I am part of a founder network and am continually interested in boosting productivity and getting things done. I recently met Jeremy Redleaf, co-founder of Caveday.org, which claims to be the most focused community globally. Color me intrigued!
During COVID, it’s been challenging to stay focused and keep projects moving forward. So, I decided to give Caveday a try.
Jeremy invited Founder Summit members to try one of their “productivity sprints” — a three-hour virtual co-working session designed to help people focus on a single task, stay productive and get work done. It was a game-changer for me. However, you may be thinking, “I don’t have productivity issues” or “that wouldn’t work for me,” but hear me out.
How it works:
The session begins when you log into the Zoom, camera on, microphone muted. A Cave Guide (moderator) sets the tone (super chill and friendly) and theme (“tiny things”) for the Cave and making newcomers feel welcome. Everyone is on mute, but the chat can be very active. I’ve been in Caves with as many as 60 people. Today, there are 25. The attendees are diverse; a broad range of professions, age ranges, ethnicities, and more.
Next, participants go into breakout rooms of 4 people, unmute, and share their name, location, work focus, and thoughts related to the session theme.
My breakout room introduction went like this: I’m Dawn from LA, I’m focusing on editing blog content, and my favorite tiny thing is sample sizes from Sephora. The intros usually spark fun but brief conversation before we start the work sprint. We’re here to get things done, after all.
After 3 – 4 minutes in breakouts, we return to the main room and count down 3-2-1 into the first sprint. The moderator keeps time. I specifically turn off my phone, notifications, and other distractions and turn on Noisli for some pleasant background sounds.
Then my head is down, I leave my camera on/mic off, and work until the moderator rings a bell to bring us back 40 – 55 minutes later—end of sprint one. We take breaks, have a chat and a stretch, all led by the moderator, and repeat the cycle for sprints 2 and 3.
It seems simple enough, deceptively so. Jeremy and his team have created some workplace sorcery. I got more done in that 3 hours than I had in weeks; in fact, I got things done that I had been avoiding for months. So why did it have such an impact on productivity?
Why I think it works:
Caveday encourages choosing a single focus with your work goal: wrapping a project, editing a paper, coding a website, invoicing, or whatever is on your list. I chose to focus on editing article content, specifically one article. In fact, I’m in a Cave as I write this! Writing is something I drag my feet on but has enormous benefits to my business when I do it. Because writing always seems to take much longer than I think it should, I avoid getting started. So I bring it to the Cave.
While you work, you have the choice to leave your camera on, which I do. Being visible helps me monitor distractions. It’s like having people shush you in study hall, but no one is actually shushing me. Working on camera has a similar effect because I know that other people can see when I’m out of my chair, which matters to me.
If you’re familiar with Gretchen Rubin’s work, The Four Tendencies, I am an “obliger.” I’m great at keeping promises to other people, but when it comes to keeping them to myself, wellllllll.
Humans are productive when focused (i.e., not distracted by our phones or inboxes) and create accountability. Telling others that we’re going to accomplish something on a deadline motivates us not to “disappoint them” – even if they’re total strangers.
Scheduling my “deep work” during the Cave allowed me to keep my promise to myself while connected to other similarly driven and focused people. I need an audience to increase my productivity.
Each “sprint” is relatively short, between 40 and 55 minutes. The moderator watches the time and pulls us into breaks at the end of each sprint. I don’t watch the clock to get me into the proper flow. This helps because I’m not concerned that I’m spending too much or too little time on a task. My stamina for staying focused has improved because I go into each session refreshed.
These are all great reasons to try working with an audience, but my absolute favorite reason for working this way is that the work we focus on is 100% worker’s choice. The Caveday team encourages you to prioritize what you’ve procrastinated on, whatever is most vital for you or your business, not necessarily what is most urgent. For me, these are tasks that are foundational to my business but not necessarily the most pressing or most fun. Because of this, what I focus on actually moves my business forward each time vs. just being items on a to-do list. I come out of the sprints feeling calm and productive.
The sprints I’ve completed have also been successful because I get invested in others’ success. In each of my visits to the Cave, I see many of the same people and track their accomplishments. Shout out to Steve B, always coding and Ann Marie, killing those client reports. We don’t know each other personally, but we cheer on our micro-wins. By completing one Cave at a time, we’ve quickly built a like-minded community centered on behavior we want to uphold.
Interested? Try it for yourself – I love Caveday.org, but you could even try to do this by setting alarms for 30-40 minute increments and turning off all notifications and distractions. I dare say you won’t be as consistently effective as if you would join a Cave, but you do you.
Do you have any tips on how to boost your productivity? Please share them with us. We’re always looking for ways to keep ourselves, and our clients focused and productive.
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