What separates great work from good work? Deep focus.
Whether you’re coding a new program or writing a profile for an alumni magazine or copy-editing a start-up’s new site, your attention has to laser in on what needs to be done, distractions be demned.
That’s all well and good and Pollyana to believe but the reality is much more of an audio barrage. Pins from texts and blips from Slack messages and Insta DM dings…every Pavlovian bell steering our focus from important work undermines the value-prop of being a solopreneur. We don’t have bosses, we have to manage ourselves, and the flexibility of being able to work anywhere and untethered to the office only encourages us to fine-tune our project management skills.
We have an obligation to our clients to invest in uninterrupted sessions of quality writing, in my case. The more we give in to our cellphone’s bells and whistling randomness, the easier it is to procrastinate and lose our path to deep work.
Numerous studies have found multi-tasking is hurtful for our productivity. When we switch from one task to another, your attention won’t immediately follow. A “residue” of your attention remains frozen thinking about the previous task.
Students should also practice deep concentration. One study found that focused research led to signal transmission, effectively cementing and reinforcing the learning pathway.
When you sit down tomorrow morning, silence your phone, turn off haptics (to avoid that inevitable buzzing), toggle off notifications, close any browser tabs unrelated to your work and steer clear of the TV. This is your time to shine on you crazy diamond of a freelancer, so give your client the most polished gem you’ve ever crafted, and revel in the silence of a mind-meld between your ideas, your creativity and the task ahead.
Enjoy it while it lasts.