It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking the most valuable skill an engineer can have is coding.
But that’s simply not the case.
There are tons of “soft skills” that make engineers so much better at their jobs, and are arguably just as important as being fluent in a coding language — problem solving, time management, communication, and teamwork, just to name a few.
There’s another skill that engineers should be dying to learn, because it’s one of the most valuable skills they — or any other knowledge worker — can possess: Deep work.
Deep work is how knowledge workers tap into their deepest potential for focus, productivity, and learning. It’s an absolutely invaluable skill that can make you better at just about any job.
But most people suck at it.
What Does Deep Work Look Like?
Picture this.
You just got to the office. The message light is blinking on your phone. You have emails that need answers. You have to stop by the break room for a cup of coffee. A coworker or two stops you for a chat on the way there and back. You’re getting texts and social media notifications on your cell phone.
If you’re like the average office worker, you spend your first hour or two at work bouncing between all these different tasks that aren’t demanding, but are distracting and time-consuming.
If these tasks feel like a giant waste of your time, you’re not wrong.
They keep you busy, but not productive (yes, there’s a difference).
This is the opposite of deep work.
The concept of “deep work” comes from Georgetown University computer science professor Cal Newport’s 2016 book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.
Newport writes that deep work is, “Professional activity 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.”
Compare that to shallow work, which, according to Newport, is, “Non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”
In other words, to achieve deep work, you gotta ditch all the distractions and push yourself and your focus to the limit, which makes you better at your job, increases your output, and makes your work valuable, as opposed to all those simple, half-distracted tasks the average worker starts their day with.
Why Is Deep Work So Hard to Achieve?
Deep work is like any other skill in that it’s not something most people can just do. It takes learning the skill and practicing it to become successful at doing deep work.
Unfortunately, in the modern age, there are a lot of barriers between the average worker and consistently achieving deep work.
For one, we’re expected to be online and accessible all the time. Email and workplace chat apps like slack give our teammates and clients the ability to shoot off instant communication to us at all hours, and it’s easy to give into the temptation to always be checking for messages and notifications so you can respond right away.
And then there’s the barrage of other distractions that come at all of us constantly throughout the workday. There’s always something new to look at on social media. Coworkers stopping by for a chat. Friends and family with round-the-clock access to us via our phones.
In the age of distraction, how is anyone supposed to get any work done at all, let alone deep work?
Use These Strategies to Achieve and Practice Deep Work
To start learning to flex your deep work muscles, put these strategies into play.
1. Choose a Deep Work Strategy
Each philosophy obviously has its pros and cons, and different people with different work styles will find different philosophies appealing.
2. Build a Deep Work Routine
Once you know when you’re going to practice deep work, it’s time to decide how. Newport recommends creating a routine for every time you plan to engage in deep work, so you free yourself from distractions and interruptions and create environmental triggers that, when used every time, can help turn deep work into a habit.
Newport’s advice is to determine a location, duration, structure, and requirements ahead of time, so you know you’re ready when it’s time to do some deep work.
- Location
Choose a space that’s free from distractions and conducive to periods of intense, focused work. If you don’t have a room where you can work distraction-free, or need to deep work on the go, noise cancelling headphones might be all you need to create a deep work conducive location.
- Duration
Before you start deep work, determine how long you’re going to work. Remember that human brains aren’t designed to intensely focus on tasks indefinitely — in fact, research shows we can only be truly productive for around three hours per day. If you’re new to deep work, start small, with 15-minute sessions, and work your way up from there.
- Structure
Decide what deep work will look like for you. For example, can you get up and move, or do you need to stay in front of your computer for the duration of your deep work session? Can you have drinks or snacks, or might those be distractions? Set clear, explicit rules, and then follow them every time you do deep work.
- Requirements
As you practice deep work, you’ll learn what’s required to make a session successful. The key is to have it ready before you begin deep work, so you don’t have to stop to turn off your phone after it rings, find the right music or access software you need. Make sure everything you need is ready to go at the start of each session.
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