There is never enough time in the day to do everything you planned to do. Has it happened to you where you have a list of things to do and then at the end of the day, you barely got through half of it?
One way to help get more things done is by making use of your time as efficiently as possible. In the case of a developer that means mastering deep work. It is a technique that any knowledge worker will find useful, but it is especially important for developers.
What Is Deep Work?
Deep work can be defined as activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration where you’re pushing your cognitive capacities to their limit.
You’re probably thinking that focusing on work and removing any distraction will obviously help you get more done. However, deep work is more than that, it is when you are getting difficult tasks done.
Designing and developing software are cognitively intensive tasks. The ability to focus is a skill that can set you apart from other developers. And guess what? Deep work is a skill that you can improve on with practice.
What Deep Work Can Do for You
Many developers are surrounded by shallow work such as emails, meetings, and phone calls. With so much shallow work going on, developers often struggle to find time to code. But when they do, job satisfaction increases greatly because they finally get the opportunity to focus and be creative. Deep work is valuable, rare, and meaningful. It is work that takes effort and time and that is what makes it so meaningful.
Higher Quality Work
Programming requires concentration and focus. It gets easier over time with experience, but to do a great job it still requires your attention. If you think about it, attention is a resource. You can’t give your attention to multiple things at once (realistically).
Since your attention is a resource, deep work can help overcome the problem. By developing the ability to focus on work and then treating that focus as a resource, you are able to constantly produce great work.
Faster Development
Deep work sounds like a grind, but it is not once you get the hang of it. Deep work improves your ability to focus, which as a result means you get more done in less time.
You probably have experienced how damaging interruptions are first-hand. Every context switch cost you time that you never will get back. You also might lose a lot of your train of thought. Depending on what you were working on, a small interruption can be detrimental to your progress.
Deep work helps with such a problem described above by giving you a long period of continuous focus and concentration.
Makes You Happier
You have probably heard of “flow” or being “in the zone”. It’s a state in which you’re so immersed in an activity that you lose your sense of place and time. If you have been in a state of “flow” before, then you probably already know that some of your best work happens while you’re in “flow”. It leaves you feeling satisfied, which increases your happiness. Just imagine that feeling you get after you finish a challenging project or problem.
In order to reach a state of “flow”, you need to have intense and focused concentration. This is exactly what deep work gives you. So, by implementing deep work, it results in more productivity, more time for work that you find satisfying, and increases your overall happiness.
I hope this post was helpful to you. If you found this post helpful, share it with others so they can benefit too.
What are your experiences with deep work?
To get in touch, you can follow me on Twitter, leave a comment, or send me an email at steven@brightdevelopers.com.