DIVING INTO DEEP WORK #146

Cal Newport's book "Deep Work" serves as a counterbalance to the distractions of today's world by providing strategies and principles to reclaim focus, productivity, and meaningful work in an environment characterized by constant interruptions and information overload.

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QUOTES:

If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are. Cal Newport

What we choose to focus on and what we choose to ignore—plays in defining the quality of our life. Cal Newport

I build my days around a core of carefully chosen deep work, with the shallow activities I absolutely cannot avoid batched into smaller bursts at the peripheries of my schedule. Three to four hours a day, five days a week, of uninterrupted and carefully directed concentration, it turns out, can produce a lot of valuable output. Cal Newport

People need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate it is difficult for people to transition their attention away from an unfinished task and their subsequent task performance suffers. Cal Newport

[Great creative minds] think like artists but work like accountants. Cal Newport

Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not. Cal Newport



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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This episode is sponsored by the ScareScotland Talent Agency. Hello and welcome back
to Film Pro, Productivity and Success, the podcast that helps film pros and
other creative people, all creative peoplethat's face it, to live a more
focused, effective, and hopefully ahappy life. My name is Carter Ferguson

(00:24):
and this is episode one hundred andforty six, The lowdown on Deep Work.
What we choose to focus on andwhat we choose to ignore plays in
defining the quality of our life.Cal Newport Deep Work Rules for focused success

(00:44):
in a distracted world unquote. Thatwas a long one And in last week's
show, I looked at the spotlighteffect, which is a term used by
social psychologists to refer to a cognitivebias. And we tend to think sometimes,
I think that there's a spotlight onus at all times, highlighting all
of our mistakes or our flaws forall the world to see. But the

(01:06):
reality is that most people neither noticeor care what these flaws are as frankly,
they've got their own worries. Andif you want to know more about
the spotlight effect, which is basicallywhat I've just described there, please go
back and have a listen, andas you'll be aware of this season,
I'm really trying to get the lengthsof the shows down, so I'm not
going to go too deep into thedepth of cal Newport's book Deep Work today,

(01:32):
but i am going to look atthe kind of top principles and the
chief takeaways of these theories. Sothis episode will be a little bit longer
than other episodes this season. Thetopic is connected instantly to an earlier episode
in the season one four three timeblocking, so if you like what you
hear here, please go back andcheck out that one too, And I

(01:53):
think I'll just try before I gointo the same One more thing, if
you've got a spare minute and you'relistening to this on an Apple device,
please go into Apple Podcasts and leavea review. The difference it makes to
download numbers, to listeners and tomy ranking is amazing. It just makes
a vast difference, and that allmakes a difference to the number of people

(02:14):
that are listening. So if you'reenjoying the show, just please take a
minute out to do that. Andif you're listening on an Android device or
on desktop, if you want togo to the Facebook group at film pro
productivity. On Facebook, you canleave a review there, and again that
just helps to let people know thatit's out there. Although as I said
a minute ago, social media promotionis a bit tough, so leave me

(02:37):
a review wherever you can. Thereis a limited number of places you can
leave reviews for podcasts, and thekey one is the Apple one, but
I think you can rate it onSpotify for examples. So if you've got
a mo it would make a hugedifference. It would be would be very
very grateful if you'd put some timeand a tiny little bit of effort into
that one for me. But enoughof that, that's crack on in there.

(03:00):
If you don't produce, you won'tthrive, no matter how skilled or
talented you are. Cal Newport unquote, and I've done full episodes on the
topic of distractions and the white noiseof today's well. In fact, I
think one of only ten episodes agosomething like that that was specifically called white
noise. And then, frankly,I find that it's an absolute nightmare to

(03:20):
get things done with so many distractionsgoing on. There's excessive information and an
addiction to technology going on, suchas constantly checking your social media. That
sort of thing. And these arejust some of the typical distractions that we
face today. With smartphones and socialnetworking platforms, people have got immediate access
to like overwhelming amounts of information.Information which leads to decreased focus and productivity

(03:46):
takes a real hit, and alsoa well being does as well. Now
that I'm mentioning it, I madea bit of a meal of that sentence,
but I think there was some meaningin there. But this addiction to
technology, as I say, I'vecovered this in other episodes, this addiction
diverts attention from our important tasks,and it fuels things like the fear of
missing out, and it hampers personalrelationships by diminishing reducing the number of face

