Bring Deep Work Back to Education!

Before we begin I do want to alert you to the fact that this page contains affliate links for two books by the author I am reviewing. Should you choose to make a purchase using the links, I get a small percentage but it comes at no extra charge to you.

In this post, I review the book Deep Work, by Cal Newport. I strongly believe this book could have major implications on how we can rethink education in today’s society. I also believe we can use it to make education far more sustainable for teachers. What I’ll outline below is how this book can reduce stress and prevent burnout for teachers, help students reshape their habits for long term happiness and health, and help schools alter their practices so that it actually is “best practices”.

I’m not going to build any suspense here. Deep Work, by Cal Newport, is my favorite book I’ve reviewed so far (here are the others).

Personally, I am very happy to have read this book. In my year of sabbatical, I’ve found hope through personal finance by reducing the years I need until retirement from 18 to 5.

I’m also open about the fact that the reason I needed this “hope” is because I burnt out teaching.

What I hadn’t really found yet, was anything to make me feel better about my approach to returning to teaching. This way I could make the 5 or so years I have left more palatable as well.

Deep Work provided this for me. As a result, I feel even better about returning to teaching in a sustainable way.

In this post I’ll outline all the ways this book has helped me, in hopes that it can help you and your students as well.

The Premise of Deep Work

You know how you can pretty much find any information these days to validate your feelings? Want to drink a glass of wine per day? You’ll find a source for that. Want someone close to you to stop drinking a glass of wine per day? There’s a source for that too!

I’ll admit, part of the reason I like this book so much is because it validates how I felt teaching. In essence, I felt that I (and other teachers across the land) am/are inundated with meetings, emails, tasks (like data entry), forms, and so many other time-sucking activities, that we don’t have enough time to focus on the core elements of our jobs (teaching, preparing, correcting, etc.).

As a result, there is a frenetic, fragmented, overwhelming, stressful feeling that pervades the job which, in my case (and many others), sent me to the turnstiles.

This book validated those feelings for me. It illustrates how we as a society are trending towards more shallow, superficial habits that can lead to many serious problems (reduced happiness/mental well-being, attention deficits, higher stress, and more!)

It also gives concrete strategies for how to remedy some of these problems. I will lay these out, through a teacher’s lens, and hope to show you the many ways this book can help you if you are experiencing some of those same difficulties. These ideas can also greatly help your students as well. To me that’s a win-win!

Let’s get into it…

What is Deep Work?

Essentially, deep work is a state of deep concentration on a specific task. Logically, a natural caveat is that the person doing the deep work is not distracted by anything unrelated to the specific task at hand.

Naturally, when we think distraction, we probably immediately think of our phones. This, of course, has innumerable distractors built into it that are a few mere swipes away.

Computers, by extension, can also fall under this category of “distractor”, especially if you are in a state of “surfing”.

Perhaps less obvious, however, is email. Often times, we can feel like we are accomplishing a great deal when we clear out our emails. This is true in so many professions as well. In the end, email can be yet another great distractor.

So can meetings. After a meeting, people often find themselves with lost time in the meeting AND a series of tasks to accomplish after the meeting.

Their are countless examples of what deep work is not. It’s helpful to think of a few so that we can consider again what deep work is. Deep work is a state of deep concentration, without distraction, on a specific task.

There are many benefits to deep work, and many consequences for avoiding it.

Attention Residue

In his book, to broach this idea of attention residue, Cal Newport cites an article by Sophie Leroy entitled “Why is it so hard to do my work?“. In this article, Leroy lays out the effect of multi-tasking on performance.

Essentially, she shows how, even after you have completed a task and moved on to a new one, your brain is still partially stuck on the previous task. This state of divided attention to the past task is called “attention residue”.

Bringing it to school it can have implications for teachers and students alike. If teachers find 5 minutes free in class or before the class returns, they might be tempted to “hammer out” an email or two.

“People experiencing attention residue after switching tasks are likely to demonstrate poor performance on that next task,”

sophie Leroy (quoted in Deep Work)

Students across the country use “breaks” to check their phones. They also make sure to find to do this in the halls, bathrooms, etc.

