Not all work is created equal.

In 2016, Cal Newport released his best selling book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. He dived into the differences between the different types of work.

Specifically, he coined the phrases Deep Work and Shallow Work.

Since then, it’s seeped into our modern day productivity vocabulary as we grapple with how to be productive and effective with our time, when so many things are clawing at our attention and time.

Today, I want to talk about why Deep Work feels so hard to do and how can we use systems in Notion to set ourselves up for successful.

Without neglecting things that we have to do and feel good at the end of the day about what we’ve accomplished in our working hours.

Now Lets Get into It…

There’s are lot of misconceptions or misuse of the these phrases.

So let start with some definitions straight out of Deep Work so we’re all on the same page.

Deep Work: “Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”

Shallow Work: “Non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”

To be clear, Newport is not saying that the ideal situation is to have 100% Deep Work and 0% Shallow Work.

For most people that is unrealistic.

Whether you work for someone else or for yourself, we all have to put on a “Manager Hat” at some point to do shallow work (e.g. administrative tasks, meetings or emails).

Why is doing Deep Work hard?

Because it’s the kind of of work that needs a lot of focus and attention.

You’re trying to solve a hard problem, come up with a long term business strategy, build a slidedeck and preparing to sell a $20,000 coaching program.

Humans love a good hit of dopamine to feel good.

Unfortunately, deep work often doesn’t give you the instant gratification to get that hit of dopamine in the moment that you get from checking and replying to emails.

But you get a big hit once you’ve accomplished your deep work session though!

Avoid These Common Pitfalls That Sabotage Deep Work

• Lack of forward planning: If people plan ahead, people can be intentional about scheduling time for Deep and Shallow work

• A distracting environment: People unwittingly work in a distracting environment (e.g. the phone is next to us, emails and instant chat stays open, the laundry basket is staring back at us on the couch)

• Underestimating how hard Deep Work really is: People overestimate how much they can realistically do, then feel tired and grumpy at the end of the day when they don’t hit their working targets

• No boundaries: People don’t set a target for shutting down their working day, and get burned out from over-working. It makes doing Deep Work feel hard and unappealing.

These mistakes only lead people to frustration and dissatisfaction about their working day.

And these are all mistakes I’ve personally experienced at some point before I used systems in Notion to help me overcome them.

So here’s what to do instead

These strategies work brilliantly if you’re working for yourself as a coach, consultant or any other type of solopreneur. If you’re working for a boss, with some healthy and clear communication, they will work equally well.

1. Decide the hours of your working day

Setting a healthy boundary of how many hours you plan to work in a day is the first simple step.

Working until you feel tired or you see your to-do list shortening is not a winning strategy. Only a one way road to burn out.

As a soloprenuer consultant, I aim to work around 7 hours a day. Some days are shorter, and some days are longer.

Having a target means I’m much better at preventing burnout from work.

2. Decide on your Deep Work to Shallow Work ratio

Research has shown that people can only concentrate intensely for a maximum of 4 hours.

After that we start to lose focus and becomes more inefficient with out time.

Every business and role will need a different ratio of Deep Work and Shallow Work hours for it to be a success.

As a coach or consultant, you’ll need to figure out what ratio makes sense for you to move your goals forward.

For me, my ideal day is 60:40 of Deep Work to Shallow Work each day.

I aim for 3 hours of Deep Work in the morning when I feel the most refreshed and focused. Then switch to doing some logistical and administrative tasks for an hour or so before lunch.

I try to plan calls and meetings for the afternoon where possible. If there are no calls for the day, I put in another hour of Deep Work and then ending my day with Shallow Work and shutting down the day.

Here’s a real life example of my day as I write this newsletter:

My Notion Day in Focus dashboard is what keeps me on track with juggling my tasks and making sure they are aligned with the goals and projects I’m focused on.

I use this dashboard for both my business work and managing my personal life so you’ll see a mix of work and non-work tasks on my dashboard.

3. Remove distractions from your environment

This is easier said than done.

If you’re working as a solo coach or consultant, the simple act of closing your email and other digital communication channels for the period you plan to do Deep Work life changing.

Putting your phone on silent, and better yet… Put your phone in another room to resist the urge to pick it up while you’re doing focused work.

