Get the FREE One-Month Day checklist here: www.flowstate.com/onemonthday Rían here. If endless workdays leave you drained, science reveals a counterintuitive solution: Subtract hours to multiply output. By compressing your work, you elevate perceived importance--which boosts flow state. With the science-backed techniques in this PDF, you can strategically compress your work to exceed a month’s worth of productivity in less than a day.

So useful! I find that breaking up my day into two, 3 hour sessions while single tasking on one main project does wonders for me.

"Work Compression Method" can help increase productivity by doing less. It explains that working more hours doesn't necessarily mean being more productive. In fact, working fewer hours and focusing on specific tasks can lead to better results. Here are the key points in an easy-to-understand way: 1. Working more hours doesn't make you more productive: Science shows that forcing yourself to work longer hours can actually decrease your productivity. 2. Lyme disease example: The video tells a story about someone who became very ill and could only work three hours a day. Surprisingly, they became more productive during those three hours compared to when they were working longer hours. 3. Parkinson's law: Normally, work expands to fill the time available for it. But when you have fewer hours available, you become more focused and efficient in completing tasks. 4. Perceived importance: When you have limited time, you become better at prioritizing tasks and focusing on what truly matters. This helps you eliminate unimportant tasks and focus on the most important ones. 5. Challenge-skills balance: By compressing your work hours, you create a balance between the level of challenge and your skill set. This balance helps you stay motivated and engaged in your work, leading to better results. 6. Recovery: The video emphasizes the importance of proper recovery. By setting fixed work hours and strictly adhering to them, you allow yourself dedicated time for rest and rejuvenation. This helps you avoid burnout and maintain consistent productivity. 7. Consistency over intensity: Consistently working fewer hours is more effective than sporadically working long hours. It's about finding a sustainable rhythm that allows you to maintain productivity over the long term. To implement the Work Compression Method, you can start by setting a specific number of hours for work each day that is less than what you currently work. Block those hours in your schedule and commit to not exceeding them. During those hours, focus on your tasks without distractions. Additionally, practice good digital hygiene by using features like Focus mode on your phone and turning off notifications to stay focused. Remember, it may take time to adjust to this new approach, and there might be initial challenges. However, sticking with the process and committing to your compressed work hours can lead to increased productivity and better work-life balance.

I think procrastinators inadvertently have adopted this similar strategy, only the deadline really is the cutoff of time. If you are used to waiting until the last moment, you have become efficient in compressing work. Sometimes, I am amazed at how much I can accomplish in a short period of time when faced with an imminent deadline.

This channel will probably have 1mill subs before this time next year. Solid, fresh, concepts and some of the best engaging editing I’ve seen around these topics. Easy sub.

I recognized that I was suffering from productivity guilt my whole life (not good, busy, productive enough). So in antagonism to my heart-feeling that that coping strategies would not solve my problems, I kept on sabotaging myself. This video comes right on time. It confirms what I always felt true - right in opposition of the current belief of my social environment -. I was f**cking right all the time!! Thanks😊

Rian is the type of guy who will help you to gain 300x productivity within 6-8 hrs. ❤ Genuine feedback: I have been working directly after waking up, and it works rian, but this needs patience. This will not work if you do it in a week and then skip. As you said, consistency beats intensity, which is really true. People need to execute this for a longer time, and then the results will show up. And yes, Rian, thank you so much for providing such premium content for free. You're the next person I follow after sam ovens.❤

Love it. As a person with chronic illness I’ve had to learn to approach everything differently. I trained as a paramedic then got sick and now trying to build a life.. thanks this is more valuable than you could know.

I work 5 hours a day 4 days a week, mostly from 6a - 11a and experience much of what is discussed here. These insights are helping me crystallize the current and potential benefits of this process.

I think this can only really work if you start delegating. Probably the real secret is that the guy with Lyme’s disease was able to stop having any guilt over delegating because he had no choice.

This entire video really does a great job of articulating something I learned when I was 23. ~Hard work is a habit and if you force yourself to do more or work harder long enough you will eventually adapt and it will get easier allowing you to then add on to your workload even more~ You may think that you cant do any more then what you currently do in 8 hours but there are people out there running multiple businesses, with multiple kids and pounds of responsability and they make it look like nothing.

This is amazing! I was working on my business for hours and I would keep getting distracted because I had hours to work. I did notice the times I had other appointments, I would get more done at times because I had to prioritize and be faster. Too much time allows us to procrastinate more it seems. I'm so excited to implement this! I have needed something like this. Thank you! :)

I’ve got a lot to revisit in my work day. Much of this is common sense, but framing it, assigning it context, and bringing it to life makes it actionable and, therefore, of value. I’m so grateful I found these videos 🎉

Rian, PLEASE address how these can happen if you work from home, and have babies, young kids, and constant interruptions, and can't afford childcare. Go!