(04:11):
to face interactions that we have eachday. Cal Newport's book Deep Work serves
as a kind of counterbalance to thedistractions of today's world by providing strategies and
principles to reclaim focus, productivity,and meaningful work in an environment characterized by
constant interruptions and information overload. Iwas actually sitting in with the VFTS guy,

(04:33):
Stephen, who was working on myshort film yesterday, and he had
to eventually move his phone away fromhim because it was going off every two
three seconds at some points, dingding ding, and every time he was
stopping doing what he was doing andgo to do that, it was just
absolutely killing any productivity. Eventually hemade a decision to move it away and

(04:58):
we were actually able to complete whatwe were doing with the VFX yesterday,
which has taken a hell of along time to happen. Anyway, it's
important this stuff. Efforts to deepenyour focus will struggle if you don't simultaneously
wean your mind from a dependence ondistraction. Cal Newport and quote, So,

(05:19):
yeah, just to clarify, Imentioned it a minute ago. This
today's episode is all about cal Newport'sbook Deep Work. So you're going to
get several quotes from cal Newport here. I've kind of condensed it down in
some respects. It's a summary.It's just it's a concept, it's a
principle. It's a number of principleswhich I think are worth us talking about
hearing the show. So first andforemost, cal Newport emphasizes what he calls

(05:43):
the principle of deep work, andthat involves immersing yourself in uninterrupted, cognitively
demanding tasks he wants you to eliminateor minimize distractions such as social media,
email, or unnecessary meetings during theseperiods, and only allocating dedicated periods of
time for deep work and eliminating distractionswill you be able to tap into what

(06:08):
he refers to as a state offlow and produce higher quality output. When
someone experiences flow, they enter astate of heightened productivity and creativity. They're
completely immersed in the hetaskic hand,losing track of time and often achieving a
sense of fulfillment and satisfaction as aresult of it. So if you love

(06:30):
to paint, for example, whenyou get into what you're doing, if
you think about this and time juststarts to slip away, you have got
yourself into a state of flow andyou're producing your best work. And I
heard a statistic on another I wasat the gym yesterday. I've been listening
to productivity podcast There's a Surprise andsomeday I can't remember which one. I
was listening to loads of them.He said that there's been a study in

(06:53):
the United States and that the resultof that study was that only two percent
of the United States were able tofocus on a task for forty minutes or
more. I mean, it soundsridiculous, but that was that was what
was said. Unfortunately, I don'tknow the reference for that, so maybe
it's maybe it's exaggerated. I don'tknow, but I can I can absolutely

(07:14):
believe it. Another statistic that wasmentioned, I think in the same podcast,
or maybe it was a different one, I don't know, was that
after leaving school, only twenty percentof Americans will go on to read another
book. That was frightening. Tobe honest, Sofa in the State's pick
up a book. It's good foryou. It's a good thing. But
I'm getting distracted here. Let's goback to deep work, which is our
book. Maybe you want to pickup yourself. I build my days around

(07:36):
a core of carefully chosen deep work, with the shallow activities I absolutely cannot
avoid batched into smaller bursts at theperipheries of my schedule. Three to four
hours a day, five days aweek of uninterrupted and carefully directed concentration,
it turns out, can produce alot of valuable output. Cal Newport unquote,

(08:00):
And that's kind of what I've donetoday. Instantly, I'm working on
time blocking at the moment I haven'tdone a show in that already. I
can't remember if it's been out yetor if if I'm prepping it to be.
To be honest, that's where I'mat. But I've got time blocking
written up on the whiteboard behind me. And before I went onto this recording
here, I had to deal withsome smaller tasks, like I had to
make a phone call about something.I had to make another actually another phone

(08:24):
call to River City that I wouldfight so on to ask about crash mats.
I had to look up sources ofprintapal time blocking sheets. I found
one that was pretty good. Bythe way, I'm probably going to create
on my own time blocking downloadable templatefor you, and I'll put that in
as a kind of lead magnet onthe website, just because when I was
looking for it today, actually findextreme extremely hard to find. And the

