
Cultivate the Skill of Undivided Attention, or “Deep Work” (2019) - mooreds
https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2019/12/19/cultivate-the-skill-of-undivided-attention-or-deep-work/
======
wgerard
Caveat: I'm, of course, being a bit flippant here and there are of course
people who've genuinely found a lot of this helpful. I'm actually a huge fan
of Cal Newport as an author in general, but the deep work idea always didn't
quite resonate with me.

Having looked at this topic quite a bit and generally being interested in
productivity, I'll say this:

Deep work isn't complicated, in the same way that losing weight isn't
technically "complicated": Eat better/less/etc. and maybe also exercise more.
The difficult part is, of course, forcing yourself to stick with it.

Want to do deep work? Remove all distractions (physically, if necessary) and
don't engage in any of them for a period of time. Have a goal in mind for this
period of time. If you find your mind wandering, gently bring it back to the
task. There, done. You're doing deep work.

Of course if one had the level of discipline to not indulge that urge to say,
check HN, to begin with it's likely they don't need any concept of deep work
in the first place (other than perhaps to remind oneself to engage in more
thoughtful tasks).

That's not to say there aren't interesting tidbits here: Mindfulness is
obviously a really useful skill, and sometimes physically removing
distractions can be helpful in the same way that removing junk food from your
household can be helpful in losing weight.

Still, it's a lot of discussion for something that ultimately boils down to
"stop surfing reddit 4head".

~~~
8ytecoder
Thanks for saying that. This is why I read digital minimalism first to
understand the things that’s preventing me from deep work in the first place
and came out with the same issue. I know it’s bad but sometimes that’s all my
brain wants to do. And there’s no answer to find out the reason behind that
and address the root cause. Almost all solutions are “just stop doing it.” My
friend and I call these the “simple solutions”.

“I feel really sad”

“Don’t. You’ll be alright”.

“Phew. Thanks. I’m cured.”

If anyone here has solutions that are more than “Just focus” I’m interested.
It’s starting to affect my work life especially now since a lot of my current
work don’t have much meaning and I need to get through this for a few months
at least.

~~~
ackbar03
Honestly I really don't think there's a solution. You can try everything you
can to get yourself into a state of focus but sometimes your brain just rebels
against it. I've sort of accepted that there are things that can't be
controlled for. If Ive been particularly unproductive for a period of time
instead of beating myself up about it I just accept that I've wasted a shit
load of time and move on. That's sort of removed the stress part at least.

From a macro perspective though I've gradually come to the view that the
average amount of work a man can get done if he's really trying is more or
less the same. You might see someone else able to work non stop but that might
be because he's doing mindless repetitive tasks. For things requiring more
brainpower it's impossible to run 100%. You also get to a point where physical
quirks might be the limiting factor. I've had a few times times where I've
forced myself to push on with something, pulling all nigjters and what not,
and suffered physical and mental burnout consequently which averages out the
"productive" period before. Consequently I've taken on a more zen approach to
pushing myself, try my best but don't overdo it cause sometimes it might
backfire.

~~~
8ytecoder
This was harder for me than I thought. It works really well some weeks and
some other weeks I can’t stop blaming the lack of “work ethic” and you’re
right that it’s counter productive.

~~~
PebblesRox
I feel you. I’ll have weeks that are so unproductive and I’ll feel bad about
it. But then I’ll list out all the factors contributing to my lack of
accomplishment and realize that I have a lot of external factors working
against me. It helps me have more grace with myself and focus on the areas I
can control.

------
asdfman123
I have ADHD, which doesn't mean I _lack_ the ability to focus -- for me, and
others with my subtype of ADHD, it means I get deeply focused on random stuff.
Some of it is worthwhile, and a lot of it is a complete waste of time.

I think a lot of developers have ADHD like me, because we can get totally lost
in code for hours and hours at a time.

Now, before you envy me too much, the other side of the token is that when I'm
given work I'm not interested in -- which is usually most of it -- getting
started and seeing it through is like pulling teeth.

~~~
enchiridion
Did prescription drugs help with this?

~~~
torbjorn
Does anyone know if there are any published stats / estimations about the
prevalence of amphetamine prescriptions in the United States.

