Life in the shallows
What percent of your day is spent in the shallows?
Cal Newport defines deep work as, “professional activity performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.
On the other hand, he defines shallow work as, “non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world.
The average human attention span is now 8 seconds.
The world naturally calls us to distraction.
In business, we have a perpetual battle against email. Calendars are overrun with meetings, with more and more attendees in each meeting. Social media a click away, feeding the short attention span. Each day is a constant flow of information gathering and distributing. All of this causes one to perpetually live in the shallows.
In families, activities and busy schedules replace the battle against email at work. Activities evaporate the time. The years go by and the opportunities for intentional time, intentional discussions, intentional planning slip away. The perpetual shallows cause relationships to slip away.
Deep work requires intentionality and will not happen in the natural flow of life. One must remove distractions and focus. One must purposefully clock out of the world to think.
Companies and families need the deep work that only you can do. You uniquely have the knowledge, the view.
It is In the deep waters, that one finds creativity, motivation, purpose, fulfillment, and answers.
Block off time each week for intentional deep work, intentionally thinking through each area in your job and family.
It is your ability to pause that will impact many.
Scripture, Colossians 3:23-25
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