If somebody asked me what I dislike most about myself, I\u2019d have the answer ready at the tip of my tongue. My inability to concentrate, I\u2019d say, fuelled by my addiction to my phone. Countless therapists have tried to help me with this over the years (\u201cmake a routine\u201d, \u201ctake breaks\u201d, \u201ctry the pomodoro technique\u201d etc. etc. \u2013 they might as well have been shouting into the void), to no avail. I continue to struggle with a short attention span, and find myself craving distraction in the form of Friends clips on YouTube or food reels on Instagram (sigh). <\/p>\n
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One day, I think to myself, I\u2019m going to master the skill of getting into a flow state whenever I want, like I used to be able to as a kid writing pages and pages of a \u201cnovel\u201d in single afternoons, or memorising entire textbooks before midterm exams. Now in my late twenties, this seems like a distant dream, an unreachable goal that I might keep striving for but never touch. Ours is a world where distraction is a commodity, to be bought and sold and profited off of, at the expense of our creativity, our concentration and our ability to just be. <\/p>\n
In this age of commodified distraction, Cal Newport\u2019s formulation of \u2018deep work\u2019 unsurprisingly received a lot of attention \u2013 both within discussions on work culture and other aspects of life in general. Newport, in his 2016 bestseller, writes \u201cDeep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It\u2019s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time.\u201d How do you go into this flow state that allows you to work deeply? Newport has four broad rules in place:<\/p>\n
1. Working deeply:<\/strong> By training yourself to be focused at all times, and making a routing that lets you go out of focus for short periods of time (usually we tend to do the opposite), we can do deep work. Newport advocates bouts of productivity, where you don\u2019t turn to anything else, followed by free reign to spend your time however you want. This is an alternative to the way in which a lot of us work, constantly switching between meaningful tasks and distractions (I\u2019ve looked at my phone five times between the time I started writing this and now, pray for me).<\/p>\n 2. Leaning into boredom:<\/strong> Newport says we should spend a certain amount of time doing nothing, just being with ourselves. This has become harder than it ever was. Whenever we don\u2019t have anything to do, we\u2019re scrolling or texting. I can\u2019t remember the last time I let my mind just be, allowed it space to exist by itself without stimulating it in some way. To activate the flow state, boredom is an essential precedent, according to Newport. <\/p>\n 3. Exit Social Media:<\/strong> This one is pretty simple, but its also the most difficult one, in my honest opinion. As someone who\u2019s been active on social media for more than 10 years at this point (all those intense formative teenage years included), quitting social media would be like chopping off a limb. At the same time, I know that this is an almost full proof way of reclaiming my brain. Newport argues that by quitting social media, we automatically remove a huge energy drainer from our daily lives. He\u2019s right, but aaaaa. <\/p>\n 4. Cut the crap:<\/strong> OK, maybe he didn\u2019t put it like this, but I am. Newport advocates for a rational use of one\u2019s time and concentration. In order to achieve this goal, we need to cut down on unnecessary emails, calls, meetings and so on. By trimming the fat, we can conserve our energy levels, go deep into what needs our attention and get it done. This almost sounds obvious, but you\u2019ll be surprised at how difficult its implementation might be. <\/p>\n Now that I\u2019ve given you the rundown on Deep Work, let\u2019s come to Bee. Bee, like any other company, wants greats results. As someone who works at Bee, I\u2019ve found that Bee creates an environment and sustains a format where deep work is possible, thus yielding those better results. How does Bee do it?<\/p>\n Asynchronous communication:<\/strong> This resonates with what Newport says filtering out unnecessary meetings and messages in order to allow workers to do what they\u2019ve been hired to do \u2013 work. At Bee, there\u2019s no one forcing you to turn up to meetings that could have been emails (or in our case, Basecamp pings), or breathing down your neck while you\u2019re trying to finish a task. Everyone gets to concentrate in their own space in their own time and use Basecamp to let relevant colleagues know what they\u2019re up to and if they need help. <\/p>\n No use of social media:<\/strong> A depressing number of organisations I know use Whatsapp as an official channel for communication with and between employees. This is obviously a recipe for disaster \u2013 all your friends are on Whatsapp, and your Whatsapp is on your phone, which has all the other apps. I mean, come on! What do you think is going to happen? At Bee, we strictly use Basecamp to communicate \u2013 it streamlines exchanges and keeps it clean. <\/p>\n Flexibility:<\/strong> Bee is all about flexibility- be it in terms of working hours, or allocation of tasks, or the allocation of holidays. Flexibility gives workers the option to concentrate for long hours, and also to lean into boredom, as Newport suggests. By empowering us to work the way we want to, Bee makes it easier to go into a deep work state, thereby maintaining the good results it seeks. <\/p>\n As I continue to work at Bee, I hope to master the deep work state bit by bit. I know there\u2019s a long way to go (my phone just made a pop sound! Wonder who it is), but with Bee on my side, I\u2019ll bee there one day.<\/p>\n