(08:46):
one I did get that not thatfirst with, So I'll probably make one
myself and give that away. Anyway. Could go on about this, but
I hold a whole lot of littletasks I wanted to take care of before
I went into this one, Andso I do exactly the same thing as
Cal was talking about there, Andit's Cal by the way, not Carl
c a L. So before Imove on, let me just add one

(09:07):
thing that you mentioned there, andthat shallow work is non brain intensive,
logistical style work often performed while distracted. He's describing tasks that are relatively easy
and of low value. Shallow worktypically involves activities that are basically logistical,
administrative, or repetitive in nature.Is another thing. And these tasks don't

(09:31):
directly contribute to deep thinking, toyour creativity, or the accomplishment of your
important goals. You know, they'rejust little things that you've got to deal
with around the peripherals of that.This would include activities like email management and
admin tasks responding to non urgent messages. Actually there's three of them. I
forgot to respond to it. I'llprobably do that before go home tonight.

(09:54):
It's basically just activities that demand lessfocused attention and can be easily structed or
accomplished in bits and bobs, anythingthat doesn't involve deep, focused concentration and
cal Newport highlights the potential danger ofexcessive shallow work, as it can dominate
your time and attention if you're notcareful, which will leave you, in

(10:16):
turn less room for the deep,concentrated work that produces high quality output and
significant results. He argues that inan era of constant distractions and information overload,
that prioritizing deep work and minimizing shallowwork is crucial to any individuals that
want to excel in their professional andpersonal pursuits. It certainly works for me.

(10:37):
This is an important one. That'swhy I'm doing an episode on it.
And he also warns that if youspend enough time in a state of
frenetic shallowness, you'll permanently reduce yourcapacity to perform deep work. So that's
pretty relevant as well. People needto stop thinking about one task in order
to fully transition their attention and performwell on another. Yet results indicated,

(11:00):
is difficult for people to transition theirattention away from an unfinished task, and
their subsequent task performance will suffer killNewport unquote. So try and complete the
task you've been working on before youmove on to another one. Again,
I've done an episode on that one. These unfinished tasks, incomplete loops will
take up headspace, and you've onlygot so much buffer space in there.

(11:26):
Anyway, I want to move on. We move on. There's so much
in this book, so call.Newport also introduces the principle of attention residue,
highlighting how frequent task switching and distractionswill hinder your performance. He encourages
minimizing these distractions and creating an environmentthat supports deep work, enabling you to
concentrate on your most important tasks withoutconstant interruptions that example, For example,

(11:52):
I gave of Stephen earlier on hereally should have switched his phone to silent.
You must have been waiting for animportant call. But we should have
switched to silent and maybe even putit in another room so they stop distracting.
They're sorry, Stephen, I'm justusing you as an example anyway.
Newport argues us to be aware ofthe lingering effects of switching tasks and distractions
on our focus and our cognitive performanceor kind of brain capacity of brainpower,

(12:16):
and he asks us to minimize tasksswitching by batching similar tasks together and setting
boundaries around these interruptions, around anyinterruptions, creating an environment that supports deep
work by setting clear expectations with colleagues, or finding a secluded space where distractions
are reduced. I'm possibly gonna haveto talk about this. But because I've

(12:39):
got notes i'm working for, Ialways work from notes. I'm batching at
the moment. I batch research theseshows. I've got, in effect,
almost scripts in front of me thatI work from. I've got a hell
of a lot of quotes in thisone, so I have to stick quite
closely to my notes on this particularone. But when you're taking your phone
and putting it in another room,that's one element you can control. An

(13:01):
element it's more difficult to control.It's how others interact with you. So
if you're working in an office environment, you might want to say to people,
do not disturb me for this hours. I'm working on something time intensive,
and then they can come and seeyou only if it's an emergency or
not at all ideally, and they'llput off whatever it is, whatever petty
matters, until you've finished doing whatyou're doing, and that that time block

(13:22):
that you're keeping to yourself will ensurethat you really can get into deep work
and get what you're focusing on done. Great creative minds think like artists,
but work like accountants, call Newportand quote. So. Thirdly, Newport

