Deep Work

There are some books that you can see as an important piece of a puzzle (sometimes even pivotal and completing more puzzle in several disciplines, since in my mind things are multi-dimensional, like in reality), or you can see them as a catalyst that amplifies, multiplies, speeds up and enables all your previous (and following) knowledge. This is specially true in books about “meta-things”, like learning how to learn or practical productivity reasoning and tools, from how to choose what/how to do to… how to take notes.

A couple of years ago, I read “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport. The reason I write about it right now is simple: I’m starting a period of intentional, deliberate, and massive learning focusing on a specific topic, with the intent to produce a valuable output – still don’t know if one day it will publicly available, but this is one of the beautiful aspects of the adult life: you can learn for pleasure without any limits/constraints, you can dig and lose yourself in whatever rabbit hole you like, if you want, or focus only on certain topics, if you think it’s good and pleasant to you. Since I want to bring out the best from the time I’ll spent, I decided to re-read what I already highlighted in “Deep Work”, a guide to achieving focused and productive work in an era of constant distraction (a subject I worry about, remaining constantly vigilant, to defend myself from the cunning thieves of attention and time). The ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task is something that can be cultivated by almost everyone (if you have some specific disorder, you can ask help to professionals, there are several way to minimize difficulties, life must not be so hard). With a solid understanding of the concepts in the book (and, most important, the practice!), we can achieve massive improvements in productivity and skill acquisition.

The main concepts

The Value of Deep Work in our time

• We are in an increasingly competitive economy, where the ability to perform deep work is becoming both rarer and more valuable. Jung retreated to Bollingen, not to escape his professional life, but instead to advance it; Twain’s study was so isolated from the main house that his family took to blowing a horn to attract his attention for meals – I can also add that Thoreau suggested a period alone in the forest, and that Vittorio Alfieri ordered his butler to be tie him to his chair to avoid distractions, not to mention the Buddhist monks). We can observe that spending enough time in a state of frenetic shallowness, we permanently reduce our capacity to perform deep work. We can find ourselves submerged by lot of “stupid” tasks that can be automated or performed by someone with extremely poor education and intelligence (that’s why some methods like the Eisenhower matrix or the flow chart illustrated in “Getting Things Done” are useful). Tyler Cowen summarizes this reality more bluntly: “The key question will be: are you good at working with intelligent machines or not?”
• Two Core Abilities for Thriving in the New Economy
  • 1. The ability to quickly master hard things.
  • 2. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed
• If you want to become a superstar, mastering the relevant skills is necessary, but not sufficient. You must then transform that latent potential into tangible results that people value. Most important: if you don’t produce, you won’t thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are.
• High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus) – that’s why it’s important if you spend just “The First 20 Hours” or 10K hours, but this information alone doesn’t tell much, if you don’t specify if they are hours of true learning and deliberate practice or just performing the same easy task while watching TV.
• Concentration and ability to stick with hard learning/working is the real superpower that will differentiate you and provide you a competitive advantage over the others: I guess in the near future, the society will be divided between those capable of learning/focusing and the ones constantly glued to their distraction-devices, continuously jumping from one frivolous content to the next; it’s up to you to choose which person do you want to become, if developing a clear view of things or just a mindless executioner.

Work Deeply

• “Let your mind become a lens, thanks to the converging rays of attention; let your soul be all intent on whatever it is that is established in your mind as a dominant, wholly absorbing idea.” (Antonin-Dalmace Sertillanges, a Dominican friar and professor of moral philosophy, who during the early part of the twentieth century penned a slim but influential volume titled “The Intellectual Life”).
• This repetitive use of a specific circuit triggers cells called oligodendrocytes to begin wrapping layers of myelin around the neurons in the circuits—effectively cementing the skill. The reason, therefore, why it’s important to focus intensely on the task at hand while avoiding distraction is because this is the only way to isolate the relevant neural circuit enough to trigger useful myelination. Probably I wrote it before in older posts, but I’ll write also here: there are many reasons why multitasking is bad and one of the most stupid myth, it’s not a coincidence it’s followed mostly by people performing simple tasks: try walking and singing at the same time while also thinking about what to eat later; then, try singing when you’re solving an engineering serious problem – you will see the difference: multitasking is an enemy of the deep work.
• Open office is one of the many (not-so-)recent stupid ideas that can probably work if you perform easy tasks, but not if you want concentration for deep work. To the extreme opposite, you may want to find a place all for yourself to retire like a modern Thoreau writing Walden. Bill Gates, for example, was famous during his time as Microsoft CEO for taking “Think Weeks” during which he would leave behind his normal work and family obligations to retreat to a cabin with a stack of papers and books. His goal was to think deeply, without distraction, about the big issues relevant to his company. It was during one of these weeks, for example, that he famously came to the conclusion that the Internet was going to be a major force in the industry. There was nothing physically stopping Gates from thinking deeply in his office in Microsoft’s Seattle headquarters, but the novelty of his week-long retreat helped him achieve the desired levels of concentration. At the same time, don’t isolate yourself completely for so long: it’s worth taking the time to untangle, because properly leveraging collaboration can increase the quality of deep work in your professional life.

