How to make meaningful progress in life through Deep Work
Ever feel like you’re working hard, but you’re not making the progress you want to?
I sure do.
Even with consistency, meaningful progress can feel like an absolute slog.
Why?
As it turns out, it’s not just about the amount of effort we put into our goals. That’s a great start.
What matters equally is what we point our effort towards.
The Book
Recently, I finished one of the best books I’ve ever read on productivity.
It’s called Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
In short, Deep Work is a fantastic guide to the importance of focused productivity over shallow tasks.
Using examples and stories of several pioneers and professionals, Cal paints a beautiful picture of the benefits from removing and reducing the calls of distractions in our lives. A must-read for designers, leaders, and creatives alike.
What’s the point?
The main thesis of the books is simple:
We spend too much time focusing our efforts on busywork, the “Shallow” work. Instead we should be spending our brainpower focusing on “Deep” work—the kind of work that requires profound focus and undivided attention, but yields the most impactful results.
5 Key Lessons on Productivity
While I highly recommend you read the book for yourself, here are five takeaways I gleaned from this amazing read:
Deep Work is valuable, rare, and meaningful — In our ever-evolving world, we need skills that match the world’s needs. How do we get those skills? Hyper focus and dedication. The deep work we need to develop those skills is rare because we are constantly distracted. Staying focused is the battle. Deep work is meaningful because its results are hard won.
We have a limited amount of brainpower each day — There’s a reason why many of the most notable productivity experts get up early. No one is distracting them and they can spend their most creative brainpower before the flood of email, phone calls, and to do list items. Studies show we only have an average of 4 good hours per day worth of intensive concentration. How will you spend yours?
Distractions and shallow work prevent us from reaching our potential and best work — By giving in to the distractions all around us, we limit the opportunities we’ll have. We stretch our efforts out over time and often give up because our focus is too shallow to sustain our interest. We don’t see meaningful results through shallow work and burn out.
Thoughtfully sculpting our schedules can allow us to perform deep work on our own terms — You don’t need to work deeply all the time, you just need to carve out the time and stick with it. Cal describes several ways to do this that can (and should be) tailored to fit your life.
Our brains love shallow work because it feels like productivity, but it’s really just busyness in disguise — We want to make progress. Our brains want us to feel like we’re making progress. It’s a subtle distinction, but an important one. If our brain just wants to make us feel good by giving us the illusion that we’re being productive, we have to fight the urge to become a victim of shallow work. If we lose this fight, we won’t be productive at all. We’ll just be busy.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book:
“All activities, regardless of their importance, consume your same limited store of time and attention.”
If our time and attention are finite, don’t wait around in shallow end for life to catch up.
Jump straight into the deep end.
Until next week, here are links to what I’ve been working on and treasures I’ve found out in the creative wilderness.
Enjoy!
Recent Finds
Rich Roll — Interview with Terry Crews (YouTube) | An exceptional conversation between two intellectual athletes and creatives I admire. Terry Crews is a fascinating person who has traveled quite the winding road to get to where he is today. He is open and honest about that journey and the personal struggles it took to develop his mind into something truly resilient and empathetic. Amazing.
The Art of Manliness — How Long Does it Take to Make Friends? (Podcast) | When we’re younger, we are more apt to find ourselves into scenarios (school, sports, etc) that help us make friends. As we get older though, we often reduce the frequency and types of those same experiences. I liked this conversation because it reminded me that not only are there active ways we can seek friends as adults, but that there are many kinds of friends we need in our lives as well.
Gary Vaynerchuk — How to Work Hard Without Burning Out (YouTube) | Another quick gem from entrepreneur Gary Vee. It’s a simple truth. That doesn’t make it easy to find. But it does make it easy to recognize and to take the first step in the right direction. Keep it simple.
Quote of the Week
“Happiness is where you are now, or nowhere at all.
It’s not a new relationship, it’s not a new job, it’s not a completed goal and it’s not a new car.
Until you give up on the idea that happiness is somewhere else, it will never be where you are.”
—Steven Bartlett
That's all for now.
Stay creative, my friends—and have a great week!