(13:43):
suggests the principle of wait for itembracing boredom the principle of embracing boredom as
a catalyst for deep thinking and creativity. He says that by resisting the urge
to constantly seek distraction and engaging inproductive meditations he calls it, individuals can
harness moments of mental restlessness is theword to use to generate valuable insights and

(14:07):
breakthroughs. So you must therefore trainyour mind, tolerate, and leverage boredom
as a catalyst for deep thinking andcreativity. So use those moments to engage
in productive meditation, just sitting thinkingabout what you're going to do, where
you focus on a problem or atopic while engaging in a low demanding physical

(14:28):
activity. For example, I've talkedabout this in another episode Swim for Your
Life. When I go for aswim, I'm thinking about what I'm going
to be doing in the day,in the week ahead. I'm using that
time. Other people like to goout and sit in the sun first thing
in the morning and just take sometime to themselves if they've got any son.
If you're in Scotland, you've onlygot it every you've got it for
five days once a year. Butif you've got the opportunity to just sit

(14:50):
on your own without a device todistract you. Let yourself have that time
without the distractions, let the thoughtscome. I mean, if you're a
right, are a creative, you'llrecognize what I'm talking about here, not
a necessalily writer, any sort ofcreative, you'll understand what I'm talking about
here. That time we spend considering, that period of reflection on what you've

(15:11):
already done and what you're going todo is absolutely vital. And that's what
he's talking about when he's talking aboutthe principle of embracing boredom or it's really
I'm nearly seeing medication meditation he's talkingabout there, it's just time to slow
down and think. As I say, though, I've covered this principle to

(15:33):
an extent in the episode Swim forYour Life, So go and check that
one out if you want to knowa little bit more. But heading to
the gem or taking the dog fora walk would be equally good opportunities to
double up on physical activity and seekingthese kind of valuable insights that you're looking
for. Fellow filmmaker and podcaster GaryHut of the Choose Film podcast and the
HB Film Festival instantly. He mentionedto me the other day that he also

(15:56):
uses swimming as an opportunity to gethis mind together. So you should,
genuinely, you should try that.I think it's a thing. Maybe as
you older, you just it's somethingyou did when you were a kid,
and you don't think about swimming.But get back swimming. It's a good
thing, gets you moving, getsyou active, all good for the productivity.
So cal Newport's book serves as aguide for individuals to reevaluate their relationship

(16:18):
with technology, particularly in terms ofsocial media and digital communication. By setting
boundaries, establishing routines, and adoptingmindful practices, we can regain control over
our attention and combat the addictive poolof technology, ultimately fostering deeper focus,
which is the point bettering our productivityand creating more fulfilling work. So that

(16:44):
is the three main principles. Buthow can you implement them right? So
they'll just reiterate the match like,let me just go back. So the
principle of deep work, getting intowhatever you're doing, focused deep work,
not shallow work. That's one principleof deep work. Second one is the
hold on without it the principle ofattention residue, which is the residue left

(17:10):
over from task switching. You know. It's that's basically, minimize your distractions,
create an environment that supports deep work, enabling you to concentrate on your
most important tasks without constant interductions.It's moving things away, it's finishing one
job before you want to go onto another one. It's speaking to people
that you work with to ensure youhave the time you need to do the

(17:32):
things you need to do. Andthe last one was the principle of embracing
boredom, of actually allowing yourself toget bored without checking phones and stuff,
just to allow your brain a littlebit of elbow room. So yeah,
so that's the three main principles.How might you implement them, Well,
here's a few ideas to get yougoing. One thing you could do is
identify, first and foremost your highvalue tasks. Determine what tasks require deep

(17:57):
work, and allocates pacific time slotsfor them using time blocking. Prioritize these
tasks over shallow, low value activities. There is a place and a time
to do them. It's not whenyou're at your best. Let's say you're
great at ten thirty in the morningthrough till twelve thirty. You don't want
to be doing silly, little ladminjobs. Then leave them to a little

(18:19):
bit later on, or do themat a little bit earlier, so that
when you're in your prime period ofwork, and you've assessed this because you've
been using pattern recognition to see whenyou're you work best, because you've listened
to that episode, haven't you.Well, Once you've identified you have that
high value tasks, put your bestefforts, use your best time slot the
day to focus on those ones.That's number one. Identify high value tasks.

