Deep Work and FOMO
Deep Work can be considered a concept that is not known to many.
What is Deep Work? And pardon the pun but how does it work?
This is one of my favourite books that I have ever read, purely because I believe in the concept of Deep Work (although have not mastered it yet) as it suggests something that is quite contrary given the way that most of us are socially today.
This brief article is going to summarise my thoughts on the subject and I would strongly recommend that you go and get a copy for youself.
Deep Work is the ability to be able to have intense focus on a task for a certain period of time, thus enabling you to become more productive and effective in what you do.
This sounds relatively straight forward yet, from reading the book and seeing how most of the world works at the moment, it is quite challenging to say the least.
Think about the fears that you have, the work commitements and the other commitments in your life. You may think:
What if I miss this call?
What if I’m not browsing on social media 24 hours a day?
What if I miss out on a potential project?
What if I miss out on something, somewhere?
There it is. The fear of missing out. Just that fear alone can get your mind wondering. Ask yourself the following question.
Is it such a big deal if you miss out on something?
That can be quite controversial and there are always exceptions to the rule. This is where you have to have the ability to weigh up the positives against the negatives. For example, if you have applied for a promotion at work or have put an offer in on a life changing property deal then yes, you will probably take that call because the positives are going to outweigh the negatives.
If not though, then why take the call?
That is probably a very lame example and Cal Newport explains that in a much better way that my writings can.
There are 4 different ways in which you can utilize a Deep Work philosophy. This might be doing an hour at the same time each day, going away for a week without any distractions, or doing blocks of Deep Work when and where you can.
As with many things with life, it comes down to finding what works for you. Normally that involves a lot of trial and error yet do not use the excuse of a fear of mising out on something as a reason for you NOT to try something.
My thoughts are that you should try this concept and find what works for you. Achieving more and being more successful does not necesarily mean that you have to work 18 bours a day everyday. You might find that you will get equally good results by using your time wisely and having less distractions.
When I wrote Buy To Let: How To Get Started, the bulk of the writing was done in a 4 day stint in Cheltenham. I stayed in a Serviced Accommodation unit, locked myself away and (apart from doing 2 podcast interviews), turned my phone off and just focused on getitng the book done.
For 101 Top Property Tips – a dedicated time per day has been set out to contact the contributing authors and to write my own tips, foreward etc. Both slightly different ways of doing Deep Work yet the results are the same.
Don’t fear missing out on something just because you are not on social media or not contactable. Do what works for you, try new things and reap the rewards.
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