If you want to know how to do deep work then you have to eliminate all other distractions and focus hard on this article. I’m going to give you the Deep Work Rules for focused success in a distracted world.

Are You a Gold Fish?

There have been studies that show how the attention span of an average student has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds since the year 2000. A goldfish has the attention span of 9 seconds. Congratulations, you’re less focused than a goldfish now.

In a world full of constant stimulation and distractions a lot of people have developed attention deficit disorders, mental anxieties and the inability to concentrate. The overall productivity and creativity of the entire society is actually beginning to suffer.

Cal Newport the author of Deep Work Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World says:

If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive –

no matter how skilled or talented you are

If you want to become more efficient and get more things done in a less stressed way then you need some deep work training. This article is not a summary of the book but it’s my personal take on how to attain this Jedi-like concentration while trying to be creative, productive or anything else that requires intense focus.

Deep Work is Valuable

The greatest results come from Deep Work – work that completely immerses you and is uninterrupted for long periods of time. This puts you into a state of ‘focused attention’, in which your concentration is dedicated to only the thing you need to do.

You’re probably watching this with several of your browser tabs open. You’re simultaneously on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, e-mail, and you may even be eating.

I’ve heard the saying: „The ability to focus is going to be the Superpower of the 21st century,“ which may turn out to be true because human attention spans are being more and more tested by social media and other distractions.

If you want to be truly productive and produce great work, then you need to train the ability to distance yourself from the disruptive world around you and focus on what you need to do.

So, the formula for Deep Work should be:

Prepare your environment by eliminating unnecessary distractions

Go hard in with the intention of getting things done

Stay immersed for long periods of time

Keep going just a little bit more to stretch your boundaries

Take a break to allow your body and mind to recover

And do it all over again

With time, you should see your cognitive capacity for work increase. You won’t get distracted anymore, you don’t get tired that fast, you can blaze through work quicker and you don’t need as much recovery time.

How to Do Deep Work?

The biggest secret to doing deep work is taking control of your environment both the external surroundings as well as your internal squirrel cage.

If there are a lot of random distractions or stimuli constantly popping into your awareness, then you can’t help but think about them. On the flip side, if there aren’t many things that could potentially rob your attention, then you’ll naturally gravitate yourself towards doing the work.

Before you even try to be productive or do something that requires concentration, you should prepare the environment beforehand.

Deep Work Preparation

Put your phone to airplane mode and turn off all the notifications. Social media apps want you to waste hours and hours on their platforms so that you’d become addicted. Don’t let them control you but be the one who’s in control.

Social media apps want you to waste hours and hours on their platforms so that you’d become addicted. Don’t let them control you but be the one who’s in control. Clear your workspace from the distractions. Whatever it may be that might disturb you like food, pencils, the fax machine, pendulum, or any other weaknesses.

Whatever it may be that might disturb you like food, pencils, the fax machine, pendulum, or any other weaknesses. Remove the presence of a clock. If you’re constantly checking the time, then you’ll start procrastinating and you’ll also prevent yourself from entering the zone. Flow requires you to become so immersed that you lose your sense of space and time. So, cover up the clock.

If you’re constantly checking the time, then you’ll start procrastinating and you’ll also prevent yourself from entering the zone. Flow requires you to become so immersed that you lose your sense of space and time. So, cover up the clock. Install some website blockers. There are many different applications that you can use to prohibit yourself from visiting certain websites for a certain period of time like ColdTurkey or FocusMe. I don’t struggle with this but if you have the habit of checking Facebook or Reddit for just 5 minutes, which later turns out to be a half an hour, then those tools can be very useful.

There are many different applications that you can use to prohibit yourself from visiting certain websites for a certain period of time like ColdTurkey or FocusMe. I don’t struggle with this but if you have the habit of checking Facebook or Reddit for just 5 minutes, which later turns out to be a half an hour, then those tools can be very useful. Detach yourself from the world. You have to make time for deep work every day. Treat it like it’s your most precious time because it’s the time when you produce your greatest work – that shit’s important to your overall success and purpose. So, you should also let other people know that this is not the time to distract you. It literally has to be a life or death situation before they could come and interrupt you. Lock the door and put a sign that no one’s home Go completely rogue and under the radar – nobody knows where you are or what you’re doing Re-schedule your appointments Close the curtains if needed

You have to make time for deep work every day. Treat it like it’s your most precious time because it’s the time when you produce your greatest work – that shit’s important to your overall success and purpose. So, you should also let other people know that this is not the time to distract you. It literally has to be a life or death situation before they could come and interrupt you. Prepare your mind. You have to prepare your internal environment as well by becoming more calm and relaxed. An anxious and unorganized mind won’t be able to do deep work. You can do 5 minutes of box breathing to promote concentration and mental acuity.

