Deep Work
Learning How To Work Deeply Is Becoming Increasingly Rare, And Therefore Increasingly Valuable!
Cal Newport defines deep work as:
“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”
Deep work is becoming increasingly rare and therefore, increasingly valuable. Newport argues that if you are able to cultivate the skills necessary to perform this, then you can massively benefit in today’s world.
This book focuses on why the skill of deep work is important and how you can cultivate it.
Keep reading for my key three lessons!
Lesson 1: Productivity Vs Busy
This is something I have touched on before and Newport reinforces.
Productivity is efficient. It is getting the maximum amount of high quality work done within the shortest period of time, says Newport.
This usually requires focusing on one thing and concentrating on executing it to the best of your ability.
Busy is where we scatter our attention and focus on many non essential things, or as Newport calls them, ‘shallow tasks’.
We can often be guilty of assuming those who work on one task for 4 hours are not as productive as those that juggle 6 tasks in the same time period. But if you looked at the difference in the quality of the work, you would probably find the former to be of a higher standard.
Newport argues that the foundations of deep work are values such as quality, craftsmanship and mastery. To truly master these skills, it requires you to focus on one thing for a certain period of time.
Busy does not mean you are productive. If you are aiming for high quality work, you should direct your focus towards one task at a time and concentrate on truly mastering it and entering flow.
Jumping from task to task can result in Attentional Residue, which is the subject of Monday’s article.
Lesson 2: The Deep Work Habits
“You have a finite amount of willpower that becomes depleted as you use it”, says Newport.
A key part of working deeply is building the habits that make it easier to enter a state of deep work and sustain it. This involves creating systems and routines.
If you solely rely on willpower and discipline, you will find it harder to work at certain points of the day. You may also find that you are forcing yourself to work, reducing the enjoyment of it.
Choose an environment in which you work best. This could be in a home office, at the local library, a coffee shop, or a separate office at work. Find a place that allows you to enter flow and produce your best work.
Then put some systems in place for the time you will be working. Decide ahead of time what you will be working on and for how long. You can put your phone on Do Not Disturb or put it in a different room completely.
If you feel yourself starting to struggle, how long will you take a break for and what will you do? Maybe go for a walk or do some chores?
Plan your session ahead of time.
Another great habit to develop is accountability. Newport suggests that an effective way to do this is to do a weekly review.
Here you can analyse your working week and look at what sessions were good and why, and what sessions were bad and why.
This forces you to take stock of what you have done and look at ways you can improve.
You can expect yourself to enter a state of deep work at the drop of a hat, you must build healthy habits around it first to aid you.
Lesson 3: Boredom
Boredom is something we actively try and avoid, but in doing this we harm our ability to work deeply.
By constantly switching our attention between tasks, or overstimulating our brain through mindlessly scrolling social media, we never give our focus a break.
Our brain needs time to reset. If you were working on a report for work, you would take breaks every now and then to give your mind a rest and step back. This makes you feel refreshed and ready to go again.
But if you jump into other tasks, you don't give your brain the rest it needs. This can then impact the quality of your work.
Embracing boredom can be of great benefit for your focus and attention.
Allow yourself to sit in it and you may find you are able to generate new ideas.
Filling every gap in your day can destroy your focus.
To make it easier, Newport suggests scheduling times where you indulge in your distractions and holding off until then. This means that if you want a break you are forced to be with your own thoughts until the time comes for you to go on your phone.
Boredom is not something to be avoided but instead something to be embraced.
Conclusion
Developing the skill of being able to work deeply will prove valuable in the coming years as it becomes increasingly rare. It does not mean secluding yourself from the world all day, everyday, but building healthy habits and establishing boundaries where needed. Take care of your brain and nurture it to produce the high quality work it can.