I’ve consciously changed my style of working to a Deep Working style over a 4-5 week period and I know there is no going back. An analogous experience I can think of is test-driven development (TDD) if you are a coder. What TDD has done to my coding approach, Deep Working has a similar effect to my working style. It’s just a smarter and more effective style of working. Before I go into my finer reasons on why you should become a Deep Worker, I compiled the following list of reasons from the internet.
5 Reasons Deep Work Gives You a Major Competitive Advantage
As listed by Srinivas Rao, Author of An Audience of One: Reclaiming Creativity for Its Own Sake in this article.
- It results in high-value creative output
- It Improves your Ability to Focus
- It makes You More Efficient
- Deep Work Makes You Happier
- Deep Work Creates Momentum
Why Deep Work Is More Effective Than Long Hours
According to a Forbes article,
- The longer we work, the less we get done and the lower the quality of our accomplishments.
- Sleep is non-negotiable. It’s simply not possible to do your best work when you’re sleep deprived.
- You can’t multitask — humans aren’t wired that way.
- Get more done, at a higher quality, in less time.
Deep Work: The Secret to Achieving Peak Productivity
An article by Wharton, UPenn, says
- To produce at your peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction.
- The type of work that optimizes your performance is deep work.
- Unless your talent and skills absolutely dwarf those of your competition, the deep workers among them will outproduce you.
6 Reasons you should be teaching students to do Deep Work
Casey, an instructional coach mentioned here the reasons as
- Deep work is rare.
- Deep work increases productivity.
- Deep work causes individuals to thrive.
- Deep work both takes and improves concentration.
- Deep work creates a sensitivity to time.
- Deep work fosters authentic learning.
Coming back to my experiences of Deep Working, I want to highlight the following benefits
- You experience flow more often. Flow is a really good space to be in. You basically forget about everything else and get absorbed with the task at hand. I’ve experienced Flow mostly when I code, but these days I experience it even when write an article – like this one.
- You get good at identifying distractions and avoiding them. We are surrounded by distractions and mostly we are not even aware of them. As I’ve deep worked, I’ve realized and became more conscious of the costs of a distraction. Trust me – they are super expensive in terms of your productivity loss. When you commit to deep working, you are also significantly reducing these costs.
- You get good at time management. This is a surprising yet logical benefit. You become aware of how your time is getting spent. For example, you’ll be deliberate of how your day starts and whether each minute was spent in the expected way.
- You’ll worry less. When I Deep Work, I’m basically giving my best. I put less importance on any outcomes or expectations I have and focus more on what’s in my control.
- You’ll work less. But get more done. You’ll have time for work, play, family, hobbies. Day feels more balanced.
In conclusion, you are training yourself to be a better worker, irrespective of what you do. Just like an athlete is training to improve her areas to perform better, you are training yourself to perform in an area that consumes as much as half of your waking hours.
