I was inspired by Cal Newport's book Deep Work, which describes deep work with concrete examples from the business and political world. I assessed some approaches to practising deep work as suggested by the author and explained how we’re applying these concepts to improve our lives in the corporate world and our daily lives.
‘Deep work’ refers to the ability to concentrate without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks. One compelling framework borrows from the 4 Disciplines of Execution (4dx).
These four principles provide a roadmap to structure deep work effectively:
1-Focus on the widely important
The first step in creating a deep work habit is determining what matters to your business or life.
While shallow work like emails, meetings, and social media may feel productive, it often hinders our ability to engage in deep work. By consciously prioritising deep work activities, we can progress significantly towards our long-term goals and achieve a sense of fulfilment.
In organisations, deep work increases trust between team members while marginally reducing the micromanaging damages created and their side effects.
2- Act on the lead measures
Lag measures describe the things you can control and are trying to improve. For example, if you are trying to increase customer satisfaction, your lag measures customer satisfaction scores. Sometimes, these measures come too late to change your behaviour.
The lead measures the new behaviour that will drive success in the latter measures. For example, in a bakery, the lead measures the number of customers who receive free samples.
The lead measures will soon turn your attention to improving the behaviour you directly control, which will positively impact your long-term goals.
While you can’t control outcomes, you can control behaviours,” which is crucial when building deep work into your routine.
3-Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
Visualising your progress helps maintain engagement and momentum. I usually keep a scorecard for all my targets and achievements to review and monitor my progress and client requirements.
Whether it’s a wall chart, a spreadsheet, or a habit-tracking app, seeing your focused hours grow is a powerful motivator. People perform best when emotionally engaged; nothing engages people more than winning.
In the deep work context, your scoreboard should be simple, visible, and regularly updated to show consistent forward motion.
4- 4- 4-Create a Cadence of Accountability
This means setting up regular check-ins with yourself or others to review progress, celebrate wins, and troubleshoot challenges. To reinforce focus and resilience, you can advocate for routines and rituals to support deep work, such as daily and weekly reviews.
Accountability keeps goals alive and top-of-mind in a world designed to distract.
Deep work is not a luxury—it’s necessary for anyone seeking meaningful work in a noisy world. By adopting a disciplined approach grounded in execution principles, we can reclaim our focus and achieve more in less time.
As Harvard Business Review noted, “The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable.” By mastering this skill, we become more productive and more fulfilled.