I have this gut feeling it's pretty high, at least in the tech industry. I
don't believe this is problematic but it feels like a taboo topic. If use is
common we should be better about talking openly about it.

------
lifeisstillgood
We are descended from creatures that poised, _concentrating_ on making no
sound, waiting for a perfect moment to strike.

We are descended from creatures that sat by a lake in Kenya for _millennia_ ,
carving and crafting arrowheads.

 _We can all concentrate like a boss._

It's distractions that are the problem. Our ancestors split shift on kids,
which is still the biggest distractor.

But they never had neighbours, phones, TV, or _better things to do_.

Perhaps one day we shall fine distractors like we fine polluters. Till then
its a question of quiet offices.

~~~
agumonkey
distractions AND lack of clear path to clear benefit. You can craft arrows
forever, because you clearly know that this will benefit you immensely: you'll
get food and you like getting food. It will even make you a perfectionist
because you don't want your weapon to break, fail, miss on you. You'll make it
stiff, sharp, easy to handle.. it's almost not work it's protopleasure.

That's why primitive life is somehow easier[0] than modern life, you own your
struggles. Here, it's dilluted in space, time and society. You have to
negotiate, compromise, wait, be a cog in an absurd machine, swallow others
belief and limits.. it wears you off

[0]hyperbole

~~~
hyperpallium
Motivation is natural for us animals, else we wouldn't survive.

    
    
      Fish gotta swim, Bird gotta fly
      Man gotta ask himself Why why why

------
spking
The flip side of focused mode thinking is diffuse mode thinking, and they are
symbiotic. Your brain needs a chance to work silently in the background on
hard problems while you do other things (walk, sleep, play with the kids).
Then when you re-enter focused mode, you are fresh and your brain often
presents solutions uncovered during your diffuse time.

This concept is articulated really well in "A Mind for Numbers":

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18693655-a-mind-for-
numb...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18693655-a-mind-for-numbers)

~~~
hinkley
Being able to tell when you are frustrated is _such_ a powerful tool. Doing
literally anything else will be more productive in and of itself, but it also
opens the window to let a little diffuse thinking sneak in.

How many times have you done an hour worth of work one morning to untangle a
mess you made the previous afternoon? Diffuse thinking saved you. Invite it
in.

------
jborichevskiy
I’ve been establishing my own focus system for the past few months. Loosely
based on Deep Work, Pomodoro technique, and a few other writings.

[https://jborichevskiy.com/posts/concentration-
compromise/](https://jborichevskiy.com/posts/concentration-compromise/)

~~~
silviogutierrez
Great post. Recently noticed DND is not enough. As you mentioned, you actually
have to quit the app in OSX so it's not in your app list when tab switching
(with a red notification).

~~~
jborichevskiy
Thanks, and yes! Super infuriating. IIRC it’s possible to disable the red
badge per-app in Notification Preferences but then becomes difficult to
understand which apps have new info so I waste a bunch of time checking all of
them.

------
tsumnia
> The ability to quickly master hard things and the ability to produce at an
> elite level, in terms of both quality and speed, are two core abilities for
> thriving in today’s economy.

I absolutely disagree with this statement. You cannot master things quickly
and any attempt to do so is simply playing into George Leonard's concept of
the Obsessive student [1]. Once learning gains begin to lessen, you'll
conclude you've mastered the topic and move on, regardless of actual ability.

[1] [https://jamesclear.com/book-
summaries/mastery](https://jamesclear.com/book-summaries/mastery)

------
cortesoft
I miss being able to focus on things... you can do a lot of other things while
caring for young children... the one thing you can't do is focus on something,
because you always need to keep one eye on the kids, and are continually
having to stop what you are doing to do something for them, and have to always
be watching they don't do something dangerous.

I really miss daycare.

~~~
PebblesRox
I feel this. I’ve been working part-time from home while also being the main
one caring for my kids for the past few years. Fortunately my work is amenable
to the distractions – it’s very atomic and I’m able to do it with only one
hand and half a brain. But I miss being able to let my brain loose on some
complicated problem.

------
DantesKite
On a side note, after reading the article I finally learned the difference
between leading and lagging indicators.

I always had this abstract idea of what they represented, but never really
took the few seconds to try and understand what they mean.

