3 Ways to Trick Your Brain Into Doing Hard Work 

I'm working on new study music - subscribe to my music channel to hear it when it's finished! ru-vid.com/show-UCmqK2G-3AL_WP5KffH_wqAA (or on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/2Qch08zdpJ5rMPkHqNU7Be?si=R8tb4i6aQJWEEq5DeVTFcw) Here's my 1% Rule log for this video: - Spent a lot of time learning new techniques in Lightroom and Photoshop for making better thumbnails. Can you believe I didn't know what the burn and dodge tools did before this? While I didn't have time to work it into this video, I started learning Adobe Illustrator this week. Next week's video will have some dope motion graphics as a result! What is the 1% Rule? Essentially, it's the idea that you should aim to get 1% better with each piece of work you do, instead of pressuring yourself to create "perfect" work. Over time, these 1% improvements add up as long as you're consistent. More info, along with my journal for all videos, here: thomasjfrank.com/my-1-rule-journal/ P.S. - What other tricks do you use to get yourself to start your work?

Being in flow is an egoless state. Its when you're doing your work just for the sake of doing it with little concern about the end product. This frees you up to not only enjoy what you're doing but also helps you produce your best work.

“Thinking too much leads to paralysis by analysis. It's important to think things through, but many use thinking as a means of avoiding action." - Robert Herjavek

Me watching this after trying to reverse psychology myself into doing my math assignment

Video starts at 3:22 1. Start incredibly small 2. Allow yourself to create garbage 3. Jot things down in non-ideal places

This channel has truly changed my life

I guess I'm in a flow state when watching youtube.

Thanks for this Thomas! This is super helpful for PhD students like me, who need to write their thesis and research work, and just can't seem to get out of the mental block and into the flow state. To summarize: 1. Start incredibly small 2. Allow yourself to create work that might be garbage 3. Do work in non-ideal places

Love this! Thank you for sharing this Tom. You perfectly expressed what I was slowly starting to realise. Love your content!!

me, a mechanical engineer, sitting here and listening to thomas talking, and then I hear the word non-neutonian fluid and my brain immediatly gets ignited. love your vids tom, ps: that term is cursed in my field of study.

I can't even begin to describe how important the distraction journal is. I recently started writing "Morning Pages" to get my thoughts out in the morning, allowing me to trap my anxieties on paper. It's amazing how much clearer the rest of my day is when I accomplish this.

That’s what I need- a “Distraction” journal! So many ideas pop up when I’m doing something else, only to forget them later and then kicking myself for not remembering them. Thanks Thomas! Okay carry on...

Thomas: "...try to work in non-ideal places..." People watching this in the bathroom: *chuckles*

Thomas: “cuz as always, I’m not your dad.” Me: *whispers* “ok zaddy”

Really needed this video today. Getting back into some work for the rest of the afternoon. Thanks for another AMAZING video Thomas! Inspires me to do the same in my videos:)

My 3 ways 1. Watch Thomas Frank to get inspired 2. Watch Thomas Frank to get inspired 3. Listen to the college info geek podcast

You’ve spoken about a distraction journal in several of your past videos (such as with the Pomodoro Technique) and learning about that from you has helped me so much! I used to remember all kinds of things right in the middle of studying-from grocery lists to event invitations-and it would bounce around my head while I was trying to concentrate. Being able to write those distractions down and stop worrying that I’ll forget them later has led to much more focused work, so thank you, Thomas!

Thomas, your videos are phenomenal. I’ve been following you for several years and your videos just keep getting better. From the content quality, to the teaching style, to the production value... all of it excellent. All of it constantly getting better. I know I’m just a random person on the Internet but I want you to know that you make a difference in my life. Keep up the incredible work.

i think this is why i'm so good at getting stuff done when it's on a whim and i didn't really think about doing it beforehand. like the other day, i painted an entire wall in my room. but the day didn't start out with me wanting to paint a wall; i just wanted to dust and vacuum my room and that small task turned into the much bigger task that i normally would have had to psyche myself up to do.

TOTALLY AGREE WITH THIS. So much of this is about tricking your brain into getting into to Flow State. Love your tips Thomas. We pretty much made a video on the same topic at the same time!

Great video as usual. The distraction journal is a great idea, I think everyone should try it. I'll try it as well. Thanks Thomas for this awesome vid.

