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Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World


The 6 Productivity Strategies to Integrate Deep Work into Your Professional Lives


Why not start of this year with some exciting new theories....

Many modern knowledge workers now spend most of their brain power battling distraction and interruption, whether because of the incessant pinging of devices, noisy open-plan offices or the difficulty of deciding what deserves your attention the most.
Newport shares an inspiring collection of tools to wring every last drop of value out of your intellectual capacity. He explains why mastering this shift in work practices is crucial for anyone who intends to stay ahead in a complex information economy, and how to systematically train the mind to focus. Put simply: developing and cultivating a deep work practice is one of the best decisions we can make in an increasingly distracted world.


  1. How to build a D.E.E.P. work ritual ?

  2. edicated workspace
    “Your ritual needs to specify a location for your deep work efforts. This location can be as simple as your normal office with the door shut and desk cleaned off (a colleague of mine likes to put a hotel-style “do not disturb” sign on his office door when he’s tackling something difficult). If it’s possible to identify a location used only for depth—for instance, a conference room or quiet library—the positive effect can be even greater.”

    stablished end time

    “Give yourself a specific time frame to keep the session a discrete challenge and not an open-ended slog.” 
  3. Whenever you are going deep, you have to ritualize it. There are 3 basics to assist your deep work session: time, support and metrics.
    Give yourself a specific time limit, otherwise your deep work session will be an open session. It is hard to measure the output of a open session, it is hard to collect feedback afterward and it is hard to commit effectively to the remaining time. A fixed time limit gives you less time for distraction.
    Make sure that you have every support you need at the place. For instance, make sure that you have enough beverages at your place. You shouldn’t waste mental energy to figure it out during your deep work session.
    Last but not least measure your success and set goals for your deep work session. For instance, a writer can measure the success in words written by time. In turn the measurement needs a fixed commitment to a time limit.
    asy to execute starting routine

    “Your ritual needs rules and processes to keep your efforts structured. Without this structure, you’ll have to mentally litigate again and again what you should and should not be doing during these sessions and keep trying to assess whether you’re working sufficiently hard. These are unnecessary drains on your willpower reserves.”
    aired support
    “Your ritual needs to ensure your brain gets the support it needs to keep operating at a high level of depth. For example, the ritual might specify that you start with a cup of good coffee, or make sure you have access to enough food of the right type to maintain energy, or integrate light exercise such as walking to help keep the mind clear.” 

Execute like a Business

You can identify short and long term objectives. For instance, a short term objective could be to write an article about a topic. The long term objective could be to write a book about the topic. All articles would contribute to a long term objective. I can recommend to read the book The One Thing by Gary Keller. It gives a clear guidance how you can deploy short term objectives that contribute to long term goals.
During your execution keep track of your progress. You can use the explained chain method. Therefore you would need a visual representation of your progress. It can be simple as to have a physical calendar. To track progress enables you to gather feedback about your efforts. Are you on track? Did you have a bad week? Maybe it is time to recalibrate your efforts based on the feedback. On the other hand, when you don’t see something wrong about your progress, it is time to celebrate your achievements.

Take a Nap

Deep work is important. But you have to take breaks from your professional subject. Cal Newport says that by “providing your conscious brain time to rest [you enable] your unconscious mind to take a shift sorting through your most complex professional challenges”.You need time to rest. Therefore you can deploy productive meditations - that’s how Cal Newport calls it - where you do physical work (fitness workout, house cleaning, …) and no mental work. Apart from that research says that spending time in nature improves your ability to concentrate

End your day with a Shutdown Ritual

After every workday Cal Newport suggests a shutdown ritual. You would have to follow 3 rules:
  • (1) the shutdown ritual marks the end of the professional workday, no work can be done after that ritual
  • (2) the shutdown ritual needs time, for instance to organize the next day
  • (3) the shutdown ritual embraces to leave incomplete tasks

(Memory) => Concentration

Research shows that a trained memory improves your ability to concentrate. Concentration in turn is the ability to focus your attention and to perform deep work. When you focus your attention, you get less distracted. There are many strategies you can apply to train your memory. Cal Newport, for instance, describes an approach with card memorization. There you have to visualize familiar places and persons. You can use these to associate them with the card to remember. The card memorization is only the learning approach, but you can apply it for general purposes.

Plan your Workday ahead

Too often people work on autopilot without knowing what to do next. Cal Newport suggests to divide your hours of your workday into chunks. Each chunk can get assigned to an activity and a time frame. But don’t underestimate the time you need to perform the activity.

Become hard to reach

You can become hard to reach to avoid shallow obligations. For instance, Cal Newport suggests the sender filter approach to filter potential E-Mail correspondents beforehand. Before you leave your E-Mail address somewhere, you can mention that you will not answer every E-Mail and that you will only act on proposals that are a good match. The effect is that correspondents will filter themselves. They will double check if their request makes sense.

  1. Enjoy and hopefully this works for you!
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