This week’s lesson from Deep Work is a BIG one. I’ve got it in my head that I need to make use of every second of the day. For me, time is precious, and I do everything I can to SQUEEZE my day for quality deep work time.
But that’s wrong.
📝On page 147, Newport references a study performed by University of Michigan psychologists Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan around the idea of attention fatigue. What they discovered is that concentration requires something called directed attention. It’s a finite resource, and once you’ve used it up for the day, it’s hard to refill.
For most of us, 1 to 3 hours of deep concentration is all we get. The rest of the day is spent in partial concentration, auto-pilot, etc. We don’t have the mental stamina to be 100% focused all the time. It’s exhausting. That means we need to get serious about how we want to invest that 1 to 3 hours of deep work each day!
Try this: tomorrow, pick a slot in your calendar and set it aside for deep work. Make the appointment 1 hour long. During that time, turn off all distractions, make sure you’re well-rested and fed, and give your project or work everything you’ve got.
P.S. I’ll have one more lesson from this incredible book in next week’s newsletter. After that, we’ll be in February, and I’ll have a new book recommendation for you!
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