Deep Work summary

I recently finished reading Deep Work. Here are my takeaways from that.

• Your will power gets depleted as you use it. If you schedule things in advance, you don’t have to engage it that much, so things become easier.
  • So, for example, while I can try to resist using the phone, it probably won’t work after sometime. A better way would be to know upfront what I am going to do at a given time, so no need to try not checking my phone.
  • Rituals and routines are important.
  • Schedule each hour of work day. Really important.
    • Try to regularly get 3-4 hours of deep work. (4 hours is the upper limit for a day, so don’t try beyond that.)
    • It’s fine to adapt the schedule based on emergent reasons.
  • Probably try to do the same outside work too, because mind doesn’t know the difference between work and otherwise. But that’s difficult for a new father.
    • So, at least, schedule time whenever I want to go deep.
    • And schedule distraction time.
      • As the book says, focus should be the default and distraction exceptions.
      • Do only one thing at a time. Multi-tasking sucks big time.
      • Distraction time doesn’t only happen on phone because I’ve been focusing a lot on that lately. It happens on computer too, so be careful.
    • Maybe this approach will help me do some of my wishlist items.
    • In my experience, focus work will happen better during non work hours if, whenever I open my phone or computer, I know upfront what I am gonna do. Otherwise, I have to fight my will power to not be distracted.
• 4 ways of going deep:
  • Monastic: crazy style. Only works if you want to focus on a single thing in your life.
  • Bimodal: you go deep for a stretch of few days or week, do regular things otherwise.
  • Rhythmic: rock solid routines on a daily basis. Probably best for me right now.
  • Journalistic: go deep at a moment’s notice when required. It’ll probably help in personal time but only if I know upfront what’s the major thing I want to focus on.
• Collaboration is important but you still need to focus alone to put those ideas to use.
• Think like a business. The 4DX framework.
  • Focus on the wildly important.
    • The term ‘wildly’ is important. As I’ve been trying for awhile, I should figure 1-3 most important goals for myself and just focus on those that help me there. That will automatically make me ignore other distractions.
  • Act on the lead measures.
    • Lead vs lag measures.
    • Focus on the inputs, such as number of hours spent on deep work, instead of outputs.
    • In other words, control your behavior that you think will help you meet your goals.
  • Keep a scoreboard.
    • Track hours spent on deep work. I’ve created a spreadsheet to try this out.
  • Create a cadence of accountability.
    • Regularly review the previous scoreboard and improve the process accordingly.
• Fixed schedule productivity: Finish your work day on a fixed time and don’t think about work for rest of the day.
  • Downtime is important for the mind.
  • I used to think that it’s good to keep thinking about work all the time. However, the book suggests the other way around.
• Embrace boredom.
  • Multitasking sucks. If you have a habit of taking out your phone the moment you are bored, your brain is rewired such that it can’t focus even if you schedule time to focus.
  • Focus should be the default, distractions should be explicitly scheduled. Example of latter is Internet use.
• Become hard to reach:
  • Don’t instantly respond to Slack or email. People adapt and will find a way to unblock themselves.
  • Like I do now, clearly set expectations. Also, give them a way how to connect in case of emergencies. Example: page or text on phone.
• Some ideas that aren’t applicable to me right now.
  • Grand gestures, to trick your mind to take something seriously or give yourself more space.
  • Set artificially tight deadlines for yourself to squeeze out higher amount of focus.
  • Meditate productively, such as on long walks.
  • Memorize things, such as a deck of cards, to train your mind’s ability to focus.
  • Quit social media.
    • Look at these as tools and be mindful of the tools you choose. Use only those that significantly help you achieve your goals.

Note: This goes well with this other note.