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The book “Deep Work” by Cal Newport begins with the story of Carl Jung. The great psychiatrist bought a house in a Swiss village included a retiring room which was only for him to work there. Jung was inspired by his trip to India in 1930s where meditation rooms were added to homes. He built the private office to be deeply involved in work. He later wrote many articles and books, founded analytical psychology, and became one the most authoritative names in the field of psychology.
Newport believes that one skill, the theme of the book, deep work contributed greatly to the achievements of Carl Jung. Newport himself coined the term “deep work” which he defines as follows:
Deep Work: 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.
In other words, deep work is to cut out distractions and work with laser focused on a cognitively demanding task. In the modern world of knowledge workers deep work becomes increasingly scarce, being dominated by shallow work which is defined by the author as follows:
Shallow Work: Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.
Too many distractions, such as social media, checking emails on a regular basis, dominate our modern working spaces. This makes deep work even more valuable; to not only survive but also thrive in this economy we need distraction-free, laser focused deep work.
Newport suggests several ways of how to succeed in working deeply. Since deep work requires distraction-free concentration, you should cut out distractions and “embrace boredom”. The problem with our brain is that once we’re accustomed to being distracted regularly, it’s very for us avoid them when we want to concentrate. If you look at your smartphone every 5 minutes, unfortunately you’re not ready for deep work. We should cultivate the habit of cutting out distractions ruthlessly and being laser focused.
One strategy is to plan Internet blocks, the time periods when you’ll use Internet and will steer clear of it entirely outside these times. Even this simple idea can be very powerful in increasing your concentration. Every time you feel bored but force yourself to avoid distractions altogether will be kind of mental training for your brain and strengthen your brain’s ability to focus.
You can also consider what Newport calls “Rooseveltian intensity”. First, identify a task requiring deep work, a task that is on your priority list and on which you have procrastinated for a while. Think about how long it normally would take to complete the task, and give yourself a deadline that significantly decreases the required time. Since you have no choice other than to complete the task, get started working on it with great intensity which means no distractions, no social media, no emails. The power of these “Roosevelt dashes” is that by introducing imaginary deadlines they will increase your level concentration drastically. Furthermore, as the previous one, this strategy will help you to embrace boredom and avoid distractions.
Since social media can be a big distraction, another simple rule Newport suggests is just quit them. You may consider not to use social media for thirty days. Don’t deactivate your account or declare online that you are going to sign off these services. Just don’t use the social media that most sucks up your time for 30 days.
Once your voluntary social media avoidance is done, ask yourself these two questions:
- Did anyone care that I avoided this service for 30 days?
- Could the last days have been better if you used that service?
Close that service forever if the answer to both questions is “no” which most probably will be the case. If the answer is “yes”, then you can start to use that service.
Another solution against the attractive pull of the social media and other entertainment sites is plan your leisure time in advance. If you haven’t decided what you’ll do in your free time, social media will seem a good choice. And you’ll waste your time on them. By putting more thought into how you spend your “day within a day” you can choose a better alternative to addictive websites.
“Deep Work” is a truly transformative book; it affected my thoughts on work, productivity, spending time well, and life in general. Indeed, deep work is very hard, and requires full concentration and a great deal of endurance. You’ll also have to change your habits to succeed in deep work. But I think you should at least consider it. At the end of the book, Newport quotes the writer Winifred Gallagher’s words: “I’ll live the focused life, because it’s the best kind there is.” Live the most focused life that is possible!
