The Deep Work Mentality

Mastering hard things fast is the ultimate x-factor. It is what makes some people deliver a disproportionately large impact. This journey of a 1000 miles begins at deep focussed work and cultivating the right learning habits. I am on this journey, and I want you to start yours.

Transcript

1. The Deep Work
   Mentality
   Experiments with knowledge work
   

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2. What, why?
   Rules, strategies
   Pitfalls
   

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3. What, why?
   A primer and a pitch
   

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4. We live in a
   knowledge economy
   

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5. Knowledge work is the
   most value producing
   kind of work in this era
   

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6. Knowledge work is the
   most rewarding
   kind of work in this era
   

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7. Being a highly skilled
   worker is one way of
   thriving, amongst many.
   

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8. Deep Work paves a path
   to becoming one.
   

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9. Start here:
   

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10. – Cal Newport, in Deep Work
    Professional activities performed
    in a state of distraction-free
    concentration that push your
    cognitive capabilities to their limit.
    

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11. – Cal Newport, in Deep Work. Emphasis mine.
    Professional activities performed
    in a state of distraction-free
    concentration that push your
    cognitive capabilities to their limit.
    

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12. Just focussed working
    is not enough
    

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13. Just distraction-free
    is not enough
    

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14. Challenging work in a
    deep focused mode
    over a long period of
    time is
    

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15. And the result?
    

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16. – Cal Newport, in Deep Work
    These efforts create new value,
    improve your skill,
    and are hard to replicate.
    

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17. – Cal Newport, in Deep Work. Emphasis mine.
    These efforts create new value,
    improve your skill,
    and are hard to replicate.
    

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18. That's your x-factor.
    

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19. Hypothesis
    • Over a longer period of doing
    deep work, you develop two
    abilities:
    

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20. 1. To quickly master hard
    things.
    2. To produce at an elite
    level, in terms of both
    quality and speed.
    

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21. 1. To quickly master hard
    things.
    2. To produce at an elite
    level, in terms of both
    quality and speed.
    

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22. To summarise
    

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23. Distraction-free work
    that pushes limits,
    creates new value,
    and improves skill.
    

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24. Process. Not result.
    

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25. Distraction-free work
    that pushes limits,
    creates new value,
    and improves skill.
    

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26. Rules, strategies
    The tenets of deep work, staying on course
    

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27. First, some meta talk.
    

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28. Disclaimer
    • This is an experience report
    • YMMV
    • No one true way
    

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29. Not just about:
    http://calnewport.com/
    books/deep-work/
    

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30. Some more
    case studies*
    https://
    www.mortenhansen.com/
    book/great-at-work/
    *Be very aware of selection bias
    

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31. A good
    complimentary
    strategy:
    https://mindsetonline.com/
    

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32. Practice.
    Learn from experience.
    

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33. Rules, strategies
    The tenets of deep work, staying on course
    

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34. Deep work
    Shallow work
    Draw clear boundaries
    

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35. Errno!::ETOOMANYMEETINGS
    

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36. Number of meetings
    is always more than
    needed $
    

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37. Have meeting free
    days.
    

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38. Have meeting free
    days weeks.
    

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39. Emails, Asana, Trello,
    Jira, PR reviews etc.
    The shallows!
    

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40. Have a fixed time-slot
    for them in the day
    towards the EOD.
    

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41. 100% pairing
    = 100% distraction
    

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42. Have pairing free
    days.
    

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43. Have pairing free
    weeks.
    

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44. On-call rotation, pager
    duty etc. is shallow by
    definition. ☎
    

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45. Avoid deep work during
    that period.
    

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46. When we know we
    won't be distracted,
    we focus better.
    

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47. Focus on focus
    Work deeply, plan for depth
    

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48. Uncertainty is a focus
    killer
    

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49. Plan your day well
    

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50. Plan your week well
    

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51. Invest in a productivity
    system like GTD®
    – David Allen's Getting Things Done®
    

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52. Leisure time is essential.
    Budget for it.
    

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53. Forgive yourself for
    wanting to have fun.
    

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54. Work environment is
    critical
    

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55. Noise is a distraction
    

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56. Viewport activity is a
    bigger distraction.
    

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57. Workplaces suffer from
    tap on the shoulder
    disease
    

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58. Open office plans are
    probably the costliest
    mistake since Null
    

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59. Learn from
    Barbeque Nation
    

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60. Flag is up !=> Bring food!
    Flag is down !=> Stop!
    

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61. Establish an etiquette,
    stick to it.
    

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62. Hunger is a distraction,
    manage it well
    

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63. Embrace boredom.
    – Cal Newport, in Deep Work
    

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64. This is a core Deep
    Work rule.
    

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65. Avoid jumping on to
    something else when
    waiting on things.
    

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66. e.g. Don't jump to
    Twitter when waiting
    for your app to load up
    

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67. Dial up the verbosity on
    logs, ssh sessions,
    bundle install, rspec etc
    

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68. Put your phone away,
    say in a different room,
    when working.
    

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69. Train yourself by not
    carrying the phone to
    the
    

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70. Embrace boredom.
    

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71. This habit requires a lot
    of training. Possibly the
    hardest to change.
    

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72. Why is it important?
    

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73. Hypothesis
    • It (the jumping around) trains
    your mind to be distracted, and
    prevents long hours of focus,
    eventually reducing your ability
    to focus.
    

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74. ?
    

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75. Stretch your limit
    Pick work at the edge your skillset
    

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76. Pick something
    you haven't done.
    

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77. If Ruby is all you do, go
    write Haskell.
    

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78. If you are a front-end
    developer, understand
    how minification really
    works.
    

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79. Write a compiler
    

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80. Design a new font
    

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81. Pick something
    outside your domain
    

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82. Pick something
    adjacent to your skills
    

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83. It has to be knowledge
    work or craft work.
    

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84. If work isn't offering
    you a stretch, pick a
    MOOC or a book
    

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85. Side projects are
    overrated, because they
    are "side" projects $
    

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86. If you want to work on
    something 'side', take a few
    days off and make it the
    main thing for those days.
    

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87. Invest in and get better
    at writing. ✍ ✨
    

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88. Nothing really brings
    out deep focus like
    writing. D
    

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89. Don't fight biology
    Be aware of your boundaries
    

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90. Sleep well.
    

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91. Gift yourself regular
    exercise GIJ
    

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92. Understand your
    biological cycle ⏰
    

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93. Discipline is important.
    It brings reliability. ✌
    

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94. Separate deep & shallow
    Focus on focus
    Stretch your limit
    Don't fight biology
    

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95. Pitfalls
    Traps, false positives, gotchas.
    

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96. Going too far down
    the rabbit hole
    Losing the big picture
    

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97. Abdicate responsibility
    in search of focus ?
    

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98. Ineffective
    collaboration
    

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99. Ineffective
    communication
    

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100. Becoming a JIRA ticket
     pusher
     

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101. Over-estimating your
     deep work ability
     There is a point of diminishing returns
     

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102. Missing out on
     leadership
     Deep work is a very individual effort
     

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103. Losing the big picture
     Losing out on collaborative
     aspects of work
     Trying out too much deep work
     Missing out on leadership
     

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104. Despair not,
     remember what we're
     working towards:
     

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105. To quickly master hard
     things
     To produce at an elite
     level, in terms of both
     quality and speed
     

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106. Thank you!
     

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107. Swanand Pagnis
     R Principal Engineer at First.io
     meetup.com/Bangalore-Ruby-Users-Group/
     info.pagnis.in
     U postgres-workshop.com
     

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