10 Deep Work Techniques To Help You Focus
Reduce Distractions: Managing constant noise and interruptions will help you achieve effective deep work and get more done.
Test Different Work Types: Different strategies like monastic and bimodal can help you integrate time for deep work into your busy schedule.
Common Techniques: The most common deep work techniques include practicing prioritization, setting goals, and scheduling blocks of time—each of these can improve efficiency.
It’s never been harder to get work done—there’s a never-ending stream of meetings, cell phone noises, and Slack pings to deal with. Carving out time for deep work in your day to day is a great way to focus and make sure your most important tasks get completed with the effort and energy they require.
Here are my deep work techniques, tips, and tricks to help you focus and get it all done!
What is Deep Work?
Deep work is a state of concentration where a person works on a complex task without distraction. This might be creating a project plan, working on a strategy, or writing a self-reflection or performance review for a team member or direct report.
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It could also be a complex task like planning for the week, month, or quarter ahead, or even writing an article (yes, writing this article for you about deep work was some deep work for me)!
Deep Work vs Shallow Work
Deep work involves tasks that require your complete focus, and shallow work is the easy stuff you can knock out during the workday between meetings or other important tasks.
For example, you might answer a short email or a question over Slack as you listen to a team member present their work in an internal meeting. It’s okay to multitask on this kind of shallow work when appropriate. Deep work requires more concentration; some examples are writing a longer email that requires research, thinking, or creating a deck for a client meeting.
Why Is Deep Work Important?
Deep work is important because complex, strategic work is what moves a project, team, or organization forward. Having the ability to focus on this deep work is critical. If you don’t, your output will be delayed.
For example, if you need to write a job description for a new hire so it can be approved and posted but you aren’t able to focus for more than ten minutes at a time, it could delay hiring and make more work for those covering the additional tasks (which might include you)!
4 Types of Deep Work
Not all deep work is created equal. Cal Newport, the author of the popular business book Deep Work outlines four different types of deep work that he calls the four deep work philosophies.
- Monastic: Monastic deep work involves many days of almost complete focus. In monastic deep work, you work multiple days without distraction. For a digital project manager with active projects, this is not realistic. That said, blocking a day or two between projects to tackle deep work could be incredibly powerful.
- Bimodal: Bimodal deep work brings some balance to the schedule. Some days of the week are reserved for deep concentration (i.e. the monastic type) and some days for everything else. So if you were in a consulting role, you might have Mondays and Fridays for deep work and Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays for emails, client meetings, and other shallow work.
- Rhythmic: Rhythmic deep work involves separating your work day into blocks of time (generally around 90-minutes) for deep work and leaving the rest of the day for other things. Depending on the number and type of projects you manage, you might be able to get one or two of these deep work chunks in on most days.
- Journalistic: The journalistic type of deep work is probably the most familiar to many project managers, as it involves squeezing in deep work whenever time allows. Since many of us are habitual multitaskers, this might feel the most familiar, especially if you are in an agency and have a high volume of smaller projects.
10 Deep Work Techniques
Regardless of your deep work philosophy or the type of deep work you practice, here are some productivity tools and techniques you can use to make the most of your deep work time and good focus habits.
1. Prioritize
Prioritization makes sure you use your focus time most efficiently. Start by answering this question: “what single task will move the needle most if I can complete it in this session?” Select a few other high-priority tasks to work on in case you finish the task at hand before your work session is over.
2. Create a Routine and Rituals
It can be helpful to have a routine and rituals for transitioning into deep work sessions. This might involve a short social media scroll before putting your do-not-disturb on, or letting colleagues know not to disturb you during your deep work block unless it is an emergency.
Speaking of emergencies, make sure to define this term for your team. For me personally, an emergency is: the office is on fire, someone’s website is down, or someone is here to give me a million dollars. Anything not on this list can wait until my deep work session is complete.
Consider adding a reward ritual. This can be anything you want—a 10-minute break, a delicious takeout lunch, happy hour with some friends, or any treat that will motivate you to do deep work.
3. Schedule Your Days and Block Time
As with anything that is a priority, schedule your deep work sessions on your calendar. This way, you will have uninterrupted blocks for deep work mode. If you forget, a colleague might throw a meeting on your calendar right in the middle of what could be a perfect block for deep work.
When you can control your schedule, you’re likely to be able to fit in more deep work blocks. You may need to make concessions for big team meetings that are more challenging to schedule, but if you can control your calendar, your time management challenges will diminish significantly.
