Some time ago I was introduced to Cal Newport’s excellent book Deep Work.

In this blog, I discuss why it is so important to commit and execute your ‘Deep Work’. Your Deep Work is your greatest contribution to the universe and you must fulfil this obligation.

Despite the Paramount importance of Deep Work, one of the greatest challenges is the ability to schedule and execute Deep Work.

I’ve written on Deep Work before, but it is timely to revisit it.

Deep Work might include:

Drafting a Strategic Plan
Preparing a Tender
Implementing a HR system
Upgrading IT
Financial reporting
Developing a new product prototype
Restructuring your entire team
Starting a new division
Writing blogs or content creation
Refinancing
Building a new website
Succession planning
Planning a move of business premises
Writing a book

The examples I’ve listed highlight how important Deep Work is.

Deep Work is not general operations.

Business owners avoid it like the plague.

Why?

Business owners avoid it because it is big, confronting, saps time, energy and resources.

But looking at the list of examples again, you’ll agree it is certainly as important as anything else you are doing.

The starting point is to consider different frameworks in which to set up Deep Work.

Some of the key tactics include blocking key chunks of time 3-5 times per week to conduct Deep Work.

This typically involves blocking 90-180 minutes of time to conduct Deep Work uninterrupted.

At a black belt level, adopters allocate 3-4 hours of Deep Work daily within a full working day.

However, I don’t recommend this accelerated approach initially for busy business owners.

I prefer a staged approach to building the habits such as:

3 x 90-minute blocks - Monday, Wednesday & Fridays to start
Increase to 3 x 180-minute blocks - Monday, Wednesday & Fridays
Increase to 2-3 hours blocks daily (4 days per week) with 1 primary day allocated for internal meetings and business administration

The other hack is to block ‘office hour’ windows within certain hours and certain workdays for team members, customers or suppliers to contact you spontaneously with you available on call. This important addition assists in Deep Work not being regularly interrupted with people contacting you within the ‘office hours’ allocated.

Of course, crisis, emergencies and key events will occasionally interrupt Deep Work.

But you’ll be surprised how rarely this happens once you have adopted Deep Work habits.

Internal meeting structures must also be established, or revised, to ensure business operations flow in unison with Deep Work.

Embracing Deep Work is a game-changer.

And finally, I strongly recommend reading Cal Newport’s book Deep Work.

But most importantly, schedule and execute your Deep Work.

We want your best work!

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