3 Ways To Improve Deep Work
How to focus on improving success in a distracted world
How to focus on improving success in a distracted world
Key takeaways
In his book, Cal Newport defines deep work as “the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.”
Reduce distractions by turning off social media and notifications.
Improve focus by blocking extended periods to work on challenging and high-value tasks.
Overview
In today’s market, those who succeed have indispensable capabilities that are rare and hard to mimic. Malcolm Gladwell’s claimed in his book Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours (of intensive practice) to achieve mastery of complex skills.
Deep work is the unique ability to engage in tasks requiring complex skills and achieve mastery quicker.
What is deep work
In his book, Cal Newport defines deep work as “the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.” But what is a cognitively demanding task? The opposite is a logistical-style task, often performed while distracted.
To help distinguish the tasks apart, go through these questions -
How easy is it to replicate? (how much time would it take for me to train an intern for that)
How much value does it create in the world?
How repetitive and logistic is it? (did I do that before with low effort)
Note — a task could be essential (such as sending an email to your boos or providing a status update), yet it is not cognitively demanding and therefore doesn’t require deep work.
Try thinking about one or two such tasks, and let’s see how to achieve them quicker.
How to improve Deep Work
Deep work is a king of “Zone” where you can push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. Let’s see how to increase the time spent in this state.
Tip 1 — avoid Social Media
Yes, it is obvious. Yes, we have all read we should do that. However, did you know each person spends on average 2.5 hours a day using social media?
I won’t go as far as to say you should delete your account, but at least acknowledge it takes your time doing shallow work, distracting you, and decreasing the value you create.
Try minimizing the time spent on social media, and mostly on times you know it is hard to engage in deep work, such as launch time or evenings.
Tip 2 — notifications OFF, Do-not-disturb ON
Do you know the feeling you are talking to someone, and then his phone or laptop chimes, and he gets distracted for a couple of seconds?
Yet again, as evident as it is, we are stressed about notifications and have difficulty turning them off. I’ve already written about how workers see emails and Slacks as their biggest distraction, leading to lower productivity and increasing burnout.
I turned off most of my notifications, and as a result, my stress level is lower, and I didn’t get any feedback on being less available.
If you don’t want to go that far, do yourself a favor and turn on your system do-not-disturb mode while trying to engage in deep work. An hour without interference, again, is priceless.
Tip 3 — commutes and stretched blocks of time.
One of our biggest challenges is controlling our time and schedule, as this is the most expensive currency in the world. While you don’t always hold the meetings and discussions you participate in, you can decide how to manage them better.
A colleague asked me to move a meeting we arranged 2-hours forward. Looking at her calendar, I didn’t see any other arrangements booked, so I asked her to keep it at the same time. She said she had three sessions that day and wanted them to be close. Be strict with your time, reduce context switching, and focus without distraction for an extended time.
Finally, try to get bored and just think (as this podcast episode suggests). When commuting or walking, follow up on the stream of thoughts from your deep work and engage in thinking on complex problems.
Summary
The best summary would be this article story. I wrote it within one hour. I had two distractions (from those around me), no notifications, and one minute of walking around thinking about it.
I was able to spend time in a Deep Work state where otherwise, it would take me over a day to finish it up.