I'm self-employed. I do about 3 hours of deep work per day (and more of shallow work). I don't work well at home, so I go to a coffee shop, and start by identifying my 1-3 most important tasks, and set a deep work goal. When I put on my over-ear headphones, that's the trigger to start deep work. I use the marinara plug-in to track pomodoros. I take a break at the end of each hour.
I keep a separate to-do list of things that are important but don't require deep work, and allocate 30-60 min. to work on those things as well.
The Pomodoro is a productivity technique, which consists of medium work blocks broken up by short breaks.
* 25 minutes - intensive, *uninterrupted* work
* 5 minute break
* 25 minutes work
* 5 minute break
* 25 minute work
* 5-15 minute break
repeat as necessary. The exact intervals can be customized.
not to be nitpicky,becaue I think you have a good system going for you, but doing "deep" work at a coffee shop doesn't really seem like the definition of "deep" that Cal newport is after
Do you think there is a possibility of you being disturbed more than you realize? Perhaps another customer asking a question, or a waiter?
Deep work is basically being in a place where it's nearly impossible to be distracted.
You're being nitpicky. Everybody has their own thing. Like OP, some white noise helps me think. Also, with the over-ear headphone, nobody's going to interrupt him/her in a coffee shop
like I said....I think it's a good thing going. But it's not the deep work cal newport describes in his book. And don't pretend like thier aren't interupptions of some sort in a coffee shop. It could be a car honking outside that makes you look, pigeons on sidewalk, etc.
Cal's "deep work" is basically finding a space where such distraction are nearly impossible.
I'm not throwing shade at OP in the slightest. It sounds like he/she get's shit done. It just doesn't sound like the "deep work" way as described in the book.
Yeah, I see what you mean and I agree. The possibility is there, but it doesn't really happen often. The only better option for me would be to rent a coworking space, but that's outside my budget right now, so this is my best option. I can actually get into a pretty good groove and have been producing a ton of high-quality work, so I'm happy with it for now.
Phone upside down on the other side of my desk, Watch on DND, close email, iMessage, etc., and make one small step. "I need to change that headline..." (I'm a website designer), and off I go.
[Brain.fm](https://Brain.fm) is usually on if I have to do lots of different tasks (copywriting, design, development, etc.) If I'm just doing design, it's Aerosmith. If I'm managing server or dev stuff, it's the Rolling Stones. YMMV. :)
I also start early. Like, 5:30 am at my desk in the office early. And I can crank out 5 or 6 hours of deep work. Go to the gym, get lunch, come back around 1 or 2 for some lighter stuff like email and whatever.
I've been doing this for over 10 years, so I've honed in my sense of what music works best where. I know that early mornings are my sweet spot. And I've trained my clients to know that I don't treat email like IMs. It's mail, and I check it a handful of times a day.
Also, pro tip: don't even bother putting mail notifications/badges on your phone. You can't win. It just causes stress. So don't bother playing that game.
5 to 6 hours of deep work. I keep hearing about how it's so difficult to accomplish even 3. What is it about true "deep work" that makes it hard to accomplish beyond the standard 8 hour workday?
> What is it about true "deep work" that makes it hard to accomplish beyond the standard 8 hour workday?
The book goes into more detail on this. Mentally, deep work is very exhausting. It's nigh impossible to have such hard focus on anything for 8 hours a day.
I admit it’s a high number. But I’m interested in my work and invested (it’s my business!), so I don’t find it impossible to do 2 or 3 days of the week.
I go to the gym in the mornings. I like it because it's awesome to get a sweat early and feel pumped for the day, but it can very easily take too long to get to.my desk.
What are your thoughts on morning/afternoon workouts?
I go to the gym for my adult recess most days in the afternoon. I look forward to it. Sometimes I go around noon, but maybe only one day a week.
I like the de-stressing of it. And I know I think best in the morning, so I don’t want to “waste” that time on exercise.
This is some very sound advice (no pun). Thanks for posting this! First time hearing about brain.fm and I'm on my way to check it out now.
I'm curious, as for your early starts to the day, what time do you typically fall asleep at?
Mine's pretty cliché. I make sure I have a warm drink (coffe or tea) and a cup of water, listen to some lofi music. I do believe the whole "lyrics become a distraction" thing, so I try my best to find soundtracks and whatnot. I close the door since I have a home office so I won't be bothered.
