weeks, I was producing more valuable output than I had in the previous six months of "busy work."

Your Minimum Viable Deep Work routine:

• One hour

• Same time daily

• Complete digital detox

• Clear pre-defined objective

That's it. Nothing fancy. But this simple foundation will revolutionize your productivity.

Chronotype-Based Scheduling Approaches

"But when should I schedule this hour?"

This is where most advice fails. They tell you to "wake up at 5 AM" regardless of whether you're a night owl who does your best thinking at 10 PM.

Your deep work schedule must align with your natural energy cycles. Not someone else's.

Which type are you?

Morning Lions: Your mind is sharpest 1-2 hours after waking. Schedule deep work first thing before the world can steal your attention. I'm a Morning Lion, which is why my deep work happens at 5-7 AM.

Night Owls: Your cognitive peak hits in the evening (8-11 PM). Don't fight it. Schedule your deep work then, when everyone else is winding down.

Afternoon Performers: You hit your stride during the post-lunch recovery (2-4 PM). This isn't "the slump" for you - it's your sweet spot.

The key insight? Work with your biology, not against it.

When I stopped forcing myself to be productive at times that didn't match my chronotype, my output doubled instantly.

Step 2: Environment Optimization

Your environment is either designed for depth or it's designed for distraction. There's no middle ground.

Home-Based Workers: Create a dedicated depth corner with specific sensory cues. I have a specific chair I only sit in for deep work. My brain knows that when I'm in that chair, it's time to produce.

Nomadic Workers: Build a portable depth kit. Special headphones, a particular notebook, maybe a specific scent. These become your transportable focus environment.

Office-Bound: You have the hardest challenge. Find the quietest corner, use noise-canceling headphones, and establish clear visual signals to coworkers that you're in "depth mode."

The environment isn't just about eliminating distractions - it's about creating triggers that prime your brain for depth.

Because it's most likely that your work on your own business or side gigs from home, here are some essential tips to create the ultimate deep work environment that I used to create more space for depth.

First, identify your "depth zone" - the place where your most important work happens. It might be a desk, a specific chair, or even a corner on your couch.

Now, strip it down to the essentials. Ruthlessly.

Start with these non-negotiables:

• Physical barriers (face away from doors/windows)

• Noise control (noise-canceling headphones are mandatory)

• Visual minimalism (clear everything not related to your work)

• Phone quarantine (minimum 10 feet away, face down, notifications off)

Step 3: Depth Triggers

Focus isn't something you force. It's a state you enter.

This is where rituals become your secret weapon.

Navy SEALs use pre-mission rituals. Olympic athletes use pre-event rituals. Not because they're superstitious, but because rituals bypass the conscious mind and speak directly to your nervous system.

A proper depth trigger ritual can reduce the time to enter flow state from 27 minutes to under 5.

That's not an incremental improvement. That's a 5X gain.

The Neuroscience of Ritual

Your brain craves predictable patterns. When you repeat the same sequence of actions before deep work, your brain recognizes the pattern and prepares to enter a flow state.

It's classical conditioning at its finest.

Think of it as installing a neurological shortcut that says: "These specific actions always lead to deep work, so let's prepare for cognitive depth."

Pre-Work Ritual Examples

Your ritual should be:

• Simple (3-5 steps maximum)

• Sensory-rich (engage multiple senses)

• Consistent (performed exactly the same way each time)

• Portable (doable anywhere)

Example trigger rituals:

1. Three minutes of box breathing (4 count inhale, 4 count hold, 4 count exhale, 4 count hold)

2. Writing a single focus objective on an index card

3. Setting a physical timer (not digital)

4. Putting on specific "deep work only" music

5. Speaking a special phrase like "One thing, executed perfectly"

Other effective examples:

• The 3-2-1 Method: 3 minutes of meditation, 2 minutes of reviewing objectives, 1 minute of visualization

• The Contrast Shower: 30 seconds cold water, 30 seconds hot water, repeated 3 times

• The Energy Prime: 20 jumping jacks, 20 seconds of power posing, 20 seconds of focused intention

The specific ritual matters less than your consistency in performing it before deep work.

Developing Personal Flow Triggers

Your most powerful depth triggers will be personalized to your unique psychology.

Start by analyzing when you've naturally fallen into flow states in the past:

• What environment were you in?

• What actions preceded the flow state?

• What physical sensations accompanied the transition?

• What mental state preceded the depth?

These patterns reveal your natural flow triggers.

I discovered that physical movement followed by complete stillness consistently triggers my deepest states of focus. Now I incorporate a 60-second movement pattern before sitting down to work.

Experiment ruthlessly until you find your personal flow formula.

Step 4: Depth Measurement

Most people think they're doing deep work when they're really just doing shallow work with fewer distractions.

This is perhaps the most dangerous delusion of all.

I thought I was doing 3+ hours of deep work daily. The reality? Barely 65 minutes of true cognitive depth.

That harsh data point changed everything.

Simple Tracking Systems That Work

Your deep work tracking system must be:

• Frictionless (takes less than 30 seconds to log)

• Honest (includes quality measurements, not just time)

• Visible (displayed where you'll see it daily)

• Trending (shows patterns over time)

Start with these core metrics:

1. Deep Work Hours (actual time spent in cognitive depth)

2. Focus Quality (subjective 1-10 rating of your depth level)

3. Distraction Attempts (tally of how many times your mind tried to wander)

4. Output Completion (did you finish what you planned to accomplish?)

Example tracking system:

• A physical notebook with date, start/end times, focus rating, distraction tally

• Weekly and monthly summary data

• Correlation analysis with environmental factors

Beyond Quantity: Measuring Quality of Focus

Hours alone tell you nothing about the value of your deep work.

I've had 45-minute sessions that produced more value than 3-hour sessions because the quality of focus was different.

Rate your focus quality after each session:

• Level 10: Complete immersion, time disappeared, exceptional output

• Level 7-9: Strong focus with minimal distractions, solid output

• Level 4-6: Fragmented focus, multiple distractions, mediocre output

• Level 1-3: Shallow work masquerading as deep work

Be brutally honest. A level 5 session that you acknowledge as such is more valuable than a level 5 session you pretend was a level 9.

Deep work isn't just a productivity hack. It's the foundation of an extraordinary life.

Master these four components - Scheduling, Environment, Triggers, and Measurement - and you'll develop a depth capacity that puts you in the top 1% of performers in any field.

While others bounce between distractions, you'll be operating from a place of inevitable progress.

Remember: Systems beat motivation every single time.

So get started with only one hour of deep work.Identify the times when you can focus best, and schedule your work block in advance for those periods of the day. Decide what you will work on during that hour the day before, and optimize your workspace to create room for depth. Once your hour is complete, measure the effectiveness of your working session to collect data on what makes an excellent deep work session for you.

Next week, we'll tackle the second pillar of your execution engine: Decision Minimization.

Until then, implement these four depth components and watch as your progress accelerates exponentially.

The question isn't whether this system works. It's whether you'll implement it.

I know this is newsletter is long but nonetheless more important then ever.

It's time to get rid of that rusty scooter and go for that Ferrari that gets you further quicker.

It is a symbol for excellence just like the work you are going to produce if you follow this simple deep work protocol.

— Chris