Deep Work vs Shallow Work: Mastering Productivity

Optimize Your Tasks for More Meaningful and Satisfying Days.

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Most of us struggle to be productive in a way that is impactful and satisfying.

We create a to-do list of 20 tasks, which we sometimes complete and sometimes don’t. In both cases, we don’t feel that our day was really productive, which leaves us unsatisfied at the end of the day.

This makes us feel like we might have done less work, so we try to increase our to-do list of tasks, thinking that might make us satisfied with our work life.

The actual problem is not with your work ethic or the time you are putting in; it’s with the kind of work you are doing.

I used to procrastinate a lot, and then I realized that was not the way to live a meaningful life, so I started learning how to be productive and how to overcome procrastination from different places.

This gave me motivation, and I created a list of tasks for tomorrow in my to-do list.

Here is an example of those tasks.

1. Login to Fiver.
2. Reply to my friend on Messenger.
3. Send the file to the client.
4. Declutter my desktop.
5. Check Slack for an update on work.
6. Check the latest emails and reply to them.

You got the idea; these are not the tasks that will actually impact my work or growth in a positive way. Even if I do 50 tasks like these, I won’t feel satisfied at the end of the day.

Once I realized that even after completing my to-do list, I was still not satisfied with my work, I began questioning my process and thinking about what I might be doing wrong.

I found out that the tasks I was doing were shallow work, which is good to have done but not moving forward in my business.

Then I started creating separate to-do lists; one was a deep work list, and the second was a shallow work list.

I set the rule that I will only add 3 tasks to my deep work list, and if I complete these tasks, it will be considered a productive day even if I don’t finish my shallow work list.

An example of my deep work list.

1. Write an article draft on why successful people are hard to copy.
2. Review three long videos from my client YouTube channel and find out the reel ideas.
3. Meeting about lead generation

When I started doing my deep work tasks, it totally changed the way I was progressing in life and made me more satisfied.

So if you are facing the same problem, here is how you can create your deep work vs. shallow work list.

Deep Work

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Deep work is basically a technique shared by one of my favorite people Cal Newport, in his Deep Work book. In this technique, you need to select the tasks that are very important to your progress. You can apply the Pareto principle to get the idea.

The Pareto principle says that 20% of the efforts you make bring 80% of the results, and 80% of the efforts bring 20% of the results. You need to find out what the 20% things are that will bring you 80% results.

It can be

• Writing an article for Medium
• Reaching out to the client for lead generation
• Programming software
• Building a website
• Editing video

You can also think about it in the Eat the Frog Way. Brian Tracy says in his book Eat the Frog, Find out what the one thing is that if you do it today, you will have most of your work done. He calls it the frog.

Then he says to eat that frog first thing in the morning, which means to complete the most important task earlier in the day so you can spend the rest of your time without the burden of completing a tough task.

Now coming back to Cal Newport, he says once you have identified your task, which is your important task of the day, set a time when you will do the task.

When you are doing the task, you need to give your full attention to the task only.

• Turn off your phone notifications or put your phone in another room.
• Close all the apps and tabs that are not relevant to your task.
• Sit in a place where you won’t be disturbed.

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In this way, you are making sure you have all the attention you need to complete that task, and you will perform better if you are not distracted by things or multitasking.

I set a 90-minute timer. In that time, I only do the deep work session, and only the app or tab where I’m working is open; everything else is closed.

Once that deep work session is done, I take a 10-minute break.

This gives you enough time to recharge your attention; otherwise, you’ll get exhausted if you keep working after 90 minutes.

But I make sure to not check my phone or go to YouTube during that break because it will lose its purpose of relaxing our eyes.

I do only 3 deep work sessions because if you do them right, most of your tasks for the day will get done, but if you need more, set a maximum of 4 deep work sessions for the day.

This is the way you can do important and satisfying work.

Shallow Work

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Once my deep work tasks are completed, I shift toward my shallow work list.

You can consider it 80% of the things that bring 20% results.

I prefer something urgent and important for my shallow work task list.

For example, it can be

• Deliver completed content to my clients.
• Publish YouTube videos with proper SEO optimization.
• Publish an article on Medium.
• Publish posts on Instagram and Twitter.

Anything that can be completed in under 10 minutes goes into my shallow work tasks. I can do these tasks when I’m low on energy, like listening to music.

Mostly, these tasks are the ones on which you can multitask.

Make sure to add only important and urgent tasks to your shallow work; otherwise, it will get cluttered and you’ll start feeling overwhelmed.

The thing that I did in my shallow work tasks, which helped me a lot, was not to add any personal tasks to this list.

If I needed to wash my dishes or buy groceries from the store, I would create a separate list for my personal tasks.

In this way, I get focused on what’s important and when it needs to be done. If you don’t create your lists in this way, then you’ll do 10 personal things. 5 shallow work tasks and 0 deep work tasks, and consider your day very busy and hectic, but it won’t be impactful.

Summary:

This strategy totally changed my life. I’m constantly improving and feel motivated to do my work. The deep work gives me satisfaction, and because these are challenging tasks, it brings creativity to my work. I feel happy about my efforts, not just the results.

In a nutshell,

• Find out your most important tasks for the day.
• Create two separate lists for work. One should be Deep work list and the second Shallow work list
• Set a timer of 45 minutes or 90 minutes in which you are doing only your deep work, and no other apps or tabs are open.
• Take a 5-minute break after the 45-minute session, and a 10-minute break in the 90-minute session.
• During a break, don’t use your phone or look at the screen; stand up from your desk, drink a glass of water, or just walk in your room or close your eyes and relax.
• Complete the deep work list earlier in the day.
• Select only urgent and important tasks for the shallow work list.
• Do the shallow work later in the day.
• Create a separate list of personal things and don’t count them as work.

Start doing it just for one week and see the results yourself; you will feel more satisfied in one week than you have been from your work in months.

If you like this story, you can follow me on Medium so you can get my life lessons to become a happier, more productive, and more wealthy person.

Thank you for reading this story.

Kamal