If I can't quite get into it immediately, I do some sort of warmup (I'm a 2D animator, so there are different types of warmups we learned in school that I can refer to). Part of me always wants to have a podcast or vlog playing in the background, but I find it becomes a distraction unless I've hit a task that is very mindless and/or repetitive. If I find myself very distracted, I do sometimes use a Pomodoro app.
It varies in little ways and I try to find what works for me according to my needs that day. I think the warm drink and music are the only real constants though!
I personally just look up "lofi" on Spotify or YouTube! Usually Youtube since I usually find more options there. If you use Twitch, there are some good 24/7 lofi streams on there, too. 😊
I worked on my deep work system for a while. [Here is a screenshot](https://imgur.com/roNTyY2) of my ritual in Dropbox Paper. I have some mild attention deficit and using this program provides a tactile nature of checking boxes and moving on to the next step.
Next, tracking my deep work over time was important. [This article](https://medium.com/@FILWD/quantifying-and-visualizing-deep-work-af4689a62423) helped immensely in setting up a spreadsheet and graphing either time spent in deep work, or tracking a metric that you want to track (words written, papers read, etc.).
As for the [type of deep work](https://doist.com/blog/deep-work/#Choose_Your_Deep_Work_Strategy) \- if you're asking about Monastic vs. Bimodal vs. Rythmic vs. Journalistic - it really depends on your work/school/life situation. I'm more of a Bimodal worker because, as a lab technician, the bulk of my day is spent on lab work and field data collection. But the items I've deemed as deep work - reading papers and an independent research project - are scheduled in the morning and afternoon blocks.
Hope this helps!
Not sure who coined the term but Cal Newport wrote a book on the topic. Very relevant for readers of this subreddit. It's a good book.
[https://www.calnewport.com/books/deep-work/](https://www.calnewport.com/books/deep-work/)
No, they aren't the same from neither my research into studies on them nor from my personal experience with them. Flow can be entered very quickly, with interruptions not causing any major difficulty in re-entering flow, which is very different from deep work, where a interruption can make it difficult to continue without going backwards first. In fact, research on flow specifically is constrained by having an adept understanding of tasks, as too much uncertainty or learning reuqired has been showed to very directly prohibit flow. Deep work on the other hand is meant to thrive in that space of not knowing and digging deeply into bringing understanding of a topic into the realm where flow can actually exist, but also extends into the realm where flow can actually exist. They can be seen as similar since in both cases you want to have that very strong focus, but I experience flow and deep work as subsets of strong focused drive but I'm definitely not in flow or deep work just because I am heavily concentrating on something.
That's what I was thinking it sounded like. But people are saying deep work caps around 2-4hrs meanwhile I can stay working in a flow state for 6+ hrs day after day if the work is challenging enough. It's like giving my brain a belly rub.
I always start by journaling or talking to a stranger.
In the morning I journal with set questions (How am I feeling? What am I thankful for? What am I proud of? What can I do better today than I did yesterday? What is the one thing which makes the difference today?) Plus I drink bulletproof coffee, which improved my life so much. Then do 3-5 pomodoros of 20 minutes while listening to brown noice.
After that I have a lunch, meditate and walk to a coffee shop. There I chat with a stranger (usually a pretty girl to practice overcoming fear of rejection) for a few minutes (which releases dopamine to help you get into the flow), jot down a few sentences into my journal again and start working for another 2-3 pomodoros. After that I return home to have a snack. If necessary I do a few more pomodoros there again.
Thank god! I was thinking that I should be a hell of a crazy guy because I never knew someone that actually does this too. But it gives me energy and focus (don´t know why though)
I also get energy and focus when listening to up-beat trance, edm, euphoric high beats while working. I also listen to the same type of music when I am in a negative or down mood - I find that it alters my status and cheers me up. I keep podcasts and lyrical music for remedial tasks that don't require much brain power like working out, cleaning/ organizing my book library/ desktop/ emails etc... Youre not crazy - you just found what works for you! Sending you a digital high-five
Same here when in a bad mood, and I feel the change instantly.