I’m definitely not perfect at this.

But when I do exactly as above, I feel 10x more productive with my time.

The combination of my Day In Focus Notion Dashboard to keep me on task, and removing as many distractions as possible, have been really powerful strategy for making Deep Work easier to do.

4. Set up a system for planning ahead

I love using and building simple systems.

My Day in Focus Dashboard was built based on Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity strategy of having an Active and Holding list.

I only move a task from my calendar/event list or my Next Up list (Holding Lists) onto my In Progress Now list (Active List) when I’m ready to work on them.

(by the way, if you’re looking for some help and a roadmap to help you set up your systems in Notion, I’m offering them for $99 at the moment)

5. Tag your tasks as Deep or Shallow Work

This is all about intentionally.

Notion’s edge above other tools is it’s powerful database function.

Here’s an example of a task entry in my task database that you’ve seen above.

For me, ideating and drafting this newsletter is a Deep Work task. Notion’s database properties allows me to tag my tasks so I can quickly and easily see the type of work that is.

I’ll talk about why it matters in strategy # 6.

My business admin block is all about responding to emails, follow up with clients and any other miscellaneous to-dos.

I accumulate them on 1 list in the Notion page above to make it easy to find and then do once I hit my business admin block time.

6. Start weekly and daily planning

Planning ahead is the key to deep work success.

If you’ve never planned ahead before, start by planning your weeks followed by your days.

This is going to be your biggest return on your time investment.

During my Weekly Planning session on Sunday, I map out the big rocks I’m working on and the key tasks I need to do to move those rocks forward.

Here’s a snippet from my weekly planning template in Notion.

I do it on Sunday when my mind is clear and not in the depths of busy work. So pick a time where you are fresh enough to think strategically.

This is where having a tagged task list (Strategy # 5) makes it super easy and quick to plan my week according to the Deep and Shallow Work ratios I want to hit.

Now, just because you make a plan, doesn’t mean things don’t change.

As part of my shut down ritual to end my day, I review what I didn’t get done and make changes to my plan for the rest of the week.

If I hit at least 70-80% of my plan, I call that a successful day or week!

The Bottom Line

Doing deep work is hard.

But gets easier once you set up the right systems and rituals, set some boundaries and plan ahead.

Notion gives you the power to build and customise a system to suit how you like to work and keep track of your work. 

The rights tools and systems will help us become more productive. But don’t lose sight of your personal goal of being more productive.

For many of us, the real goal is to focus our time deeply on things that matter to us, feel good about what we produced with that time and have plenty of time to live our life outside of work.

So what do you think? Are you going to start putting 1 or 2 of these strategies into action?

If you’re looking for help, reply to this email. I’m always happy to give specific tips and recommendations to readers who reach out with their specific problems.

And that’s all for today.

See you next week.

Janice

p.s. If you already use Notion, but are struggling to adopt it fully, I think you’ll find this strategy call really helpful.

🔓️ Behind the Scenes

Early this week, I sent out the first draft of my email course and started getting feedback from beta readers.

Been blown away by it and it’s been helpful in reshaping some of the course content and even the waitlist page!

If you’re not sure if you should join the waitlist, here are a few reasons why you might be interested. You’ll learn how to:

• Organise your Notion in under 30 minutes.

• Eliminate at least 70% of the pages in your Notion sidebar.

• Re-structure your Notion for productivity, where everything has it's place.

• Find the exact page, database or template you're looking for in under 5 seconds.

• Finally conquer your fear of Notion databases and start using them effectively

• Turn pages into actual systems that help you take action in your business.

No worries if that’s doesn’t sound like something you need though.

📌 Resources for Coaches and Consultants

1. The magic of doing $10,000 per hour work (Khe Hy)

   The $10K framework is a powerful tool to figure out if you’re leveraging your time well in your business and life. I tag all my tasks with one of the four buckets so that when I plan my weeks and days, I know exactly how I’m spending my time.

   → Check out the article

2. Should you have an email newsletter? (Myth vs. Reality) (Justin Welsh)

   A must read for every coach, consultant and soloprenuer. And who better to hear from than Justin Welsh, who has made millions as a solopreneur, and a big part of his strategy is having a successful newsletter.

   → Check out the article

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