Love the idea behind this, I am really starting to find that when you allow yourself to start small and work up to the end goal even if it takes longer than initially planned I am much more able to get a lot of work done and end up with a much more complete idea.

Love the video as always Thomas! Great editing and theory that we can take and apply to improve the quality of our lives!

Great to see your journey i have been with you since 4 years now! All the best and keep going.

I've had a distraction journal since you first mentioned it in a video ages ago. Thank you for that tip! I find that it helps me let go of distracting ideas because I'm not worried that I'll forget about them. I know I can write them in my destruction journal and come back to them later. 👍🏼

Thanks for this Frank! I noticed that I’ve been implementing these habits recently. I’m glad that this has been working for you! 👌🏼

Great tips in here, Thomas! I'm a game developer and, whenever I sit down to start coding something, I always get that mental barrage of "things I must think about", like you on your music production endeavours. I start thinking about the code, the project's architecture etc and usually get paralyzed, just sitting there, thinking, and going nowhere. I'll try to adapt what you said about just "start messing around" to "just start writing some code", so I can see a clearer picture of what I'm trying to do. Thanks!

I've been doing this "distraction notes" as well, specially during this last month, it helped me a lot. I have a bunch of post-its that I attach to the end of what I'm reading, or the end of my notebook.

I really appreciate when you repeat a thing with synonymous. It's really great for understanding.

Okay this is getting absurd. Every single time I’m struggling to fix something one week, Thomas always releases a video regarding the thing I want to get better at about myself. You’re my hero!!

1. Start incredibly small 2. Do it badly 3. Work in non-ideal places as the work space can sometimes feel intimidating. Keep a journal/sticky notes/voice recorders around.

I usually read book daily but any time of the day. I must read a book early in the morning, I think, it will be more productive....

Used to listen to you for inspiration how to work hard so that I can get a resudency. Now few years later I got in to a residency program and I am listening to you for inspiration how to work harder to finish it! Thank you, Thomas! Glad to see you looking good, taking care of yourself and still doing good work!

Oh my!!! I haven’t watched a video of you in ages! Your room setup is different! You sound so... zen & chill now. I’m so happy I found you again.

I think the lighting in this video is just amazing! Great work Thomas, you’ve helped to inspire me to make my own videos in my native language. Cheers from Mauritius!

Dude! The quality of your videos is amazing. Keep going!!

Thank you, Thomas. You rock. Keep up the good work

this is your best video yet it really has a well explanation of how to trick yourself to doing hard work... and that note thing happens to me too

Great video! Thanks for the good work, Thomas.

Thanks for this video. I started keeping a distraction inventory but didn't think about the possibility of utilizing it to feed creativity.

Thank you for sharing these three pieces of great advice. They are fantastic, solidly practical, and so easy to do. Thank you Thomas very much for making this video. 👍😃

Yes, this, this is the video I needed. Thank you very much, sir, and now I'm off to see your other videos. After I write down my distracted thoughts.

Helpful, ty. I will try the distraction notebook... I remember I used to do something similar for a job I had... I wrote down things to do at 2 in the morning when I couldn’t sleep and I had so many great an unusual ideas.

I think this is one of my favorite videos of yours! Thank you for sharing this.

You know you’re watching this video while having work that needs to be done.

Been watching you channel for about 2 years now, I really like your content, it has helped me a lot in college, great video!

Thomas, you have a mind that is overflowing with thoughts and ideas and fun things. I think we are so much alike but I overwhelm myself trying to keep up up with the 'I want to do's' and I never get anything done. You have a great team and I cannot find out how to create one. Thanks for your wisdom.

I respect what you do! Thomas. Thank you

Your editing and your lighting makes me come back and watch EVERY SINGLE video you make!

Absolutely on point. Key is to start snall and tackle the daily blizzard of situations START SMALL

dude , I just literally paused the video, and wrote some ideas related to my project on a note pad, cause i didn't wanna miss the video valuable content neither the ideas that just came to my mind great job as always Thomas :D

watching this video right before i'm about to start my study section! your videos really inspire me.

I can't thank you enough. You actually make me want to get my work done. And I end up doing something productive after watching your videos. Thanks. 🙂

Now I’m wondering what would happen if Thomas took the drug from Limitless

It's amazing how some of the things on this list that you said shouldn't be done, are things that I had always thought had to be done in order to succeed. Really shows that everyone should look at even the little things they do everyday and second guess them. Always stop and think for a second about your rational for doing something. Especially when things don't work out- instead of just doing it again and again, maybe think about what you're doing, and what you could try to change.