Increased Challanged demads Increased Skill, Decreased Hours Increase the Challange, Well said

This video couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. As someone in the creative field this is something I’ve been doing unconsciously lately, so this came more as a confirmation that I’m going in the right direction. Of course it’ll be different for everyone but I think little tweaks and variations to this method to fit with your lifestyle and type of work is still really beneficial.

The law of attraction is in flow by guiding me towards the information that I needed to hear to get back in the game. Outstanding content 🙏

One sec, let me go tell my boss this.

The counter intuitiveness of this concept I think is what makes it so great... at the end of the day, even working on something for 15 minutes is more effective than 2 hours if you're actually focused and immersed in the task

Agree with Rian - the man is a genius …

Holy. Shit. Dude. Just decided to try this and set a maximum of 6 hours of work in my day, and not a single second more, and I've rarely been so productive and laser focused on my tasks. Thanks a lot! Wow. Will be implementing this for good. Life-changing.

This fits really well with my anecdotal experience - really insanely productive on the last day before vacation, because there's really no other options. Make every day like that!

As a 20 entrepreneur with a super creative mind and massive network of support, the biggest issue in my work life is going 1000% into a wicked new idea in a mental state of 16 hour days back to back. Full of excitement and bright eyes... Only to hate the work life it creates for me. I suck at delegating and I love this max hours idea a lot. It will force me to learn to outsource and therefore get more done. Thanks so much Rian.

The half written email example is so good!! It forced you to optimise how you drafted emails, maybe we all can do this in our life.

Wow, that's impressive! It's truly remarkable when an individual can not only articulate issues more effectively than I can but also provides a strategic approach to solving them. Thank you for your generosity in sharing your knowledge. You've become a fountainhead of innovation, inspiring many entrepreneurs to integrate your wisdom into their practices. I've been influencing tens of thousands of lives through my sexual wellness courses, though I've found it challenging to produce effectively new courses that has been in the backlog, waiting for my effective input. Considering each of the 17,000 viewers may be influencing 10,000 individuals each, that amounts to 170 million lives potentially impacted by your video. I'm deeply appreciative and I bow to your expertise.

Thank you. This is absolutely brilliant. 🙏🏾 The most exciting bit about it: when this becomes your nature, and you don’t even have to “think” about it or “do” anything. Like nature or an ecosystem. This will revolutionize the way organizations operate. Humans and organizations won’t just survive or get by; they will thrive. 🌎 How beautiful that your friend’s challenge became GOLD for perhaps thousands and millions. ✨

Procrastinators like me have a natural way of work compression, waiting for the deadline actually helps us do work faster by making the deadline more threatening, making us work faster and make our work more compressed to satisfy the deadline and finish all our work in the given timeframe.

I went from 16 hours to 2 three hour work periods and maybe an hour (tops) at night. Twice as productive and much happier.

Parents already have compressed time. I watched this video to inspire myself to use the little time I do have to work on my videos and not feel bad.

This does make sense to me and I'm considering in some way trying it, but my options are limited. I teach, so my work has to be done at specific times. I can't just walk out on my students when my three hours are up. I also don't get to work on my personal goals during my paid work, so that's something I have to do after work. If I only worked three hours I would do my uncreative paid work and then have nothing left for bettering my life. The best option I can think of is to consider the three hours as being the time I spend doing my personal work and not counting the 8 hours of paid as part of the three. Also the 4 hour work week book seems to not even mention people who have scheduled post jobs like waiters, teachers, etc. I wish there was more advice for people like us that don't have office jobs, but have specific scheduled posts that can't be scheduled flexibly. It seems a lot of advice assumes everyone is doing an office job with assignments that can be scheduled flexibly or that they are self employed.

This video just took up 7% of my 3 hours!

I got chronic fatigue syndrome 6 years ago. My life has been utterly empty, with all the time in the world I haven't been able to do anything. And it's all on me of course, you mentioning lyme in this video really clicked. This might just be the thing to help me get out of this forever rut. I wish I could afford a 1 hour one on one, thank you for making these videos.

I really enjoy the KZfaq community so much and how some show others so much love

I have been addicted to this channel since I stumbled on the first video about the 6 timers. I am so grateful to have found it, It is exactly what I have been needing to hear lately. If you have a book compiling what you teach here I would buy it without a second thought.

