2-3-4 Friday

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

1 thought

Life without email? Is that really possible?

Well, Cal Newport thinks so. If you don’t know Cal, he’s a (ironically, computer science) professor but he focuses on how one can live a digitally minimalist life.

It makes a lot of sense.

If you think about your workday today, it probably looks like this.

1. Get to work by 917am. Make a coffee.
2. Open your emails.
3. Clear your emails, before getting down to work on your first deep task of the day - like an assessment you’ve to finish. Or a case note you need to write.
4. In between, there are pop-ups from Outlook. You respond to them. Or attempt to ignore them before going back to your work.

The problem with this approach, is that it’s input-driven, not output driven.

You’re reacting to your emails, rather than doing work that will push you towards your goals.

Secondly, it produces attention residue. Where part of your attention is left on the unclosed task, that’s now open in your head.

Think of your mind as a table. As you’re doing your work, you’re taking out books from the shelves. If you don’t finish the task and put it away, you’re leaving the book open on the table.

What researchers like Sophie Leroy have found is that this attention residue affects your performance on the next task.

Could you shut your email?

I think so.

We’ve been trying an experiment in our teams and the clients we work with over the past 5 months, where we’re painfully transitioning into a task board like Notion.

For each task, everything is kept within the task card.

But if you can’t use Notion, you can try this.

1. Stop checking your email from the start of the day, start instead after the first deep task of the day is done - like your case note. 11am is a good time.
2. Start work earlier in the office, at 8am
3. Push back meetings to the afternoon, after 12pm, where you’re less productive, and talk keeps you away from the lunch coma.

1 talk

When you switch from some Task A to another Task B, your attention doesn’t immediately follow—a residue of your attention remains stuck thinking about the original task.

• Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work

1 tip

This idea of attention residue sounds like a small thing, but it’s significant.

Because when you see this, you realise why you can’t seem to remember what you do after pulling Whatsapp up, and you find yourself bombarded by the other messages that have come through.

This matters because it’s about taking back your attention, and stopping the distraction. What we focus our energies on, we grow.

When we don’t, we find ourselves swayed by what others want, rather than what we want.

That’s dangerous.

John

Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love

Think others might benefit? I’m counting on you. Forward this on.