(18:42):
Number two established routines. Build aconsistent routine that incorporates regular deep work
sessions. Create a schedule that blocksoff dedicated time for focused, uninterrupted work.
And I affair you again to I'vegot it written down here. It's
episode one four three time blocking,which is a few back, but not

(19:03):
that far back. You'll be ableto find it easy enough. Number three
in my list here, I've gotto optimize your environment. That's minimized distractions
in your physical and digital environments.So turn off your notifications, use website
blockers, unsubscribe from emails, andthings that they're constantly coming in that maybe
once four years ago you accidentally subscribe, for get rid of them and find

(19:25):
yourself a quiet space where you canwork without interruptions. And this, as
I mentioned before, we'll also involvesetting out clear boundaries with your colleagues.
Number four in my list of ideasher thoughts that have chucked down is practice
deep work rituals. Develop rituals orhabits if you like that signal your brain

(19:47):
that it's time to enter your deepwork mode, for example, having a
designated workspace, setting specific goals foreach session, or implementing a warm up
routine. And cal also recommends thatonce you've completed a session of deep work
that you take a deep break aswell. And these are designed to help

(20:07):
you have a bit of a brainbreather without introducing any new distractions or stresses.
So you can also use deep breaks, as it were, to create
healthy pauses throughout longer deep work sessions. If you've got a very very brain
intensive thing, you can split thatup, but split up with decent breaks
in there. And I'd add tothis that you should develop a ritual of

(20:30):
completion at the end of the dayor at the end of a deep work
session, and so checking emails andshutting down your computer, for example,
switching off everything physically and mentally beforefinishing the day would be perhaps part of
your shut down, your ritual ofcompletion, as it were. I wrote,
and I'm not I didn't read it. I read it somewhere in the

(20:51):
book that somebody says job complete orwhatever. They have a very specific phrasing
they say to help them close down, which is quite interesting worth considering.
And number five of my list hereis to reflect and refine. So continually
evaluate and adjust your deep work strategies, reflecting what works best for you,
Experiment with different techniques, and makenecessary adjustments based on your productivity and focused

(21:15):
levels. And that again is reallyabout pattern recognition. You need to be
looking for pattern patterns all the time, recognize what's working, what's not working,
and adapt continuously to become better atwhat you're doing. And by implementing
these principles and these strategies, youcan create an environment and a mindset that
supports deep work, leading to enhancedproductivity. It's the point of the show.

(21:38):
It leads to higher quality output aswell and a greater sense of fulfillment.
In your day to day work andyour life. So cal Newport just
a bit of wrap this up.He calls deep work the superpower of the
twenty first century. He says itprovides practical strategies and principles that help individuals

(21:59):
counter the distract actions of today's world. By prioritizing deep work, by minimizing
distractions, by embracing boredom, andby cultivating mindful practices, you can more
successfully navigate the modern landscape of informationoverload and achieve a higher level of productivity,

(22:22):
focus, and satisfaction in your workand life. So that's deep work.
I hope you enjoyed it. Learnfrom it. I'll give you I'll
give you a call to action todayin fact, and it's simply this.
Take a minute to write down thethree principles that I've brought to you today.
And they were, for a reminder, the principle of deep work,
the principle of attention residue, andthe principle of embracing boredom. Write yourself

(22:48):
a few words down explaining each oneof them. Do a little Google search,
help yourself remember what there is,what they are, and write them
down. That these principles influence youas you move forward with your productivity and
your goals, etc. And there'sjust that thing about writing them down that
how many times I've got to sayit, You're forty two percent more likely
to do things, to remember thingsif you write them down. But I'm

(23:11):
gonna end right now. It's beena long episode. I'm gonna hend right
now with some final words from CalNewport, who said, clarity about what
matters provides clarity about what does not. Now take control of your own destiny,
my friends, keep on shooting andjoin me next time on film Pro
Productivity and Success And the music youcan hear right now is Adventures by a

(23:41):
Himitsu. You can also view theshow notes the full show notes for this
episode only on the official website filmpro Productivity dot com. You can also
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same on threads if you're interested.I'm kind of half using threads. Maybe
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(24:03):
Twitter's film pro prod pod, Facebookat film pro Productivity. Please continue to
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