A method to succeed in this information economy(DEEP WORK)

Jobs that can thrive in this information economy!

• The superstars - if you have an incredible talent in attracting a lot of audiences (this has also become a lot competitive as now the audience has access to the very best so why they will listen to mediocre)
• The owners - those who have piles of cash and can invest in the upcoming advanced technologies.
• The high-skilled workers- engineers and scientists who are good with robotics and working with intelligent machines.

Two core abilities are required in this age which is dependent on complex systems. These systems change almost every decade to keep up with the economy,

• The ability to learn hard things quickly. Not only learn them but also unlearn them as quickly as possible and start learning others as the trend change.
• Produce work of elite level in both quality and quantity at a great pace.

The majority of the population does not have these two abilities but the good thing is they can be developed by learning anything quickly with intense concentration which can only be done through DEEP WORK.

High quality work produced = (Time spent) + ( Intensity of focus)

So to make this possible one must develop the ability to do DEEP WORK consistently.

What is deep work?

The core component is that you are intensely focused on a specific task or an idea that you are trying to master. All professional activities and research are performed in a state of deep focus to push our cognitive abilities to their limit to bring high yield results in a short period and also with the least effort. Work done in this kind of state is called DEEP WORK. The toppers of prestigious universities also understand this concept and therefore use this method to maximize their concentration levels and increase their productivity and also score better in less time. If you do deep work only for 2-3 hours a day it will help you to grow exponentially.

Why deep work is important?

Students and working professionals nowadays are experiencing a major problem (they can't perform up to their capabilities). This is causing a lot of adverse effects on their career and grades. So to overcome such hazards issues capability to perform deep work is really important. It is also important as in this information economy there is a lot of information as well as distractions. Also, this ability is becoming rare and rare in this age so if one develops it will not only thrive in it but will be way ahead of the masses so to stand out from the crowd it's really important to cultivate the habit of doing deep work every day. It generates as much satisfaction in this information economy as it used to generate in ancient times. It helps in generating a flow state and flow generates happiness as it provides deep satisfaction. By embracing deep work we are directing ourselves towards cultivating a skill in ourselves that is leading us to a portal from which we can go from distracted, draining obligations to something satisfying. A hidden benefit of cultivating such rapt attention is that it hijacks your attention apparatus, preventing you from noticing the many smaller and less pleasant things that are unavoidable and persistently populate our lives. Due to its rareness, it has become increasingly valuable as it had created a classic market mismatch.

Scientists had done a lot of research on this matter too. They concluded you get better at a skill as you develop more myelin around the relevant neurons, allowing the corresponding circuit to fire more effortlessly and effectively. It is that to be great at something you have to be well myelinated. It shows why deliberate practice works. By focusing intensely on a specific skill, you’re focusing on a specific relevant circuit to fire again and again, in isolation. Thus helping in mastering the skill. So to learn things quickly you must focus intensely on that thing without distraction.

Why Ability to deep work needs to be developed

It created a flow state

It is scientifically proven that our brain has a finite reserve of willpower each day. Imagine that you have a battery in your brain that contains 10 bars (each 10%) every morning. You focus on one task example reading that consume your 1 bar of will power and you start doing and after the first 15minutes, you start watching reels for the other 15 minutes and after that, you again push yourself to read and it consumed another 2 bar as now this time you are facing resistance that is caused due to distraction caused by watching reels and this goes on. Eventually, only after 1 hour, you will be at 20 to 25 percent of your willpower only after the 1st hour. You will be exhausted and will be unable to do any meaningful work until the next day. Now take another example, for the entire first hour you were only doing reading and then a 30-minute break and then repeating the entire process through this method and you will require much less willpower. The more time you spend on a single task the less willpower will be required to perform a task. The thing is switching through tasks requires a lot of willpower and our minds are not developed for multitasking. So to optimize our work and also not decrease our willpower and energy focus on a single (important) task for a long period and you will be able to do more work in both quality and quantity in less time and also with less amount of energy.

Things to focus on while doing deep work

Things that can help you become a better person in a long run. you have to ignore the small-term pain and force yourself to see the bigger picture that will benefit you in the future in both personal and professional life.

Beware of distractions!