How to Begin Deep Work

But preparing your environment can turn into massive procrastination and you shouldn’t spend too much time on it.

The fact is, you can’t remove all distractions and you actually shouldn’t. You would want to reach a point where you’re able to do deep work by command no matter how many distractions there are around you or what you feel.

The reason you get bored and can’t seem to focus on anything for any longer than 5 seconds is that you’ve conditioned your brain that way. Our behavior, patterns of thinking and acting are all stored in our brain as neural networks. Every activity, routine or behavioral circuit is there because of reinforcement – It’s a habit.

If you always start screaming whenever you see a spider, you’re enforcing a pattern.

The more often you practice handstands, the better you get.

If you keep reacting to people in traffic, you’ll keep getting angry and yell at them.

The more often you catch yourself having a negative thought and replacing it, the more frequently will you default back to a positive mindset.

So, the ability to focus and do deep work is like a muscle that needs to be trained before it gets stronger.

Neuroplasticity of Focused Attention

Neuroplasticity refers to the way our brain can restructure these neural patterns. It means that you can change all of your habits and behavior – you can condition yourself to be more positive, more disciplined, more focused and joyful.

In the context of Deep Work, every time you feel like you’re getting distracted, you have to acknowledge it, guide your attention back to the task and keep doing it like nothing happened. What you do literally changes your brain’s structure and makes the synaptic connections of focused attention stronger. It’s like a biceps curl for your mind – you go through reps and reps until you build strength and muscle.

Likewise, every time you let yourself be carried away by distractions and drift away into social media or whatever, you’re enforcing that same pattern. You can’t change the fact that you will get distracted from time to time – everyone does. But the Jedi knows it and they’re prepared for it to happen.

They acknowledge the distraction – ah…it’s my mind playing tricks on me again

– ah…it’s my mind playing tricks on me again They don’t react with anxiety – instead of aaahhh…I’m getting distracted what will I do?!? Stupid me! Instead of that…

– instead of aaahhh…I’m getting distracted what will I do?!? Stupid me! Instead of that… They stay in control – take a few breaths and remain calm, saying I got this…These are not the droids you’re looking for…and

– take a few breaths and remain calm, saying I got this…These are not the droids you’re looking for…and They guide their attention back to the task at hand. Keep going. Check.

It’s going to suck in the beginning.

How to Begin Deep Work

If you’re one of those people who checks their smartphone every 10 minutes then you’re in trouble and the harder it is for you to build these neural connections but it’s possible.

Although breaking habits is more difficult the stronger they are it’s still possible to change all of them. You just have to put in the effort and stay diligent in learning to guide your attention.

The key thing is to show up – you have to deliberately put yourself into the situation where you’re going to do deep work. Just sit your ass in the chair and start doing it.

If you want to know how to eat an elephant, then the answer is very simple – one bite at a time.

The same applies to writing – you write a book one sentence at a time.

It’s like Somerset Maugham said: “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”

You start working by simply mentally acknowledging that it’s time to do some deep work and that your monkey mind can shut up.

Environmental Deep Work Triggers

There are also some environmental signals and triggers you can use to put yourself into the right state of mind.

Set an alarm clock for yourself with a voice memo that tells you to start focusing on the work

that tells you to start focusing on the work Have a specific place where you do your deep work . It has to be a separate room or area where you don’t do anything else but deep work because it’s going to build these neural pathways in your brain. You’re going to associate that spot with doing deep work and nothing else which makes it easier to concentrate. For the love of god, don’t eat or play around on your workstation because your brain is going to start associating your deep work with play time. Instead, keep them separate and have a specific place where you do only deep work.

. It has to be a separate room or area where you don’t do anything else but deep work because it’s going to build these neural pathways in your brain. You’re going to associate that spot with doing deep work and nothing else which makes it easier to concentrate. For the love of god, don’t eat or play around on your workstation because your brain is going to start associating your deep work with play time. Instead, keep them separate and have a specific place where you do only deep work. Put some notes or posters on the walls . Things that would trigger certain states of mind or make you ask certain questions that promote deep work. I keep it very simple – next to my laptop screen on the wall, there’s a paper saying: “Is this the ONE thing?” meaning: “Is this the most important thing I need to be doing right now? Whenever I get distracted for a moment, I look at the note, I notice it, I ask myself the question, and then I get back to the work.

