My ritual for deep work.

What is deep work?

We can keep ourselves busy by reacting to emails or getting caught up in lots of meetings, but this is not necessarily being productive. If you aren’t intentional with your time, then it can quite easily slip through your fingers.

Deep work involves completing demanding tasks efficiently by being able to focus and avoid distractions.

It is a concept introduced by Cal Newport, in his book of the same name (which I haven’t actually read - but it’s on my book wishlist. I have a pile of books to get through, and will not allow myself to buy anymore at the moment!!).

Scheduling deep work

I know that I work best in the morning, and so this is typically when I will block out time for deep work in my calendar; have a think about when you might want to schedule your deep work.

I’m a huge advocate of time blocking and planning your day/week in advance.

You'll also want to think about what duration of time block to schedule. This might depend on what the task is, so I like to have a plan ahead of time for what I want to achieve during my deep work.

Your environment for deep work

The next thing to consider is your environment. I know that I work better when I don't have a cluttered desk, and when I don't have household chores that need doing (I work from home predominately).

Sometimes, depending on what my deep work task is… I  might take myself out of my house to a café where I don't have the distraction of laundry or dishes! 

When I used to work from an office, sometimes I would take a day at home where I could focus without the distractions of people stopping by my workspace.

Avoiding distractions

The key is to avoid distractions whilst you are doing your focussed, deep work. 

If there's anything that's on my mind, I'll jot it in my notebook or add to my to-do-list before I get started.

I will also make sure I eat breakfast before my block of deep work - I don't want to be distracted by hunger or having to stop mid-way to eat.

I also like to put my phone into aeroplane mode, switch off notifications or just leave it in another room in my house. (I've actually now got the majority of notifications switched off permanently on my phone, and I love it. It's very freeing!).

If my kids are in the house and being distracting, I'll put in my noise cancelling ear buds. I need quiet to work, and can't listen to music… but I'll perhaps put on a nature soundtrack. (My kids are older, and so I can leave them to their own devices for an hour here and there… much easier in that respect compared to when they were little).

Transition into deep work

I have a ritual for the transition from other work to deep work… when I'm at home, that involves making a fresh cup of tea and making my way to my desk. (When I was at university, my ritual involved going to the supermarket, buying loads of pick n'mix sweets and then retiring to my desk to devour the sweets whilst re-writing my lecture notes and reading my text books!). This habit of making the cup of tea helps prep my brain for what's about to happen; it's my signal that it's time to focus.