All these seemingly harmless activities ensure that your attention will be divided on your next task (teaching or learning). The attention residue will affect your ability to concentrate and can also give you that fragmented feeling that is all too common in our schools.

We’ll discuss solutions later, but drastically reducing these activities that produce “attention residue” will be part of it.

Now let’s look how a move from superficial to depth can even affect our happiness…

Deep Work and Happiness

I’ll only speak for myself officially, but I’m happiest as a teacher when my class is humming. There’s that “flow state” or “buzz” that every teacher knows and tries to emulate.

It’s a sound that comes when every student is totally absorbed in the task at hand.

It’s a beautiful sound.

If I were to associate a sound with my happiest states as a teacher it would be that sound.

Detractors of teachers think they’re happiest with their feet up on the desk and their face in a newspaper (phone nowadays). Not so! You know it and I know it.

We got into this job to help our students, and that sound of learning is also a sound of growing. Eventually that growth can lead to long-term happiness and a sense of purpose for all…

Well, it just so happens that Cal Newport makes a very compelling case for happiness and deep work. Citing Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work (alongside Reed Larson at the University of Chicago) Newport outlines the psychological impact of deep work on happiness.

These psychologists found that people were at their most content when ” a person’s mind or body is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”

“Most people assumed (and still do) that relaxation makes them happy. We want to work less and spend more time in the hammock. But the results from Csikszentmihalyi’s ESM studies reveal that most people have this wrong…”

cal Newport (Deep Work)

Because they say it much better than I could, I’ll quote Csikszentmihalyi’s work one more time (as found in Deep Work).

“Ironically, jobs are actually easier to enjoy than free time, because like flow activities they have built-in goals, feedback rules and challenges all of which encourage one to become involved in one’s work, to concentrate and lose oneself in it.“

The more we can all find this flow state of deep work, the better off we’ll all be.

Proof of Concept

Out in the world of business, I think there is a general acceptance that things can be fast paced. People, right or wrong, feel that they have to be absolutely “on top of it,” in order to survive and thrive.

In Deep Work, Newport references a culture of connectivity. If your boss texts you, no matter the time, you had better respond.

As a result, we are constantly connected to our phones. When that thing buzzes or sounds, we go right for it.

But, in an experiment outlined in the book (Leslie Perlow, Harvard), a team of business professionals were asked to completely disconnect for one day per week. They did so reluctantly.

The result? Higher productivity. Increased enjoyment at work. More learning. Better communication. Better overall product.

Reread that last paragraph again. This time, however, instead of applying it to a team of business people, apply it to students. Isn’t that exactly what you want in your classroom? For me it is.

But to achieve this it’ll take some work on everybody’s part. Work that I believe is well worth the effort.

How to Bring Deep Work into the Classroom

Like I said before, we’ll have to make some changes in order to realize the benefits of deep work in the classroom. But like a good index fund, this investment will pay you back handsomely in dividends.

Here are some strategies that I plan to employ at the start of the new school year.

Explicit Instruction

I plan to teach the students about everything I already mentioned in this post. I’ll teach them about how I believe strongly in deep work and how it can affect their attention span, their productivity, and even their happiness.

I’ll teach them about attention residue and that fragmented, distracted feeling people get when they shift between superficial tasks.

Then, I will communicate this same information to their families.

Stricter Policies on Electronics

Because of the explicit instruction above, I’ll be explaining that there will be much stricter policies on using phones, laptops, ipads, etc. in the classroom.

In a 2012 study (referenced in Deep Work) by psychologists Wilhelm Hofmann and Roy Baumeister, found, essentially, that people are constantly fighting desires at every waking moment.

Some of the lowest hanging fruit is found on our devices. Taking these out of the equation, will go a long way towards helping the students achieve more depth in the classroom.

More depth equals more of that beautiful classroom hum…

I’m even planning on having students put electronic devices away after each scheduled use (rather than conveniently leaving them in the desks) because the temptations can be so great.

Taking the time to set up and enforce these expectations will hopefully take even the possibility of using the devices off of their minds and help them to focus even better.

Spend Extra Time/Effort Establishing Classroom Norms

As a teacher, I was trained in the Responsive Classroom method. Part of this method involves utilizing “The First 6 Weeks” to establish norms for your classroom.

