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For me the biggest hindrance to deep work is not social media, email, etc., but the shallow work I need to do but hate. I actually like my deep work, but the sh

For me the biggest hindrance to deep work is not social media, email, etc., but the shallow work I need to do but hate. I actually like my deep work, but the shallow work, like putting together a slide deck, or giving a budget forecast, sucks. So when I have those hanging over my head I procrastinate like crazy, which also prevents me from starting my deep work because I don't want to get into it and then get pulled away because someone is asking for that slide deck. I see no solution to this.

randomsearch 5y ago
manager / maker keep the two separate. half days assigned to shallow.
swah 5y ago
Easier said than done - but what about allocating fixed minutes to work on this task when you're lower energy/creativity during the day (for me it would be after lunch)? "Starting at 14:00, work on slides for 45 minutes tops"
cik 5y ago
Temptation bundling fixes this for me. I force myself to do whatever task I dislike, and as a reward get to then do whatever I like. Eventually you retrain yourself to execute equally in both spheres.
Scarblac 5y ago
In the end it's always because I'm trying to force my brain to do something it doesn't want to do, that's true. But it's not necessarily because the work is shallow. Often, the following are true at the same time: - I tell myself that the work should take very little time, after all it's easy. - I tell myself that the work is shallow, and not the deep work that I like. - The actual work isn't even well defined yet! As a result I refuse to think deeply about what to do (because it's shallow, right?), there is no chance I feel good about myself (because no matter how quick or good I do it, that's no surprise, it was small and shallow). And because I didn't actually think about it, I don't realize just how vague those few requirements I have are. And so I feel miserable, kick myself for procrastinating, and no matter how hard I push myself to start, that of course doesn't work because the problem isn't defined well enough. So instead I try to tell myself that my work actually is fun, I can make it interesting because I'm going to take a moment to think about doing it the right way, and first I'm going to take a short walk in the park to think about it, write some thoughts down and then discuss with a stakeholder to check if what I have in mind is what they intended. And then I try to get the thing started, and usually I am then in deep work territory immediately.
cupofpython 5y ago
Discipline and reward are the solution for me. It sucks but you absolutely must prioritize getting that work done and off your desk as soon as possible. I tackle this work with the energy of a rabid dog, using my hate for it as fuel to work quickly. Afterwards, I make a nice cup of tea. It still sucks, but I am minimizing the total amount of time I spend with this type of work on my mind which has had ineffable benefits on my mental state If possible, get a coworker into the flow by working up drafts and having them review and provide feedback. while waiting for feedback, it isn't on your desk. If you have to provide your own feedback, still chunk and draft the work as if you were sending it to a coworker and then create a time-block for when to review it yourself. I have a lot of 'shallow work' right now as you describe. I am at a small business and I often get other peoples shallow work randomly dropped on my desk as well since my desk is also an operations overflow.

randomsearch 5y ago

manager / maker keep the two separate. half days assigned to shallow.

swah 5y ago

Easier said than done - but what about allocating fixed minutes to work on this task when you're lower energy/creativity during the day (for me it would be after lunch)? "Starting at 14:00, work on slides for 45 minutes tops"

cik 5y ago

Temptation bundling fixes this for me. I force myself to do whatever task I dislike, and as a reward get to then do whatever I like. Eventually you retrain yourself to execute equally in both spheres.

Scarblac 5y ago

In the end it's always because I'm trying to force my brain to do something it doesn't want to do, that's true. But it's not necessarily because the work is shallow. Often, the following are true at the same time: - I tell myself that the work should take very little time, after all it's easy. - I tell myself that the work is shallow, and not the deep work that I like. - The actual work isn't even well defined yet! As a result I refuse to think deeply about what to do (because it's shallow, right?), there is no chance I feel good about myself (because no matter how quick or good I do it, that's no surprise, it was small and shallow). And because I didn't actually think about it, I don't realize just how vague those few requirements I have are. And so I feel miserable, kick myself for procrastinating, and no matter how hard I push myself to start, that of course doesn't work because the problem isn't defined well enough. So instead I try to tell myself that my work actually is fun, I can make it interesting because I'm going to take a moment to think about doing it the right way, and first I'm going to take a short walk in the park to think about it, write some thoughts down and then discuss with a stakeholder to check if what I have in mind is what they intended. And then I try to get the thing started, and usually I am then in deep work territory immediately.

cupofpython 5y ago

Discipline and reward are the solution for me. It sucks but you absolutely must prioritize getting that work done and off your desk as soon as possible. I tackle this work with the energy of a rabid dog, using my hate for it as fuel to work quickly. Afterwards, I make a nice cup of tea. It still sucks, but I am minimizing the total amount of time I spend with this type of work on my mind which has had ineffable benefits on my mental state If possible, get a coworker into the flow by working up drafts and having them review and provide feedback. while waiting for feedback, it isn't on your desk. If you have to provide your own feedback, still chunk and draft the work as if you were sending it to a coworker and then create a time-block for when to review it yourself. I have a lot of 'shallow work' right now as you describe. I am at a small business and I often get other peoples shallow work randomly dropped on my desk as well since my desk is also an operations overflow.