7 days of deep work
I recently read Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work, which is about reaching a state of concentration that enables you to learn hard things quickly. Newport argues the ability to do deep work is increasingly valuable given the world has shifted to an information economy where knowledge work is prioritized and new technology requires people to quickly adapt their skillsets.
His ideas made me rethink my approach to learning and productivity and helped me create a solid routine for reaching a state of enhanced focus. After finishing the book, I attempted a 7-day trial of deep work and will share my findings, but first, let’s back up to what deep work is and why you should care.
What deep work is
It’s a style of work that requires intense concentration and stretching your mind and attention to their limits. You can apply deep work to learning a new topic or skill, solving a problem, or your normal tasks. Deep work produces high-quality output in less time and is valuable because it improves your skills and is hard to replicate.
Newport practiced deep work while earning his PhD and simultaneously published several books and academic papers and was hired as a tenure-track professor, all while ending his workdays at 5 or 6pm.
Why you should care
Deep work makes you happy. It can create a strong sense of meaning and purpose in your life because it provides structure and involves actively developing your mind and skills and progressing your goals. Newport cites Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s (who coined the term flow) research to show that certain types of work make people, not leisure:
“Ironically, jobs are actually easier to enjoy than free time, because like flow activities, they have built-in goals, feedback rules, and challenges, all of which encourage one to become involved in one’s work, to concentrate and lose oneself in it. Free time, on the other hand, is unstructured, and requires much greater effort to be shaped into something that can be enjoyed.”
There are four styles of deep work
Monastic (the most extreme): involves drastically reducing or eliminating “shallow work” (non-cognitively demanding tasks, like answering emails) so the majority of your time is spent in deep work. With this approach, you do things like go off the grid for weeks or months, delete your email account, and cancel all your meetings.
Bimodal: working for several consecutive days on deep work in a shorter version of the monastic style. For instance, if you have a three-day weekend, you’d engage in deep work for three days and then have shallow time for the rest of the week.
Rhythmic (the most practical): involves creating a daily deep work routine and tracking the hours spent in deep work to create accountability.
Journalistic (the most advanced): requires going into deep work at any time in your schedule (even if it’s just for 15 minutes). It requires you to focus at a moment’s notice whenever you have a free moment.
Deep work requires a rock-solid routine
To implement deep work, you’ll need to create a routine to help minimize the willpower needed to start a task. You’ll need to decide the following:
Where you’ll work and for how long
Rules for working (like scheduling time for internet use, turning off notifications)
Your brain is ready to work (e.g., primed with caffeine, food, and adequate rest)
Set a small number of ambitious goals for each deep work session
How you’ll track your deep work sessions to monitor your progress
My deep work rules
I started by implementing a rhythmic deep work routine and worked for at least 1.5 hours on weekdays. I turned off notifications on all my devices, put my phone in another room, and primed my brain with a cup of coffee or tea. I set a digital timer and closed the internet unless I needed it for research. For my ambitious goals, I aimed to finish a blog post in one sitting or three mini-sections of another project I'm working on.
Here we go!
Day 1
I woke up later than intended, so had to cut my deep work session short. I wanted to continue working after the session ended, which was promising. Will try sticking to my routine tomorrow.
Day 2
I woke up late again! Something about my routine isn’t working. I edited an existing draft blog post but decided editing shouldn’t count as deep work since it isn’t as cognitively demanding for me as writing.
Day 3
While I am getting more work done, I decided the goals I set are infeasible, which contributes to the feeling I’m not making progress. Instead of completing a full blog post in each session, I’ll break it up into separate researching, writing, and editing sessions.
Day 4
I woke up on time (!) and cleaned my apartment before my session. I felt less distracted in a tidy environment and with more realistic goals. Got a lot of writing done.
Day 5
The only application I had open was a single Word document, and I felt significantly more focused since I wasn’t bouncing around between documents or the internet. Starting to internalize that deep work is about doing one thing with zero distractions.
Days 6-7
I set an internet ban during both sessions and had one Word doc open on my computer at all times. These felt like productive sessions, and I got a lot of writing done!
Verdict
Overall, this experiment helped me understand what deep work is and what conditions I need to be productive. I noticed an increase in my productivity during the sessions where I had a tidy environment, set realistic goals, banned internet use, and used a digital timer. I also found it helpful to complete a short routine each day before starting my deep work session to prime my brain for focus.
Deep work can be a powerful tool to enhance productivity, but it requires discipline, determination, and a solid routine. The rewards are worth it, and I encourage you to try it out for yourself. Let me know your findings in the comments on my website!
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