. Things that would trigger certain states of mind or make you ask certain questions that promote deep work. I keep it very simple – next to my laptop screen on the wall, there’s a paper saying: “Is this the ONE thing?” meaning: “Is this the most important thing I need to be doing right now? Whenever I get distracted for a moment, I look at the note, I notice it, I ask myself the question, and then I get back to the work. Certain postures and facial expressions can also be triggers for deep work. Your physiology has an enormous effect on your psychology. If you want to build some habits for deep work then you can simply take a certain facial expression that you associate with concentration and deep work. Even just frowning your eyebrows or holding yourself in a certain pose can make your subconscious mind know that it’s time to focus.

You’d think that these things don’t matter but trust me – if you’ve developed these habits and built these neural associations then they’ll become automatic. Your subconscious mind is much more powerful than your conscious mind when it comes to learning skills and it gains these skills only based on how you teach it.

How Long to Deep Work?

There’s a lot of debate as to what’s the optimal time length for studying and concentrating at once? How long should your deep work sessions be and when should you stop?

It seems that ‘science’ here has proven that humans can’t concentrate effectively on anything for any longer than 20-30 minutes. After that, your cognitive performance drops and you need to have a break of at least 5 minutes.

True…

You will get tired and your brain will lose its focus, making your performance suffer. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing and it doesn’t apply to all activities.

I think saying that we can’t concentrate any longer than 20 minutes already pre-disposes you to be unable to do it. It gives you an excuse and turns it into a self-fulfilling prophecy: Ah…I’m at 22 minutes – time to go monkey mode! #SQUIRREL

And when did you ever get great results from your activities by doing them for just 20 minutes? You NEVER DID! The thing is…Doing Deep Work requires you to become immersed with what you’re doing. That’s why it’s called DEEEP WORK – you have to do it for a long time.

How Much Deep Work Should You Do?

In my experience, the first 20 minutes is where I only start going. Everything before that is warm up and after that will I get into my best state of creativity and focus.

All in all, you want to have at least 2-4 hours of uninterrupted high-quality Deep Work a day. so you wouldn’t get distracted by the outside world. It would be best if you schedule it to be at a specific time of day every day so that your mind could already associate that time with deep work.

Another thing to pay attention to is recovery. You need discipline and willpower to achieve focused attention and enter flow but your brain also needs time to retain the information you’ve been working on.

That’s why it’s a good idea to do something different after your deep work. Go for a walk, get your mind thinking about other ideas, read books, or just play around. Your subconscious mind will continue to process the information even without you knowing it and you can come up with creative insights or flashes of genius in random situations.

Deep Work Habits

There are also other activities and habits that can promote concentration, creativity, and any other mental activity.

Carry a notebook with you at all times. Whether that be yellow cards, a journal, a smartphone or whatever – just have something where you can write down your most creative ideas because you may never know when or where you’ll hit a Eureka moment.

Whether that be yellow cards, a journal, a smartphone or whatever – just have something where you can write down your most creative ideas because you may never know when or where you’ll hit a Eureka moment. Take notes on what you’re learning. Just reading isn’t useful if you’re not able to retain the information. That’s why you want to store the best golden nuggets in some way. Install Evernote to sync your notes online into the cloud. Write notes into books. Highlight the most profound paragraphs, draw lines, make circles and write your own ideas so that you’d have something to come back to in the future. Look up terms and concepts you’re not familiar with. What I like to do is immediately Google it if I come across something new or confusing. It’s going to develop the speed of implementation – you immediately take action on looking it up and learning it.

Just reading isn’t useful if you’re not able to retain the information. That’s why you want to store the best golden nuggets in some way. Self-Reflection and journalling are also powerful tools for learning more about yourself and strengthening the habit of deep contemplative concentration.

are also powerful tools for learning more about yourself and strengthening the habit of deep contemplative concentration. Mindfulness and meditation are great mental techniques that train your brain to be more focused and get less distracted. You become less affected by your own thoughts and you increase your focus even in chaotic environments.

Deep Work Rules

Deep work is important for cutting through the sea of nonsense in a world full of distractions. It doesn’t matter what goals you have or how talented you are if you’re unable to produce the results. That’s why knowing how to focus on the vital few is critical for doing your greatest work.

The key component is implementing deep work routines and habits into your everyday life so that you could progressively grow and evolve every day.

If you want to know how to become more productive, know how to manage your time better, promote creativity, and get more things done with less effort, then check out my Morning Routine Course on Udemy!

Stay Empowered

Siim