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🕰️ Working more hours doesn't necessarily make you more productive; it can even hinder your productivity. 02:29 🔄 Highly successful people like Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk are much more productive than their peers but don't work significantly more hours. 04:06 ⏳ Work compression involves reducing your work hours to amplify productivity by focusing on constraints. 05:28 🎯 Lowering your working hours increases the perceived importance of tasks, helping you prioritize better and enter the Flow State. 06:10 ⚖️ Balancing challenge and skill levels is crucial for achieving the Flow State, which boosts productivity. 08:00 🛌 Recovery is an essential part of productivity; removing the obligation to work during off hours accelerates and deepens recovery. 09:05 📅 Implementing work compression involves setting specific working hours, blocking your calendar, and committing to those hours. 11:38 ➖ Reducing work hours can initially lead to challenges and lower productivity, but it can significantly increase output over time by focusing on constraints. Made with HARPA AI

Great video! This hit home as I was diagnosed with Lyme this year and have been struggling to find new ways to survive the work day. Thank you!

I am actually suffering from productivity guilt and I am really looking forward to try this out.

Great that you mentioned the "productivity guilt" By specifying my work hours to a set amount, hopefully I'll be able to overcome it

I worked in high stress jobs when I was younger and learned to shut off when I left at the end of each day. Now with my own business (always stressful), my wife complains if she wants to know how the company is doing, she has to talk to our neighbour over the fence (an employee). I told her the alternatives include a heart attack at four in the morning.

I love these ideas conceptually, it’s just… there’s such an insane privilege in not having to work hourly. Having the flexibility with time to then prioritize at all. They talk about handing off tasks to others - but what if you’re the person getting the things handed off to? These kind of videos are for bosses who want to do less and make their general workers do more which is just… clearly not where it’s at.

Mind-blowing stuff. Who knew? I'm gonna test this out and see what happens.

This is the same thing that I used to do in school. The teacher would give us this big research project in June and it would be due in 2 months and literally the day before, I'd be so focused and I actually pull an All-nighter and Id get it done. Basically in that moment, I don't care about 'productivity', or flow state, or routines ect. I had a project, and I had to finish it. 🤷

A few years ago, I started working 24 in 7, not 24/7. Basically, I only let myself work four hours a day. The stricter I am with the rule, the more stuff I get done. The best part is that you are excited for your next work shift. I now only hire people for 20 hours a week as well.

Nailed it. I got married and delegated it all to my wife. Now I just read, eat good food, and buy stuff on Amazon.

Hmm, many of these things sound well and good, however I suspect that there is a huge variability between individuals. From personal experience I can say that I can consistently achieve flow by working far more than those 3 hours per day. My main issue for reaching flow are environmental distractions and meetings rather than being tired; but overal I agree that we should have boundaries for our worktime.

I've had a job where 16 hour days didn't bother me, but other jobs where I checked the clock every couple minutes. It depends on how much you love what you do.

Rian, what a great content. Without a doubt, one of the best in this space. You should probably have MANY more subscribers. I will make sure people in my circle know about you.

this channel will blew up faster than any productivity channel out there

wow.. this is profound.. never really heard anyone talking about working less hours to be more productive , but it makes sense. I guess its kind like the 10x rule. Thanks mate awesome stuff. Got a new sub

Was pushing a to do up for a month or two bc it was some excessive tedious bs. Tried the stopwatch and was done in under 2h. Was always interested in the raw scientific controlability of psychology-switches but wouldn't have dreamed that people already figured it that much. What a time to be allive to have centuries of wisdom at a click.

"Consistency over Intensity! That could be considered the 'Eighth Wonder of the World!'"

Thanks for making these videos Arian, been subscribed to the flow research collective newsletter for quite a while now and Steven Kotlers Art of impossible is the best thing I ever discovered.

Your points are good. However, people might interpret your message to suit their own convenience. As you may know, a few decades ago, in many countries, the working hours were more than 12 hours per day. After research and various discussions, this was reduced to 8 hours for the time being. The reason cited was to increase productivity by working fewer hours. Now, you are suggesting reducing 8 hours to 3 hours. The point is, your research will truly benefit those who are focused and diligent. For individuals who are not as motivated, even a 3-hour workday might not lead to high productivity, as they may still find reasons for low output. Furthermore, your suggestions might only be applicable to a small fraction of the workforce. It won't be relevant for the majority. For instance, a truck driver needs to work longer hours to cover more distance. A front desk person should work more hours to cater to more people, and so on. I believe you understand what I'm trying to express. Your points are welcome, but they seem applicable to a very minimal percentage of the workforce. As you're aware, Elon Musk reportedly works more than 20 hours a day. Does this mean he's unproductive? Imagine if he worked only 3 hours based on your recommendation. Your points are valid, but they shouldn't be applied universally to all workforces.

