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4 Deep Work Strategies- Do You Know the Best One For You-

Sep 09, 20248 min read

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I might want to check the entirety of this article soon.

Highlights

  • you will need confidence in your ability to generate output. You will get stuck and experience setbacks. And when that happens, it will be easy to quit without that confidence.
  • You only need consistent and uninterrupted time blocks each day to use the rhythmic strategy. In most jobs, you are able to take 3 to 4 hours of your day to tackle your main projects. If that is not possible, early mornings or evenings are also great times to dedicate to Deep Work.
  • fire-fighting
    • Note: 2 (in business) the practice of dealing with problems as they arise rather than planning strategically to avoid them.
  • “Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.” In other words:
    • Note: Definition of deep work.
  • Deep Work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.
  • “Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”
  • Your environment is working against you. Without a clear plan of action, the busyness of shallow work will rise above working on your most important tasks.
  • Unless you turn Deep Work into a habit, it’s never going to happen. To work deeply every day, you need to integrate it into your schedule.
  • Don’t rely on your willpower. Count on your habits and routines.
  • The Monastic philosophy has one basic principle: cut all shallow activities to focus on deep work.
  • “This philosophy attempts to maximize deep efforts by eliminating or radically minimizing shallow obligations”
    • Note: The Monastic Strategy
  • People who follow the Monastic strategy abolish any extra work not related to their main projects. This means weeks or months without answering emails or doing paperwork.
  • Donald Knuth, professor emeritus at Stanford University and award-winning computer scientist, is a prime example of this philosophy. He is unreachable. Having deleted all his email accounts in 1990, the only way to reach him is by mail (which he opens once every 3 months or so). Knuth prioritized long periods of uninterrupted concentration, enabling him to become a superstar in his field. By completely eliminating shallow work, he was able to produce at an award-winning rate during his 50+ year career.
    • Note: A follower of the Monastic Strategy.
  • People who work in fields in which success is strictly tied to the quality and quantity of the output.
    • Note: For whom is the Monastic Strategy?
  • Pros * Best for maximizing output * Removes work that brings small results Cons * Not an option for most careers * Neglects new opportunities that may arise
    • Note: Pros and cons of the Monastic Strategy
  • Followers of the Bimodal philosophy split their schedule according to the depth of work.
  • “This philosophy asks that you divide your time, dedicating some clearly defined stretches to deep pursuits and leaving the rest open to everything else.”
    • Note: Bimodal Strategy
  • Carl Jung, the acclaimed psychologist, recognized the power of long periods of uninterrupted focus on his work. Yet, his lifestyle was not compatible with a monastic deep work philosophy. His solution? To spend his time between the city of Zurich and the small town of Bollingen. When in Zurich, he did not reject distractions but encouraged them. Jung was a regular in coffeehouses and lectures all over the city. But when he traveled to Bollingen, he sought intense and uninterrupted concentration. This commitment to long periods of deep work enabled him to produce generational results.
  • Individuals with well-defined and valuable goals are the most common users of the strategy. Yet,
    • Note: For whom is the Bimodal Strategy?
  • There’s no need to spend months in total reclusion. You can commit some days a week to uninterrupted focus and leave your shallow work for the remaining days.
  • Pros * Large quantities of deep work with schedule flexibility * Great for projects that need long days of uninterrupted concentration Cons * Not as productive as the monastic philosophy * Still difficult to integrate with most knowledge jobs
    • Note: Pros and cons of the Bimodal Strategy.
  • On a weekly basis, you can block Mondays and Fridays to solely focus on deep work. If possible, try to include more days.
  • “This philosophy argues that the easiest way to consistently start deep work sessions is to transform them into a simple regular habit.”
    • Note: The Rhythmic Strategy
  • The Rhythmic strategy is based on two fundamental truths: 1. Humans are creatures of habits 2. Deep work is rarely performed if not schedule
  • This strategy guarantees results by turning Deep Work efforts into a daily habit. 3 to 4 hours is the recommended amount and the time of day they are performed does not matter.
    • Note: The Rhythmic Strategy
  • Whatever schedule you commit to, you need to deliver. Once you get going, your objective is to never skip a day.
  • Jerry Seinfeld has preached the rhythmic strategy for joke writing (and it’s great to fight laziness too). He calls it the “chain method”.
  • The flexibility of this strategy allows for most knowledge workers to use it. Some examples include university professors, consultants, and lawyers.
  • Pros * Very easy to implement in a normal schedule * Habit-based, increasing the chance of Deep Work completion Cons * Not optimal for tackling big projects quickly * Takes time and mental energy to switch from shallow work to Deep Work
    • Note: Pros and Cons of the Rhythmic Strategy.
  • The Rhythmic schedule example is the easiest to understand and the most adaptable.
  • Take either the mornings or the afternoons to complete your deep work. For example: 9 AM to 1 PM or 2 PM to 6 PM. If your projects are outside of the scope of your day job, consider blocking 2 hours before or after work.
  • The main idea of the journalistic philosophy is to fit Deep Work whenever possible. If you do not have any obligations to meet at the moment, use the extra time to tackle Deep Work. Instead of glazing over your emails, make progress in your projects. This strategy requires you to change from low-intensity tasks to Deep Work on a dime. And while very simple in theory, putting it into practice is very hard.
  • In the early 1980s, Walter Isaacson was tackling his most ambitious projects yet—an 800+ pages book about the Cold War titled “The Wise Man”. In Cal Newport’s book, he reveals that Isaacson would work on this book even during summer vacations. Whenever he had the time, he would sneak into his room to write some paragraphs. After an hour of intense work, he would come back relaxed and ready to enjoy his holidays. Every time he was available, he took the time to write a bit. That was how Isaacson was able to accommodate his enormous side project with a day job in Time magazine.
  • This strategy is reserved for people with lots of experience in Deep Work. Users of this strategy need two crucial attributes: 1. The ability to switch between shallow work and Deep Work quickly 2. Confidence in their abilities
    • Note: The Journalistic Deep Work Strategy
  • Pros * Great for unpredictable schedules * Time-efficient Cons * Very difficult to replicate * Requires a lot of deep work experience
    • Note: Pros and cons of the Journalistic Strategy.
  • In “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule”, Paul Graham argues there are two types of workers: Makers usually have clear goals that are very valuable. Think about programmers, architects, and writers. Their projects are very tangible and their output measurable. But that is not the case for most managers. Their objectives are much more subjective and difficult to measure. On top of that, they usually have many smaller tasks.
  • A “Maker” works best in long, uninterrupted chunks. A “Manager” typically works in one hour blocks, changing subjects frequently.
  • To Makers, the monastic and bimodal deep work strategies give them the freedom to work deeply on their projects. To make before managing. Without bigger blocks of time for Deep Work, their productivity drops sharply.
  • If you are operating in a Manager schedule, your best bet is using the rhythmic philosophy. This deep work strategy is the best at fitting into any schedule. On top of that, it is easy to pick up and create beneficial Deep Work habits.
  • Here’s the truth: The journalistic strategy is difficult to implement at first. You need to be a pro at Deep Work to have success with this approach. And so—for now—you are better off using one of the other strategies.

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