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Guide to Deep Work

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Re: Guide to Deep Work

#21

Post by drivers99 »

thomk wrote: post #18

Does anyone else find the term "Deep Work" to be pretentious? Most people who say they were busy doing 'deep work' makes me feel like they are a bit self important. Why not just say you need to focus?

"Does anyone else find the term "Deep Work" to be pretentious?"

I don't. It's a description of the work they're doing, not themselves. There's a bit more to it. In the book of the same name (Deep Work), he talks about how the kind of work you can do when you can get away from the distractions creates value beyond the same amount of time spread around those distractions.

Deep work: "professional activities 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" (Cal Newport)

focus: "to concentrate attention or effort" (Merriam-Webster)

Do you feel like they are self important because they were turning you away or declining invitations so they could focus, or because they are essentially describing their work as having high value?

Re: Guide to Deep Work

#22

Post by sneakernets »

bitwize wrote: post #16
hawaiian wrote: post #14

>For instance, if you’re working on an important project but feel constrained or unmotivated by your office setting, initiate a grand gesture by asking your manager to let you work from home for an entire week to get it done. I'm not surprised this conclusion was reached so quickly. I find it a bit dysfunctional that working from home has become the go-to solution for distraction-filled workplaces. How about we make…

Tech companies do this already, still organize their offices like seas of desks at best, and still have distracted workers. I would much rather have a standard-issue office with full-height cubicles. I could get a lot more work done there than in today's trendy startup, Google, and WeWork inspired zoos.

Why hasn't there been a backlash yet? Everyone hates the seas of desks layout.

Re: Guide to Deep Work

#23

Post by sneakernets »

enraged_camel wrote: post #9

I read the article. Some of the advice might be valuable. For me though, it's fairly straightforward: - Decide what I need to work on, and try to visualize the end result as clearly as possible - Put phone on DND - Turn off email clients - Close browser tabs not related to work - Put on noise-canceling headphones with some music that has no lyrics (e.g. electronic, synthwave, etc.) Then I work. I can stay in "the zon…

Unfortunately this is a no-go for so many people that do not have concept of "respecting the zone". People get angry at me for not being available at the drop of a pin these days, and when I cut off my email clients I miss important impromptu meetings, and so much more!

What we need is a messaging service that can only do preset phrases that comprise 99% of the distractions: Impromptu Meeting. Catering. Potential Hire. Change of plans. Emergency.

You would only have a few messages you can send a week, too, so you can't spam it with nonsense.

Re: Guide to Deep Work

#24

Post by thrower123 »

hawaiian wrote: post #14

>For instance, if you’re working on an important project but feel constrained or unmotivated by your office setting, initiate a grand gesture by asking your manager to let you work from home for an entire week to get it done. I'm not surprised this conclusion was reached so quickly. I find it a bit dysfunctional that working from home has become the go-to solution for distraction-filled workplaces. How about we make…

A week off to actually get some significant work done without distraction is blissful. Some of the best work I've ever done has been when the rest of the office took off to trade shows and I stayed home to hold down the fort.

There's so much less busywork generated when there are less people around.

Re: Guide to Deep Work

#25

Post by noxToken »

iandanforth wrote: post #4

If you're struggling with scheduling work time and getting things done I'd like to recommend https://www.focusmate.com/ You book 50 minute video sessions and are paired with a random other person who wants to get work done. You start by saying what you intend to work on, and you finish by saying what you accomplished. That's it, other discussion is strongly discouraged. I work from home and have nearly unlimited leew…

I get that you're streaming yourself to a person, but how does that help enforce accountability? Part of my job entails very little typing or keyboard interaction, so comparatively, it could look like I was reading HN, Reddit, etc. Is it a purely psychological thing?

----

Before I sent this comment, I went deeper into the website beyond the home page and 30s video. It is just that:

>Research in psychology and behavioral science shows that regular human connection reduces the likelihood that a worker will procrastinate or become distracted.

>In our most recent internal survey, 95.5% of users reported a significant increase in productivity, and reduced procrastination.

It looks like it's not a site that will magically boost your productivity (which isn't really what it claims). You have to want to be productive, and the site helps facilitate that desire.

Re: Guide to Deep Work

#26

Post by thrower123 »

nomel wrote: post #11
jaden wrote: post #3

One of the biggest factors is having large chunks of uninterrupted time. If your manager and team value deep work, having no meetings days can be a huge help. And once you have an uninterrupted time block, it's important to ignore potential interruptions. I find this extremely difficult.

> If your manager and team value deep work What are some good strategies if they don't?

If you really need to get some work done, calling in a fictitious sick day once in a while isn't the worst solution.

