When Motivation Starts to Wane
And Safer at Home gets in the way of performance.
Being required to stay mostly inside for 14 days makes you realize the more time you have, the less gets done. More aptly, the more distractions you have the less gets done.
Before the Safer at Home order was in place in my state, I spent significant amounts of time alone.
Ironic.
I’m less alone now, during a voluntary quarantine.
Pre-pandemic, I had hours to get into what associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University and self-help author, Cal Newport coined as “deep work” in his book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.
Deep work or cognitive depth is the ability to work in a state of deep concentration and focus for long periods without distraction or interruption.
It’s harder for me to maintain motivation without it. My best writing comes when I focus for long periods. And that requires me to have large amounts of time alone.
I’m part of Gen X. I grew up during a time when there were three channels on TV, no smartphones or computers beeping with constant news updates and notifications to act as distractions. There wasn’t much to do then. I spent hours listening to music and sitting in my room thinking, writing and reading.
During college, activating the flow state — experiencing deep work — happened several times a week without knowing it had a name.
I had a typical four-year college experience, living in dorms, and spending time with friends. Again, during a time of no cell phones or laptops. I did have one of the early Apple computers, but it was mostly for playing Tetris, still, deep work. I excelled at Tetris.
Not having a TV in my prison-size dorm room and only one small window for light was the ideal setting for deep work: homework, reading, and studying for exams. Concentrated focus on texts for my classes, and pulling all-nighters on one topic was deep work; we just didn’t have a term for it then.
Now, during “shelter in place” as some states call it, I have so much more time.
I’ve gained time from no longer having to drive anywhere. Since not driving anywhere, I don’t need to put gas in the car once a week; I’ve gained time from not having to go to the gas station. I’ve gained time from not going to restaurants and bars with friends and family, not having to go to the grocery store since having stocked shelves in my kitchen and pantry. I’ve gained time from not having to drive my teen to her friend’s houses and lessons. I’ve gained time from not driving to work in shared workspaces and coffee shops. I’ve gained time from no longer meeting friends for coffee, hiking, going to the movies, or doing anything that requires me to leave the house.
Yet, I’m getting a lot less done.
Refocus on deep work with more challenges
Deep work: “Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limits.” — Cal Newport
Since I’ve been blocking my power hours to write each day, usually between 7:00 am and 10:00 am, or from 8:30 am to 11:30 am — the first three hours upon waking in the morning — I’ve produced more writing in the last nine months than I have in the previous five years.
Deep work leaves me satisfied and happy. That’s one benefit of concentrating on one thing, you get a lot accomplished, and this increases your sense of fulfilment, thus driving motivation.
When you block out a few distraction-free hours and do what is important to you — your one thing — you get further along in projects and accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.
The recent challenge is taking deep-work time for yourself while everyone is home and sheltering in place — together.
I work at my best by limiting distractions from my environment and writing alone; it’s harder to do this when my family is home. I need to remind myself of this and block out alone time for myself.
Planning and structuring time alone is a big part of getting to a place of deep work.
Set the intention, then start by blocking off space in the house that is all yours.
Figure out what inspires you, and do that
One key to motivating yourself to accomplish a goal is to concentrate on the work that inspires you, even when doing less inspiring work.
I like writing — not every task required to make an income from writing inspires me, but the writing part does. Concentrate on the part of your work that inspires you to increase your motivation. Think about the times you wrote for three hours straight and came away with something you were proud to share.
Things that get in the way of deep work
Shallow work: non-cognitively intensive tasks which are low-value and easy to replicate, like responding to emails, texts, and social media.
Or, busywork.
When you are too busy, it usually means you are not in control of your time.
Leave the busywork for after your blocked time designated to your essential goals. Your primary work is work that fulfils you. It’s those essential tasks you want to get to that make your days worthwhile to you; your business, family, art, writing, whatever you consider is essential for you to get done to feel good about how you spent your day.
Work that is draining, stressful, and unsatisfying, I leave for later in the afternoon, my non-power hours — the hours when I have less to give. During non-power hours, I allow the world to infringe on my time — Facebook, Instagram, answering texts, emails, administrative stuff, details for my online businesses.
Things that help and hinder deep work
Cognitive fitness: According to Harvard Business Review, cognitive fitness is
“a state of optimized ability to reason, remember, learn, plan, and adapt that is enhanced by certain attitudes, lifestyle choices, and exercises. The more cognitively fit you are, the better you will be able to make decisions, solve problems, and deal with stress and change.”
Your ability to focus without distraction and get peak performance from your brain is a prerequisite for being able to work deeply. Task residue: When you switch from one task to another, but a residue of your attention is still fixed on the former project.
Task residue or “attention residue” is a term initially coined in 2009 by Sophie Leroy, a business professor at the University of Minnesota.
Cal Newport explains it this way, when you switch tasks, “your attention doesn’t immediately follow — a residue of your attention remains stuck thinking about the original task,” resulting in poor concentration and performance.
During this time of self-quarantine, with an increase in demands from family, switching from different tasks and activities more often decreases output and productivity.
I have seen this in real-time during hours alone — there is plenty of modern-day distractions if you don’t safeguard against them. The amount of time it takes to write one 1,500 word blog post when I have ten different browser tabs open is dramatically increased compared to the amount of time it takes to write one 1,500 word blog post when I concentrate only on writing.
It takes mental energy to switch from one task to another and back again, losing critical focus between tasks.
When I don’t put focused energy into my goal of writing, it takes all day to write one essay. To work fewer hours, add greater intensity of focus for the time you spend on your work.
It is truly amazing how much you can get done in two to three hours of focused time with no distractions.
Solution:
- Have a designated space for work during your power hours that family can’t infringe on.
- Block off time to get your one thing accomplished — usually three to four hours.
- Work during your power hours, turn off your phone and close all browsers except one. Turn off email notifications.
- Do something in between your power hours and switching to a different task, like going for a walk, having a glass of water, or an exercise routine.
Deep work philosophy
Your approach for achieving deep work, from completely removing shallow work to carving out regular periods for it in your daily routine to performing whole weeks of deep work at a time, is your philosophy to getting peak performance and increased output.
My depth philosophy is to put my essential work first for at least three to four hours a day. To concentrate on work that is fulfilling to me, so I have more hours later in the day to be present with family, cook with them in the kitchen, play games, and watch movies.
When I get my essentials finished during the first part of the day, it drives the rest of the day, my week, and my life, giving myself entirely to both my work and those I love.
As Newport says of deep work,
“If you’re not comfortable going deep for extended periods, it’ll be difficult to get your performance to the peak levels of quality and quantity increasingly necessary to thrive professionally,” he advises. “Unless your talent and skills absolutely dwarf those of your competition, the deep workers among them will out-produce you.”
Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering Type A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.
