Deep work refers to the ability to concentrate without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks. For example, you need to study for a competitive exam. Now when you are studying without distraction, that is a cognitively demanding task. We can call it an example of deep work.
High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)
Why is deep work a critical skill in the 21st Century?
As we all know in this modern time, We cannot survive in this economy without being skillful. However, the obstacle to being skillful is distractions.
In the 21 st century, we all know how social media and the internet are everywhere we go. Internet and social media have done many good things, particularly in terms of communication, entertainment, education, etc. However, we can also see the negative impacts of social media in our lives which affect our personal lives such as relationship problems, mental anxiety, and reduced attention span.
Without the power of concentration, we cannot develop any skill. Concentration is an essential thing in the 21 st century because it is the rarest skill. Most people nowadays cannot accomplish what they want to achieve because of distractions and it is becoming normal day by day. People increased their screen time so much nowadays that they cannot completely focus on their work.
Therefore, if we want to be successful in the modern economy, we need to have the ability to focus on one task for a long time. If we only have this ability, we can develop the skills by which we can survive in the modern economy because the modern economy is all about skillful individuals. We need to be experts in our field to thrive in the economy.
That is why deep work is the most critical skill in the 21 st century.
How much Deep Work is impactful?
We overestimate our work. It’s because humans are very poor at judging time. For example, we think that we should study/work all day to get success which is not the case. However, the author of the book “Deep Work” Cal Newport says in his book, three to four hours a day, five days a week, of uninterrupted and carefully directed concentrated work, is enough to produce a lot of valuable output.
We need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction to produce our peak level of work.
How to implement deep work?
Now we know the importance of deep work in the modern economy, the next question is how to develop this skill. There are mainly three steps to develop this skill.
- Fix a Target and Start Small
Start by fixing a target and do not start by huge time blocks. Just fix a specific target and make a small time block where you will work on that specific target. Therefore, start with small targets and time blocks. Then gradually increase your time.
- Enjoy the Process
Don’t focus on completing any work at once.
It will demotivate you.
Just do the work and enjoy the process. For example, don’t concentrate on finishing reading a book. Just do the task even if it’s one page. Enjoy the reading or work. Then it will become easy for you to do the deep work.
- Say no to distractions while working
Lastly, don’t use digital devices or don’t do any other thing than work during deep work sessions. However, if you are in a profession that requires those devices, you can use distraction blockers (Forest, Flora App) to solve this problem. In conclusion, it can be said that the path would be difficult to do deep concentrated work. However, after some days, you will find it easy to do deep concentrated work. If you can cultivate this one habit, you will become successful. It’s going to be a hard way to go, but you cannot be at the top without doing those hard things.
We can do less. But doing less with focus is better than shallow focus which is the central idea of the book “Deep Work” by Cal Newport.
Written by Abid Anjum Tridib