Re: Guide to Deep Work

#27

Post by enraged_camel »

sneakernets wrote: post #23
enraged_camel wrote: post #9

I read the article. Some of the advice might be valuable. For me though, it's fairly straightforward: - Decide what I need to work on, and try to visualize the end result as clearly as possible - Put phone on DND - Turn off email clients - Close browser tabs not related to work - Put on noise-canceling headphones with some music that has no lyrics (e.g. electronic, synthwave, etc.) Then I work. I can stay in "the zon…

Unfortunately this is a no-go for so many people that do not have concept of "respecting the zone". People get angry at me for not being available at the drop of a pin these days, and when I cut off my email clients I miss important impromptu meetings, and so much more! What we need is a messaging service that can only do preset phrases that comprise 99% of the distractions: Impromptu Meeting. Catering. Potential Hir…

I don't think it's possible to achieve Deep Work reliably unless you have full control over your work environment and schedule and can shut off distractions without getting reprimanded or suffering from FOMO.

This is a non-negotiable term for me when I interview.

Another thing I noticed about myself: I have "moods". Sometimes I feel like dicking around (like right now!), and in those situations I don't even try to get into Deep Work because it takes a lot of energy to do so. But a few hours later my mood will shift, and when that happens I need to be able to catch that window of opportunity and get myself in the zone quickly. From there, it's off to the races.

I've found that most work arrangements can't accommodate this type of arbitrary work habit. Which is why I'm currently employed at a very small firm where everyone is remote, and I have a super awesome manager who trusts everyone fully.

Re: Guide to Deep Work

#28

Post by commandlinefan »

sneakernets wrote: post #22
bitwize wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech companies do this already, still organize their offices like seas of desks at best, and still have distracted workers. I would much rather have a standard-issue office with full-height cubicles. I could get a lot more work done there than in today's trendy startup, Google, and WeWork inspired zoos.

Why hasn't there been a backlash yet? Everyone hates the seas of desks layout.

There has been a backlash, but only by people whose opinions don't matter.

Re: Guide to Deep Work

#29

Post by commandlinefan »

ssivark wrote: post #6

The real challenge is attention management. Switching gears from an execution orientation (knocking off tasks) to a careful thinking orientation is hard. The hardest aspect of deep work (for people used to a structured form of productivity) is immersion in the task/topic without a concrete plan of "how" to tackle it. (The necessary immersion is what makes "deep" a good metaphor) Every such session is a risky investme…

> The real challenge is attention management

See, I think you have that backwards - the problem is management attention. When management is giving you their full attention and micromanaging, meaningful work becomes impossible.

Re: Guide to Deep Work

#30

Post by afarrell »

One thing I wish Cal Newport's book had done better was to explain ways to be better at managing Shallow Work. Deep Work competes for time with Shallow Work. Therefore, if you want to have time for Deep Work, you need to either

A) Do less shallow work.

B) Do shallow work more effectively. Or schedule it more effectively.

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How possible is option A? Well, what is Shallow Work and why does it matter. Some examples of Shallow Work off the top of my head:

1) Phone-Interviewing people to work for your employer.

2) Looking at Sentry and Dead Mans Snitch and seeing if any of the exceptions reported from your backend this week are actually real problems that should be investigated.

3) Editing the notes you took at a meeting so that you can send them out to attendees.

4) Writing a response to a well-structured question which a junior engineer emailed you about a task which you delegated to them.

5) Creating and sending out a doodle poll to pick a restaurant to eat at before contra dance.

6) Scheduling a time to talk to your father who lives 5 time zones away.

7) Filling in a PDF listing your bank accounts to report to the US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network by April 15th.

Each of these is backed by a responsibility -- either you're being paid to maintain a system or relationship for your employer or you are doing something to keep your social life running. You can dial back that responsibility, but that does have consequences. If nobody organizes pizza night, then you don't see your friends in real life and you end up scrolling through facebook out of a vague sense of loneliness.

So there is a certain amount of Shallow Work that needs to get done if you have certain goals or want to avoid particular sadnesses.

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How possible is option B? How possible is it to do Shallow Work so that it interferes less with Deep Work?

For #1, you can push phone interviews to the beginning or end of the day...when the currently-employed will find it easier to get time to interview.

For #2, you can establish a team habit to triage your Sentry and Dead Mans Snitch dashboards to Inbox Zero, that way you only need to glance at them and you don't need to load anything into your working memory.

For #3... actually I'm not sure what is a good way to be more effective at this. Any tips?

For #4... also not sure.

For #5, you can establish a default restaurant and go there every time.

For #6, you can have a default time every week.

For #7, there's nothing to be done. It is annoying and Adobe Acrobat is the worst.

--------

What techniques do you use to be skilled at Shallow Work or to at least get it out of the way of Deep Work?

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