Why you should be "Deep Working"?

Cal Newport defines deep work as “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.”

A counterpart to the idea of deep work is shallow work —“non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. They tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.” Eg: checking emails, arranging meetings, social media, etc

Deep work is for anyone who wants to increase their productivity, especially knowledge workers, anyone who wants to get more done, but in less time, and anyone interested in the science of multitasking, attention, and productivity.

Newport comments the following about deep work : The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill will thrive.

The neurological foundation for why deep work works are the development of myelin—a layer of fatty tissue that grows around neurons. It allows the corresponding brain circuit to fire more effortlessly and effectively.

In a state of low concentration, you’re firing too many circuits simultaneously and haphazardly to isolate the group of neurons you actually want to strengthen. If you’re comfortable going deep, you’ll master complex systems and skills needed to thrive in the economy.

The deep work equation is: High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus). When you lose focus and move from one task to another, your attention doesn’t follow immediately or necessarily. A residue of your attention always remains locked on the original task.

This means you have fewer cognitive resources available to perform the new task. Your performance is likely to suffer, especially if the new task is cognitively demanding. By working on a single task for a long time without switching, you minimize leftover attention residues.

Our world is the outcome of what we pay attention to. Deep work prevents you from noticing the many smaller and less important things that unavoidably populate our lives. It instead stretches the mind to its limits and puts the person in a state of "flow".

The key to developing a deep work habit is to move beyond good intentions and add routines and rituals to your working life. These routines must be designed to minimise the depletion of your limited willpower and maximise the amount of deep work you accomplish in your schedule.