We live in times where connectivity, particularly the superficial one, is everywhere. Open offices spaces, tens of tools to chat and share content and an infinite list of social media providers and almost free entertainment. To some, those are brilliant times of creativity and democratization of content, but to others, this is also a time when the lack of deep thinking, conversing and ultimately working, is a risk to our progress.
We now know how social media and many electronic gadgets are designed to keep us connected for as long as possible. Being the fact that the free access posses a huge price on our available time to do what matters, going deep in our passions and duties.
As the world becomes more complex, and the raise of AI make deep work the only which is not only valuable but not hard to substitute by machines, it is surprising that most of the people are trapped with too many meetings, interruptions of any type, and worse of all, addicted to superficial and unfulfilling sources of content.
Most of us want the good life, and possibly an exciting and impactful one. I want to make a difference at work, research, outdoor sports and on the people I love and care. Without compromises, I want all of this relevant parts of my life to be done at the best of my abilities.
Although I managed to squeeze time to do ~10-12 hours of sport every week, 10~hours of research, drive a successful product at work and keep and strengthen my social life during this extraordinarily complex times, I am still wasting too much time.
The last statement is not based on the idea that time not doing anything is wasted, as I see the worth of a bath or a simple walk, or meditation. It was tens of hours watching videos that do not matter, scrolling social media without purpose, sharing irrelevant posts from others, or simple searching for stuff I barely care that was draining my energy and precious time.
This year I was decided to improve my focus and increased my deep work. The first realization was that scheduling my full day was not more stressful, and instead is more rewarding and makes me reflect of what I am doing every day matters.
The second step was taking yoga seriously, as I do with running. Although running without music or podcasts is a sort of meditation, yoga is the best training for my mental and physical strength. Long stretches of breath focus trains your deep work muscles and make it easier to escape the temptation for distraction. Focus is not a given, is a muscle, that need to be trained all day or it loses form.
Next was to have a minimalist life, by all means. I donate half of my clothes, give books, and now I am working on giving up devices and other bothering things from hope, if my partner allows ; ) Focus requires a tidy space to happen, and the fewer things you have, the more tidy you will become. It is good for your budget, for the world, and for your health. What else do you need?
The next step was living my day prioritizing deep work on what it matters. I challenge every meeting, invite, webinar, mail and prioritize constantly, asking myself the impact of my actions and if I should be in some meetings or those meetings should happen at all. I see NO more than every, or simply say nothing, but I am committed to make a difference at work, with a devoted focus to value and support to my peers.
Contrary to the common culture that leaders cannot or do not have to do deep work, I notice that to be an effective leader and coach I need to master the methods and tools my team is using. This does not compromise my commitment to our consumers or leadership, but it acknowledge that to multiply my impact I need to be useful, and to be useful I need to be able to respond to their challenges in an informed fashion. I therefore take trainings and upskilling as a priority, because that knowledge make me shine when my team needs help. My deep work on technology exploration, data engineering, software engineering, machine learning engineering is hard, requires full attention, but makes me special and particularly worth for my organization.
After reading the book Deep Work from Cal Newport, I can only confirm my intuitions with good science. We do not need to be all day connected, not to share some bites of false progress permanently. We need a culture of concentration, attention, deep work and deep collaboration. In the current work of knowledge and particularly in the field on Decision Science and Machine Learning, we need more study, more coding, more hacking together, more deep discussions...
Prioritizing is critical, because the seek of deep work in a distracted environment cannot come only via overworking. As there is an estimated maximum of 4 hours of deep work we can do effectively by day, there is no need to work late at night. Please choose your time wisely, budget your deep work time with your manager, and protect resting time and family time.
Because the deep life is the good life, I am committed to live, work and lead in this way, because I think that technology and deep work are going to bring break thoughts that will make this planet healthy, societies resilient and united and make work a sort of meaning instead of a drain to pay the bills.
Long life to deep work!
Corrected with https://www.corrector.co/
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