In today’s world distractions are everywhere.
Social media, emails, text messages and notifications can quickly drag your attention from your creative work. That’s why it’s essential to learn about deep work and how it can benefit you as a creative.
What is deep work?
First, let’s define what deep work is. Deep work is a concept, developed by Cal Newport, a computer science professor and author of the book, Deep work: rules for focused success in a distracted world.
Deep work refers to the ability to focus without distraction on the cognitively demanding tasks. It’s about working in the state of flow where you’re fully engaged in the task at hand.
Why is deep work important if you are a creative person?
As a creative, you need to be able to immerse yourself in your work to enter a state of flow where your best ideas can emerge. Deep work allows you to do this by eliminating distractions and allowing you to fully focus on your creative tasks. When you’re in the state of deep work, you’re able to produce higher quality, work, make breakthroughs and create something truly meaningful
How to incorporate deep work into your creative process
Here are a few tips on how you can incorporate deep work into your day to day work schedule:
Set aside dedicated time for deep work
Schedule time each day for the work and treat it as a non-negotiable appointment with yourself. I usually have 3-4 hours blocked each day somewhere between 6 am am an 12, but you can decide what works best for you. Consider the time of day when you’re most productive and use that time for deep work. You might want to experiment for some while to optimize your best time of the day.
Define your goals
Before you start your deep work session, define your goals for that session. What do you want to achieve? What’s the outcome you’re looking for? Do you want to write a blog post? Outline a course module?
Having a clear goal on what you want for this session will help you stay on track and avoid distractions.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. How long is the session?
2. What am I going to focus on?
3. Am I feeling excited to do it?
The third question is the most important.
If you’re not feeling excited to start, go back and redefine what exactly it it that you’re going to do during this session. Oftentimes we feel stressed out if an assignment is too large or too complicated.
Try to split today’s deep work session into smaller tasks before you start.
Then ask again: do I feel excited?
Eliminate distractions
Turn off your phone, close your email and block social media during your deep work sessions.
But you also have to consider one more thing which is oftentimes neglected: your own brain. More on that later.
If you feel that you easily get distracted, here’s a tip for you:
Have two chairs where you work: one for the deep work and one for just sitting and staring.
Whenever you feel distracted, go and sit in the staring chair. You aren’t allowed to bring your phone.
Now something amazing will happen: you will start to feel…bored!
When this happens, resist the urge to do something else. Sit for a while.
Now your dopamine levels are going to drop, and as a human being you’ll do anything to get a little spike of dopamine.
Now go back to your work. With repetition, you’ll train yourself to see the deep work as a reward compared to doing absolutely nothing.
Take small breaks between the tasks.
It’s important to take breaks during deep work sessions to recharge and avoid burn out.
I usually take a short walk with my dog, do some stretching and practice some mindfulness meditation for a couple of minutes.
A great way to unwind is to engage yourself in a creative craft like painting, drawing, knitting or crochet. As it happens, I'm putting together a course in freeform crochet which is designed to help creatives, entrepreneurs and visual thinkers to enhance their cognitive skills while pursuing a relaxing craft.
Here's a link to the freeform crochet course if you want to check that out >>
Bonus tip: Focus on one thing at a time.
Even if you’ve blocked out your social media during your deep work session, your brain can easily deceive you by thinking that you have to complete tasks from a variety of projects you’re working on simultaneously.
Don’t fall into this trap.
As a creative you’re likely to have a lot of projects going on at the same time, and ideas for other projects might pop into your mind while your’e working on the current one.
If or when this happens, pull out a piece of paper or a notes pad, and brain dump the ideas that pop up so you have them for later. Then proceed with the project at hand.
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Conclusion and summary
In conclusion, deep work is a valuable tool for creatives who want to produce their best work.
By eliminating distractions and immersing yourself in your creative tasks, you can make breakthroughs & create something truly meaningful and achieve your creative goals.
Don’t get distracted by your own brain!
Have a note pad ready to brain dump ideas that pop into your head.
Take the time to incorporate deep work into your creative process and you’ll see the benefits in your work and you’re overall well-being.
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