I recently finished the book "Deep Work" by Cal Newport, and I highly recommend it as a holiday read if you want to improve your ability to focus o...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
I read Deep Work a while back and didn't take any notes! Thanks for this post, it was a great refresher. Also definitely can't wait for you to read Atomic Habits. I deem that book as my best read of 2020
So glad it came in handy for you!
Ohhh the number of people who tell me how great Atomic Habits is makes me think I should actually buy it rather than wait for a copy at the library to become available! Am going to see if there are any post-Christmas sales on it - thanks for motivating me to get my hands on it. :)
I listened to the audio book of "Deep Work" and enjoyed it, as well as the fact that he didn't drag the book out with unnecessary waffle -- it ended suddenly while I was out for a walk and at first I thought there was a mistake, but that was just the end of the book!
The great thing is that you can get a lot of the benefits of "flow" without making drastic sacrifices like going cold turkey on social media (although if you feel like it, by all means do so). I strive for a "lite" version of this by using a Pomodoro timer, listening to binaural beats (rather than distracting music) and trying to avoid email and chat while the timer is running.
While on holidays, I occasionally activate Super Flow, in which I'm working on my own on a side project and 12 hours could easily pass without my attention being broken. It's amazing but do difficult to replicate at work, since I always tend to need information from people, or they need it from me, or the calendar is peppered with meetings.
Yeah that's a great point - one of the beauties of solo side projects is the ability to just get the work done without having to sit in back-to-back meetings! I love just banging out code for 6 hours straight, listening to rain sounds on Spotify (not kidding you, it's amazing for concentrated focus!).
I love the Pomodoro technique - do you use a special app for it, or just set a timer?
Yeah rain sounds are good - I used to listen to Noisli, and sometimes I use an Android app called Noice (admittedly, mostly when trying to sleep). Sometimes I'll listen to video game music since that tends to be composed in a way that loops naturally -- often when coming out of flow, I'll realise the same song has been playing for 40 minutes.
The Pomodoro timer I use is just a super-simplistic webapp called Tomato Timer and it does the trick without being too distracting.
Hey Carmen
I've started reading this book this week. (Got it for christmas :D )
Is nice to see another good review of it.
I have this goal for 2021 to create more "deep work" time alocated to my regular working schedule, this is pretty challenge since one year ago i've started to lead a software development team.
May i ask you if there was a specific reason behind this book pick to you rather than of course getting better at coding?
Tiago, I LOVE this question. Would give it more hearts if I could!
So I think of learning to do deep work vs learning to get better at coding as similar to the saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." What I mean by that is that I could spend the time to become a better programmer - but that only helps with one dimension of my life (i.e. coding). By becoming a person who is able to sustain intense concentration for extended periods of time, I can "10x" almost every aspect in my life - I'd (hopefully) become a better writer, a better reader, a better sports person, a better musician, a better teacher, etc.
In short, coding is just one skill (and with career changes these days, who knows if it's something I'll be doing for the rest of my life?) - whereas sustained concentration is something that has application and benefits in almost everything you do.
PS. I love that you're trying to carve out deep work for yourself while leading a team - this is super tricky (especially if you have people that rely on you always being available to them), and I applaud you for doing it!
I really like the way that you are thinking and I’m glad that I comment on your post by this answer alone.
I do believe that time is the most precious resource that anyone can have, this kind of skill give us the ability to make more with your time and avoid this never ending context switching that somehow entered your lives.
Like you said if you master a skill that can improve a lot of areas on your life, although we can have a motivation at first for start to learn how to "deep work" (could be coding, could be writing, could be pretty much anything).
I hope that you met all your goals and have a great 2021!
I'll keep on reading the book :D
PS: Thank you so much for the encouragement!
My hope is if I’m able to focus to plan our work, tackle complex problems and anticipate possible bottlenecks I will make my team and I more effective and efficient.
Aww thank you! Hope you have a happy new year and a successful 2021! The point about the bottlenecks is a great one - if you manage to anticipate and reduce that for your team, it will definitely open up more time for deep work. Good luck!
Great post! It's exactly what I needed to have a fresh start this year.
You may also like my article / YT channel about Atomic developer habits ;)
dev.to/kethmars/become-a-better-de...
Haha you're what feels like the millionth person to recommend this book to me - I'm on the waitlist for it at the library, but think I'll have to bite the bullet and buy it. Great post btw!
A tool that really helped my productivity journey - brain.fm
It generates special rhythmic sounds to help you relax, focus, calm down, learn etc'
Oooh interesting! Haha I have to admit, I usually listen to rain sounds on Spotify (there are literally playlists of rain falling on window panes, with the occasional thunderstorm - they're great), but I will check this out.
So, I tested different ambient sounds on YouTube, Spotify, and others and never found something as good as brain.fm
Not sure why It just worked for me.
This is so much of the information that I have been in search for over the year.
Cheer!!!!
Glad you found it helpful Jonathan, thanks for leaving a comment! :)
Nice write up, Carmen! Read it yesterday morning and came back and read it again this morning! Motivating! Eye Opening!
Thanks so much BK, this comment made my day!
Great post, thanks for the summary. Do you have any great productivity books you can recommend to someone that's really enjoying the theory behind it, but also is quite new to the field? :)
Hey Admir, that's a great question! Glad to see you're enjoying the theory - have you taken a look at 4 hour work week? That one's a pretty good read (and most people love it).
From my understanding, the best way to actually achieve high productivity is building a habit out of it. I've been told that Atomic Habits is a great book that helps with this (I've got a copy on the way, so will let you know if it is useful after I check it out!), but the thing that I recommend to people that seems to help them the most is keeping a habit tracker (here's a bit more info on what I mean: jamesclear.com/habit-tracker). 🙃
Really grateful I found this!I started reading the book recently
Hope you enjoy it - let me know if there's something you loved that I missed! 😊