“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.”
—Pablo Picasso
We are only beginning to see the long-term effects of our hyper-connected internet and smartphone era. Research from neuroscience and performance psychology is beginning to paint a compelling picture: people in the modern world may be damaging their ability to sustain attention, concentration, and focus.
Think about this for a moment—How important are attention and concentration to your long-term workplace success and your personal relationships?
If people lost this ability, what would happen to our world?
Would we still produce great works of art or literature?
Would we lose the ability to connect deeply with those we love?
Would it diminish our capacity to sit in quiet contemplation of nature or the Creator?
If we want to create important work that has an impact on the world, it is essential to have strategies that protect our brain’s capacity for deep focus and sustained concentration.
What my days used to look like
Not long ago, I would often wake up and check email right away, with incoming messages flashing across my computer screen every few minutes.
Every new message was like a torpedo to my concentration, often sending me down numerous rabbit holes.
To make matters worse, I almost always had one or two smartphones within arm’s reach, buzzing or dinging seductively with text messages, emails, and any number of alluring notifications.
Then my desk phone might ring with an urgent call.
Before I knew it, it was time for the first of several meetings that would further fragment my day.
Worse still, my personal life only reinforced my bad habits. I would come home and turn on the TV to “relax” while surfing the internet on my iPad and responding to text messages on my phone.
Before bed—more work email.
I was literally training my brain into a constant state of distraction.
It should be clear that producing any important work would be difficult, if not impossible, in that scenario.
But what bothered me most was that it made listening to other people—including my wife—much more difficult.
The case for deep work
In his compelling book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Georgetown professor Cal Newport argues that many people in the modern world are losing their ability to sustain attention, concentration, and focus.
He poses the question: What will happen to our world if we lose the ability to focus deeply enough to produce meaningful work?
He persuasively argues that those who can train themselves in the skill of focused concentration will become increasingly rare. And this skill will not only be increasingly valuable, but likely profitable as well.
He includes a wealth of compelling research, from the myths of multitasking to attentional residue—what happens when we move from one task to the next, but a portion of our attention remains stuck on our last meeting or email, preventing us from fully concentrating on the new task.
Newport, who received his Ph.D. in computer science from MIT, also points out that many modern workplaces promote a busy, hyper-connected, and distracted working lifestyle.
Things like open-office floor plans, instant messaging, and workplace smartphones leave people in a virtual tornado of dings, vibrations, and flashes.
All of these things can undermine deep states of concentration.
And if your workplace texts or emails you after hours, you may not even have the opportunity to fully recover from this heightened state of mental activity.
We have traded deep work for the ability to get ahold of each other immediately.
Most great human accomplishments have come from deep states of focus
Throughout the book, Newport gives examples of people who have had a profound impact on the world while practicing deep work. Bill Gates, Mark Twain, Carl Jung, and Nobel Prize-winning physicists are just some examples.
And if you train yourself to do deep work, you may appear to have some kind of superpower—the ability to get more done in less time because your focus is not constantly fragmented.
Think about it this way: your overall impact in almost anything will be the result of time spent multiplied by quality of focus.
We have inadvertently trained our brains to prefer the pleasure hit of rapid, shallow tasks, but we can work to reverse this tendency.
In the long run, deep work is far more fulfilling and produces significantly better results.
Don’t be the typical hyper-distracted leader of our age. Be different. Slow down, connect with people, and spend regular time in the zone of deep focus.
But if you want to build this skill, it’s going to require discipline and a strong commitment to changing your habits.
If you don’t believe me, try putting your smartphone in your trunk for 24 hours this weekend and notice the panic that sets in!
Turn information into action
Here are five simple recommendations to get you started:
- Admit you have a problem. The first step is recognizing how dependent you may have become on constant stimulation and distraction. Technology can tap into powerful reward systems in the brain, making these habits difficult to break.
- Identify your Deep Work. It could be:
- Writing a book
- Preparing a presentation
- Working on a big project
- Planning your business strategy
- Looking at where you want your life to be five years from now
- Schedule uninterrupted blocks of time. Start with one hour several days per week of completely uninterrupted time. Schedule these blocks into your week in advance to do your deep work. Protect them at all costs.
- Eliminate distractions. During your blocks of time, put phones out of reach and cut off your access to the internet and email.
- Schedule time to recharge daily and weekly. Your brain requires regular breaks in order to function optimally. People who perform at a very high level over time often have disciplined rest and recovery routines.
- Application to leadership: Lastly, if you are in a position of leadership for your organization, make sure that you set up organizational practices and policies that foster deep work for your team. For example, one thing we do at my current workplace is to try to eliminate unnecessary meetings and emails. We usually try to schedule meetings in blocks or on certain days to free up large blocks of time for team members to stay super focused on deep work. This practice has helped our team stay engaged and productive for many years now. We also make many meetings optional whenever possible.
Have a great weekend!
Parker
Suggested Resources
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World — Cal Newport
- The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains — Nicholas Carr
