Putting together a Deep Work plan

Deep Work is the main tool that allows me to be highly productive even among the ebbs and flows of life.

I spoke about this concept popularised by author Cal Newport before, but today I want to share a practical tool to plan your deep work and eliminate barriers to it - courtesy of PositivePsychology.com.

A few notes: 

  • It is common to achieve just one hour of real deep work within an 8-hour work day when starting to practise deep work. This is 
    a great start, and with continued effort, the amount of time spent on deep work will increase.
  • When specifying the time spent in deep work in Step 5 (creating a deep work plan), give yourself a specific time frame so that your deep work session remains a discrete challenge rather than an open-ended slog.
  • When choosing a location for deep work (Step 6), it can be beneficial to have a location that you use only for deep work, for example, a conference room or quiet library. This helps create an association of sustained focus with the place.
  • I recommend you quit social media apps during deep work. Social media use has become second nature to so many, and exiting these will prevent the regular checking of these platforms that interferes with deep work.
  • It is important to allocate sufficient time to a given deep work
    session so that you have enough time to get into a flow-type state. If you are just starting, allocating at least one hour of deep work is recommended, as any less than one hour will likely not yield the benefits of this working practice.
  • If you struggle to find enough quiet time during the day to dedicate to deep work, I suggest that you consider doing deep work either early in the morning or late at night when the household is asleep.

Here it is:

DOWNLOAD THE DEEP WORK PLAN

 This article was originally written for the Green Gorilla weekly newsletter. If you liked it, subscribe to receive more articles like this and learn how to communicate sustainability better, how to be more productive without selling your soul to the work devil, and how to make an impact in the world. Here is the link: https://newsletter.thegreengorilla.co.uk/

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