1. Ritualize Deep Work

• Create a Routine: Establish a regular schedule for deep work sessions. This could be a specific time of the day or week dedicated solely to intense focus. Don’t be unrealistic: our capacity for deep work in a given day is limited, we don’t have unlimited stamina, so we must take care of our energy during the day.
• Set a Specific Location: Choose a location where you do your deep work, separate from spaces associated with relaxation or leisure. This could be a specific desk, a quiet room, or even a local library.
• Establish Rules and Processes: Define clear rules for your deep work sessions. This may include turning off your phone, closing unnecessary tabs on your computer, or using tools to block digital distractions.

2. Work with Intensity

• Time-Boxing: Allocate fixed time periods for deep work, using techniques like the Pomodoro Technique (25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5-minute break, but experiment to know yourself, there’s no “one time fits all”).
• Measure Depth: Set specific goals for each deep work session. For instance, you might aim to write a certain number of words or solve a particular number of problems. This is much for effective than just “I’ll study 2 hours”. Try SMART goals wherever is possible, challenging (but not too much) with a desirable difficulty.

3. Support Your Mind

• Cultivate Concentration: Practice activities that help improve your concentration, such as meditation, reading, or even certain types of video games that require strategic thinking. Push yourself a little bit more each time, specially when you’re coming from a life of continuous distraction.
• Memory Training: Engage in exercises that improve memory and cognitive function, as these skills are crucial for deep work. Whenever possible, if useful, try to use mnemotechniques.

4. Eliminate Distractions

• Digital Minimalism: Be intentional about your use of technology. Limit your time on social media, email, and other digital platforms that fragment your attention. If you’re not new on my website, you know more or less what I think about social media. If it’s not clear yet: social media is shit. Full stop. Coming back to Cal’s book, he talks about the distraction in a world that push us to share and to consume with curiosity every social content; if we fail to resist to read and answer emails, the pressure and the urge to check and scroll social media is much stronger. If receiving an e-mail reply within an hour makes your day easier, then getting an answer via instant message in under a minute would improve this gain by an order of magnitude. I really suggest you to read “Digital Minimalism” from the same author. And if your manager think that if you’re not constantly busy and replying emails, then you’re not productive, that could be a sign it’s better change job.
• Physical Environment: Ensure your work environment is conducive to deep focus. This might involve noise-cancelling headphones, a clutter-free desk, or comfortable ergonomics. With time, you’ll learn also to focus in an environment full of distraction, but reach for a calm and organized/controlled place whenever possible.
• As written also in Dopamine Nation, we’re cacti (thirsty for dopamine reward) in a rainy forest (of stimuli), so find a way to protect yourself from too many external stimuli.
• Deep work is at a severe disadvantage in a technopoly because it builds on values like quality, craftsmanship, and mastery that are decidedly old-fashioned and nontechnological.

5. Make Deep Work a Habit

• Consistency: Aim to engage in deep work at the same time each day or week to establish it as a habit.
• Accountability: Share your deep work schedule with a colleague or friend, or use tools that track and report your progress.

