You have a finite amount of willpower that becomes depleted as you use it.
Over time, distractions deplete the finite goal of willpower until you can't longer resist unless you are smart about your habits.
Commit to a particular pattern for scheduling this work and develop rituals to sharpen you concentration before starting each session.
You could just try to make deep work a priority. But supporting this decision with the strategies will significantly increase the probability that you succeed in making deep work a crucial part of you professional life.
You need your own philosophy for integrating deep work into your professional life. Be careful to choose a philosophy that matches your specific circumstances others the hair can derail before it solidifies.
Attempts to maximize deep efforts be eliminating or radically minimizing shallow obligations. Have a well-defined and highly values processional goals that you pursue your professional success comes form doing this one thing exceptionally work. The pool of individuals to whom this philosophy applies is limited.
Divide your time, dedicating some clearly defined stretches to deep pursuits and learning the rest open to everything else. During the deep time, the bimodal worker will act monastically, seeking intense and uninterrupted concentration. During the shallow time, such focus is not prioritised.
This philosophy believes that deep work can produce extreme productivity but only if the subject dedicates enough time to such endeavours to reach maximum cognitive intensity - the state in which real breakthrough occur. Minimum unit of time for deep work in this philosophy tends to be at least one full day.
It is typically deployed by people who cannot succeed in the absence of substantial commitments to non-deep pursuits.
It argues that the easiest way to consistently start deep work sessions is to transform them into a simple regular habit The goal is to generate a rhythm for this work that removes the need for you to invest energy in deciding if and when you’re going to go deep.
By supporting deep work with rock-solid routines that make sure a little bit gets done on a regular basis, the rhythmic scheduler will often log a larger total number of deep hours per year.
Journalists are trained to shift into writing mode on a moment’s notice, as is required by the deadline-driven nature of their profession.
This approach is NOT for the deep work novice. The ability to rapidly switch form shallow to deep doesn’t come naturally. Without practice, such snitches can seriously deplete your finite willpower reserves. This habit also requires a sense of confidence in your abilities - a conviction that what you’re doing is important and will succeed. This type of conviction is typically built on a foundation of existing professional accomplishment.