How Can Digital Nomads Get Better at Deep Work?

Take a look at your last workday. (And be honest.) How productive were you?

How much time did you spend completely immersed in a challenging task, working to the limits of your ability to produce something impressive of value?

In contrast, how much time did you spend responding to notifications, answering emails, interacting on social media and doing other simple non-cognitively demanding tasks?

For many of us, the second category keeps us much busier than the first. We find ourselves on a constant treadmill of frenetic online activity, trying to keep our inboxes empty and our social media publishing queues full. We spend hours per week doing these simple tasks, which keep our attention shallow and fragmented. The truth is, according to many studies, that multitasking really doesn’t allow us to get more done. In fact, we lose up to 40% of our productivity when we are switching between tasks all of the time.

According to the book “Deep Work” by Cal Newport, within this constant stream of distractions we are losing our ability to focus deeply and get quality work done. This is preventing us from being able to do our best work and stand out from the rest.

These days there are more digital nomads than there ever were before and it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the rest. In order to be successful, you need to be able to do exceptional work in a sought after “niche” that is difficult to grasp. This means that you will need to be able to continually upgrade your abilities and master difficult skills.

A Summary of the Main Points

If you haven’t read the book, I suggest you do so as soon as possible. I think it’s a very important one for any knowledge worker or digital nomad in today’s world.

Just to give you an idea of the main points that the book covers, here are some of the most important takeaways:

• Deep work is the act of focusing on a cognitively challenging task without any other distractions.
• Deep work is valuable because it allows you to fully focus on the task and perform at the very limits of your capability.
• Newport claims that this type of work is what really creates results of value that change the world. The ability to produce at a high level and quickly master hard things will allow you to thrive in today’s economy. He calls it the “superpower of the 21st century.”
• In our world of constant emails and social media notifications, the ability to do this is becoming rare.
• In order to be able to produce the best work you are capable of, you need to be able to commit to deep work and achieve a state of unbroken concentration.
• This takes practice. Your ability to do deep work is like a muscle — you have to exercise it to make it stronger.

The Challenges of Getting into “Deep Work Mode” While on the Road

There’s no doubt that learning how to do deep work is incredibly valuable for digital nomads. Whether you are a programmer, web designer, graphic designer, artist or any other creative profession, learning how to put yourself in this focused mode in order to push yourself to the highest level of performance and create your best work will be what makes you stand out from the rest.

One of the strategies for deep work that Newport describes in his book is the practice of scheduling daily deep work sessions and getting into a routine of carving out time to focus every day. However, this can be challenging for digital nomads due to the lack of routine that often occurs as a result of the nomadic lifestyle. It’s hard to set a work schedule when you are in a different location every week.

Another reason why getting into deep work mode as a digital nomad can be challenging is that the lifestyle is usually pretty exciting. You’re always arriving in a new and exciting destination and there’s always the temptation to go out and explore, rather than locking yourself in your hotel room and working.

Also, digital nomads often tend to fall into the category of obsessed self employed workaholics who can never stop thinking about their online business and how to make it better. While this is a good thing, it’s also important to give your brain a break and schedule in time during the week when you are not doing work.

However, there are some aspects of the digital nomad life that actually make it easier for digital nomads to get work done. One of the main benefits is the freedom. Office workers struggle with supervisors who expect them to be reachable at all times via email or instant messaging apps. Also, they find themselves in office workplace environments with chatty co-workers and constant meetings — factors that can certainly interrupt the flow of deep work.

Digital nomads are fortunate as they don’t have to deal with these workplace factors. They have much more freedom to hide away somewhere quiet on their own and focus on creating something. Which brings me to my next point…

The Rise of “Deep Work Retreats”

The increasing interest in Deep Work has sparked the rise of a certain type of travel experience — a monastic retreat where digital nomads, knowledge workers and other thinkers can go to disconnect from the world and get important stuff done.

For example, take a look at this Deep Work Retreat in the Czech Mountains. Advertised as being for “artists, creative professionals, developers and digital nomads” it offers a quiet house with privacy and peaceful surroundings. According to their website many people have already used it to get things done — editor-in-chief of Finmag magazine Michel Kasparek wrote a novel there and the development team of Windy.com spent some time coding and hiking.

Whether you are writing a novel or a business plan for a startup, a sanctuary like this could be a great place to disconnect from distractions. It is designed for digital nomads, with strong internet, lots of table space,

Staying in a place like this can be a good option for the digital nomad who wants to eschew interruptions and lock themselves away to focus on an important task. This is interesting, because in the past remote retreats were marketed as a way for busy people to escape from work and relax. With deep work being so valuable in today’s world, it comes as no surprise that the focus is shifting.

So, How Can Digital Nomads Get Better at Deep Work?

What are some of the essential strategies for integrating more “deep work” into your digital nomad lifestyle? Here are some of the strategies that can help you to achieve this state of concentration more often:

• Schedule deep work into your day and don’t make changes. Try to schedule your day and even your week as much as possible, so that you define concretely what you need to do.
• When you start, turn off your phone, shut the door and let nothing distract you from what you are doing. Treat the time like a very important appointment — an appointment with yourself to get crucial work done.
• Focus on the most important task that is essential for leading you to your desired goal. Think about what you need to accomplish, then break down and reverse-engineer the process so that you can see the steps you will need to take to get there.
• When you set a deadline for the task, make it 20% less than it would usually take. Then, you will be scrambling and pushing yourself to the limit to get it done, which helps to improve your skills.
• When you are working on your deep work tasks, have a zero tolerance policy for any distractions. If you even glance at your inbox it will reduce your ability to focus.
• Hold yourself accountable for your own productivity. Measure the amount of deep work hours that you are able to achieve and work on increasing those hours.
• Be wary of your tendency to look at your phone for distraction whenever you are bored. You’ll need to retrain your brain to tolerate being a little bit bored, so that you can break your addiction to constant stimuli.

Last but not least, at the end of the day shut down all work and give your brain a complete break from thinking about it.

I hope you enjoyed this article. I’ll make sure to write another one with some of my tips and tricks to lead the optimal digital nomad lifestyle and the perfect way to get started.

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Keep Nomading,
Tim

I’m a co-founder at Candy Banners, a digital advertising studio and Stinson Design, the leading presentation consultants in North America. Previously founder of social game Predico and on the board of ad tech company Viewor.
Follow my adventures on Instagram @timgrassin