6. Rest and Recharge, Embrace Boredom

• Quality Downtime: Engage in activities that rejuvenate your mind and body. This might include physical exercise, hobbies, or quality time with loved ones. Be aware there’s a difference between “rest” and “scrolling to social media sh.t”
• Avoid Burnout: Recognize the importance of rest and ensure you’re not constantly in deep work mode, which can lead to burnout. As wrote before: know yourself and know your energy levels through the day and through different periods.
• Busyness as proxy for productivity or even a great value to satisfy your ego or to show off to your friend is another toxic feature of modernity in some environments. You don’t really need to fill every minute with some “productive stuff”: if you prefer to listen to the music, instead of a self-help podcast, while commuting, is absolutely OK.
• When tired, rest for real, sleep (e.g.: power nap), I couldn’t stress enough the importance of sleep, see Why we Sleep (and how to do it better)

7. Embrace Discomfort

• Challenge Yourself: Regularly step out of your comfort zone (the “proximity zone”, just a little bit out) to tackle more complex or unfamiliar tasks.
• Resist Instant Gratification: Train your brain to delay gratification and focus on long-term achievements.

8. Feedback and Reflection

• Reflect on Your Work: Regularly evaluate your deep work sessions. What worked well? What can be improved?
• Seek Feedback: Discuss your methods and outputs with peers or mentors to get external perspectives on how to improve your deep work practice.

9. Few other concepts to get rid of the chaos

• When you work, work hard. When you’re done, be done. (Or, in other words: “work hard, play hard”). Be in the present moment. Be sure you don’t have other pending urgent tasks, e.g.: if you want to check your mailbox, do it before starting the Deep Work session. Bluma Zeigarnik found how incomplete tasks dominate our attention. Stop whatever you are doing at a certain point of the day and declare, “I’m done with work until tomorrow”: when it’s not time to work, keep your mind clear of professional/study issues, otherwise obligations left unresolved in your mind will, as in Bluma Zeigarnik’s experiments, keep battling for your attention throughout the evening (a battle that they’ll often win).
• Schedule in advance when you’ll use the Internet, and then avoid it altogether outside these times.
• The Craftsman Approach to Tool Selection: Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impacts.
• Bennett suggests that his typical man see his sixteen free hours as a “day within a day,” explaining, “during those sixteen hours he is free; he is not a wage-earner; he is not preoccupied with monetary cares; he is just as good as a man with a private income.” Accordingly, the typical man should instead use this time as an aristocrat would: to perform rigorous self-improvement – a task that, according to Bennett, involves, primarily, reading great literature and poetry. Bennett wrote about these issues more than a century ago.

Last words

In summary, “Deep Work” combines practical advice with psychological insights to guide individuals towards more productive work habits. By implementing these strategies (focusing on deep work, embracing boredom, reducing shallow work, and being mindful of the distractions of modern technology), you can enhance your ability to work deeply, leading to improved productivity, creativity, and satisfaction in your professional and personal life. Remember, the key to success with deep work is not just in understanding these concepts but in consistently applying them to your daily routine.

Don’t try so hard at first, cultivate a progressive habit and, like in “Flow”, don’t force yourself if you’re completely new to the concept and practice, otherwise it will be like clenching a fist too tightly to try to hold the sand better as it escapes, learn to relax and, counter-intuitively, don’t stress too much to be productive at first, most of all remember to give time and air to your brain; Nietzsche said: “It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.”

Last words of the author are: “[…] writer Winifred Gallagher saying, “I’ll live the focused life, because it’s the best kind there is.” I agree. So does Bill Gates. And hopefully now that you’ve finished this book, you agree too.”

A deep life is not just economically lucrative, but also a life well lived, with intentionality and satisfaction.

What I can suggest to acquire and reinforce the ability to do Deep Work

In addiction to the book, to help yourself to get the maximum to achieve and keep this powerful capability, I suggest:

• Improve and take care of your brain!
• Glucose Revolution – understanding mechanisms and numbers before mindlessly following “biohacks” and Weight management: no quick useless hacks, but the real hard science into practice!
• Why we Sleep (and how to do it better)
• La scienza dello stare bene
• Perché meditare – pro e contro. “The miracle of mindfulness”, “Why zebras don’t get ulcers”
• Dopamine Nation, “Digital minimalism”, “Irresistible”
• Buy Back Your Time
• Meno procrastinazione, più produttività
• How (yet another book on) Atomic Habits made me think
• “Learning how to learn”, (Understand our) Memory
• “The willpower instinct”
• Designing Your Life: Build a Life that Works for You (with interactive mind map!), “So good they can’t ignore you”