{"id":546,"date":"2018-03-19T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/?p=546"},"modified":"2018-03-18T10:37:07","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T14:37:07","slug":"getting-organized-in-2018-deep-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/blog\/2018\/03\/19\/getting-organized-in-2018-deep-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting organized in 2018 – Deep work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting organized in 2018 – links to the series<\/a><\/p>\n

Cal Newport<\/a> published Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World<\/em> <\/a> in 2016.1<\/a><\/sup> He defines deep work as:<\/p>\n

\nProfessional 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.2<\/a><\/sup>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He goes on to formulate something he calls the \u201cdeep work hypothesis\u201d:<\/p>\n

\nThe ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare<\/em> at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable<\/em> in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m not going to discuss the deep work hypothesis. If you want to see the evidence Newport has for it, you\u2019ll have to read the book. I didn\u2019t learn anything from reading the book a couple of months ago, but I did find his four rules to be a useful framework for understanding what I already do (or try to do).<\/p>\n

Rule #1: Work deeply<\/strong><\/em>: The fundamental (but not particularly new) insight is that to accomplish any significant work that requires understanding complex ideas or creating novel ideas requires large blocks of uninterrupted time. I have adopted two new insights from Newport\u2019s book: Scheduling<\/strong><\/em> my blocks of uninterrupted time to ensure that more immediate, and often important, distractions don\u2019t crowd deep time out of my work week.3<\/a><\/sup> Ritualizing<\/strong><\/em> my deep time. When I am in deep time, I\u2019m usually working on my MacBook or my iMac. I have both of them set up with two desktops. When I\u2019m in deep time, I switch to a desktop that has only the applications and documents I need open. It takes some discipline, but by opening a different desktop it\u2019s easier not to check e-mail or respond to other notifications that appear on my screen.<\/p>\n

Rule #2: Embrace boredom<\/strong><\/em>: This was a new one for me, but I think the way Newport states it is misleading. The fundamental idea is that concentration is a skill. With practice and exercise, you can improve your ability to focus, and since deep work requires concentration, the more you exercise your concentration, the better you\u2019ll get at deep work. Here the strategy is what I alluded to in the last sentence of the last paragraph: Take breaks from focused work. Allow yourself to be distracted by e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever only<\/strong><\/em> when you\u2019re not engaged in deep work. Schedule your deep time, or at least commit to spending a specific amount of time in deep work before you begin, and don\u2019t allow yourself to be distracted. Even if you\u2019re not making progress on the project, force yourself to stay away from distractions until you\u2019ve reached the end of your deep work block. You may be bored, but you\u2019ll be training yourself to resist distraction. This is related to the pomodoro technique<\/a>.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Rule #3: Quit social media<\/strong><\/em>: That\u2019s overstated, but it\u2019s good advice. Take a careful look at how much time you spend on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Ask yourself: \u201cHow much of the time I spend on platform X advances the work I want to do?\u201d As for me, I use Facebook only once or twice a month. I post to Twitter pretty regularly, and I look at recent posts 2-3 times a day, but I don\u2019t have Twitter open in my browser. I think I have an Instagram account, but I haven\u2019t used it more than once or twice, and that was 4-5 years ago. I use Twitter with some regularity (a) because I want to draw the attention of my small audience to items I\u2019ve found interesting and (b) not infrequently the scientists I follow will post a link to an article with an interesting idea I need to follow up on. There\u2019s a good chance, especially if you\u2019re younger than I am, that you find Facebook a good way to stay in touch with friends and family. If so, I see no reason for you to quit using it. I do suggest, however, that you think carefully about when<\/strong><\/em> you use it and that you keep Facebook closed (and silence Facebook messenger) when you\u2019ve blocked out time for deep work.<\/p>\n

Rule #4: Drain the shallows<\/strong><\/em> Newport suggests scheduling every minute of your day. That might work for you, but it doesn\u2019t work for me. What reading Deep Work<\/em> did remind me to do, however, was to focus on the small number of things that are really important. Before agreeing to do anything, ask yourself \u201cWhat would happen if I said \u2018No\u2019?\u201d If the answer is \u201clittle or nothing\u201d, say \u201cNo.\u201d Only do things where (a) there is no one else who can make the contribution you could make, (b) making your contribution could mean the difference between success or failure (or between an excellent and a mediocre outcome), and (c) success or failure is important (in whatever way you judge importance in this context). This is clearly an ideal, and there are certain to be circumstances in which you have little choice but to do something that doesn\u2019t fit these criteria.5<\/a><\/sup> Nonetheless, you\u2019ll thank yourself in the long run (if not before) if you depart from the ideal as little as your circumstances allow.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The link takes you to the Deep Work<\/em> page on Amazon.com. The book is available from many different sources. I just happen to find Amazon convenient. The link is not<\/strong><\/em> a sponsored link. I won\u2019t receive any money if you click on the link, nor will I receive any if you happen to buy the book. ↩<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. I can\u2019t provide a page number for the quotation, because I\u2019m reading this on my Kindle. I rarely buy or read hard copy books. ↩<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. This insight isn\u2019t entirely new, but Newport inspired me to make it more formal. ↩<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Rule #1 and Rule #2 are almost redundant, but they emphasize different things. Rule #1 emphasizes what you should do – focus, concentrate. Rule #2 emphasizes what you shouldn\u2019t do – let yourself be distracted. ↩<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. More about that next week. ↩<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Getting organized in 2018 – links to the series Cal Newport published Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World in 2016.1 He defines deep work as: Professional… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-productivity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darwin.eeb.uconn.edu\/uncommon-ground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}