Thread by @rjnestor

Cal Newport's "Deep Work" is a #Productivity ideal that many aspire to.

Problem is, our lives are not always flexible enough for multiple hours of uninterrupted, focused work.

Is it possible to work deeply, but in shorter blocks of time? Read on...

A good productivity system automates, streamlines, or facilitates the transitions in our work:

👉 Getting into or out of work
👉 Starting or ending a day
👉 Shifting contexts
etc.

Simply put, a good system makes transitions easier.

To accomplish Deep Work in smaller time blocks, you need to "get to depth"—transition into work—quickly and reliably.

You need…

👉 Materials ready
👉 The right mindset
👉 Focus

…and you need them immediately.

I do this using a method I call “Making Passes”

Take another look at this image. (It’s from my @RoamResearch graph, but the concept is tool agnostic)

Over 5 days, I made 6 passes at the Week Six presentation for my AP Productivity course. They ranged in length from 8 minutes to 44 minutes. All told, about 2 hours of work.

Let’s look at passes 1 & 2.

Pass 1 sketches the ideas I want to cover—with no concern for structure yet—and creates a task for Pass 2. It took 17 minutes.

Pass 2 organizes the ideas and develops them further. It only took 8 minutes, but laid groundwork for an easy Pass 3.

Jumping ahead to Pass 6.

This is the final draft of the presentation, complete with formatting (and a reminder to record!). Some pieces have been added, some reordered, in the step-by-step of Passes 3 through 5.

Why Passes?

1. I don’t need to set aside 2 straight hours to do 2 hours’ worth of work. I can do some here and some there, and still do quality, focused work.

2. Because I’m leaving space between, there’s “down time” for ideas to marinate. Good ideas happen BETWEEN passes, too!

3. Because each pass serves as the material for the next pass—and creates the task (which shows up in my task management flow) to PROMPT the next pass— it makes the transition into work seamless.

I can do deep work, without dramatically reconfiguring my life.

If you would benefit from a system that made quality, focused work easier to achieve, invest in yourself by joining Cohort 3 of AP Productivity!

Sign up/Learn more: rjn.st/ap-productivit…

Slots are limited, and we launch on January 18, so don’t wait!