The term "Deep Work" was first used in 2016 in the book of the same name by computer science professor Cal Newport of Georgetown University, published in German as "Konzentriert Arbeiten" (working with concentration). As that German title suggests, it describes a system for working with more concentration and focus. This article explains exactly what Deep Work is and how it works.
What is Deep Work
Deep Work means concentrated work, entirely free of distractions. It describes a phase in which you focus completely on a single activity.
This phase can vary in length and can be scheduled a different number of times per day. External influences are reduced to a minimum and distractions of every kind are avoided. Only the task and the person performing it exist.
How does Deep Work work?
The Deep Work method can be compared to a seesaw: distraction goes down, concentration goes up.
Distraction means anything that is not part of the chosen work. It can be private matters, but also work-related ones such as calls, emails, meetings and conversations. They all have their place, of course, but during a Deep Work phase they are inappropriate and unwanted.
For that reason it is necessary to remove every source of distraction. That leaves more room for focused work. The brain can invest all its resources in concentrating on one activity and completing it successfully.
Deep Work phases should last at least 90 minutes, because it takes a certain amount of time to switch into concentrated work. The phases should not last longer than 4 hours, however, because after that time the brain's capacities are usually exhausted.
Why does Deep Work work?
Deep Work works because it matches the way the brain operates.
The human brain demonstrably achieves the best results when it can concentrate on just one thing. Contrary to earlier assumptions, multitasking reduces productivity and leads to a poorer result.
Multitasking
Multitasking describes completing several tasks at the same time, or alternating between them one after another. Although it would be desirable to handle several tasks at once and so save time, both science and personal experience show that the quality of the results declines.
A study published in Psychological Science in 2001 showed that the ability to concentrate decreased when several activities were carried out at the same time, and that this led to a higher error rate.
Test subjects had to apply the brake in a driving simulator in two different scenarios. In the first case they could drive without distraction. In the second case they had to make a phone call at the same time. Driving without distractions produced an error rate of 3%, while the additional distraction of the mobile phone led to 7% of the traffic lights being missed. On top of that, reaction speed slowed by 50ms. These results show that communicating on a mobile phone in parallel had a negative effect on performance.
Multitasking therefore has certain limits, and these differ from person to person. The fact is that the brain reaches its full potential when it concentrates on one activity alone. Handling several tasks at the same time is possible, but not necessarily an advantage.
Why is that?
In order to work on different tasks at the same time, attention resources have to be divided up. That places high demands on our capacity for attention and processing. As the example above has shown, scientific studies prove that efficiency drops during multitasking and that this goes hand in hand with errors and a decline in performance.
The benefits of Deep Work
Deep Work has many benefits. Here is a selection:
- The work is of high quality
- Working time is shortened #efficiency
- It makes learning new skills easier
- New connections form in the brain
- You experience a positive feeling, as if in flow
How do you prepare for Deep Work?
How to prepare for Deep Work and put it to successful use is explained in the next article.
Elena Kroll
Writes at ELECOS about websites, data protection and productive working.