One thing I like to do when I have big, open blocks in my calendar (and I appear to be free) is to block them with the note “Ask before scheduling.” This way, if I need the time to write an article, create a statement of work or presentation, or do some other form of deep work, I can control when I need to take a break for a meeting or to huddle with a colleague or client (instead of someone just placing an invite on my calendar and feeling pressured to accept).
4. Track Your Time
While we all love to hate time tracking, it can be useful for a short amount of time or for very specific tasks. For example, if you think statements of work are taking too long to write, time yourself. Throw on your timer every time you sit down to work on a statement of work and see how much time you’re actually spending.
When you look at your time logs, analyze when you are spending the most time on this task. Is it when you try to work on it in shorter blocks instead of taking 1-2 hours and knocking it out? For some cognitively demanding tasks, working in shorter sessions can be counterproductive since you have to read carefully to pick up where you left off and get back into the task at hand.
Leveraging time-tracking data to corroborate this can be powerful. I have learned that I tend to overestimate how much time tasks take, especially when they are more tedious activities. I also tend to underestimate how much time I spend on the non-cognitively demanding tasks on my to-do list (hello, checking email and responding to Slack messages).
5. Limit Context Switching and Multi-Tasking
The goal of deep work is to enter a flow state (which is a technique supported by time management statistics) so you can totally focus on the task at hand and lose yourself in the work. You definitely can’t get there if you are multitasking.
Context switching, or trying to do too many things at once, can cost you your focus. You may only complete 80% of three or four things, and likely not as well as if you were able to focus. This is also a recipe for burnout (or at least feeling really tired and not super accomplished).
So, if you have a big task, use your time blocking techniques, schedule a week of bimodal working (where you have a few days for your deep work and a few days for everything else), or use other time management techniques. This way, you can accomplish quality work for both your deep work project and everything else you need to get done.
6. Minimize Distractions
Deep work and total focus are not skills you develop overnight. You need to practice deep work consistently to be able to achieve the kind of focus it takes to tackle the most mentally demanding tasks or professional activities.
If you are newer to the workforce or changing careers from a more physically demanding job to a knowledge worker role, sitting still for long periods of time can be a challenge. Try to minimize distractions. Look at your work area and notice what is distracting to you. Is there music or a TV on? Are people talking? Is there clutter in your line of vision that keeps drawing your attention?
If possible, set a timer for 10 -15 minutes and take that time to minimize any distractions. Whether that means turning off the music (or turning on your focus playlist), folding and putting away some laundry, or taking the dirty dishes out of your workspace, taking the time upfront will help you do some high-quality deep work when you get started.
7. Set and Track Goals
As I already noted, it can be very hard to force yourself to sit down and do the deepest of deep work at specific times or on demand. It’s important to set realistic goals about how much deep work you can do in a day or a week.
Most of us have set working hours, so it’s important to figure out how to do the most deep work during the time you have available. This is where setting goals and tracking your progress can come in handy.
Consider setting a goal to do three 90-minute deep work sessions per week. As you get in the habit, consider adding more sessions or making sessions longer, whichever feels like it will be the most productive and aligned with your needs.
8. Make Time to Rest
Deep work without rest and relaxation is a recipe for burnout. You lose a lot of the benefits of deep work (or the time you reserve for deep work) if you are too burned out to do it effectively.
If you start to notice tasks are taking longer and longer or that you are losing interest in your work, take a break, even if it seems counterintuitive. The more you try to force it, the less effective it becomes if you are burned out. Learn to recognize the early signs of burnout, and create a daily routine around breaks and rest.
9. Set a Timer
If you’ve ever used the Pomodoro technique, you know how helpful a timer can be. This method of working involves about 20 minutes for deep, focused work and a few minutes of downtime or a break between sessions.
For a deep work session, 20 minutes might not be enough, so try setting your timer for 90 minutes. This way, you don’t have to worry about losing track of time and missing something, and you can focus on the tasks at hand.
10. Turn Off Your Notifications
This one feels fairly obvious, but it's easy to forget. When you sit down for a deep work session, turn off all notifications. This means email, cell phone or smart watch alerts, and browser notifications.
Place all devices on Do Not Disturb. If you work in an office or with roommates or family members at home, let them know you are headed into a deep work session and you are not to be interrupted unless the office or house is on fire.
If I am doing deep work while staying with family or traveling, I let everyone know that I am not to be disturbed for a specific timeframe, unless it is an emergency (or you know, the Publisher’s Clearinghouse guy shows up with a check big enough to allow me to retire).
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