Do you need help with your inbox? Need help watching your social media notifications every 30 seconds? If social networks, torrents of information, and other distractions interfere with your day, there is surely a solution to your problem: “deep work,” a method that came straight from the other side of the Atlantic. Explanations!
What Is “Deep Work”?
Suppose you spend your days on your phone researching everything except work. In that case, you will likely suffer from these three evils, like about 20% of the working population: low attention, presenteeism, and procrastination. Do not panic! Deep work can help you. Deep work is a state of maximum concentration that allows you to tackle complex tasks and deliver quality work quickly.
What Are The Keys To “Deep Work”?
Opt For An Approach Adapted To Your Job
In his method, Cal Newport presents four distinct approaches to choosing the best way to plan these in-depth work times best:
- The rhythmic approach allows you to create a habit and keep the rhythm of working in depth regularly, with daily blocks of work lasting from one to four hours.
- The journalistic approach: is more flexible; it integrates the work in depth in the moments of beats, between two meetings, for example.
- The monastic approach makes it possible to eliminate or radically reduce superficial work thanks to time management strategies and eliminating redundant organizational tasks.
- The bimodal approach divides your time between deep work and other tasks, for example, morning vs. afternoon.
Establish Rituals To Stay Focused
According to a study, our brain remembers specific associations (like salt and pepper or a clean office and a state of concentration). Thus, the more our brain registers this combination, the more it can create mechanisms to trigger a reaction and understand, for example, that it is time to concentrate. To craft your in-depth work ritual, ask yourself the following questions:
- Where am I going to work?
- When and for how long will I be working?
- How am I going to proceed?
- What resources will I rely on?
Prioritize Key Tasks
Trying to do several tasks simultaneously is often counterproductive and has yet to progress. So you should focus your attention on the most important task and ignore everything else:
- Decide in advance which concrete tasks you will work on.
- Set clear and specific goals.
Manage Your Time Effectively
To produce effective work, it is essential to succeed in managing your time by:
- You are analyzing the use of your work time and eliminating superficial work.
- Assessing the relevance of your meetings. Listing all meetings to rate their relevance on a scale of 1 to 5 will allow you to distinguish truly productive meetings.
- You are planning your day.
Limit Digital Distractions
In an ultra-connected world, distractions are numerous and frequent. But it is quite possible to limit them with a few simple actions:
- Turn off notifications that impact your productivity and can ruin your focus bubble quickly.
- Plan real breaks of 20 to 30 minutes.
- Choose a project management tool that integrates with all your business tools.
Track Progress Against Set Goals
To stay motivated and to keep your new work habits, you have to succeed in setting clear, precise, and short-term objectives, which will be an additional source of motivation when they are achieved.
Make Time For Yourself
It is essential to set aside time to recharge your batteries. This allows, on the one hand, to avoid burnout and, on the other hand, to perpetuate this new routine. It is important to completely disconnect from the world of work to take full advantage of your time off, which means setting clear limits:
- Determine the end of his day by setting a time limit not to exceed.
- Avoid working on weekends.
Those who find it difficult to disconnect can create a ” shutdown procedure” at the end of each workday. Checking his inbox one last time will allow you to determine better in what order to organize your next day.
