When is the last time you actually focused on a single task? Truly, deeply, focused on a task? For too many of us, without realizing it, it has been too long.
Days string along as we bounce randomly around our devices with fragmented attention, constantly context switching as we fight off a seemingly endless demand for our attention.
As technologists, we believe we thrive in this environment. We want to learn more and do more. It’s a technical crack we feen for and believe we need in order to maintain our intellectual high.
As leaders, we feel we need to be everywhere. We believe our purpose is based on our presence and that our contributions are counted by our endless ability to provide “thought leadership”.
This is not productive and certainly not sustainable. There are times where you have to slow down and invest the time to cultivate concepts for your long term gain. In today’s past-paced digital world, deep, focused work has become a forgotten skill, but it is still vital for meaningful progress in technology and leadership.
The Shift to Shallow Work
In many ways, we are victims of our own success. The tech industry has brought to market so many good tools for collaboration and multitasking that we’ve effectively set our selves up for failure. These modern tools encourage constant switching between tasks and have established a work environment where information is abundant and easily actionable.
Shallow work, the opposite of deep work, has taken root and is the default methodology used by today’s technical leaders. It’s the low attention, quick-win, work such as responding to emails, planning our days, and answering instant messages.
There’s an instant gratification to shallow work. It provides you with an artificial sense of accomplishment and makes you believe that you are that much closer to free time where you’ll THEN be able to do the work you really want to do. However, like Charlie Brown and the football, you never quite succeed and the list of to-dos continues to grow.
Relentless notifications, the lure of social media, constant connectivity, and those dastardly little red bubbles on your phone are undermining your ability to focus for long periods.
Why Deep Work Still Matters
Deep work is the act of focusing intensely on a cognitively demanding task without distractions for an extended period. It involves working in a state of peak concentration, which allows for producing high-quality work and making meaningful progress on complex problems. This type of focused work is key to mastering difficult skills, generating valuable insights, and creating breakthroughs in solution development, especially in fields like ours that require creativity, problem-solving, and innovation. The concept was popularized by author Cal Newport in his book Deep Work.
Obviously you can’t completely avoid the shallow work and stay in a deep work zen state all day. However, finding an hour or two for uninterrupted deep concentation allows you the ability to reset and focus intently on individual problem domains. As a result, you produce higher quality and more innovative solutions, inform your strategic decisions, feed your intellectual curiosity, and enhance your visionary thinking.
The Impact of Constant Distraction
There is a cognitive toll of constant interruptions, distractions, and shallow work on productivity and mental well-being. I often find myself vigorously bouncing between tasks while trying to keep my mental queue in order so I can go back and complete items later. Many times I actually mentally acknowledge the fact that I’ll probably never return to a task. In my mind there’s a fleeting thought, “there’s no chance I remember to go back and do that” and then I’m quickly on to the next.
There’s no doubt this impacts the quality of your work and your personal and professional growth.
How to Cultivate Deep Work in a Distracted World
Now that you know you need to foster deep work, how do you actually do that? Beyond reading the book, here are a few things you could try right away.
Set boundaries
It’s important to turn off notifications and carve out focused time. This is obviously hard when trying to manage the demands of a technical leadership position, however you need to find the time. This could be early in the morning before the demands of the day hit or targeted times during the week where you have open spots on your calendar. Block these times on your calendar and be purposeful with your time. Don’t back down and start letting meetings or other demands creep into your dedicated deep work time.
Create a distraction-free environment
When you do dedicate time for deep work, make sure you create an environment where that can happen. Close all windows on your laptop that don’t relate to the task at hand, especially your email. Move your phone out of your sight and turn off notifications. Put on headphones and turn on a playlist that gets your creative juices flowing or allows you to fully concentrate. It’s hard to enter a deep work state with the TV on or in a crowded coffee shop. Find the environment that works for you by experimenting with different approaches.
Implement periods of deep work throughout your day
Deep work doesn’t have to be a dedicated two hour block every morning. In practice, you can employ deep work in your existing schedule. Use time-block scheduling for your day and when you’ve identified something you want to get done in a particular hour increment, use deep work principles to get it accomplished. For example, if you need to write or review a document and have that on your schedule for 9am to 10am that day, spend that one hour doing nothing else but that one task. Don’t check your email, don’t respond to instant messages, don’t browse the internet, and don’t look at other screens. Solely focus on that one task. You’ll be surprised how efficient and productive you can be when you concentrate on one thing at a time.
The Benefits of Rediscovering Deep Work
Prioritizing deep work can lead to breakthroughs in projects and personal leadership. It provides you a sense of fulfillment from completing meaningful work without constant distractions. I encourage you to take control of your attention and reintroduce deep work into your daily professional life. It can be hard, and requires discipline, but the benefits can be extraordinary. What could you achieve if you protected time for deep, uninterrupted work?