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The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

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Re: The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

#121

Post by itronitron »

jonathanfoster wrote: post #45

The author references Cal Newport's Deep Work [1]. I recently read this book and I can't recommend it enough. It's not just a productivity fluff piece about the importance of focus. He brings an academic rigor to the debate and backs up his claims with legitimate evidence. Best of all, the book is not just theory, it's 100% actionable. I used Newport's recommendations to reclaim 4+ solid hours of deep focus and it's…

What has worked for me in the past has been to create an initial list of TODO items comprising a mix of vague inquiries, curiosities, and specific tasks.

During the day I work from that list, either performing the work for the item or expanding an item into additional more detailed items. Most items will expand into multiple smaller items as they are picked up.

Completed items get a few comments and are moved below the unfinished items, so that a historical stack gets built up over time which can be fodder for monthly progress reports.

I have found this to be incredibly useful from a productivity standpoint, a morale boost, and as a historical record. It requires some discipline to sit down for 15 minutes at the end of each workday to update the list.

Re: The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

#122

Post by barry-cotter »

0x445442 wrote: post #62
adamweld wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is generally called a Block Plan[1] and is a great system for some students. Looks like Cornell College offers it, you got my hopes up as I'm a Cornell University student and juggling five technical courses at a time has heavy context switching penalties. On the other hand, last year taking Linear Algebra and at the same time having to apply it in a signals processing class was a good combo. [1] http://www.exper…

Yeah, I used to take intersession courses back in my college days where I focused on one course for four weeks. That fit my mode of study way better than taking 4/5 technical courses at the same time. Doing a deep dive on one subject and then moving on was just way better for subject retention in my opinion.

Interleaved study leads to greater retention than blocked study.

http://www.indiana.edu/~pcl/2014/01/interleavedblockeddelaye...

https://www.northeastern.edu/learningresearch/interleaved-st...

Re: The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

#123

Post by bitexploder »

bobf wrote: post #117
rangibaby wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth - Mike Tyson

There's a lot of truth and value in that quote, but understanding the context behind it is important. It's boxing - everyone understands they will be punched in the mouth, has practiced getting punched, etc. You need a plan, but have to be able to adapt to changing circumstances. For reference, that quote was given in an interview about his upcoming fight against Evander Holyfield. Holyfield dominated the fight, Tyso…

I feel like "reality" is a good placeholder for Mike Tyson. It hits quite hard at times :)

Re: The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

#124

Post by apatters »

tomtimtall wrote: post #116
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #14

One thing I cannot understand is why we have both: (a) a long history of research proving to us that principles like "High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)" are accurate and highly related to extracting the most economically valuable outputs from knowledge workers. (b) open plan offices. Maybe the tech industry is daunting for newcomers because we cram people into a sardine can, give them a…

I’ve worked both in private offices and in open plans. And my experience is that private offices are good for those occasional long deep work sessions but overall the team in total is more productive and happier in open plan. Not everything is about your personal productivity and it’s all too common to see separate team members deeply focused on non-aligned items which makes the joined work much much less than the su…

Absolutely, this discussion always devolves into good vs bad and understandably so because it's very frustrating when your work environment doesn't facilitate your performance. But the typical knowledge worker actually functions on some blend of the manager and maker schedules -- sometimes they need to do deep work without interruptions, sometimes they need to look up from their desk and communicate to make sure their output is aligned with the company. A private space free of distractions facilitates the former but an open plan is actually pretty good for the latter.

The best solution (I'm surprised more companies have not implemented this) is to provide both environments and give the employee some guidance in terms of where they choose to work. Most knowledge workers will not benefit from the monastic strategy described in this article but almost all will benefit from a bimodal or rhythmic strategy.

If you already have an open plan office this is as easy as telling the employee he/she can work remotely a few days a week as long as they select a quiet space that's free of distractions (so if they have kids running around at home during the day, maybe better to advise them to go to the library instead).

The manager should provide some guidance in terms of how much time the employee spends remotely vs. "on the floor" with everyone else. Graham's maker vs. manager article is great on this topic,engineers often err a little too far in the direction of isolation, managers err too far in the direction of having everyone in the collaborative environment, the solution is a little dialogue.

