Introduction

We live in an interesting time for knowledge work. We currently have the most knowledge, best tools and latest technological advancements at our disposal. As a result — productivity as a whole has increased in the past years and is continuing to increase.

Yet, do you truly feel productive? Do you always feel like you’ve accomplished something meaningful at the end of your workday?

It is likely that the answer to those questions is not a resounding “yes”, at least not consistently.

Why is it that we cannot consistently have productive sessions? With all that we have in our disposal, we should be able to achieve more, no?

I argue that the big barrier to this is a lack of focus — or in other words, distraction.

For various reasons, our mind is under a constant barrage of distractions.

Nowadays it is considered standard to work in large, noisy open-plan offices resembling warehouses. It is considered standard to be constantly “on” — engaging in instant messaging that interrupts you throughout your whole day. This results in a day ran through a frenetic haze, jumping from one mindless task that just popped up to another, rather than the more sound structured counterpart.

We spend an ever-increasing amount of time working, yet we do not necessarily achieve more. Hours, unfortunately, do not directly map to productivity.

I personally spend the end of some days wondering what I actually did. Whenever I dig down into those days in retrospect, I notice I was consistently missing one important aspect.

Deep Work

Deep Work, I am sure, is a concept many of us are familiar with — regardless of whether we have read the definition or not.

Deep Work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.

In today’s complex and competitive world, it is of utmost importance to be able to master hard things. Furthermore, the faster and more efficiently you can master said concepts, the quicker you will achieve your goals.

It is also very beneficial to be productive in finishing your tasks in time. It is no secret a lot of people work overtime, because they have “too much on their plate”.

Very frequently, it is not the volume of work/study that is too much but rather the intensity of said activity that is too little.

People are incredible. We can achieve a lot in a short time period if we truly put our mind to it. Get into flow, as it is also called.

Flow is tricky to build up and easy to break out of. It requires no distractions, a conducive work environment and some expertise to maintain.

This sound simple but is way easier said than done. It is not trivial to learn new things, especially if you are not used to it. What is easy is to put it off or dabble in it in a non-serious way.

Why do I need it?

The work with the highest ROI (return of investment) in terms of time, is one which can only be achieved through intense focus. You cannot finish a PhD thesis while engaging in instant messaging, nor can you come up with a brilliant marketing campaign when Facebook is one of your open tabs.

If you want to achieve big things, trust that deep work is an absolute need.

Nowadays, the ability to work without distraction is significantly harder. Perhaps the hardest it has ever been in the history of humanity. There are just so many interesting things that are calling for our attention…

First off, we have all our personal distractions — phone calls, instant messaging, social media. Our phone is under a constant barrage of notifications.

Second, and perhaps more sinister, is that our modern-day work environment can be very distracting itself. Offices are huge open spaces, where a single person talking is heard throughout. People are walking right past you all the time. How can you possibly maintain focus, staring at a computer screen, when so much is happening around you?

Distractions are looming even inside our computer screen. Look at Slack, a company valued at $10B+, which essentially brings modern-day instant messaging into the workplace. In many companies, it can be a huge distractor.

This means one simple thing — focused people are becoming increasingly rarer in professional environments. Because deep work results in very increased productivity, people that can exhibit this are in constant demand. If economics has taught us one thing, it is that price is influenced by supply and demand. In other words, deep workers typically receive better compensation.

Chasing money though is pretty superficial and won’t get you far. Let me explain what I believe is the true value of deep work:

Engagement

The value in deep work, or flow, is very obvious to software engineers. We all intrinsically know the need for it because our work can be quite complex at times which demands a lot of focus. Other professions may not have the necessary luxury of needing to enter a flow state to get something done, so let’s be clear in its benefits.

Perception plays a key role in life — how you perceive a certain activity dictates how you feel about it.

This can be the night and day difference between a task being daunting, gruelling and miserable versus it being satisfying, pleasant and effortless.

When you’re having fun, time flies by, right? The same can be said when you are in a state of deep work — the day just passes without you noticing.

It is incredibly pleasant to be engaged in something. This is how work can be fun. This is also the reason I believe most people enjoy working in startups — it is very easy to become thoroughly engaged in the company’s vision. Even though the work can be more disorganized, intense and demanding, people do not seem to suffer from it. In fact, the opposite happens — people feel happier and more awake.

Engagement is a game-changer in whatever activity you are doing. It changes the way you perceive the activity — it is no longer something you need to get done, to scratch off your list. You start to see meaning in the activity, a sort of sacredness is experienced, as crazy as that sounds, and that brings utter fulfilment.

It is incredibly rewarding and leaves us feeling in a better state, happy that we did something.

Personal Experience

Let me share a personal story:

In 2016, I enrolled in what was essentially a software engineering Bootcamp called SoftUni. There, I managed to consistently rank number one in the exams. I had a great track record of having the top 5 scores (out of at least 200 people) all while finishing the exam first (time was not counted towards score). Yes, I was not only getting the top results but I was the fastest. Out of a four-hour exam, I would achieve full scores in 1/4th of the time.

I never thought of myself as smart — the courses were beginner to intermediate. I was always curious about why others were performing this badly. I really couldn’t grasp why people were having such a hard time with the tests.

I still firmly believe I am not even close to smart. What I believe now is I had a major differentiator between me and most other colleagues — intention and focus. By intention, I mean that I was enrolled in the Bootcamp with a very clear reason — to learn the most I could in the shortest amount of time. I had a clear goal. Others did not look like they had the same reasoning — in lectures a lot of people would frequently joke around or open distracting websites when they were supposed to be doing exercises.

This is something I did not do in the slightest. I was perhaps the most focused person in the room, listening deeply and with intent to the lecturer. When the time for hands-on exercises came along, I would immediately put on headphones and get cracking. It was very important to me to be utterly dialed in, otherwise it was easy to slip.

Here is a funny picture: