What Is a Creative Deep Work Routine?
As a creator, you can win the creator’s daily struggle and increase your creative output by building a Creative Deep Work Routine.
What is a Creative Deep Work Routine?
The concept of Deep Work comes from Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work. Newport defines deep work as:
“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capacities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”
So deep work is first, distraction free, and second, cognitively demanding. A third characteristic, not represented in the definition above, is that deep work should be accomplished in extended blocks of working time.
The opposite of deep work is “shallow work.” Shallow work is not cognitively demanding and doesn’t take particular expertise, and is therefore easily replicable.
Creative Deep Work has the same characteristics. It is distraction-free, and accomplished over an extended time block of at least an hour, but 90 minutes to two hours is ideal. But creative deep work focuses more specifically on creatively-demanding tasks that are core to a creator's main output.
Newport argues that deep work is both rare and valuable. Rare, because most people won’t put in the effort to keep distractions at bay. Valuable because everything valuable is difficult to make, and takes deep work.
The same is true for Creative Deep Work. How many aspiring creators will be willing to put in the work to clarify their deep work routine? How many will just continue the haphazard approach to creating that follows the path of least resistance?
Think back to the Creator’s Daily Struggle that I’ve talked about before. Most people will not put up with the discomfort and effort required to do creative deep work.
But the people you admire, whom you aspire to model your careers after, who seem to consistently produce great work, don’t take the path of least resistance. They take the path of Creative Deep Work.
And you can too.
(This post was originally sent out on my weekly newsletter, The Creative Process. Sign up now.)
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New Online Course Now Available on Skillshare
Many creatives, including writers, musicians, filmmakers, and artists, struggle with inconsistency in their creative flow. I designed the online video course Creative Flow on Schedule to teach you how to build a creative deep work routine, so that you can summon and harness your creative energies—every day.
If you are ready to learn how to supercharge your creative production through the use of a creative deep work routine, head over to Skillshare to enroll in this 45-minute video course. Use this link to watch the course for free and get one free month of Skillshare. (Just remember to cancel your membership if you don’t want to keep it!)
What You'll Learn
A step-by-step method for creating a personalized Creative Deep Work routine
What "deep work" is, why it is rare and valuable, and how to do more of it
The three phases of a routine that encourage creative flow
How to "check your compass" so that you move closer to your artistic goals
How to design a sequence of actions that will prepare your physical space, mind, and emotions for creativity
Three questions to ask at the end of every deep work session that will help you stay on course and reach your artistic goals faster
And much more!
Take the course and get one free month of Skillshare by using this link: Creative Flow on Schedule.