Rian is a gem, and the amount of practical advice I gain from this channel is priceless. Thank you ❣

Love this concept. But when you have to tap in and tap out of the office, extremely hard to do as they will just minus your pay to unpaid leave for leaving early.

Gem Bro, I'm gonna watch this video everyday for next 10 days

This video was exceptional, truly. Best channel on youtube!

Disagree with your basic assumption. If you delegate, you are just outsourcing a portion of your productivity. The most successful people have more support systems for their productivity because they have capital to hire additional people to handle the least importantitems. Each of those people have chefs, nannies, trainers, personal assistants, shoppers, chief officers, lawyers and others to handle the periphery of what most of us have to handle on our own. I agree you need to focus and be efficient, but you cannot state that 3 to 6 hours equals 16. I agree rest and time away from work is beneficial to productivity but if I don't work, that portion of day cannot be productive. If I hire someone to work while I sleep, eat, vacation, travel etc then productivity continues at the cost of capital.

This channel NEEDS 1M subs!!! Such high-quality videos and information!!

New favorite channel, will blow up soon

This channel is soo underrated...bro deserve more

I already realized that restricting my work day at a certain limits resulted in major improvements in my mental recovery. Nothing as extreme as cutting it in half though, but I suspected for a while now that I could get most of my work done in way less hours. I will run this as an experiment to confirm.

you are godly! amazing! i thought i was crazy all my life but now all the sudden everything makes sense.

If I can be productive with only 3 hours, just think how productive I could be with 8 hrs. I think this advice applies to mostly creative and knowledge work, where cognitive ability is most needed. If the work is simple and repetitive like washing dishes or folding clothes, as a non business example, we can easily do an extra 4 hours of work process that consist of simple steps.

Detailed Summary: [00:00](kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m8ejm5aJmsDNaHU.html) Working fewer hours can increase productivity - Science shows that working long hours can decrease productivity - By working fewer hours, one can unlock productivity superpowers [01:40](kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m8ejm5aJmsDNaHU.html) Productivity is not about working more hours. - Successful people are not thousands of times more productive than others, but they have certain skills. - The biggest blocker of productivity is thinking that time is the main thing that drives productivity. - Additional hours often lead to decreased total output. [03:26](kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m8ejm5aJmsDNaHU.html) Limiting work hours increases productivity - Work compression forces elimination and prioritization skills - Perceived importance increases, allowing for better prioritization - Sequencing, elimination, and determination of important tasks improve [05:10](kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m8ejm5aJmsDNaHU.html) Perceived importance and challenge skills balance are key to achieving flow state. - Perceived importance increases motivation and focus. - Challenge skills balance must be tuned to avoid anxiety or boredom and achieve flow state. [06:48](kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m8ejm5aJmsDNaHU.html) Work compression helps in deepening recovery and escaping productivity guilt. - Flow states happen in a four-stage cycle, and most people can't get into flow because they can't recover properly. - True time off only occurs when the constant knowing obligation to work is put fully on pause. [08:27](kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m8ejm5aJmsDNaHU.html) Consistency beats intensity for productivity - Recovery is part of the work and helps in getting into flow more consistently - Unlock 5x productivity by locking work hours in a box and handling basic digital hygiene [09:53](kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m8ejm5aJmsDNaHU.html) Limiting work hours can lead to increased productivity and new insights - Turn off all notifications and stick to compressed hours - Constraints can lead to new ways of thinking and problem-solving [11:21](kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m8ejm5aJmsDNaHU.html) To increase productivity, subtract hours and multiply output. - By compressing work hours, you can amplify your resources and accomplish more. - Initially, there may be missed deadlines and lower results, but sticking to the process will lead to success.

This works for people who have control of their own time. This doesn't work for the hourly wage slave.

I wanted to work out for 2 hours a day but thanks to that video I managed to reduce my workout to 1 minute a day! Incredible! I'm going to call my boss now, tell him I'm now working 1 hour a day. Bet he'll be surprised =D

THANK YOU SO MUCH, YOU ARE EDUCATING FUTURE LEGENDS OF OUR ERA

This is difficult to apply when we are expected to now be at the office for a specific amount of hours. The elephant in the room is that if you get your work done, we are expected to run to the boss and ask for more work? A contractor would charge more money for any extra labor and would this is where the or workers really get taken advantage of. Every year we have to make goals so the company can get even more work out of us.

You mentioned "you might get in trouble with your boss", typically when that happens you are marking yourself in some way, which doesn't lead to desired outcomes.

