ZombieFit™ :: Vol 7

In a digital economy, attention is the fundamental currency, and on an individual level, it sets up what is fundamentally a zero-sum game. Whether you’re giving up a tiny sliver or a large chunk of attention, it’s a finite resource. Fortunately, it replenishes daily…

In this episode, we’ll explore the game-changing practice of deep work. It’s probably the antidote to 99% of your productivity problems and an indispensable tool for survival on the digital streets of the online world…

Let’s roll…

The Poison

Our attention is the target of an incessant digital onslaught. The escalating digitization of our existence, coupled with the expectation of perpetual accessibility via mobile devices (and soon, headsets?), splits our focus into countless fragments.

It’s nuts, but think about this: trillions of dollars of combined market capitalization exist to capture and maintain your attention for as long as possible — because your attention is perfectly correlated to business models and monetization strategies.

Surgeon General’s Health Warning: Neglecting to manage your attention doesn't merely diminish productivity—it gradually erodes optimism, impairs cognitive performance, and will eventually lead to suboptimal performance in virtually every other dimension of your life: body + mind + soul.

Left unchecked, it may turn you into a zombie.

Poorly managing your own attention easily devolves into insidious self-sabotage that builds negative momentum in a downward spiral. A typical chain of causality often looks something like this:

• Poor attention management materializes as “not enough time”…

• Not enough time results in the need for “more work”…

• More work manifests as various imbalances in other areas of your life like…

  • Not enough sleep or reduced sleep quality

  • Too much caffeine intake

  • Skipping workouts and suboptimal nutrition

  • Zapped energy levels and lack of libido

  • [ And other bad things… ]

At a minimum, the quality of your life is degraded, and you’re not being all you can be with the limited time you have on this planet. In more extreme situations (that seem to be getting less extreme by the day!), you can start teetering toward burnout — or worse!

The Antidote

Popularized by author and productivity philosopher Cal Newport in his book by the same name, Deep Work signifies the capacity to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's about training your mind to achieve a flow state, channeling your attention, and managing your energy towards the highest leverage tasks that move your strategies forward. In other words, you give your mind a command, your mind + body execute it.

Deep work sharply deviates from the superficiality that pervades modern work culture. The digital economy is highly optimized to capture your focus, and it remains to be seen if advancements in artificial intelligence tech and wearables will make the situation better or worse. (I’m not an optimist on this one; see the previous comment about trillions of dollars of market cap needing your attention for fuel…)

Although seemingly obvious, Mr. Miyagi figured this stuff out a long time ago, and fortunately for us, Cal Newport went on to “borrow” some of his ideas and write an entire book about it…

Either way, it’s good for us that there are practical steps we can take to move in the right direction…

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Like all other forms of behavior change, implementing deep work can be a bit challenging at first; however, implementing a deep work practice is something that you can start doing immediately.

Remember that any practice involving true optimization of the body + mind + soul in pursuit of your “best self”, is fundamentally a “process of becoming”. It’s a journey, and the practice never really ends (because something will always compete for your attention.)

But like so many other practices, the practice itself becomes a reward. A fine line develops between the practice and the rewards that become inextricably linked to it.

Here are some practical tips and considerations for beginning your own journey of deep work…

Unambiguous Boundaries: Switch off notifications during your deep work sessions.

THIS. IS. VITAL. Notifications during deep work sessions are a no-go. If you think you’re practicing deep work with notifications on, it’s farce…

Establish 'digital office hours' to regulate your online presence, effectively managing expectations of your availability. Make yourself unavailable for small blocks of time, setting and managing expectations as needed.

As many wise mentors have told me, managing expectations is the key to happiness. Here’s some verbiage to help you manage expectations with friends, co-workers, etc…

In order to [ deliver best version of the thing to you ], I really need to carefully manage my attention and energy [ for blocked time ] so that I can do my best work. Practically speaking, that means I go ‘offline’ for [ deep working hours ], but don’t worry, I’ll respond to you when I take periodic breaks every couple of hours. It’ll be worth it so that [ benefit to you ]…”

Time Blocking: Allocate dedicated blocks of time for focused work. Practically speaking, an effective time-blocking routine practice would involve three aspects: 1) physically block time the time, usually in 1-2 hour blocks, 2) keep a timer visible during each block to help reinforce the limited amount of time you have available, and 3) audit your own compliance to how you used the time.

Practically speaking, you just need a piece of paper and a stopwatch, although digital tools like Sunsama help manage this discipline and cultivate the practice in simple (but powerful) ways. (Just don’t let one more digital tool become a distraction! Paper + analog timer works well!)

Ambiance: Locate or create a quiet, distraction-free space that invites focus. This can be a specific room or a noise-canceling pair of headphones that signal to your brain that it's time for deep work. Listening to music that puts you in a flow state can also be very helpful. Look no further than a playlist involving some Hans Zimmer to get the creative juices flowing…

Ever wonder why you are sometimes so productive working on a 2-3 hour airplane ride once you reach that comfortable cruising altitude? For me, the recipe holds true: ambient sunlight, white noise, upright posture, tidy/minimalist environment, and there’s a ticking clock (until the end of the flight.)

Rhythm: The effectiveness of deep work doesn't eliminate the necessity for regular breaks. Techniques like the Pomodoro method (e.g. work intensively for 25 minutes and then rest for a highly disciplined 5 — and only 5) can aid in maintaining high levels of focus while preventing fatigue.

I personally find that working in longer uninterrupted blocks that range from 90-120 minutes without any movement or interruption works best (and naturally aligns with my body’s natural biorhythms.) After an intense 90-120 minute session, I’ll typically break for about 15 minutes before starting my next block. During each break, I’ll typically refuel with fluids + snacks, check notifications, respond to urgent messages, go on a fast 5-10 min walk to get in some steps, etc.

Wrapping Up

Deep work is a pact that you make with yourself. Philosophically, it’s a declaration of intent to master your attention, your work, and eventually, your life. Just like other forms of self-discipline like waking up at a set time, meditation, or burning the midnight oil to hit the deadline, it’s a matter of the will.

Divide-and-conquer is the archetype of all other strategies, and deep work is how we can increase our digital leverage and reclaim some of our precious time, energy, and attention. Just like any other form of practice, it’ll take some effort to build momentum.

The rewards are 100% worth it. You got this!

Until next week…

Command center -- out.
Matthew Russell
Head of Zombie Preparedness

P.S. - Earlier this month, I kicked off a free ZombieFit™ training program just for this community. Every day, I’ll be posting a workout on Instagram that will help make you stronger, faster, and harder to kill.