{"id":24098,"date":"2019-09-19T23:13:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T06:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=24098"},"modified":"2019-09-19T23:15:11","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T06:15:11","slug":"math-and-deep-work-do-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/math-and-deep-work-do-mix\/","title":{"rendered":"Math and Deep Work Do Mix!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s rare that an acade\"\"<\/a>mic year goes by without some upheaval and change. In fact, the years I didn\u2019t expect change, it came dramatically and with full force. In my role as Director, I\u2019ve learned to not just expect change, but I need to be actively and regularly planning for it. So when an employee of mine quit 3 weeks into the academic year, I wasn\u2019t too surprised. The unique challenge that has presented itself with this vacant staff position is that it\u2019s the stuff in my office I know the least about: money. Our office processes around $1.1 million a year, but if you asked me how<\/em> we process all that money, I\u2019d look at you with a blank stare and shrug my shoulders. When our Finance Coordinator quit two weeks ago, despite the fact that I had been planning for it, I was nervous and fearful that I would mess things up (I only earned one D my entire academic career\u2026.in college algebra). But instead of allowing myself to wallow in the shallows of self-pity, I decided to do the harder, deeper work, of jumping into her job with both feet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cal Newport, in Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World<\/em>, reminds us that thinking deeply is a skill that not many have, but it\u2019s crucial to any work we do, no matter the sector.[1]<\/a> Newport spends the first section of this book highlighting the need for all people to make space for deep work in their lives. He highlights the amount of time spent on \u201cshallow work\u201d can drastically reduce our capacity to do anything with focus and intention.[2]<\/a> Honestly, after the first chapter or two, I skipped the rest of the first part because I don\u2019t need any more convincing that deep work needed to be a priority for me. I would venture to guess that most people in a Western culture, specifically American Western culture would agree. Between the work, the kids, the Church, and the grad school \u2013 what I need isn\u2019t an argument for the need for deep work, what I need are the practical tools. The second portion of Newport\u2019s book provided those tools, albeit a bit repetitively, but provided them nonetheless. I particularly appreciated Newport\u2019s strategy for making time for deep work in the day. I was beginning to feel defeated when I knew I couldn\u2019t retreat like Jung, or be totally inaccessible through email like Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman or computer scientist Donald Knuth.[3]<\/a> But when Newport gave me the freedom to choose my philosophy of Deep Work scheduling \u2013 I leapt at the chance.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

this is my actual calendar this week!<\/p><\/div>\n

For the season I\u2019m in, the Rhythmic Philosophy of deep work scheduling is the most practical. Essentially, I have built into my schedule each week time for all things. For instance, I\u2019m writing this at 9:57pm on a Thursday night after my kids have gone to bed. This is my pocket of time. I am away from the office on Monday mornings so I can participate in class and work on homework. Before this book, I was using that rhythm to be productive, to check things off my ever-growing lists, not necessarily do deep work (which yes, is productive, but in a different way). But after starting this book Monday, I knew I needed to put these tools to practice. On Tuesday morning, I blocked out two hours of my day (thank you cancelled meeting!) where I could focus on the task at hand: finances. I know if I am going to get good at this stuff while I\u2019m in the hiring process for a new person, I need to know this work deeply. For that two hours, I reconciled accounts, I worked with our business office, I printed things off, I highlighted, I stayed the course. Interestingly enough, I didn\u2019t check email, I didn\u2019t look at my phone, and while I was interrupted once or twice, I got right back to the task at hand. And at the end of that two hours, I felt more productive, learned a ton more, and walked away with my head held just slightly higher in the face of math. I\u2019m a fan of the deep work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, <\/em>(New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing, 2016), 3.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 7.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 60.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 101.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s rare that an academic year goes by without some upheaval and change. In fact, the years I didn\u2019t expect change, it came dramatically and with full force. In my role as Director, I\u2019ve learned to not just expect change, but I need to be actively and regularly planning for it. So when an employee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1359,956,1624],"class_list":["post-24098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cal-newport","tag-deep-work","tag-math","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24098"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24104,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24098\/revisions\/24104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}