Having a schedule and a routine, and then using them regularly, are the best ways to learn how to access your deep work skills and practice them. But these tips can help developers get even better at doing deep work.
Time Management Tips for Deep Work
Prioritize tasks that require deep work during the time of day that you’re most productive, whether that’s first thing in the morning, after lunch, or in the middle of the night.
Plan out as much of your day as possible. If you can block of a section of each day specifically for deep work, that’s great. If not, schedule times to check your email instead of being connected all day long. Schedule meetings and phone calls for the part of the day when you’re not in the zone, whether that’s first thing in the morning or a post-lunch slump.
Prioritize downtime
Since our brains aren’t wired for staying focused for long periods of time, it’s important to allow them time to rest and recover in between sessions of deep work. Taking a break (or a night off) can also help you solve tricky problems that have you stumped during your deep work periods.
Try the Pomodoro method, which means spending 25 minutes doing focused work on one task, and then taking a five-minute break. Many developers (and others) swear by this technique for breaking up the day into easily digestible chunks of work.
Communication Tips for Deep Work
Say no to meetings. Unless it’s vital for you to be there, a meeting is just a distraction that pulls you away from meaningful work.
Understand that deep work probably won’t happen while you’re collaborating with others. You can work together on a plan and then go individually to do deep work to execute it, but you can’t do deep work while talking to another person (or while they’re talking to you).
Delete social media. It’s wreaking havoc on your privacy, harvesting data about you, and keeping you from focusing on your work. Time to let it go.
Turn off your phone. Turn off your internet if you don’t need it for the task you’re working on.
Become hard to reach. Get the people in your circles used to not hearing back from you right away if they send a message so you can focus on work instead of being in constant communication.
Work Culture and Environment Tips for Deep Work
Create the most distraction-free environment you possibly can. In an office, this can be tough, especially if you don’t have your own office with a door you can shut to close yourself off to distraction. A pair of good noise-cancelling headphones might be a worthy investment.
Wear your headphones all the time, even if you’re not listening to anything. It might dissuade coworkers and teammates from interrupting you while you’re working.
If you need a change of scenery or a better environment to do deep work, consider what Newport calls a “grand gesture.” This can mean asking to work from home for a few days a week, booking a conference room where you can work in peace, or even renting a cabin or hotel room to spend a weekend alone and deep in the zone.
Like With All Skills, Practice Makes Perfect
Don’t expect to become a pro at doing deep work right away. It’s like any skill — you have to practice and get better over time.
For knowledge workers, including software engineers, the time you spend learning to do deep work will be a worthy investment, as it makes you a more efficient, productive coder.
7pace Timetracker is the only integrated, professional time management solution for teams using Azure DevOps.
Top comments (0)