How To Go Deep In A World Of Shallow Work

Deep work is difficult…

In a world of fast-moving, hyperconnectivity. Our schedules have become increasingly blocked up.

Carving out one hour in the day can be extremely difficult, never mind blocking out the whole day to go deep on one topic.

Therefore there has to be other ways in which we can go deep and not have to overkill our already busy schedules.

This is where you would be in luck as *Cal Newport has explained the four different methods, in which you can go deep without destroying your schedule.

Without going into too much detail as this is Cal's work I am going to give you a brief overview of each of the four methods to go deep and an example of how to fit this into your 9–5 schedule.

The Monastic Approcach:

This is the all-out warfare against shallow work. This is for the authors that do nothing else but their work, the academics who do not teach. This approach applies to a finite amount of people.

They work only in the land of deeply meaningful work. They will not be easily contactable., they do not do speaking gigs, they don't answer fan letters, they will not have an email address to be contactable by.

They are committed usually to a life of solitude that allows their minds to constantly expand.

The Bimodal Approach:

This is the most popular approach.

This is for those who can schedule at least 1 day (but usually longer) to commit to deep work. At the extremes of this, we have Bill Gates Think Weeks where he goes and locks himself away for two weeks with no communication with anyone to allow him to think.

By shutting himself off from the world he can go deep on topics and in his own thinking.

This approach only works for those of us who can take time out. Which for most is not an option. This works well for the Self-Employed, who do tend to be able to have that flexibility in their lives.

The Rhythmic Approach:

This approach works well for fitness as well as those who enjoy habits.

This approach is not about the length of time per se but is about building deep work as a habit, like waking up in the morning and going to the gym for 1 hour every day. It takes deep work to build muscle, or lose fat, but it is an everyday event.

This allows for a rhythm to be struck up as deep work becomes a daily habit.

This could be done when you wake up. For example:

You rise at six, you get a shower, you make yourself a coffee then you work deeply from seven to eight in the morning, then you go to work. For the first month, your body will resist you in your efforts, your body will hate you for what you are doing. Everything in your mind will tell you no and try to distract you, but after the initial period, it will just become an amazing habit to have.

The Journalistic Approach:

This approach requires the most discipline but is also the one that can fit into any schedule. The approach is to treat deep work as a journal. Any spare time you have you devote to deep work.

Devoting twenty minutes here and there each day adds up to a total number of hours every single week.

However, this strategy is almost impossible for starters, this approach is best suited to journalists who have to snap in and out of the moment all the time. This requires a skill that few have.

Deep work requires a lot of focus, and this is something that for the most part human beings struggle with. That is why this approach is unfavoured amongst the masses.

Overview:

For the most part, the Rhythmic Approach will be the most appropriate for you. It allows you to build good habits around deep work (which you should already have) this approach gives you no excuses, as the habit can be formed at any part of your day. On your lunch break, after you put the children to bed. Before you go to work. This approach allows you total freedom.

Conclusion:

In the shallow world, we live in, becoming deep becomes seemingly impossible.

We argue to ourselves that we do not have the time. I am not like him. I have children and a job I hate. But in reality, we can change.

We shut our eyes to the possibilities and focus on the negativities and keep ourselves in the realms of shallow work.

This has to change inside yourself to find the change that you want to become.

To finish this off, deep work is not a notion or a theory, it is a consistent choice to become extraordinary.

Until tomorrow this has been your Coach Andrew.

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NEWPORT, C. (2018). DEEP WORK (p. 6). GRAND CENTRAL PUB.