Do you ever feel unfocused and a bit antsy… when you should be working?
You have a To-Do List as long as your, er, arm. And even though part of you wants to get to work, other parts of you are doing everything they can to steal your attention.
And when you live in a distracting world, it’s easy to find something else to focus on.
If you look back at old books — even really old books, like Seneca’s “Letters From a Stoic” in which he writes,
No man is at the mercy of affairs. He gets entangled in them of his own accord, and then flatters himself that being busy is a proof of happiness.
Seneca, Letters From a Stoic, #106
Those letters are nearly 2,000 years old. And even then, people were busy. So so busy. Without the internet and tracker phones even.
With one of my recent jobs, my copy chief suggested that I read Cal Newport’s “Deep Work.”
“Deep Work” covers the idea that you can get so much more done if you put your mind to it.
But most of us don’t put our minds to it.
Instead of striving for Deep Work, we build our lives around Shallow Work.
We believe our jobs require instant responses to emails. We believe we can shift between tasks without penalty. We believe that our time should be filled with productivity… or at least entertainment.
Newport argues that shallow work has it’s place. But to have a meaningful impact in your field or career (or life) you need time without distraction to think. To understand. To make connections that others haven’t made.
You need time to put words to paper, or tools to material, or ideas to the test.
And during Deep Work, nothing else gets attention (save for true emergencies).
Newport’s tips for creating Deep Work:
Schedule your Deep Work time. This might be daily, when you have focused energy. (Everyone is different, and you can track your own day to discover this). This might be weekly, on Wednesdays or whatever. Your Deep Work may be a few weeks every year. Or a sabbatical year even, away from the office. Any of these can work. The idea is to set aside the time and make sure you spend this time on a single, deep, meaningful task.
Remove distractions. That might mean turning off all computer dings from incoming messages. Turning off your phone, or leaving it in another room. Set an email auto-responder if you have to. Clearing your work space before you begin, so you don’t feel the compulsion to clean when you should be working.
Start with rituals. If you do the same thing every time before your deep work begins, you get into a groove. Maybe you sharpen 2 pencils, fill your coffee, and sing a song. The stranger the ritual, the better.
Keep score (against yourself). It’s motivating to see your progress, and you get a better understanding of what’s required to move towards your goals.
Two other, not-exactly-related points that are very important in Newport’s book, “Deep Work.“
First, schedule non-work time. Your brain needs to wander, to decompress, to recharge, to make subconscious connections and decisions. And, if your brain is tired all the time, the work you do isn’t going to be as good as it could be.
Second, evaluate your tools. If you’re a gardener, you probably don’t have much need for a mechanic’s wrench. Keeping that wrench takes up physical space. And every time you look at it, the wrench uses a bit of your mental bandwidth.
But that’s exactly what we do with our phones, and with social media. They fall into the “Any-Benefit” category: we tend to think, if there is any benefit at all, that the tool is worth keeping. We can look up information faster! We can find directions more easily! We can connect with highschool friends!
And since there are benefits to social media –look at them all!– the tool must be worth keeping.
Newport argues that these benefits are generally pretty minor. And if we want to make an impact with our work, we should consider if these tools are helping us perform the Deep Work needed.
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