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Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

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Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#11

Post by ggregoire »

The first part of the book has a really good description of the "modern" work environment and its defects, and how it valorizes superficial work over deep work. I was actually surprised by how identical this description was to my last work environment.

- Open space to promote communication and knowledge sharing (and controlling what people are doing), but at the end you are interrupted every 5 minutes by people walking and talking/screaming/laughing about anything but work.

- People expect you to have Gmail and Slack open all day and to reply in the 5 minutes.

- You are encouraged to go on Facebook/Twitter/Youtube/whatever to like and share the latest news/video/open position/whatever posted by the company. Then you start reading/watching something else that looks interesting and you lose easily 30 min / 1 hour.

- At the end, what matter is how many hours you spend in the office. Nobody cares if you spend a full week on a task because you can't never focus on what you do.

Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#12

Post by emperorcezar »

dsschnau wrote: post #4

i've never seen anyone actually use a pomodoro in real life, and the occasional day i've given it s a shot, I end up thinking "this is silly, I'll just focus on my work". I guess my protest is that it seems silly, especially when I'm focused on something and the timer goes off and I'm supposed to stop. It seems like its adding structure only for the sake of structure. Has anyone actually started using pomo, and stuck…

I use it to realign myself. If I'm having a bad day concentrating, I'll fall back on using podomoro.

Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#13

Post by milesf »

I've found this combination works well for me:

- The "Emergent Task Planner" is my daily piece of paper that I physically write out what I want to accomplish. At the end of the day I know what I've done and haven't done. (http://davidseah.com/node/the-emergent-task-planner/)

- I break my sessions of work into 2 or 4 hour blocks, and shut off all the distractions.

- If I'm struggling to stay focussed, I use a Pomodoro timer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique)

- If I'm struggling to stay off social media, I fire up Self Control (http://selfcontrolapp.com/)

- If I'm really having a garbage day for productivity, I find stuff to do off my OmniFocus List that involves physical activity (cleaning the house, fixing things, going for a walk). I work from home now, but when I used to have an office cubicle I would just walk around the building.

Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#14

Post by dsschnau »

emperorcezar wrote: post #12
dsschnau wrote: post #4

i've never seen anyone actually use a pomodoro in real life, and the occasional day i've given it s a shot, I end up thinking "this is silly, I'll just focus on my work". I guess my protest is that it seems silly, especially when I'm focused on something and the timer goes off and I'm supposed to stop. It seems like its adding structure only for the sake of structure. Has anyone actually started using pomo, and stuck…

I use it to realign myself. If I'm having a bad day concentrating, I'll fall back on using podomoro.

I'm glad to hear that, because that's usually when I resort to using it.

Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#15

Post by kordless »

As the poster child for this stuff from a few years back, I've lit on the simple intent on being present for a small amount of time each day. There are hundreds of ways to meditate - find one that works well for you and practice it. Work toward sitting and observing without judgement. Work toward quieting the conversations in your head.

I would also recommend not over thinking about any of this too much. Thinking about thinking has the same lowered efficiency as being distracted by gadgets/media.

Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#16

Post by marcosdumay »

dsschnau wrote: post #4

i've never seen anyone actually use a pomodoro in real life, and the occasional day i've given it s a shot, I end up thinking "this is silly, I'll just focus on my work". I guess my protest is that it seems silly, especially when I'm focused on something and the timer goes off and I'm supposed to stop. It seems like its adding structure only for the sake of structure. Has anyone actually started using pomo, and stuck…

I imagine there's a lot of value in "I won't change from this task until the timer beeps, no matter what happens" and no value at all (or a lot of negative value) in "I will change from this task as soon as the timer beeps".

Pomodoro may be something worth adjusting. I do have to try it someday...

Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#17

Post by [deleted] »

ggregoire wrote: post #11

The first part of the book has a really good description of the "modern" work environment and its defects, and how it valorizes superficial work over deep work. I was actually surprised by how identical this description was to my last work environment. - Open space to promote communication and knowledge sharing (and controlling what people are doing), but at the end you are interrupted every 5 minutes by people walki…

[deleted]

Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#18

Post by Hates_ »

milesf wrote: post #13

I've found this combination works well for me: - The "Emergent Task Planner" is my daily piece of paper that I physically write out what I want to accomplish. At the end of the day I know what I've done and haven't done. ( http://davidseah.com/node/the-emergent-task-planner/ ) - I break my sessions of work into 2 or 4 hour blocks, and shut off all the distractions. - If I'm struggling to stay focussed, I use a Pomodo…

Those emergent task planners are great!

Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#19

Post by pcmaffey »

kordless wrote: post #15

As the poster child for this stuff from a few years back, I've lit on the simple intent on being present for a small amount of time each day. There are hundreds of ways to meditate - find one that works well for you and practice it. Work toward sitting and observing without judgement. Work toward quieting the conversations in your head. I would also recommend not over thinking about any of this too much. Thinking abo…

Yes, thinking about productivity is a rabbit hole that devours your productivity.

Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt

#20

Post by BeetleB »

ggregoire wrote: post #11

The first part of the book has a really good description of the "modern" work environment and its defects, and how it valorizes superficial work over deep work. I was actually surprised by how identical this description was to my last work environment. - Open space to promote communication and knowledge sharing (and controlling what people are doing), but at the end you are interrupted every 5 minutes by people walki…

>People expect you to have Gmail and Slack open all day and to reply in the 5 minutes.

When I was looking for my last job, I explicitly queried about this:

"Will it be OK if I check my email only 3 times a day (at work)?"

In my previous job, too much work was done through email. Person wants me to do some work and return a plot. I send it to him. Within 5-30 minutes, he has a question about it. I have to respond soon. And it goes on and on - with each email interrupting whatever work I'm doing.

So I don't have "meetings through email" any more. They want to ask me stuff? Let's get in a room and at a fixed time and work through them.

"I keep my messenger app permanently off. Is that a problem?"

>but at the end you are interrupted every 5 minutes by people walking and talking/screaming/laughing about anything.

For me, this is a non-issue, and much preferred to emails and IM's. Especially IM. Also, phone calls are OK too. Why?

With IM, they start a conversation and then suddenly disappear, only to reappear 15 minutes later when I think the issue is closed and have started to work on something. No one does that in person (well, almost no one).

When they come to me in person or call me on the phone, they cannot just browse the Internet while talking. They are mindful of my time. And somehow, I feel they prepare their questions better, too.

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