That confirms that there is no universal right way I guess, you just gotta find out your way! You made my day a little better ahaha High-five mamaaan
I don't particularly listen to techno or trance but there was a time when I used to listen exclusively to the Hamilton album while coding because of the driving beats of the songs. Something about it was super motivating to me.
I have one shirt that I wear Everytime I'm about to get down to business. I also pair it with the action of sitting down in the same place.
Once I take off the shirt, or push the chair in, I'm done. And it just leaves my mind.
I have a timer on my desk that I use to track my time. I noticed when I did pomodoro I would get distracted in my little breaks and forget to come back to work. Haha I’m sure it works great for others but taking myself out of my deep work state every hour was impeding me.
Basically I just use my timer and try to compete against myself to see how high I can get the number before I pause it for a break. I keep a cup of coffee and a cold water with me, too, and listen to whatever works for what I’m working on (audiobook for mindless/right brain work, good tunes for other times, and sometimes just blissful silence).
I put on noise-canceling head phones, and pay my concentration music playlist. I then pour myself a glass of tea. My play list is all instrumental pieces, baroque harpsichord music. (Not everyone's favorite, but I get mental images of a rennaisance scholar working by candle light on some important task, like decoding an urgent message or something, when I listen to [pieces like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ls9Jk937P8), and it gets me in the zone.)
I write the task at hand in my journal, have it on my book stand next to me, and make it my goal to cross it off, which feels more and more satisfying when you get into a routine.
This is a new one to me.
In one job, I did achieve this though and it really helped me deal with some stressful projects. I think it was the ritual that helped.
When I got to work, instead of going left to my office and desk, I turned right to our kitchen. We had a tall counter and stools, I sat there, plugged my headphones in and tackled the one thing that was stressing me most. I just sat there and did it. After about two hours I would go to my desk, say hi to everyone and do the meetings and light work.
For me it was the location that made my brain concentrate. And probably the time. I had used this technique at another company too, but at any time of the day. We had a couch away from view of the office and desks. I could sit there and focus for a couple of hours too.
Where I am now though, there are too many meetings dotted randomly through the day. It makes finding a routine or place hard.
For me. Repetitive music or repetitive TV shows/movies in the background are helpful. It's kind of an odd booster but tim ferriss also seems to be helped by it
I never work where I sleep or eat. I have dedicated locations for those. Turn phone to do not disturb, flip it screen down. Get in comfortable clothes with comfy AC if at the house. Cold mineral water then coffee with espresso. I’ll be good for 4 hours. Then eat, smoke, or relax break for about an hour. Repeat for about 2 hours without coffee and then I’m usually done for the day. This is my routine for my part time masters when I get home around 530 or 6
Set a time you're going to work and use a timer, like a Pomodoro that was suggested by others.
If your timer records your work sessions, even better.
Something powerful happens when you hit the start button. It's like hearing the starting gun go off in a race, and your autimatic response is, "OK, no more messing around. Focus and get to work!"
Having your end-time set and counting down is helpful too. It keeps you from wandering off or getting distracted.
I begin by going for a walk or daydreaming/meditating and drinking water. I set up my desk with a drink and snack. I light a candle. If I need help, I light another candle and pray 😄 I log in with an online study group and we work for 50 minute intervals with 10 minute breaks.
that's the lamest occultism I've ever heard of...
I can work with a much clearer conscience knowing it's a natural part of my life, not some trick divorced from my authentic self.
I'm self-employed. I do about 3 hours of deep work per day (and more of shallow work). I don't work well at home, so I go to a coffee shop, and start by identifying my 1-3 most important tasks, and set a deep work goal. When I put on my over-ear headphones, that's the trigger to start deep work. I use the marinara plug-in to track pomodoros. I take a break at the end of each hour. I keep a separate to-do list of things that are important but don't require deep work, and allocate 30-60 min. to work on those things as well.
Pomodoros? Sounds like some super rare Pokémon.
The Pomodoro is a productivity technique, which consists of medium work blocks broken up by short breaks. * 25 minutes - intensive, *uninterrupted* work * 5 minute break * 25 minutes work * 5 minute break * 25 minute work * 5-15 minute break repeat as necessary. The exact intervals can be customized.
For me the break depends. If I don't feel like stopping after 25 mins I just carry on. Pomodoro is a great way to start any task.
Pomodori.
