Episode 908: Why Deep Work isn’t about Focus
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 908 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:08] Aaron Walker: [00:00:08] Hi, my name is Aaron Walker, I'm president and founder of the mastermind playbook. Masterminds are a great way to intentionally grow yourself and invest in others. And one way to be inspired to serve others well is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my good friend, Scott.
[00:00:27]Scott Maderer: [00:00:27] but the truth is that doesn't happen. It doesn't get easier. The longer you put it off. In fact, it probably gets even harder. Now I'm guilty of this as well. I'm guilty of often putting off deep work because it just feels like it's not that important. It can wait until tomorrow.
[00:00:47]Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent [00:01:00] and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence.
[00:01:10] So that you can impact the work
[00:01:14]today's episode about developing your influence by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why deep work. Isn't just about focus. I share why deep work is more complex than just that. And I also talk about why you get to determine what is truly deep work. As we talk about stewarding your time.
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[00:02:01] One of the things that I talk about a lot when I'm talking to people about productivity is deep work and shallow work. No, this comes from work by Cal Newport about how you can find work. That is just the busy work that keeps things going. Oftentimes, this is things like answering emails, even making client calls or even client meetings.
[00:02:26] These actually aren't bad things. They're not bad work. They're not work that doesn't need to be done, but they're work that doesn't build for the long term. There it's work that doesn't create more. Down the road in terms of beneficial things coming in. Instead it's just the work that kind of gets it off your plate today, but often it comes right back tomorrow that shallow work deep work is work that really moves the needle work that sets up processes and systems that make things easier down [00:03:00] the road work that brings in change.
[00:03:03] That is making a massive change. In your programs and your processes work that really moves the needle in some way, work that's longer term, or that gets more done. But all too often, we think about deep work in terms of focus. We think about deep work is work that needs us to pay attention to it, work that we have to block everything else out.
[00:03:30] Shut off the phone, turn off the email and get our mind really in the mode of. But the truth is it's not just about needing focus. There's important work that maybe you can do relatively quickly, relatively easily without a lot of extra effort. And then there's deep work that you can do that does require.
[00:03:53] Extensive focus. It does require focused time and focused work. It [00:04:00] requires getting into the flow of the work. And by the same token, there's shallow work that can fall into both of these categories. Deep work is complex because it's not necessarily always difficult. Instead it's work. That is important, but probably not urgent.
[00:04:22] It's the doing the planning work. It's the developing standard processes work. It's the stuff that it's all too easy to put off because it really doesn't seem to matter if you do it today. You do it tomorrow. You do it next week. You do it three weeks from now. It'll still be waiting for you. But it's often the work that is actually the most important work to do, because it's the work that will make things easier down the road.
[00:04:52] It's the work that will pay off over and over again and make things [00:05:00] continue to get easier each and every day. That's, what's ironic about it because. The truth is all too often, we think about shallow work is unimportant. We think about shallow work is work. That's easy. And we think about deep work as hard work, but that's one of the false hoods.
[00:05:20] That's one of the things that keeps us from doing it because we put it into that bucket of difficult. We put into that bucket of hard. We decide that it's easier to put it off for tomorrow because after all it's hard to do. We should just put it off for tomorrow. Maybe it will be easier then, but the truth is that doesn't happen.
[00:05:42] It doesn't get easier. The longer you put it off. In fact, it probably gets even harder. Now I'm guilty of this as well. I'm guilty of often putting off deep work because it just feels like. It's not that important. It can wait till tomorrow. [00:06:00] I'm guilty of putting off deep work, because I think it requires creating the perfect environment to be able to do it.
[00:06:06] And maybe it's not the perfect environment today. I'm guilty of putting off deep work, because I feel the truth is that deep work is it going to be easy to do? And none of us want to necessarily jump right up to do something that's hard. I think we all are. But the truth is your, the filter for what is the deep work in your life?
[00:06:28] What is the work that you need to do? That's important, but not urgent. What is the work that you need to do that creates an easier time down the road? What is the work that you need to do that you can do today to multiply the time you have tomorrow? That is deep work for you. That is the work that is important to do and whatever you can do to create an environment where you can do some of that each and every day, each and every week.
[00:06:59][00:07:00] That's really important because that's the kind of thing that over time pays off dividends. That's the kind of thing that over time creates each day being a little easier than the day before. That's the thing that causes that incremental improvement that we're always talking about the change of 1% better each and every day.
[00:07:24] But deep work is also the work that we tend to put off for tomorrow. Because we feel like it's important, but it's not urgent. And we can wait for another day. Thanks for listening.
[00:07:37]Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our [00:08:00] stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.
[00:08:22] Scott Maderer: [00:08:22] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.