Even though sometimes we are not aware our brain is always responding to distractions. Every Snapchat message, every Facebook friend suggestion- all such notifications are trying the steal our focus. Such distractions are the destroyers of our creativity or other important stuff that we are trying to do to succeed in life. It degrades the quality of our content.

How the ability to deep work can be developed

If you want to start doing deep work first push start it by making some grand gestures!

First of all, you can make a radical change in your work environment by investing a significant amount of money or effort dedicating to a thing that supports and motivative to do a deep work task. For example, if you wanna start writing blogs create a website and buy your personal domain name that will motivate you to upload content on your website. These are just examples the point is you have to increase the importance of the task that you wanna perform. This boost reduces your mind’s instinct to procrastinate and delivers the injection of the required motivation and energy. Also don’t say ‘no’ to distraction but instead say yes to the subject that arouses terrifying longings and it will crowd out you from everything else.

Try to accomplish fewer things in more time but the things that you are trying to focus on and accomplish must be important. They should be taking you towards a bright future.

Steps to perform deep work

First Step

Identify a deep work task that must be something high on your priority list and estimate how long will it normally take you. Set a hard deadline and commit publicly and start working with great intensity. No social media break, no daydreaming. The more you try it the easier it comes. Keep in mind your ability to concentrate is only as strong as your commitment to training it.

Next step

Set a specific period every day where you will only do deep work. Divide the time and dedicate some clearly defined period to pursue deep work and leave the rest open for everything else. Keep in mind during the time dedicated to deep work there must be no distraction, and during other times focus is not prioritized.

Perform every day- keep a calendar on the wall and cross each day you perform deep work and soon you will have a chain and just keep working to not break it and the chain will grow longer every day. It will give a kind of intrinsic motivation to show up every day. After a few weeks, your job is just to prevent the chain from breaking and also be accountable. Set targets for yourself that you wanna achieve in a particular period and achieve them. Focus on habits(improving) that will benefit you in long term.

This method is best as it combines a simple scheduling heuristic ( to do work every day) with an easy way of reminding yourself to work.

Alternate strategy - take advantage of time whenever possible!

Anytime you find some free time you could switch into a deep work mode. This helps you to fit deep work wherever you can in your schedule. It takes a lot of effort to develop this ability and if you try to enforce it suddenly it can take your finite resources of willpower.

How to remain Consistent

Embrace boredom!

Once your brain has become accustomed to on-demand distractions. It's hard to shake the addiction even when you want to concentrate. Building the ability to concentrate requires a lot of endurance so getting bored is a good exercise for it. For example, when you are standing in a line to buy a ticket at a train station don’t just take out your smartphone from your pocket and start scrolling through social media instead just do nothing stand idle and wait for your turn.

Schedule everything!

Schedule hours of deep focus, lunch, work, sleep, and everything. Don’t use the internet during the time of deep work. Schedule the time for using social media too. The time when you are craving distraction and not getting it is a kind of exercise for your mind.

Quit social media!

The internet, especially social media is quite seductive. You think you are just checking only one dm but you will never realize you end up wasting hours on it if you don’t agree just check it in the screen time option in the settings of your iPhone. These multi-billion dollar companies have employed the smartest minds of the world whose only job is to steal your attention and no matter how smart you are, you can never escape from them. So in my opinion the only solution is to Quit social media!

To some extent, we all know that these tools fragment our time and reduce our ability to concentrate. Try an experiment quit social media for just 15 days without telling anyone and see how much difference it will make to your social life (I am saying to not tell anyone about it as some people on the other side are just trying to bind you to themselves but you don’t wanna be tied to them deep inside). Just try it and you will be surprised that how much clarity you will get and also realize which person actually matters to you. I tried this for 30 days and now I can say that it entirely changed my life.

Use the craftsmen approach - identify the factors that help you to move towards your goals in both personal and professional life and try to adopt only the habits that help in nourishing them.

Note- Use social media when required like if you are new to a place where you wanna make new friends and if you think social media can help you in this activity then such tools must be used as they are made for this purpose and also have a sustainable positive impact. The point is you must draw a line and be careful as I told you before those smartest minds on the other side are paid billions of dollars just to steal your attention.

source- Deep Work (Cal Newport)