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Deep Work Summary

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17 views4 pages

Deep Work Summary

Uploaded by

bondarenkoyuri3
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Part 1 - The Idea

Deep Work is distraction-free, full concentration activites, that push you to the
limit.
Shallow Work is nondemanding, simple tasks, often performed while distracted
Deep work is hard to replicate, Shallow work is easy to replicate.

Deep tasks Formula: Work Produced = Time Spent x Intensity of Focus

An important reason why Deep Work is superior is the effect of Attention Residue
When you switch from task A to task B, your mind is still paritally on A.
This impedes productivity.

Shallow work is everincreasing because of two factors:


1)The Metric Black Hole. Deep Work is hard to measure, and humans love numbers.
2)Deep Work is harder in the moment, contrary to Principle of Least Resistance

Busyness is often wrongly percieved as productivity.

Deep Work gives more meaning and more satisfaction to your life.
There is neurological and psychological evidence to prove that deep lives are
happier
And philosophically, a life saturated by deep work is key to satisfying existence.

Part 2 - The Rules

Rule #1 - Work Deeply

The Four Deep Work Philisophies


1: Monastic - Fierce elimination of shallow work, for achieving a concrete
goal.
2: Bimodal - Going in and out of days/weeks of deep work, switching between
two modes.
3: Rhytmic - Doing deep work every day habitually (e.g. ETF morning)
4: Journalistic - Doing deep work whenever time was given/thoughts popped

You must have a deep work ritual - a set of rules and habits related to your deep
work.
It includes:
1) Where you will work and for how long.
2) How and on what you will work (a clearly defined goal and the means to get
there)
3) How you will support your work (pre-defined extra tactics to help you
work)
It must be experimented with and be improved over time.

The Grand Gesture


Change something grand about your environment and get into flow state.
example: Rent a hotel to stay for a day and work deeply.
Or distance yourself from people to think deeply and uninfluenced

Teamwork is not prohibited in deep work


If time is spent partially in a deep work distractionless chamber
And the other half spent distracted talking with people
You will be pushed in pursuit of the deep even more
The Whiteboard effect is when connectedness pushes you towards more depth.
This can lead to multiple-people, unisolated shared deep work sessions.

Execution is harder than planning, and this framework is based to counter this:
The Four Disciplines of Execution - 4DX Framework:
1: Focus on the wildly important (the imbalance method)
2: Act on the Lead Measures (not lag measures) -
act on numbers you control, and numbers you cant control will improve
as well
3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard (basically habit tracker, maybe add numbers?)
4: Create a Cadence of Accountability (use somebody/something for
accountability)
Reviewing your weeks, and readjusting your tactics based on that is
effective

Conscious vs Unconscious
Use your conscious mind for strict rule tasks
math, calculation, precise work, decision making, covering small amount of
data
Use your unconscious mind for vague, uncertain tasks
making up new ideas, creativity, solving abstract problems, covering a lot of
data

Have a shutdown ritual to switch between work and relax modes properly
You will review the upcoming tasks and make sure there are no forgotten
deadlines
You will make a plan to tackle tomorrow's problems
You will make a rough plan for tomorrow.
This ritual is crucial due to the Zeigarnik Effect

The Zeigarnik Effect


When you have unfinished tasks, your brain can't fully focus on a new
assignment.
Your attention is split between the current and the former tasks.
This can be countered via planning on how you will tackle the task in the
future

Rule #2 - Embrace Boredom

The ability to concentrate is like a muscle - it can grow or it can atrophy.

Schedule online and offline blocks.


You don't actually need to remove the distractions
You only need to remove the ability of distractions to STEAL YOUR FOCUS.
Therefore, schedule blocks of time when you should and should not use the
internet.

Work with immense intensity


Aim to surpass your previous deep work accomplishments.
Set yourself productivity challenges to keep you in the Goldilock's zone.
You can't beat the challenge if distracted - so your focus will grow.

Productive meditation
Schedule time when your mind is not occupied - to think about a concrete
problem.
This trains your focus muscles and provides value at the same time.
#1 Don't get distracted and don't loop the same thoughts twice
#2 Structure your deep thinking - break it down into steps

Memorize a deck of cards


Training your memory has a side effect of training your attention strength
Memorizing a deck of cards (or similar) can help improve your deep work.

Rule #3 - Quit Social Media

The Any-Benefit Approach to Tool Selection:


If a tool gives you a benefit, use it.
This is what most of us think like, and this is WRONG.

The Craftsman Approach to Tool Selection:


Identify what are your biggest goals in personal and professional life
Identify what 2-3 activities help you towards your big goals
Identify how does the tool impact those activites
Then, adopt a tool if its pros outweigh the cons.

The Law of the Vital Few - 80/20 principle


In many areas of life, 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes.
The any-benefit mindset keeps the inefficient 80% of causes.
The Craftsman mindset dumps and leaves the inefficient 80% of causes.

Social Media is useful for some people and harmful for others
To understand what group you are in, use the Craftsman Approach.
However, everyone should avoid using social media to escape boredom.

Structure and plan your rest time.


Social Media, like matter in a vacuum, fills up all the unallocated time.
To combat SM, structure your rest, and don't allow the vacuum to form.

Structuring your leisure won't tire you out


Your body does not need rest, only a change of work type.
And by planning everything out, you ensure the change.

Rule #4 - Drain the Shallows

Parkinson's Law
The more time we are given, the less we value it.
Give yourself the exact time you need to accomplish something.

You can at most get 4 hours of good Deep Work per day
After that, you will get diminishing rewards.

Schedule every minute of your day.


One minute spent in planning is ten minutes saved in execution.

All unallocated time tends to be mostly wasted.


Therefore, plan every single minute you got.

Rewrite the plan as many times as needed.


To make this happen less add buffer blocks for extra time.

The goal is knowing "what am i doing right now" at every point of the day.
If you get a more important idea/goal/task, dump the schedule.
To identify a shallow or deep task, ask the following:
How long would it take for an unexperienced person to learn to do this?
Deep tasks take long to learn. Bias towards them and away from shallow.

Deep/Shallow work ratio


To keep producing at peak quality, stick to a deep/shallow work ratio
That way, when your time table changes, your ratio still keeps you
accountable.
It will protect you from engaging in too much shallowness.

Fixed-Schedule Productivity
This is META. This works amazingly.
It is working a certain limit of hours per week/day.
It forces you to become more productive and drain the shallows to be
efficient enough.
It gives you more free time, and more energy to boost your working hours.
All the extra time you would work would be filled with useless shallowness.

The Importance of "No"


Saying "Yes" too often will add too much shallow obligations to your life
Always have a few defences that turn down and reject people.
Don't compromise, have a strong and firm "No".

Make Yourself Hard to Reach


#1 Make People Who Message You Do More Work
Make a sender filter - specific ways you can make contacting you harder
#2 Do More Work when You Send and Reply to E-Mail
Think "What is the fastest way i can satisfyingly end this
conversation"?
This will free up space in your inbox and in your mind.
Think in those terms to have less E-Mails get sent to you
#3 Don't respond if...
The message is too vague to answer quickly
You are not interested in responding
Nothing very bad is going to happen if you dont respond
Nothing very good is going to happen if you respond

Allow small bad things happen to make time for the big, life-changing things to
happen.
"I'll live the focused life, because it is the best life there is" - Winifred
Gallagher

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