How often do you do deep work?
What I mean by “deep work” is the ability to focus on a cognitively demanding task, without distraction.
Completely unbroken concentration.
No notifications.
No texting, or checking social media, or reacting to emails.
It’s just you and your work.
When given the opportunity, your brain can go into a performance-enhancing “flow” state, allowing you to think deeper, learn faster, and produce high-quality work in less time.
Problem is, deep work is a rare thing these days. The latest research shows that the average person is interrupted every 8 minutes and that 80% of these interruptions are unimportant.
The brain never has a chance to settle in. Your attention darts from here to there, all of the time. And you get to the end of your week feeling like you didn’t get much done.
Because you didn’t.
Have you ever wondered how authors can publish a book a year; why your most productive friends and co-workers take longer than normal to return your texts or emails; how some influencers can create so much high-value content while others don’t?
The answer is deep work.
If you set aside 3 hours a day (weekdays only) to do distraction-free work, that’s 60 hours a month, or 720 hours a year.
That’s the difference between highly productive people and everyone else. They still text, still scroll, still watch Netflix, still return emails. They just get their most important work done first.
After reading Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work, I’ve been doing distraction-free work from 6am to 9am.
In the last 7 days, I’ve written an 19-page ebook, an 8-page video sales letter, and scripted a full webinar. I even got 3 newsletters out this week. That almost never happens.
If you want to learn how to get more stuff done, check out today’s QOD episode with Cal Newport. This concept can really change your life.
Source: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
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