Now I can play with the concepts. My world got a little bit wider.

~~~
hhsuey
Can you elaborate? I found the description of the two quite fuzzy.

~~~
PebblesRox
My summary of the example from the article:

If you want to know if someone has learned the material from a course, have
them take a test. The test result is a lagging indicator that shows what has
happened.

If you want to know if someone will learn the material, compare their study
habits with the study habits of proven good students. Their study habits are a
leading indicator that shows what is likely to happen.

------
maram
PG wrote about this
[http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html)
and was referenced in this NYTimes piece _Productivity Isn’t About Time
Management. It’s About Attention Management._
[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/smarter-
living/productivi...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/smarter-
living/productivity-isnt-about-time-management-its-about-attention-
management.html)?

------
swat535
What prevents me from doing deep work is not lack of focus but it’s alway
external factors. I’m either stressed about something else like relationship
stress or health issues or am too tired or the task ahead of me is too big or
I just don’t like this task because it was forced on me for example. I don’t
have the data to back this up. It I suspect for most people it’s the same;
people with ADHD and other conditions notwithstanding

~~~
lopatin
I feel like you said that it's not from a lack of focus, and then described
all the things that prevent you from focusing.

------
afarrell
As a developer with ADHD, I have a few insights into the skill of attention-
management.

1) Shifting into undivided attention isn't the only skill you want. You also
want the skill of knowing when you _should_ divert your attention. Otherwise,
you end up going down a rabbit hole before you realized that you've been
focusing on the wrong thing for a while. If you get stuck, it can be very
useful to take some time away from the keyboard and let some other ideas float
in and out of your working memory.

2) A key question to answer is "What should I focus on?" One thing that can
make this much easier is if you have a way to find out from your team:

\- Why does our team exist?

\- Who are our stakeholders?

\- What are our goals? Why do they help our stakeholders?

Getting this information can be quite difficult, depending on your company
culture.

If you are feeling distracted while writing an essay, see if you can imagine
that someone asked you a question on reddit.

3) Another useful question to answer is "What does better look like?" for any
given task. Essentially, jot down a leading-KPIs for the next couple
hours...or next minutes! This is one reason why writing automated tests is
useful, even if they are only mental scaffolding that you refactor away before
committing.

For writing, it can be helpful to do "question-driven drafting" where you
write your first draft as a dialogue between someone who is confused and
someone who understands. That lets you look at your explanations and treat
"does this seem like a good answer to the question I just wrote?" as your
leading-KPI to shoot for.

4) One thing that can impede deep work is when you intuitively suspect that
your pursuit of your current goal puts other things you value at risk. This
tempts you to keep checking on that thing, forcing you to shift attention. One
approach to that is to tell yourself "don't worry about it." I've rarely found
that approach valuable -- indeed, the knowledge that I'm just not handling a
risk I'm responsible for makes me _more_ tempted to check on it. I've found it
much more valuable to set up something which would detect the risk for me and
could shift my attention at that point. This is another reason why automated
tests are useful.

But you can also just have a checklist that you add to as you go along and
check at the end.

~~~
hhsuey
"why does our team exist" is a rabbit hole for me. It goes to "why does our
company exist" to "why does this industry exist" and "what am i doing with my
life" and why does any of this matter".

~~~
afarrell
Right. At an individual contributor level, you should be able to

1) ask your manager what the team's responsibilities are.

2) hear why the company exists at every quarterly meeting.

"should"

------
hhsuey
> Rather than focusing on a list of things other developers have learned, and
> targeting that list, I humbly propose that a leading indicator of acquiring
> this kind of knowledge is “hours per week spent in a state of intentional
> deep work”.

So he's just proposing that one should just spend time to cultivate those
skills?

> Imagine two equally knowledgeable early-career software developers. They
> have the exact same skills on January 1, 2020. If the first software
> developer spends four hours a week doing deep work, while the second
> software developer spends fifteen hours a week doing deep work, their
> trajectories will be quite different, and that second developer will quickly
> gain technical knowledge and proficiencies.

This isn't rocket science. Just spend time developing skills in addition to
the work you have to do already. Great!

------
hinkley
I was having some health problems that negatively affected my ability to do
deep work. After six years of it creeping up on me, I finally got sorted out
last year, thankfully.

In that time I built up a whole new set of coping mechanisms that I’m trying
to walk back, because I’d almost forgotten the other side of deep work, like
accidentally working late (up to and including insomnia), missing meetings,
forgetting to exercise or eat. When you can’t work for more than two hours
straight, juggling periodic tasks is easy. Almost a consolation prize.

------
seltzered_
From 2019. It's okay to not cultivate this skill during a pandemic.

