I’ve gotta get some writing done. I’ve got about 2 hours before people come home from work or school. Fortunately, our cabin in the back garden is now fully functional and I can get out of the house, and be out of sight! There’s something crucial about not being seen, even if you just happen to be in the garden room. Here are the rules...

The kids are away with Cara to a family gathering, and I'm here at home in the garden room - I'm about to start writing an essay for uni. The mission for the next few hours is to write my first shitty draft, and to do it without any distraction or break...just write until I'm done, and it doesn't matter how shit it is or how long or sh...

"Your time is more valuable now than ever" This is what someone in my team said to me a few weeks ago - and my first thought was...my time has always been valuable! But, because I've reduced my working hours by 40%, there is a perception that the value of my time has changed somehow. And it's exactly the perception I want people to hav...

Often times, my motivation to do deep work comes from what's at stake. What I mean is, what am I a) missing out on or b) what could happen if I don't do the work. For example, today I'm at the library and it's the middle of the school holidays (we're off work for a week). Cara and I agreed that I'd go to the library to work on an essay...

I thought I’d write for you a mini-series about the decision to work part time in professional services. It heavily overlaps with the Deep Work topic, so I’m sure you’ll find it interesting. If you have any questions, email me at chrismarr@hey.com. I’m not sure how many parts there will be…perhaps I’ll continue it for 6 months or so as...

I find it hard to discipline myself with iPhone apps like instagram, twitter and even LinkedIn. I go looking for distractions. And I never feel good about it. To break myself out of the unhealthy habit of scrolling endlessly, what works for me is simply deleting the apps from my phone. As a better alternative, I’m working myself into t...

From 3rd April 2023 I will be working part time hours in my job at IMPACT. This was a deliberate decision made by me, and influenced by many factors that I'll go into more detail about in a future note (if you have questions, email me about them...it'll help me explain my decision). What's relevant to this Deep Work blog is that I now ...

My good friend Scott was asking me about Deep Work by Cal Newport the other day, and so I looked out the book to re-read it. I'm about 150 pages into the book and it still feels so incredibly important for the work I do today. There's no question I've slipped with my Deep Work practices, and I want to get back to it. I've got a lot of ...

The last time I sat down to write and research my book was a month ago. I've been here before, but yet there's always a brief initial disbelief - "has it really been a month?" A few thoughts: • Time passes more quickly than I realise • I will always be able to find an excuse not to do the work • Don't rely on 'tomorrow' - there's no gu...

When I feel like I want to go to a cafe to do my writing I know immediately that the whole idea is a distraction (Resistance), and the best thing I can do is sit down at my desk and get on with it. But not today. I just HAD to get out of the house. Our landlord is coming to check our property, and although I know everything will be fin...

I had to rearrange my commitment to this project last week due to last minute child care arrangements. As a result, no time has been clocked for this project since 3rd June. Instead, I spent a lot of time with Spencer and Luna - we went to the local zoo and spent time playing in the park and enjoying the warm weather. There was not a s...

It's 10:30am and I'm ready to get out for a walk and clear my head. I was a little all over the place today. I thought the best place for me to start was by looking through all my writing so far and really think about how to make it relevant to the project. Initially, this started off as a good exercise, but then it took my down some r...

Perfectionism is telling me there’s only one way to do this. There’s only one plan. It’s this way or not at all. It’s all or nothing. There’s no middle ground. I hate how perfectionism shows up for me. It really does hold me back. It’s probably at the root of most bad days I have. I've written about here (2018) and more recently here: ...

As predicted...I kept feeling the need to check my phone or pull away and do something else. In the end, I did better by setting short time frames to focus on work and the reward myself with a small break. So, I guess there will be times when focusing for 3 hours at a time will be easy, and other days when it will be more difficult. On...

It's 8:45 on Monday morning, and I feel like I could be very easily distracted by many many things. You know when sometimes you're just in that frame of mind? Anything and everything could seem more important than the actual work I promised myself that I'd do. Here's what I could do instead of doing the actual work: • Laundry • Dishwas...

Really enjoyed my session today. I kept my focus on the research. I'm still finding a lot of rich ideas in my journals. In fact, I've only really tapped into one journal [Daily Stoic] from the period of time I'm looking at. I've still got a few other resources to tap into - I was using Evernote a lot during this period, and I was keepi...

[Note to self] Reasons why you need to do deep work: 1. Attention and energy are limited resources - don't waste them on task switching and getting distracted. 2. That great feeling you create by focusing on one thing for an extended period of time. 3. I need to feel like I'm making progress. 4. My most important work needs a lot of un...

I figured out why I’m finding this so difficult. I’m trying to write the book while I’m still researching it. So, next deep work session I’m going back the research and I’m going to dig further and deeper. It’s all good. I still got a few hours of writing done, I still managed to get clear on a few things. And, the big realisation was ...

7:43am. I want to write this morning, but I'm having to embrace an imperfect environment for it. I'v got the school run at 8:30am, and then a call I need to take between 10am and 11am. • Can I still turn up and do some work on this project? • Can I still get on with it? • Can I use the same 'deep work' principles in shorter time frames...

The writing is getting tough. I think I’ve done much of the easy stuff, and now I have to go deeper and start really challenging myself to write better. I’m thinking about: • the narrative • the style • what it is that I’m really trying to say • is it entertaining enough? • how I take my journal entries and turn them into a story I’ve ...

It’s been a while since I sat down for a writing session [I just looked back at the journal and it's been a month. Lesson - time passes really quickly!] It’s 8:43 on Monday 17th May, and I’m ready to get back into it. The past three or four weeks have been a combination of work and being a parent: • There was the spring vacation • Our ...

I didn't want to spend more time doing research today (curating content from my journals), I can pick this up again next time - instead I wanted to actually start writing the book. So, my three hours were spent taking those individual entries that I've already curated from October 2019 to March 2020 and editing them into something that...

There are many other things I'd like to do this morning. This is going to be my fourth deep working writing session and this is the first time I've felt like I could just skip it. Changing my schedule from a daily writing plan to twice weekly deep writing sessions has worked really well for me. It has given me the room to do other thin...

A little shorter than I would have liked, but it went well. Short bathroom break in the middle but I was focused throughout and I feel good about the progress I made. I went through journal entries from January 2020 to March 2020. The index cards beside me are very helpful - I took down some quotes from my journal that I'd like to use ...

I'm about to start my third deep work writing session. I can't start thinking that I've got this and I know what I'm doing, yet. I need to keep reminding myself about the conditions that need to be set for me to write this book. Today's session starts at 9:30am and ends at 11:45am - 2 hours and 15 minutes. No break this time...working ...

I was aiming for 3 hours, but I didn't quite make it . I knew this second session was going to be more difficult, and I did find myself looking for distractions. The only distractions were a few text messages. The good thing about doing this so early in the morning is that there really is very little going on in the world and almost no...

Can I do this? Can I prove to myself that I can turn up and do another deep work session? Sure, anyone can do something for the first time - the novelty is exciting and fun... ...but do I have the discipline to turn up again, and again, and again? This is the only place where I doubt myself - this is my biggest challenge, and also a fe...

That's my first 'deep work' session complete. Feels good to have focused on a single project for that length of time. Over 4000 words written, and I have a much clearer idea of what the structure of the book will be. I didn't use the internet at all during my session. This is how I managed that: 1. I switched off the internet 2. Closed...

So, I thought this HEY blog would be the best place to publish these updates and thoughts about my writing project. Mainly, because no one knows it's here and I can keep a record and blog without worrying about all the distracting things that go with it. In other words, I can fulfill a personal need to share, without the baggage. Today...