Hahahahahahahahah You made my day
Thanks.
not to be nitpicky,becaue I think you have a good system going for you, but doing "deep" work at a coffee shop doesn't really seem like the definition of "deep" that Cal newport is after Do you think there is a possibility of you being disturbed more than you realize? Perhaps another customer asking a question, or a waiter? Deep work is basically being in a place where it's nearly impossible to be distracted.
You're being nitpicky. Everybody has their own thing. Like OP, some white noise helps me think. Also, with the over-ear headphone, nobody's going to interrupt him/her in a coffee shop
like I said....I think it's a good thing going. But it's not the deep work cal newport describes in his book. And don't pretend like thier aren't interupptions of some sort in a coffee shop. It could be a car honking outside that makes you look, pigeons on sidewalk, etc. Cal's "deep work" is basically finding a space where such distraction are nearly impossible. I'm not throwing shade at OP in the slightest. It sounds like he/she get's shit done. It just doesn't sound like the "deep work" way as described in the book.
Athletes on the field enter a state of “deep work” despite roaring fans and flashing lights.
Yeah, I see what you mean and I agree. The possibility is there, but it doesn't really happen often. The only better option for me would be to rent a coworking space, but that's outside my budget right now, so this is my best option. I can actually get into a pretty good groove and have been producing a ton of high-quality work, so I'm happy with it for now.
How old are you
Pokémon’s a 30 year old franchise how tf is age relevant to its fan base in 2020
Why does that matter?
Cause I think this style doesn't work for me I am in my early 30
32
Phone upside down on the other side of my desk, Watch on DND, close email, iMessage, etc., and make one small step. "I need to change that headline..." (I'm a website designer), and off I go. [Brain.fm](https://Brain.fm) is usually on if I have to do lots of different tasks (copywriting, design, development, etc.) If I'm just doing design, it's Aerosmith. If I'm managing server or dev stuff, it's the Rolling Stones. YMMV. :) I also start early. Like, 5:30 am at my desk in the office early. And I can crank out 5 or 6 hours of deep work. Go to the gym, get lunch, come back around 1 or 2 for some lighter stuff like email and whatever. I've been doing this for over 10 years, so I've honed in my sense of what music works best where. I know that early mornings are my sweet spot. And I've trained my clients to know that I don't treat email like IMs. It's mail, and I check it a handful of times a day. Also, pro tip: don't even bother putting mail notifications/badges on your phone. You can't win. It just causes stress. So don't bother playing that game.
5 to 6 hours of deep work. I keep hearing about how it's so difficult to accomplish even 3. What is it about true "deep work" that makes it hard to accomplish beyond the standard 8 hour workday?
> What is it about true "deep work" that makes it hard to accomplish beyond the standard 8 hour workday? The book goes into more detail on this. Mentally, deep work is very exhausting. It's nigh impossible to have such hard focus on anything for 8 hours a day.
I admit it’s a high number. But I’m interested in my work and invested (it’s my business!), so I don’t find it impossible to do 2 or 3 days of the week.
I go to the gym in the mornings. I like it because it's awesome to get a sweat early and feel pumped for the day, but it can very easily take too long to get to.my desk. What are your thoughts on morning/afternoon workouts?
I go to the gym for my adult recess most days in the afternoon. I look forward to it. Sometimes I go around noon, but maybe only one day a week. I like the de-stressing of it. And I know I think best in the morning, so I don’t want to “waste” that time on exercise.
Yes I completely understand not "wasting" the morning alpha waves
Do you notice a significant improvement with brain.fm ? I remember trying it a long time ago and thinking it must be a placebo effect sort of thing.
It might be but a Placebo effect is still an effect.
Is it an open concept office? I'm impressed you're able to pull this off without being a remote worker.
I have an office and share it with one other person.
This is some very sound advice (no pun). Thanks for posting this! First time hearing about brain.fm and I'm on my way to check it out now. I'm curious, as for your early starts to the day, what time do you typically fall asleep at?
Around 9:30.
