I have been fairly unhappy with myself lately.

I have been fairly unhappy with myself lately.   I have been spending many hours responding to emails, checking my Twitter, Instagram among other social media platforms,  trying to keep up with news and reading my dosage daily articles .  On top of that,  I also check my phone at night every 5 or 10 minutes intervals.  In short, I always have my phone in my hand 24/7, and it is even sitting next to my bed at night while sleeping (sometimes on airplane mode).  My wife is not happy about it.  I am not happy about it.   In short, I'm easily distracted by so many emails, twitter feeds, Instagram posts, breaking news, and a whole bunch of infotainment.  

In short, I have been doing many things but let me call them shallow tasks.    I read a piece in the NYTimes by Cal Newport.  I've learned about the book he published almost two years ago - Deep Work. The book could not be more suitable for me and my growingly disturbing habits with technology in recent years.  

Newport's book is a manifesto for anyone, like myself, involved in 'knowledge work' to really abandon shallow and ultimately unproductive ways of working and focusing.    Newport discusses the benefits of what he calls "Deep Work" and by that, he really means:  working with intensity on difficult things over concentrated periods of time.  

Here is a good definition of deep vs shallow life that I found very interesting. 

Deep work: professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes the limit has value, and or hard to replicate.

Shallow work: non-cognitively demanding, just to cool style tasks, after perform while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.

There is a real danger of living a fragmented life - in the shallows - continually distracted by unnecessary meetings, emails, chitchat or general, by modern life's infotainment.  

I agree with Cal Newport, deep work and less constant distractions have made me more productive and have made me a happier person in the past two weeks.  

It's only by working deeply, we can produce at what he called an "elite level."  Yes, it is something the author kind of knows a thing or two about.  In the past ten years, he has published four best-selling books, authored tens of research papers and became a tenured professor an Ivy League university at age 34.  By the way, he is not a workaholic and doesn't work beyond 5 p.m.  He has a fulfilling family life and plenty of friends.  Although not on Facebook, Instagram or WeChat.

Nowadays, the ability to engage in deep work is a rare skill and that is really getting rarer.  The truth is the ability to focus on hard things over long periods of time improves our chances of making something that's not just good - but great.

It is really, really wrong for us when we bounce from one thing to next,  unable to concentrate and get constantly pulled away from tasks.  This really damages us and can cause long-term psychological and emotional damage.  
 

Going deep is easier said than done.    In Deep Work, Newport studied many prolific authors concluded that the most effective workers aren't people who necessarily shun the modern world or live in exile.  Rather, they're people who excel at one thing - scheduling.  

The fact is that people who produce at an 'elite level' are just damn good at dividing their lives into periods of intense work followed by - something else.  

The truth is we cannot fight distraction.  We should focus on organizing.    
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None of the examples in Deep Work claim that deep work is easy but what it claims that we have a choice - and that's what makes Deep Work a fantastic read.  

I highly recommend this book.  It really helped me  The ability to perform deep work or even living is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy and in our society. As a consequence, if we can cultivate this skill, and then make it to the core of our working life, will thrive.

Let me leave you with a quote from Winifred Gallagher.

“I’ll live the focused life because it’s the best kind there is.”