That's interesting i stumble on your channel and this video right now as im sitting at my computer working on a script for my next video and mind blank...very helpful!

I have the same distraction journal where i jot down my random thoughts whenever i'm doing other important things. It's crazy how my best ideas about work/book come from that journal. I thought i was the only one haha. Thanks for this video. Amazing job as always.

Trying to write my PhD at the moment and this was soooo helpful in taking me back to basics, thank you Thomas, you're a star! :)

0:33 This is where I stopped the video, and followed your advice to create a distraction page in my tablet's note app. Thank you! I'll do this for my other tablet.

Nice fresh approach to getting things done.. Cant wait to try it

Lol Thomas I’m right there with you about Limitless. Great movie with great use of visuals

Thank you, Thomas! The video is very timely for me - I'm writing my thesis!

I loved this video not s much because of the content, which is useful though, but because of the aesthetics. The frame is so nicely composed!

Great video. Thanks Thomas!

Assume that you are creating garbage! I love that. That's how I start off writing my scrips for my youtube videos and then after all the tweeking and fixing, I get the best scripts! Great advice, I'm going to apply all these tips going forward, Thanks for the great video Thomas!

Wow, thank you for sharing how you broke down writing your book. I’m going to try that for my online course project!! I love your videos!

I want to appreciate your studio quality & video quality. It looks very impressive.. 👌🏻

That was some really good advice, thank you!

Pure gold. One of the only youtube channels about being productive that you'll ever need.

me after binging on study vids for hours: okay I'll get to work. thomas frank: uploads new vid

This video fits incredibly well into your Ultimate Guide to Focus playlist too! While the ideas may be covered in other videos, I think this video does an especially good job with principles like writing ideas in non-work-like places, starting with a nonintimidating goal, etc.

thank you for this video! Helped me a lot.

we often get similar advice like "start small". what i really like is the analogy of non-newtonian fluid, likening it to punching a wall when we make giant sweeping statements. very true that we often tense up at the moment when we want to finish up an ambitious task in one go. the idea of getting into the flow state is something new to me and thanks for sharing this incredible idea!

Thanks buddy ! Was a huge help & am in2 music 2 !!

Excellent as always!

Loved this video, thanks for making!

Seems like a very useful idea. Thank you, Thomas!

I keep a Bullet Journal to track my day and a dry-erase marker for my bathroom mirror, so when I think of those priceless ideas in the shower, I only have to remember them long enough to jot them onto the glass. I hope this tips helps everyone become much more creative and productive. Thanks for the quality video, Thomas!

I've been, unconsciously, using this method for songwriting, it's awesome!

Holy moly, distraction journal. Love it. Thanks!

This so helpful for me! Thank you for a good video!

Bravissimo! It was actually helpful all of it!

"Allow yourself to make garbage" - so valuable! Changing you mindset about making mistakes or potential "failure" is super important.

This is quite helpful, thank you!

Came for the advice. Stayed for the Music. Followed you on Spotify!

This video exceeded my expectations and pleasantly caught me off guard. These were some unique and fresh ideas I haven't considered before. Thanks!

I feel like this is the video that I have needed for so long because I have bad anxiety and get nothing done so just wanted to say thank you.

Love that analogy

This is greatly useful! Thanks.

Excellent video, more power to you.

The most useful tip for me is creating work that might be garbage. As a Social Sciences student, I had to write A LOT of essays throughout the semester, and I always found it hard for me to start writing since I expected the first words/paragraphs to be perfect. However, as I begun understanding how my brain and workflow worked, I started writing the first words just as if I was talking to someone and explaining my ideas and theeeen proceded to edit and "write". This continues to be the way I work, I always start off with writing nonsense and then structuring those ideas into actual deliverables.

I love that tag line!

This defnitely applies to programming - sometimes you just gotta sit down and write.

Just like the first chapter of "Mind for Numbers" love it and thank you frank for recommending this book.

Thank you I needed this :)

Thanks for sharing this!

Great tips! Thank you!

mad production value, keep it up

Thanks for documenting your execution of Deep Work techniques lol it makes it easier to see the outcomes

I learned a lot with your channel during this quarantine thank u man