This Deep Work Strategy Made Me $700K In 30 Days (As A Procrastinator)

I procrastinate… a lot.

But I’ve learned that this is a good thing. Procrastination is my superpower for achieving what most people think is impossible.

I wait until the last minute, but in that last minute, I launch into the flow state and my mind is impossible to distract from the task at hand.

When I do this, the work is of higher quality than if I were to do scattered “planned” work for weeks before.

I have other things to worry about, and if my work isn’t the only thing on my mind, the quality will suffer.

I’ve discovered that this is a character trait.

It’s how some people are wired.

You only focus when focus is needed.

• You are bad at texting people back.

• You rarely did your homework on time in school.

• Client work is put off until the last minute.

• You struggle to make progress in business (because you don’t have someone managing you when it’s time to publish a project).

If this is you, procrastination is your key to getting ahead of 99% of people… if you learn to harness that power.

The work you procrastinate on isn’t real-time like a video game or sports where you get immediate feedback on your effort.

Society has made you feel bad for this character trait. You constantly feel like you are falling behind others because you can’t, and shouldn’t, play the same game as them.

You don’t need to change. You need to understand yourself, structure your life accordingly, and make calculated decisions.

Tactical Stress – Forcing Yourself To Survive

The best decisions I’ve made are the stupidest.

I maxed out my first credit card at 19 for inventory on a business that failed fast.

I signed multiple leases on apartments that I never thought I could afford.

I got rid of everything I owned to fly across the country because I saw an opportunity.

I purchased an expensive software that cleared my bank account as a bet on my business success.

I built a landing page and accepted orders for a product before it was built. I’ve done this with every launch because, one, if it doesn’t sell, I don’t waste more of my time. Second, if it does sell, I’m forced to build it out before the launch date.

Every time I took these risks, I only gave myself two options:

1. Figure it out

2. Be crushed

It was a quarterly powerlifting competition for my mind. I put myself under my mental bench press max and forced myself to lift it without a spotter.

An example I see often in the business space:

“Should I purchase this software or take the free option?”

“Should I buy a course or waste my time learning on my own?”

“Should I start or wait until the pain is too great in my current situation so I end up starting 2 years later?”

The answer is obvious.

When I spent $1,000 on software (when that was the last $1,000 in my bank account), I was forced to learn and build with that software to make that money back.

When I spent $3,500 on a course, I was forced to make the teachings work to make that money back.

When I moved into an $8,000/month apartment, I was forced to increase my income to make that feel comfortable, resulting in $100,000 extra per month in my bank account.

When I made $700K in 30 days from a product that had yet to be built, I was forced to do the best work of my life to build it.

For clarity and those who may benefit, the number was actually $687,886 in May 2023.

A few things happened:

• I created a 2-week-long cohort that was 4 calls long on one topic for $150

• Things like cohorts have scarcity baked in because there is an enrollment date

• I was increasing the price of another course at the time (more scarcity)

• I had the usual sales from my other products

• I used the strategy I will go over later to promote them

• I have a pretty large audience at this point in my journey, and it wouldn’t have been possible without putting 4 years of effort into that

This concoction led to the most money I’ve ever seen in one month.

(Side note: With digital products, you can build fast and do this often. It only took me 4-5 hours to build the cohort material above. With physical products, you have to build them as you sell or put a lot of time into product development, like when I launched my book. This is why I heavily test ideas with content and digital products first).

You’re okay with where you are because you won’t take the risk that forces you to a level you can’t fathom right now.

There’s a myth that floats around occasionally:

Goldfish grow to fit the tank you put them in. But if you keep them in a small bowl, they never grow.

In reality, smaller tanks lead to poor water quality and less room to move freely. So, it’s not that they never grow, it’s that they suffer and die. A slight but important difference.

This is similar to my concept of Tactical Stress:

The conscious decision to force yourself into a do or die situation – knowing that you have the skill to make it work – and have no choice but to overcome your fears. The result is a season of intensity that propels you into the next level of your life.

The purpose of tactical stress is to launch yourself into the unknown, the land of infinite potential. Because if you don’t, entropy takes hold and you slowly begin to drown and suffer until the pain is so great that you have to do it anyway.

When you launch into new situations that can change your life, you become overwhelmed with information.

It’s too much for your mind to digest.

So, you’re forced to be consumed by chaos or to create clarity.

You set a goal that is borderline impossible, make a single decision that forces you to step off the cliff, and turn the resulting stress into a potent fuel that allows you to outwork anybody else. This does a few things psychologically:

• Maintains Perspective – When you are in a do or die situation, you have no option but to focus on your goal. Distractions don’t register in your awareness, so you can’t fall to them.

• Creates A Deadline – Most deadlines don’t work because they aren’t real. If you spend money on something or accept money for something, you are forced to deliver. A real deadline is created.

• Narrows Focus – Survival mode puts you in a temporary state of stress. Stress narrows your focus on the task at hand, which allows you to survive. The only thing on your mind is achieving the goal you set out to achieve.

• Makes Life Enjoyable – Since your goal is top of mind, anything you experience is filtered to aid in that goal. The books you read, conversations you have, and content you consume all “magically” seem to help you. Dopamine floods your brain as pattern recognition gets pushed into overdrive.

If your life isn’t enjoyable or you aren’t making progress, maybe it’s time to take a leap.

This isn’t for everyone, but what’s really holding you back from starting a new life? Quitting your job? Not having a plan B?

Only give yourself 2 options: win or die. And if you understand that success is a result of skill and knowledge, not luck, I have trust that you’ll figure it out.

I don’t want to hear any excuses, because that’s just a prime example of a lack of skill. You can’t control your ego and use your brain to create your own path.

Fabricating Urgency – The Deep Work Routine Nobody Talks About

To start, this will not work unless you take full control of your life.

The reason you show up to a job every day is because your survival is at stake if you don’t. If you want to be free, you have to recreate this effect in your own work. Most people quit because they have nothing holding them accountable to continue writing, building, and selling toward their vision.

Everyone has a desire to be wealthy because they desire to do the work they want to do.

Yet, most people suppress this desire because they’ve been conditioned to believe they don’t stand a chance. Or they just feel guilty for making money because they grew up an environment – physical or digital – that had a terrible relationship with it.

The only reason I was able to do this was because I had full control over my time and income… because I had a business.

Some of these strategies can help you at work, but you need a business to fully leverage the asymmetric payoffs that come from taking risks.

A business gives you the creative boundaries to increase your income as much as you’d like. That isn’t possible at 99.99% of jobs, and I’m guessing you aren’t in the small minority that will make over $500K/year by working up the corporate ladder for 10-20 years when you can achieve that in 1-3 years of focused effort on building your own thing. I’ve had multiple friends and students make that amount in that timeframe by trusting the audience-building and digital product process I teach.

The question now is:

“What exactly do I do when I take a risk that forces me to survive?”

I’m going to walk you through the exact quarterly planning that led to me making the $700K in 30 days.

Repeat this as much as you’d like. You won’t make a ton of money in the first few rounds, but as your skill set and audience for your work grows, you will be surprised at what you are capable of.