With very light guidance and very little additional cost to the business you can improve both productivity and morale this way. Our team functions best very far down the deep work end of the spectrum -- we have one day a week where everyone goes into the office or gets on calls and gets aligned. For the rest of the week communication is mostly async and work is mostly remote.

Re: The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

#125

Post by daddosi »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #35
Barrin92 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm split on this personally. I don't like the type of noisy open plan office where you work next to the ping-pong table while someone rides a bike through the office or something like that, but on the other hand, I don't feel like being in total isolation helps to focus either. I actually like a little bit of background activity, I work better when I listen to music (mostly classical or anything without vocals) or a…

There have been studies going back as far as Peopleware and The Timeless Way of Building that suggest people are generally adversely affected when the noise is more than noise they personally generate (e.g. keyboard clicking), and not in their control (e.g. choosing to listen to music may be fine, but when you’re forced to listen to music because the alternative is a distracting conversation between teammates it has…

I see an office one time with oddly long hallways 3 times the height and width one is used to. It had a marble floor that echoed loudly and ended in a Kremlin sized door with a single employee behind it. When I asked why it was that way they explained it was to force the visitor/coworker to repeatedly reconsider if his thing was really worth disruping that person with. To the question if that realy worked the answer was a description of the previous office where coworkers would fly in and out out of convenience. They would stick their head around the corner for 5 word sentences. Apparently productivity went though the roof in the new building.

Re: The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

#126

Post by daddosi »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #50
noonespecial wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always just figured it's the "oil change" problem. The day after the oil change interval is up that you skipped, all the trucks are still running great and it feels like you just saved a bunch of money... It can be very difficult for a bean counter with a spreadsheet to connect the extra broken down trucks at the end of the year to the oil changes that were skipped in February. Every open office I've ever been in w…

I don’t buy the argument that bean counters are unable to account for vaguer aspects of productivity loss. For one, bigger corporations invest huge amounts of money into productivity research and take the topic very seriously. They aren’t unsophisticated or naive and corporations will really study the internal incentives they create for cost cutting, to make sure they aren’t mistakenly cutting costs that actually lea…

Reminds me of business ideas that are not instantly obvious vs a sexy "The Team!" page.

Re: The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

#128

Post by watwut »

nextos wrote: post #99
BeetleB wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Block off each hour of the day and and fill it with one of the TODO items Generally agree with the points but I'd like to note that this point is the most likely failure point in the method. Organizing the day by hours doesn't work for a lot of people. Most productivity books in the old days (60's) recommended it. They generally don't anymore due to the low success rate. That was one of the first things I tried as a…

You've hit one of the core problems, but your perception of what Cal recommends and what you should do to achieve deep work is wrong. For deep work, you should be able to block a chunk of your day to do important tasks without being interrupted. That's not the same as organizing the day by hours. This blocked chunk can be dynamic to accommodate emergencies, but you must be able to say nobody should interrupt me for t…

I was not in position to block away time like that for years. Currently I am in such position, but that is rather exceptional state. (Home was worst than in work actually.)

Re: The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

#129

Post by [deleted] »

ViperPilot wrote: post #120
bitexploder wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is addressed in Cal's book. He acknowledges no plan will survive the day perfectly. Basically, you just re-prioritize your blocks throughout the day. The goal is not to break the day into hour long blocks as much as it is to always have a priority and to maintain focus on that priority. Things happen and no plan survives contact with reality. I have found this method to work well and fit with a modern knowledge…

+1 "No plan survives contact with the enemy." - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder Some clarification for readers: this generally doesn't mean that a plan is scrapped entirely; it means that changes are normal and anticipated (i.e. NOT an automatic sign of failure) that as new information comes to light and circumstances shift, those executing a plan should be adaptable enough to make adjustments where prudent. In fact, de…

[deleted]

Re: The Importance of Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill

#130

Post by theonething »

Pomodoro helps me to stay focused when i'm trying to sustain concentration. I recently discovered this "group pomodoro" virtual study hall [0]. Somehow, committing to doing pomos in a virtual room with strangers committed to the same often gives me just that extra little bit of motivation/accountability I need to stick with the current task and not let myself get distracted.

Disclaimer: No affiliation with Complice nor Less Wrong.

[0] https://complice.co/room/lesswrong

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