Deep work
In the 2016 book "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" and in his 2012 blog post, Author and Professor Cal Newport describes Deep work as
“Professional activity 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.”
The definition may sound intimidating with words like distraction free concentration,pushing cognitive capabilities,hard to replicate and so on.Looks like you have to do more to get started right ?
Nope,you have to do less of stuff to get there.Keep reading and you'll know why I am talking this way.Before that,what if I told you,
You have Deep worked before.
If you are an average student like I was in college or anything less,you must have found yourself able to study only when you are in college/school and some of you reading this would even prefer staying back for extra coaching classes the day before the exam/exams.
Why is all this happening ? If you are wondering,the answer is that you were potentially forced into an environment where you do deep work without recognizing it.
Most schools and colleges don't allow mobile phones to be used in classroom and all that you were left behind was a desk with books and few other friends who are of the same need as you,to clear the exam.
The good news here is that you can recreate that environment,whenever and where ever you want to.
But why Deep work?
Ever heard of the phrase "Work smarter,not harder" by people around? How many have said you what it exactly means and how to do it? I guess not many. In fact, many people who told me this didn't give a clear explanation of how to and why.
The world is a distractive place and in this era of smartphones and cheaper internet,we are more distracted than ever.This makes the skill of Deep work more valuable .
Ever wondered how the people you awe about by the way the master things relatively quick compared to the vast majority?Chances are,they have developed the skill of deep work more in the beginning more than mastering other things.
It is said that Bill gates developed Microsoft and J.K Rowling wrote Harry Potter using the Deep work techniques.
Deep work makes you learn things faster and perform at an elite level and that is what they did basically.
How to get started with Deep work ?
1) Clean your room/workspace.
Do I sound like an annoying parent? Maybe yes,but I badly want you to try it out fir yourself,the experience of working in a de-cluttered environment.Trust me,the time you invest in making your room neat and tidy will return manifold in terms of hours of deep work.
2) Schedule your internet time.
If you think conscious enough,you can't live without the internet now.but if you think further,it's more or equal time spent on unworthy commitment like social media and binge watching.
So set time apart from social media and invest it into deep work.
3)Schedule your Deep work time with enough breaks.
Deep work ,when tried new can be more rewarding,but doing it without limits can lead to burnouts and make life harder than before,making you hate the concept of deep work.So plan hours of work with well informed breaks.
4)Make it a Habit.
Whether you agree it or not, we all have finite amounts of will power on any given day.People may vary in terms of will power but you always have the option to use less of it as possible per task so that you can achieve a lot.
This is done by making it a habit.When you do so,you spend less will power each day to progress in your craft and will eventually be good at it sooner.
The Psychology of it.
The reason behind the effectiveness of deep work has to do with the way the brain responds to multiple triggers.
When you have lot of stuff in your room,each object drives you into a thought related to it.Say for an example,your football might remind you of the last match you played.Your gaming joystick mind remind you of your favorite game you haven't played in a while and so on.
This will either use a portion of your will power to stay away and refocus,or you'll eventually do the stuff it reminds you to.They are called cues.
The same principle is how the notifications in your phone works."xyz sent you a message" or "liked a post" is a cue to let them make you open their app.
This causes multiple firing of neurons in the brain,causes a phenomenon called the attention residue where your focus is split across a lot of stuff thereby reducing the efficiency leading to shallow work which is exact opposite to Deep work.
Thanks for reading,