Walk into an office during work early-morning work hours, and you’ll see a flurry of activity—a cacophony of fingers on keyboards, mouse clicks, and phone chatter. But how many of those frantic jobs actually benefit the company? How many of those employees are doing work that requires their full concentration and best utilises their skills?

What is Deep Work?

The idea of “deep work” was first introduced by Cal Newport in a 2012 blog, before he expanded on the subject in his bestselling 2016 book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

The computer science professor described the concept of deep work as being an activity that requires complete concentration and is performed without distraction.

Typically, it’s not the kind of work that people do every day. Even if they describe their day as being busy, it’s usually filled with repetitive, distracting tasks that can be performed with minimal focus and don’t really benefit the individual or their employer.

Deep vs. Shallow Work

Deep vs shallow work is perhaps best addressed as busyness vs productivity. You can be productive and busy, but being busy doesn’t mean you’re productive.

Let’s look at a typical working day as an example:

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• Check emails
• Watch a webinar
• Check and confirm tasks
• Perform some copy-paste data entry
• Log timesheets

It’s work, and it keeps you busy. But it’s not demanding, it doesn’t require your full attention, and you can do it while distracted.

 

On the other hand, a day of intensive work can look something like this:

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• Write a memo that is sent to the entire office
• Create a detailed proposal for a new project
• Prepare a presentation
• Analyze data patterns to assess the success of a recent project

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Of course, that doesn't mean that superficial work is pointless. You still need to check those emails and attend those webinars. But when these tasks are completed without distraction and with more focus, you can complete them quickly and move on to more challenging and valuable tasks.

What are the benefits of Deep Work?

We’ve already addressed the question of ‘what is deep work?’ and how it compares to shallow work. It’s pretty clear that deep work gets the job done quicker and completes it to a higher standard. But there are other benefits of deep work:

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• Increases productivity for the organisation
• Encourages creative thinking
• Makes the worker engage more with their projects
• Improves job satisfaction
• Discourages distracted and unfocused working

How to start with Deep Work

If you’ve done any research on this subject, you may have seen a few mentions of strategies. So, what is deep work technique? Well, it refers to techniques you can employ to shift into a deep work state of mind. The easiest way is to clear your workspace of distractions (emails, phone notifications, social media) and tackle a task that requires complete concentration.

There are also specific strategies for incorporating deep work into your daily life:

Monastic philosophy

Like a monk, you must cast all meaningless tasks aside and focus purely on the things that matter. It requires long and intense periods of deep work with zero distractions.

Don’t let yourself be drawn in by the temptation of emails on your computer or social media messages on your phone. Switch everything to “busy” or “away”, use “focus” mode if you have it, and keep your attention on the job at hand.

Rhythmic philosophy

Get into a regular rhythm of combining deep work and shallow work. It can be a certain day per week or, preferably, a certain time each day. It will be tough to begin with. Your attention will keep drifting. Eventually, though, you’ll get into a rhythm, and deep work will become second nature.

Journalistic philosophy

If you have a busy schedule that doesn’t allow for regular, preplanned breaks, try the journalistic approach. The idea here is that you take the free time whenever you can get it, whether that means working on a project while everyone is on a lunch break or getting a few hours in at home when the kids are at school.

Bimodal philosophy

Bimodal deep work combines long periods of shallow work with intense periods of deep work. It requires a lot of coordination, especially if you work as part of a team. You’ll need to organise periods where you will be completely free of distractions and can conduct deep work until your concentration wanes.

How to do Deep Work in an open space office

The average working office is a busy place, but it’s also full of distractions and repetitive tasks. When you have the constant noise of ringing phones, tapping keyboards, and clicking mice, as well as co-workers wanting to chat about last night’s game, it can be hard to maintain focus.

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But there are tools to help, including Flexopus.

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Flexopus is a desk sharing solution that employees can use to book work stations, meeting rooms and parking spaces. They can do all of the shallow work they need in the morning, book a meeting room during the afternoon, and then complete some deep work in silence and with full concentration.

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Not only does it benefit employees, but employers can also take advantage of a more productive workforce. They can give their employees the freedom to work without distraction, allowing them to express themselves creatively and use their full skillset.

Click here to learn about our packages and get in touch to book a demo.

Conclusion

Deep work is simply a deeper and more involved way of working, one that pushes employees to work to the fullest of their abilities while increasing productivity for the organisation. In a world full of distractions and an office full of repetitive tasks, deep work can be a game-changer.