Deep Work_ Rules for focused success in a distracted world ( PDFDrive.com )
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
stubbornly rema<strong>in</strong>. In a Wall Street Journal article on the topic, bus<strong>in</strong>ess writer Laura<br />
Vanderkam po<strong>in</strong>ted out several more such examples. A survey by the National Sleep<br />
Foundation revealed that Americans th<strong>in</strong>k they’re sleep<strong>in</strong>g, on average, somewhere<br />
around seven hours a night. The American Time Use Survey, which has people<br />
actually measure their sleep, corrected this number to 8.6 hours. Another study found<br />
that people who claimed to work sixty to sixty-four hours per week were actually<br />
averag<strong>in</strong>g more like <strong>for</strong>ty-four hours per week, while those claim<strong>in</strong>g to work more<br />
than seventy-five hours were actually work<strong>in</strong>g less than fifty-five.<br />
These examples underscore an important po<strong>in</strong>t: We spend much of our day on<br />
autopilot—not giv<strong>in</strong>g much thought to what we’re do<strong>in</strong>g with our time. This is a<br />
problem. It’s difficult to prevent the trivial from creep<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to every corner of your<br />
schedule if you don’t face, without fl<strong>in</strong>ch<strong>in</strong>g, your current balance between deep and<br />
shallow work, and then adopt the habit of paus<strong>in</strong>g be<strong>for</strong>e action and ask<strong>in</strong>g, “What<br />
makes the most sense right now?” The strategy described <strong>in</strong> the follow<strong>in</strong>g paragraphs<br />
is designed to <strong>for</strong>ce you <strong>in</strong>to these behaviors. It’s an idea that might seem extreme at<br />
first but will soon prove <strong>in</strong>dispensable <strong>in</strong> your quest to take full advantage of the value<br />
of deep work: Schedule every m<strong>in</strong>ute of your day.<br />
Here’s my suggestion: At the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of each workday, turn to a new page of l<strong>in</strong>ed<br />
paper <strong>in</strong> a notebook you dedicate to this purpose. Down the left-hand side of the page,<br />
mark every other l<strong>in</strong>e with an hour of the day, cover<strong>in</strong>g the full set of hours you<br />
typically work. Now <strong>com</strong>es the important part: Divide the hours of your workday <strong>in</strong>to<br />
blocks and assign activities to the blocks. For example, you might block off n<strong>in</strong>e a.m.<br />
to eleven a.m. <strong>for</strong> writ<strong>in</strong>g a client’s press release. To do so, actually draw a box that<br />
covers the l<strong>in</strong>es correspond<strong>in</strong>g to these hours, then write “press release” <strong>in</strong>side the<br />
box. Not every block need be dedicated to a work task. There might be time blocks <strong>for</strong><br />
lunch or relaxation breaks. To keep th<strong>in</strong>gs reasonably clean, the m<strong>in</strong>imum length of a<br />
block should be thirty m<strong>in</strong>utes (i.e., one l<strong>in</strong>e on your page). This means, <strong>for</strong> example,<br />
that <strong>in</strong>stead of hav<strong>in</strong>g a unique small box <strong>for</strong> each small task on your plate <strong>for</strong> the day<br />
—respond to boss’s e-mail, submit reimbursement <strong>for</strong>m, ask Carl about report —<br />
you can batch similar th<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>in</strong>to more generic task blocks. You might f<strong>in</strong>d it useful, <strong>in</strong><br />
this case, to draw a l<strong>in</strong>e from a task block to the open right-hand side of the page<br />
where you can list out the full set of small tasks you plan to ac<strong>com</strong>plish <strong>in</strong> that block.<br />
When you’re done schedul<strong>in</strong>g your day, every m<strong>in</strong>ute should be part of a block.<br />
You have, <strong>in</strong> effect, given every m<strong>in</strong>ute of your workday a job. Now as you go through<br />
your day, use this schedule to guide you.<br />
It’s here, of course, that most people will beg<strong>in</strong> to run <strong>in</strong>to trouble. Two th<strong>in</strong>gs can