Time for Deep Work ⇒

I just finished reading Cal Newport's Deep Work and I have a new commitment to improvement.

This book, more than anything else I've read, highlighted not only how prone to distraction I am, but also how harmful that is to my personal and professional growth.

For a while now I have felt a little "lost". Nothing major but a feeling that I should be "better" at "stuff". This book explained to me why I felt like this and gave me ways to fix it.

This quote really hit home for me:

...efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don't simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction...

Key components of doing more Deep Work:

• understand the value, or lack thereof, of your shallow work
• quit the distractions cold turkey for 30 days to bring their (potentiel lack of) importance to the forefront
• schedule your entire day in at least 30 min blocks
• use the new boredom to train yourself to think deeply

I am going to start by:

• removing Twitter from my iPhone
• quitting Instagram
• Reviewing the books I want to read and creating a priority list
• blocking social media sites on my Mac
• creating a complete daily schedule, everyday, starting tomorrow. There will be time in my schedule, probably in the evening for 30-60 mins of news review, which is what I use Twitter/RSS mostly for.

It will take some time, probably over a month, to train my brain to not crave those distractions, but I will do this and get more productive.