Mine's pretty cliché. I make sure I have a warm drink (coffe or tea) and a cup of water, listen to some lofi music. I do believe the whole "lyrics become a distraction" thing, so I try my best to find soundtracks and whatnot. I close the door since I have a home office so I won't be bothered. If I can't quite get into it immediately, I do some sort of warmup (I'm a 2D animator, so there are different types of warmups we learned in school that I can refer to). Part of me always wants to have a podcast or vlog playing in the background, but I find it becomes a distraction unless I've hit a task that is very mindless and/or repetitive. If I find myself very distracted, I do sometimes use a Pomodoro app. It varies in little ways and I try to find what works for me according to my needs that day. I think the warm drink and music are the only real constants though!
Do you have a spotify playlist for the morning?
I personally just look up "lofi" on Spotify or YouTube! Usually Youtube since I usually find more options there. If you use Twitch, there are some good 24/7 lofi streams on there, too. 😊
I worked on my deep work system for a while. [Here is a screenshot](https://imgur.com/roNTyY2) of my ritual in Dropbox Paper. I have some mild attention deficit and using this program provides a tactile nature of checking boxes and moving on to the next step. Next, tracking my deep work over time was important. [This article](https://medium.com/@FILWD/quantifying-and-visualizing-deep-work-af4689a62423) helped immensely in setting up a spreadsheet and graphing either time spent in deep work, or tracking a metric that you want to track (words written, papers read, etc.). As for the [type of deep work](https://doist.com/blog/deep-work/#Choose_Your_Deep_Work_Strategy) \- if you're asking about Monastic vs. Bimodal vs. Rythmic vs. Journalistic - it really depends on your work/school/life situation. I'm more of a Bimodal worker because, as a lab technician, the bulk of my day is spent on lab work and field data collection. But the items I've deemed as deep work - reading papers and an independent research project - are scheduled in the morning and afternoon blocks. Hope this helps!
Thanks for this! This helped greatly.
What's deep work
Not sure who coined the term but Cal Newport wrote a book on the topic. Very relevant for readers of this subreddit. It's a good book. [https://www.calnewport.com/books/deep-work/](https://www.calnewport.com/books/deep-work/)
Deep work is doing intensive focus on study/work subject for hours
So basically, flow?
No, they aren't the same from neither my research into studies on them nor from my personal experience with them. Flow can be entered very quickly, with interruptions not causing any major difficulty in re-entering flow, which is very different from deep work, where a interruption can make it difficult to continue without going backwards first. In fact, research on flow specifically is constrained by having an adept understanding of tasks, as too much uncertainty or learning reuqired has been showed to very directly prohibit flow. Deep work on the other hand is meant to thrive in that space of not knowing and digging deeply into bringing understanding of a topic into the realm where flow can actually exist, but also extends into the realm where flow can actually exist. They can be seen as similar since in both cases you want to have that very strong focus, but I experience flow and deep work as subsets of strong focused drive but I'm definitely not in flow or deep work just because I am heavily concentrating on something.
Interesting, thanks!
That's what I was thinking it sounded like. But people are saying deep work caps around 2-4hrs meanwhile I can stay working in a flow state for 6+ hrs day after day if the work is challenging enough. It's like giving my brain a belly rub.
What kind of work do you do?
Listen to the exact same song before doing some work. I also like to get some blood flowing before I start my work.
I always start by journaling or talking to a stranger. In the morning I journal with set questions (How am I feeling? What am I thankful for? What am I proud of? What can I do better today than I did yesterday? What is the one thing which makes the difference today?) Plus I drink bulletproof coffee, which improved my life so much. Then do 3-5 pomodoros of 20 minutes while listening to brown noice. After that I have a lunch, meditate and walk to a coffee shop. There I chat with a stranger (usually a pretty girl to practice overcoming fear of rejection) for a few minutes (which releases dopamine to help you get into the flow), jot down a few sentences into my journal again and start working for another 2-3 pomodoros. After that I return home to have a snack. If necessary I do a few more pomodoros there again.