~~~
nr2x
On the flip side, there is very little personal agency vis-a-vis the pandemic
and reading the news/twitter may accomplish little beyond stressing you out as
the practical limit on what most people can do is "stay home".

Closing all those scary browser tabs, emails, and focusing on an unrelated
problem can provide a welcome respite from a world out of your control, and
likewise give you tangible mental health benefits. Skill building may be
viewed as a secondary gain adjacent to the primary goal of maintaining sanity.

So no, you don't need to become a brainiac genius during the pandemic, but
working on skills is also a fine way to distract yourself.

------
praptak
Meditate. If you want strength, lift weights. If you want undivided attention,
practice meditation.

It also helps with noticing distractions before they grab you. This way at
least you have a chance to actually think before reacting to the urge to check
HN or whatever.

~~~
criddell
Does it matter what kind of meditation?

~~~
elric
Probably not. Mindfulness meditation apps are fine. You could go to full-blown
2 hour long zazen meditation sessions multiple days a week, where you have the
option of being hit with a stick when you start to lose focus/doze off; and
you might gain some benefit from it. But unless that's something that
seriously interests you, it probably isn't worth the considerable commitment.

There are all kinds of religiously inspired meditation practices, which are,
again, probably fine if they're your thing.

Main point of any meditation that I know of, is cultivating awareness. You can
do that in formal meditation classes, or you could do that while going
fishing. It comes down to preference and perseverance.

------
mrkeen
Does anyone else want to engage in deep work, but can't for organisational
(not personal) reasons? Heading into this article I thought I'd find some
commiseration, but the first dotpoint was:

> Breaking complex unknowns into simpler unknowns that can be further split
> into individual tickets

Jira is precisely the attention divider I wish I didn't have right now. It
gets real tiresome trying to work on something big and important that takes
2-4 weeks (e.g. fix the test suite), but getting steered away from it by
management towards smaller tickets.

------
collyw
I have given up even trying these days. Constant questions or meetings or chat
messages, its utterly pointless in most places I have worked.

------
kirubakaran
I use [https://deepwork.me/](https://deepwork.me/) [1] to follow Cal's
"schedule every minute of the day" suggestion and it has definitely improved
my productivity quite a bit. It's like markdown for scheduling.

[1] I made it one weekend years ago and I've used it almost everyday since
then.

------
pawurb
I've recently published a piece on my tricks for keeping focus and blocking
away distractions at work [https://pawelurbanek.com/mobile-internet-addiction-
focus](https://pawelurbanek.com/mobile-internet-addiction-focus)

------
forumstuffacc
What never resonated to me is: as a regular employeee without any stock or
profit share why would I care about being more efficient? If you already can
match your job goals I see no point in doing that.

------
djohnston
Oh how I wish I could just focus on something and get good at it. I feel like
it's impossible to study something and become expert in a corporate
environment.

------
bravura
Any suggestions on how to keep away distractions on your laptop, which don’t
involve outright restriction or blocking?

Putting certain apps into different workspaces, Etc?

------
vindveil
Are there any other links to guides for young developers starting out in the
industry?

------
apt-get
So what's the link to undivided attention?

~~~
pengwing
Here you go:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique)

~~~
jimhefferon
I have ADHD, and a back that gives me trouble, and Pomodoro helps with both.
It is a practical, get-started, thing a person can do.

In my desk diary I have a target of x number of pomodoro's for the week so
that adds a goal to it, which I know helps motivate some people.

------
5cott0
You misspelled Adderall.

I hear it helps with IF too.

~~~
afarrell
Pills don't teach skills.

I'm genuinely grateful to have finally been able to get a dexamfetamine
prescription, but there are still skills to learn once you have the hardware.

~~~
5cott0
but what happens to those skills when you stop taking the pills?

~~~
afarrell
They are harder to practice... or they fall apart.

