Deep Work = “I guess I should have been a craftsman”
“Whether you’re a writer, marketer, consultant, or lawyer: Your work is craft, and if you hone your ability and apply it with respect and care, then like the skilled wheelwright you can generate meaning in the daily efforts of your professional life.”[1]
My Challenge:
My workday begins when my alarm wakes me up at 5:30am. From there I snooze until I hear that first “ding” on my phone indicating that I have received my first work email for the day. In technology companies/departments the definition of a work day is very fluid. It depends on your role and level of responsibility. For some work occurs 7 days a week and for others it is a modified 4-5 day from 7am to 4pm. In most cases, companies value visible productivity until the results do not match with the perceived work being completed. Employees are encouraged to multitask and maintain the momentum of the projects they are tasked to manage. The challenge is not so much in the work required but in the questions most ask themselves everyday “am I doing meaningful work?” and “is the way in which I am doing my job accomplishing my end goal?”
The Book:
Cal Newport in his book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success In A Distracted World attempts to address the issues that underline the questions posed above. In doing so, he lays out practical rules that are to be applied to his theoretical solution that has yet to be proven within the personal anecdote that I shared above. He breaks his discussion down into two main parts: Part 1 The Idea and Part 2 The Rules. In part 1, he advocates that in order to have deep work a person must give undivided attention and focus to their craft. One must remove all distractions and/or interruptions to allow for in-depth concentration. The goal of this book he says is “to systematically develop your personal ability to go deep—and by doing so, reap great rewards.”[2]
To further explore his deep work theory, Newport uses the analogy of a craftsman honing their skills and spending time alone with their work mastering one skill after the next. He argues that by attempting to multi task a person can never fully give their time to produce meaningful work and it forces the mind to become distracted by prioritizing between what is currently happening and what a person is feeling compelled to focus on. He writes “Deep work, therefore, is key to extracting meaning from your profession … It follows that to embrace deep work in your own career, and to direct it toward cultivating your skill, is an effort that can transform a knowledge work job from a distracted, draining obligation into something satisfying—a portal to a world full of shining, wondrous things.”[3]
In Part 2, he defines four rules that must be followed as a way to measure if you are doing “deep work”:
- Rule #1- Work Deeply- Develop habits that become rituals to allow for deep work to take place overtime.
- Rule #2- Embrace Boredom– It is important not to fill gaps of time with distractions. If your minds must be stimulated at all times it will not be able to focus on deep work for long periods of time.
- Rule #3- Quit Social Media- Remove your presence from social media activities. This will provide more time to focus on deep work without using social media as a distraction.
- Rule #4- Drain the Shallows- remove work that is “noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”[4]
He concludes his book by saying that “The deep life, of course, is not for everybody. It requires hard work and drastic changes to your habits. For many, there’s a comfort in the artificial busyness of rapid e-mail messaging and social media posturing, while the deep life demands that you leave much of that behind… But if you’re willing to sidestep these comforts and fears, and instead struggle to deploy your mind to its fullest capacity to create things that matter, then you’ll discover, as others have before you, that depth generates a life rich with productivity and meaning.”[5]
My Thoughts:
Although this book was an easy read, I found it to be more of a “telling” me how it should be done than a“showing” me how it is currently being done today. While I appreciate his theoretical assessment on how to achieve meaningful work, I was put off by the way in which ,on one hand, he was presenting examples that were disproving his theory and then, on the other hand would, conclude that he had provided enough evidence to prove his point of view.
I agree that the way in which many work environments are set up they are not conducive to maintain in-depth work 100% of the time. I also agree with the notion ,for those who can, of incorporating rituals and habitual behavior that will allow for some deep work to take place every day. Where I tend to disagree is with his emphasis on removing current technological resources as a solution to the problem. I believe it requires a more integrated lifestyle approach. It felt to me, as I read the book, that there was a disdain or shame he placed on those who do not choose to engage in this “deep life”.
Most of us will never work in environments where it will be distraction free and majority of us will still be successful in accomplishing our goals. Throughout the book, he provides examples where CEO’s who have the time, money, and ability to retreat are able to do “deep work” and concentrate on how to take their company to the next level. He focuses primarily on jobs that do not require much collaborative work like the role of a code developer. Their primary job is to sit alone and write code all day in a silo environment in order to render the results necessary to contribute to their team. Being a person who has these skills it is very easy to retreat when only tasked to do one specific role. However, If now that same developer had to also manage a team of developers, attend meetings and produce reporting to their managers this example loses its ability to be a practical example for his “deep work” theory.
I was left wondering if this really was a practical and scalable approach to meaningful work. For example, how does the platform development manager ,who has to use all web-based tools and run an agile product team while being required to work weekends to push new products to production apply his theory? What about the blue collar manufacturing mid-level manager, whose job is primarily time boxed with rigorous deadlines and requires constant collaborative planning and implementation across his team and other departments?