I like this a lot and also suffer from overworking and becoming numb. Which leads to more time to recover from overthinking and exhaustion. But I will say I feel this works when you have a true passion for what you do. It starts with the job itself, without the passion or passion of challenges, this could be hard to accomplish. Also, I do hear about some of these successful people in the video with others are known to overwork employees. If they have "tapped in" wouldn't they want their culture and employees to follow the same structure for this output? But again, I love this work ethic and will start to implement this into my own work. Thank you for this.

i like the current iterated video than before eventhough liked the previous many iteration

My fellow Irish friend, you’ve been serving up some valuable nuggets. At time of writing you’re at just under 100k subs, I’m happy to put money down you’ll be at 250k in the next 18 months 👍

Hands up everyone already working 0 hours and wondering how to compress that into negative hrs 🤚

Watched every single one of ur vids n bro keep it up, idk it's something about you that makes me wanna watch u more ( I feel like I know u 😂😭)

There is a huge floor I see!!! This seems to only link to controlled environments… I’m a farmer And there is always more to be done! And it all takes time! I work 14hours a day to just make sure everything is fed and everything is done. Would like to discuss if you see this message?

I appreciate what you’re trying to do with your videos. However, I recommend turning the music down to make it less distracting and using better visuals. Those 2 things could dramatically change the quality of your videos

Great advice for self employed people...not those of us what 9 to 5 or people expected to work 8+ hour days

4ra's bet recalculations never disappoint, transparency and speed 🕒

I loved that video! 😊 And I'm asking myself what to do, if firstly your company expects you to work more hours than you have chosen for yourself, and secondly if you work in a setting where you have nobody you can delegate work to?

Nothing new (c.f. 4-Hour work week), but laid out in a great way to make me want to restructure my work day and actually follow the advice (again).

This is one of the most important videos I've ever seen. I knew all this but I couldn't articulate it this way. Thank you!

11:04 thats actually so smart you are like thinking about that email the whole day and are forced to think how you could write it better

this is why a lot of people procrastinate. they're waiting for the buildup of perceived important to hit critical mass. in order to take advantage of this, set shorter deadlines for yourself for smaller tasks so that each stackable task gets accomplished along the way. that way, you get a complete result from weeks or months of incremental work, rather than a one-week sprint at the end, with long hours, rushed labor, and lots of unhappy people and mistakes

This is great when you have control over your own schedule but how does (or can) this be applied to forced work schedules of 8 hour days? It would seem this concept only works if you are your own boss or have the flexibility to adjust your time at work. Line workers, cooks, waiters, baristas, teachers, etc. etc. just don't have that flexibility. Any suggestions for this type of work?

Your channeling is booming/will boom because the content is high quality and at the right time for everyone.

No examples or relatability for the every day person, but love the concepts and use them myself

i’ve always felt that I can only stay productive for 3-4 hours. Now I know why. I’d like to see more companies embrace and adopt this culturally.

Early in my career as a cyber security engineer, I learned that a great way to achieve a seemingly impossible certification was to drop a couple thousand dollars on courses and registering the exam in advance a couple months away. And most companies didn't comp those charges until and if you passed. So I was suddenly super motivated.

100% agree, my main job only start to thrive after I started two other businesses of my own.

Amazing advice as always 🎉

Brb, I am going to go tell my boss I am going to work 4 hours a day so I can hit flow state.

We've officially hit the logical fallacy in this reasoning. You can't wake up, work right away, compress your day to fewer hours, without basically not having showered, seen the sun, brushed teeth, or anything else until afternoon. Rough way to live. I can argue work compression is incompatible with taking advantage of flow proneness in the morning.

This channel is a gem!

Coming across this youtube channel is a game changer

Thank God I am a lark like you

I agree with this, having more than doubled my income since Covid, focus, prioritise and work faster not longer.

this goes with what you said about stopping to recover in other videos in more detail. .I guess many people can benefit from that who overexercise, overeat, etc. find that point, such as archemides discovered and call it a day. interesting about parkinsons law, that what we do fits into a timeframe... so by creating time constraints we may get into a deeper flow. the subconscious/unconscious often does our thinking for us, when we give it time. the idea of subtracting hours also might create the effect of increased focus and therefore relaxation. flow state is a bit like Wu Wei the chinese name for doing "without doing". i wonder if it works in little ways as well like writing a song. when you say work, I often wonder- how diverse this term can be... for me it is music, and qi gong.

Those sort of people have assistants and housekeepers to do all of their physical labor.

Hey Rian, found your channel and I find it‘S one of the highest value per minute on youtube (maybe after huberman) so thanx!