One of the things I miss most since becoming a mother is having blocks of quiet time to myself to really focus on something — reading, writing, or other creative or intellectual pursuits. Both my job and my hobbies require focused attention. I do a lot of thinking, analyzing, and writing, and those things are hard to do when distracted or in short blocks of time. When I do have quiet time at home (which is usually late in the evening), it’s easy to let my tired mind zone out by watching Netflix or clicking and scrolling online. During the workday, my brain often strays to the numerous little “to-dos” that I have to keep track of: remember to buy more diaper cream, get a birthday gift for so-and-so, pick out a picture day outfit for D, RSVP for the event on Saturday, etc. (This, for those who don’t know, is the mental load that working moms disproportionately carry.) Because I don’t get enough sleep these days, it takes discipline to stay focused on the task and hand and not let my brain run down all these rabbit holes all the time.

I’m reading Cal Newport’s Deep Work, a book that’s been recommended by a number of folks I follow and admire and that’s been on my to-read list for a while now. Deep Work is all about improving your ability to focus so you can have the kind of mental breakthroughs needed to do great things that propel you forward professionally and creatively. Newport talks about how our tendency to focus on shallow tasks and the distractions of the modern world can keep us from pushing our brains to the limit, which we need to do to really innovate and contribute meaningfully in the world of knowledge-work. I haven’t finished the book yet, but what I’ve read so far is fascinating and motivating, and it confirms something I’ve been feeling of late: I need to dedicate more time to undistracted thinking and stop switching between tasks so often.

I suspect (and hope) that Newport concludes the book with some tips for how readers can increase the amount of deep work they do, but in the meantime, I’ve instituted my own system to encourage myself to spend more time working deeply. I use an online stopwatch to time how long I spend working without distractions. While the stopwatch is running, I do not check email, text anyone, Google anything, or do anything else that isn’t part of the project on which I’m focusing. If I do one of those things, I reset the timer and take a break, then start it anew for another deep work session. I record how long I work during each of these sessions, as long as it’s at least 20 minutes (I figure if it’s less than that, I’m probably not working very deeply). Then I total them up at the end of the day to see how much time I’ve spent in a state of focused attention during the workday. I make a little game of it, challenging myself to get in as many minutes of deep work as possible, and ideally a little more than the day before. I plan to start doing this for my personal writing as well, aiming for a set amount of deep work time each week.

I’ve been using this system for about a week and a half now, and so far I’ve found that I get in about 3 – 3.5 hours of deep work most workdays (more on days when I don’t have any courtroom proceedings). That doesn’t seem like much in an 8-hour day, but it doesn’t include the time I spend sitting in court, multitasking, reading and responding to emails, answering phone calls, doing administrative tasks, or working in 10-15 minute blocks of time between other tasks. I only count the blocks of time when I’m working without distraction on a single project for more than 20 minutes. Newport suggests that we only have the capacity to work deeply for a few hours a day before we become less efficient and less focused, so I feel okay about my three-hour average, although I’m aiming to increase that number as much as I can.

This method of tracking my deep work time has helped me to feel more focused, even when I’m tired and easily distracted. I feel like I get further on my big projects in a shorter amount of time working this way. I also feel more accomplished at the end of each day, like I’ve really put in a good day’s work and I’m ready to rest my brain. Deep work is challenging, but it feels good to get into a state of flow, and it feels even better to have really accomplished something in a relatively short period of time.

Of course, this method also means I’m not tending to shallow tasks as they pop into my head, which can make me feel a little less on top of things. I’ve been trying to jot down to-dos for later as I think of them so that I’m less likely to forget to do them. Then I try to batch the shallow tasks together and knock out a bunch of them at once. But pushing myself to spend more time working deeply does mean that there’s less time for shallow tasks, so I will probably have to just let go of the less important ones, and maybe that’s ok.

One problem that my method doesn’t entirely address is the issue of attention residue, which refers to the lag time our brains experience when we switch from one task to the next. We don’t always notice, but it can take us a while to re-focus on a big project after checking email or having a side conversation. Because of this, I’d like to try to be more deliberate with how often I take breaks and what I do when I take them. Of course, I only have so much control over my daily calendar and the goings-on of the office environment, so there are limits to how I can construct my daily time usage. Still, it helps to be aware of concepts like attention residue so that I can account for them where possible.

I think of my law school essay exams as an ideal example of deep work. For three to four hours, I would read and write furiously, completely engrossed in the task at hand. The time would fly by, and at the end of those few hours, I would have written the equivalent of a novella. The task was so important and the time pressure so great that there was no temptation to turn my attention to anything outside of the exam. I wouldn’t exactly call taking exams fun, but I usually felt pretty satisfied afterwards, like I’d pushed myself to the limit and had done the best I possibly could, and then I’d happily indulge in a well-deserved mental break for the rest of the day. If I could figure out a way to replicate those conditions in my normal life, I could probably write as prolifically as Stephen King or John Grisham. The closest I’ve gotten to that level and duration of intense focus in my working life is when trying to make a tight deadline, and I’ve found that’s often when I do my best work. I suppose that’s why people take on challenges like NaNoWriMo — the time pressure forces them to set aside distractions and work deeply.

Focus is a skill you can develop, a muscle that can be strengthened, and I know I need to work on mine. In today’s world of social media, email, texts, constant notifications, constant connectedness, and instant gratification, I suspect most of us need to improve our focus. Newport asserts that we need to train our brains to be comfortable with boredom and not to expect continual stimulation and distraction, even outside of the periods when we are working deeply. In other words, you can’t expect to be able to focus deeply for a few hours a day if you’re constantly checking your phone the rest of the time, because your brain will continue looking for the stimulus while you’re try to work deeply. So in addition to these daily periods of distraction-free, focused work, I’m recommitting myself to spending more time with my phone out of reach. (Spending time with my toddler really helps in that pursuit.)

Do you struggle to maintain focus on mentally challenging tasks? Have you taken deliberate steps to reduce distractions and encourage deep work? Let us know your tips and experiences in the comments.

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