While his discussion on deep work does have merit, I would have liked for him to have spent more time “showing” a more scalable approach on how these rules are being practically applied across various types of roles that are not already inherently concentration based occupations (i.e. writers, consultants, developers, lawyers, etc.) . Instead, it felt like he spent majority of his time explaining theories and philosophical methods to defend his point of view and rules.
I guess my questions would have been answered if I had simply chose to roll back in time and became a craftsman by trade.
[1] Cal Newport, Deep work: rules for focused success in a distracted world (New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing, 2016). Location 973.
[2] Ibid. Location 764.
[3] Ibid. Location 986.
[4] Ibid. Location 2504.
[5] Ibid. Location 2887.
About the Author
Christal Jenkins Tanks
11 responses to “Deep Work = “I guess I should have been a craftsman””
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Great post Christal! I’m glad that you thought about those who might not be in upper “leadership” positions. You are right, there are millions of people who do not have the luxury at work to choose “not” to be distracted. They are either not in a position to have control over the flow of information or the parameters of their work environment do not allow them to disconnect. In that way, Newport is speaking to a specific group of people who have a certain amount of autonomy and control over their circumstances and work environment. That is a valid and excellent point. On the other side of the coin, I wonder if the the deep work concept can be applied in one’s personal life, outside of work. I’ve seen people sitting at the same table and having a conversation with each other via text! Building relationships is also deep work and the same principles may apply. What do you think? Thanks for an excellent post Christal!
Jim I definitely agree that it can be applied to how we live our lives holistically. Even if we cannot eliminate all distractions there are some habits we can incorporate to allow for a more holistic concept of meaningful work to exist in our daily lives.
You are correct in noting that there are many meaningful jobs that cannot follow the prescriptions Newport lays out; including pastoring, which involves emergency texts and late night meetings and times of solitude and much time spent with people. What I think he gets right, is setting up A model for us to approach our writing life as doctoral students. Most of his concrete examples were methods he used to focus on writing, which seems helpful as we proceed into the next phase of our courses.
Katy, in regards to applying these rules to our program I believe they can be extremely helpful! The challenge is being deliberate about finding ways in which to apply them to this process.
Christal, my first thought was just like Katy’s – how can I apply this to getting my doctoral dissertation done!? I got it and I am already putting some of the suggestions into practice.
I really appreciate your insights on Newport’s seeming elitism. Some people also see work as a means to an end and not the begin all and end all of their lives. Some of Newport’s examples reminded me of the company culture at Microsoft for example. Not for everyone.
We can’t roll back the time. I didn’t start using a computer until I was in my forties. It was scary, but now I embrace it as a great tool.
Thanks for helping me take a step back and look at the bigger picture!
Very true Christal-it would have been nice to see more practical examples on how to do deep work. Interesting thoughts on his mixed messages you were experiencing too. I sensed some of this in the reading as well.
Ok…you lost me at 5:30am. You must be a morning person. I complain when I have to get up before 7! Fun fact about me…I never use an alarm clock unless I have to be up at some crazy hour. I like getting on a sleeping pattern and waking up naturally. I think this contributes to my deep work. 🙂
LOL!!! Jen my alarm begins to go off at 5:30am because I have to break myself out of REM sleep. Unfortunately, it is because I am not a morning person. If I didn’t set an alarm I would not wake up on time everyday. I wish I could be on a sleeping pattern and wake up naturally. Do not quite trust myself. 🙂
Yes I think this stuff can definitely be applied to our Doctoral studies, and probably AT SOME LEVEL to our working environments. You do, of course, have to work within the constraints of your organisation and the expectations of your boss!
“Although this book was an easy read, I found it to be more of a “telling” me how it should be done than a ‘showing’ me how it is currently being done today.”
I would love to see a follow-up book of “showing,” Christal. There are some good examples, but it is hard to make all of Newton’s thoughts fit universally. I think it is very practical for the work of our program, but I had more trouble when trying to think about how my husband can apply it to teaching high school students. Many times his deep work has to happen at home, outside of work hours because his job is one distraction after another. It makes him a great teacher, but it cuts into his life as father and husband. Where is the balance? Thanks for bringing this up.
Christal,
I agree that everything he addresses to increase our awareness of concentration and organization does not fit all but it does address one to consider if their life is upsy daisy, you may want to review your priorities and how your environment and life affects your efforts.
Christal,
Thanks for the post – While I thought many of the examples he gives were good at ‘showing’ how this works, they often shared on very important similarity, namely: the freedom to fully disconnect because of either the nature of the work or their stature within their field – or both.
Of course you can make the point that the rules he puts forth can be applied universally – but there were not a lot of examples of showing this