I usually put my headphones on and listen to some techno or trance music. I don´t know if it´s the bpm´s, I just can´t stop
That's my method - the repetitive beats help. Actually I remember reading video games use this music technique to keep.players engaged with gaming
Thank god! I was thinking that I should be a hell of a crazy guy because I never knew someone that actually does this too. But it gives me energy and focus (don´t know why though)
I also get energy and focus when listening to up-beat trance, edm, euphoric high beats while working. I also listen to the same type of music when I am in a negative or down mood - I find that it alters my status and cheers me up. I keep podcasts and lyrical music for remedial tasks that don't require much brain power like working out, cleaning/ organizing my book library/ desktop/ emails etc... Youre not crazy - you just found what works for you! Sending you a digital high-five
Same here when in a bad mood, and I feel the change instantly. That confirms that there is no universal right way I guess, you just gotta find out your way! You made my day a little better ahaha High-five mamaaan
I don't particularly listen to techno or trance but there was a time when I used to listen exclusively to the Hamilton album while coding because of the driving beats of the songs. Something about it was super motivating to me.
Hamilton album? What´s that?
There's a musical called Hamilton. I listen to the album of the musical.
I have one shirt that I wear Everytime I'm about to get down to business. I also pair it with the action of sitting down in the same place. Once I take off the shirt, or push the chair in, I'm done. And it just leaves my mind.
I have a timer on my desk that I use to track my time. I noticed when I did pomodoro I would get distracted in my little breaks and forget to come back to work. Haha I’m sure it works great for others but taking myself out of my deep work state every hour was impeding me. Basically I just use my timer and try to compete against myself to see how high I can get the number before I pause it for a break. I keep a cup of coffee and a cold water with me, too, and listen to whatever works for what I’m working on (audiobook for mindless/right brain work, good tunes for other times, and sometimes just blissful silence).
I put on noise-canceling head phones, and pay my concentration music playlist. I then pour myself a glass of tea. My play list is all instrumental pieces, baroque harpsichord music. (Not everyone's favorite, but I get mental images of a rennaisance scholar working by candle light on some important task, like decoding an urgent message or something, when I listen to [pieces like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ls9Jk937P8), and it gets me in the zone.) I write the task at hand in my journal, have it on my book stand next to me, and make it my goal to cross it off, which feels more and more satisfying when you get into a routine.
This is a new one to me. In one job, I did achieve this though and it really helped me deal with some stressful projects. I think it was the ritual that helped. When I got to work, instead of going left to my office and desk, I turned right to our kitchen. We had a tall counter and stools, I sat there, plugged my headphones in and tackled the one thing that was stressing me most. I just sat there and did it. After about two hours I would go to my desk, say hi to everyone and do the meetings and light work. For me it was the location that made my brain concentrate. And probably the time. I had used this technique at another company too, but at any time of the day. We had a couch away from view of the office and desks. I could sit there and focus for a couple of hours too. Where I am now though, there are too many meetings dotted randomly through the day. It makes finding a routine or place hard.
For me. Repetitive music or repetitive TV shows/movies in the background are helpful. It's kind of an odd booster but tim ferriss also seems to be helped by it
I never work where I sleep or eat. I have dedicated locations for those. Turn phone to do not disturb, flip it screen down. Get in comfortable clothes with comfy AC if at the house. Cold mineral water then coffee with espresso. I’ll be good for 4 hours. Then eat, smoke, or relax break for about an hour. Repeat for about 2 hours without coffee and then I’m usually done for the day. This is my routine for my part time masters when I get home around 530 or 6
Pomodoro
While my coffee brews, I give my desk a clean and wipe down.
I listen to bianual beats on YT, close Slack, pause all email (Boomerang). That's my ritual.
Currently studying so good they can't ignore you
Set a time you're going to work and use a timer, like a Pomodoro that was suggested by others. If your timer records your work sessions, even better. Something powerful happens when you hit the start button. It's like hearing the starting gun go off in a race, and your autimatic response is, "OK, no more messing around. Focus and get to work!" Having your end-time set and counting down is helpful too. It keeps you from wandering off or getting distracted.
I begin by going for a walk or daydreaming/meditating and drinking water. I set up my desk with a drink and snack. I light a candle. If I need help, I light another candle and pray 😄 I log in with an online study group and we work for 50 minute intervals with 10 minute breaks.
that's the lamest occultism I've ever heard of... I can work with a much clearer conscience knowing it's a natural part of my life, not some trick divorced from my authentic self.
I think OP may have meant routine rathee than ritual hahaha
no, read the post
You do you man, but thanks for that valuable input. I'm guessing authentic you isn't optimal you.
That's fucking hilarious. I'm using that line.
Maybe you should read the book? Also your comment isn't really useful to OP either, is it?