Mani Vaya is a former physicist and electrical engineer turned entrepreneur. He’s the founder of 2000 Books, where he brings you the most actionable ideas from the world’s greatest books via his weekly summaries.
His latest project, though, is teaching others how to double their weekly output while working 10-20 fewer hours per week. It’s all possible thanks to a “9-second forcing function trigger.”
What’s this dude even talking about? Read on to find out.
Despite devouring almost every book on productivity, willpower, time management, et cetera et cetera, that’s out there, and even selling a Double Your Productivity By 5 PM Tomorrow course, Mani felt like a fraud.
His own productivity was erratic at best. He was working 16 hours a day, constantly being distracted by social media, hardly ever finishing a project, wondering why he couldn’t follow his own advice.
He finally realized he needed external professional accountability. Not his buddy or his girlfriend or some stupid app.
So Mani hired an accountability coach to check in on him, live, every hour over Zoom.
It was expensive, but so worth it. Mani doubled his hourly productivity.
Ecstatic, he soon offered the same thing, but via small group, to his Double Your Productivity By 5 PM Tomorrow members.
Everyone loved it. It was fun, motivating and you felt like you were a part of something bigger than yourself.
High-frequency accountability (on the hour, in this case) compounds much faster than, say, weekly accountability.
This is how Focus Blocks was born. A combination of professional, hourly accountability and surrounding yourself with other high performers.
It’s not just about doubling what you get done and what you make, but freeing yourself up to spend more time with the people and on the causes that matter most to you.
For example, Mani was able to go back to India and care for his mother who was severely depressed, where he was lucky to work four hours a day, and still had his best quarter in business to date.
Isn’t that what it’s all about?
Big results require consistency. With professional, high frequency accountability, you’re able to supercharge your results.
Inspiration, willpower, habits, routines, self-control, systems, apps – if given enough time, all of these things will fail you. Focus Blocks won’t.
You’re getting this, right? (Mani’s favorite phrase.)
As for that whole 9-second forcing function trigger, that’s just how long it takes to hop on one of these live Focus Blocks.
So what’s the format of these bad boys?
Each Focus Block uses a 5-50-5 format.
The first 5-minutes is checking in with your accountability coach, setting your goal for the next hour, and getting primed for peak performance.
The next 50-minutes, you and everyone else in attendance will be muted, cameras left on, doing deep work the entire time.
The final 5-minutes, you’ll report back to your accountability coach and confirm you completed the task you set out to.
These Focus Blocks run 24/7 Monday through Friday. Attend as many as you want.
How much does it cost?
Mani’s offering a $1 trial for the first 7 days. After that, it’s $129 per month or $497 every six months.
Cancel anytime.
Comes with a buncha bonuses.
Could be upsells, so just keep that in mind.
I don’t doubt this works. No one wants to flake out in front of a bunch of people on a Zoom call.
That said, would I do it? No, but I’m fortunate enough to be in a place where I’m really happy with the amount of work I’m getting done each day.
If you’re not there yet, it’s certainly worth considering.