time so you can think
You need only look at diners texting in a restaurant to see how extreme distraction is woven into our current culture.
And what of work? Open offices, wandering CEOs, email, texts, social media, home video monitors, and more. No one concentrates. But according to one author, it's the only way to really get good at anything.
Cal Newport's new book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World recognizes the good intentions of open offices (to encourage serendipity and teamwork), but says the constant attack on concentration thwarts attempts to think seriously.
Newport is a professor of computer science at Georgetown University.
He answers the question of how a talented person can improve acute skills such as writing, coding, studying the latest mergers, and other skills that make the employee indispensable. His answer? Deep work. That means weeding out distractions. Creating time to sharpen skills. Opening up time for intense focus.
Newport advocates six- or seven-hour stretches of attention on work with zero distractions. Take very short and boring breaks every hour for a few minutes. He likes to walk to a new location to resume concentration. But during the boring break there will be no email, no texting, no facebooking, no glancing at the news.
Meanwhile in your work, recognize there will be a barrier of boredom in your concentration. Work past it until the subject settles into your mind and you begin to think deeply about it.
The book's best example of deep thinking is the Pulitzer Prize winning Lyndon Johnson biographer Robert A. Caro, who is known for working on a meticulous schedule, dressed for the office, and his meticulous stacking his notebooks.
Deep work: Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport, Grand Central Publishing.