Here’s a book on that very subject (affiliate link): The First Six Weeks of School

The thinking is that if you spend 6 weeks establishing your norms, the students will more than make up for that early loss in learning, and learn far more in the long run.

I’ve never found that my schools actually support this in practice, but you get the point. I plan to spend the necessary time/effort it takes to make sure the class is set up for successful deep work.

We’ve already spoken about proper use of technology. This also applies to expectations for noise levels, ways to get help without interrupting, what to do when you are “finished”, and so much more.

Setting up the classroom norms can reduce distractions and stress. It’s also conducive to deeper work.

Let’s also look at how this can help you as a professional…

Applying these Lessons to Teachers

There are many forces that vie for our attention daily (beyond our students) in the teaching world. Learning to neutralize some of these distractions could go a long way towards reducing that stress that accumulates over a school year and leaves you sprawled out on the bed when “vacation” mercifully arrives.

It’ll never be perfect, but perhaps these ideas can help take 10% off of your plate. Even that might make your job that much more sustainable.

Tip 1: Batch Your Superficial Work

Rather than grabbing a 5-minute window and sitting down to “bang out” a few emails, try setting aside a time each day to respond to emails.

Personally, I plan to set aside 30 minutes per day for email at the end of the day (when I’m already lightly fried).

Side note: Cal Newport feels so strongly about email he wrote a book about entitled A World Without Email(affiliate link).

I’ll also set aside specific time for other superficial tasks like copying, filling out surveys, entering data, etc.

Included in this, which can be difficult, is limiting texts, and/or social media. I’m now convinced that stealing those quick glances has far more deleterious effects than it does benefits.

Tip 2: Communicate Your Intentions

Taking it a step further, I plan to have an automated message at the end of my email. It will say something like this:

“I greatly value being courteous, thoughtful, etc. But I also greatly value my time to do activities critical to teaching my students. As such, I am making a conscious effort to be brief with emails. I’ve found they can consume entire evenings. With that in mind please excuse my brevity and/or any dearth of courtesies, and have a wonderful day…”

Something like that. Over time, I think people will get the message and there will be an understanding for the type of responses they will get from me via email.

In addition, I plan to explicitly explain this to the families so they are not taken off guard when they read it. I’ll also let them know that if there is something that truly requires my attention, I won’t hesitate to address it and give it the time it deserves.

I also hope to be able to present some of these findings to the whole staff at the beginning of the year.

I wonder, given this information, if they wouldn’t reevaluate some of their practices as well? What if we all had an understanding that we’d only send emails(for example) to one another if we truly needed to. And, what if it was understood that the answers would be as brief as possible?

Getting on the same page could do wonders for morale and productivity. I think this could help reduce some of that frenetic pace I observe in my school as well…

Tip 3: Say “No”

Or at least don’t say “yes”. Of course this can be taken on a case by case basis. In essence, however, the more superficial tasks that get put on our to-do list, the less time/bandwidth we have for depth.

Learning to say “no” can help reduce that load. Also, at this point, I think that we have to make hard decisions on things at school. They want us to do and teach everything but it’s just not possible. If they aren’t making the cuts, then it’s up to you to do it.

Choose things that you deem less important and just let them go.

By saying “no” we can clear things off our daily plate and focus on that which matters.

Tip 4: Learn to Shut Down

This one is difficult as a teacher! I’m not sure how well I’ll do at this, but I understand the value and I will try.

Basically though, the author makes a strong argument to “turn off” all work related activities after a certain time (he chose 5:30).

What this means is that there is no prepping, emailing, completion of menial tasks after that time either. You have to be able to shut your brain off…

The book gives several examples, the author included, of successful people that were able to thrive with this “fixed-schedule productivity” as he calls it.

I’m going to try this, and I view it as a long-term play. Like an NBA player limiting minutes game to game, I’m hoping it helps keep me fresh for the end of the season. And if, on any given day, I have to forego this plan, I won’t stress, but I will be sure to make that the exception…

Deep Work – In Summary

You know how sometimes you get a summer reading assignment from your principal or district? Well, if I could assign something right back, it would be this book.

It would be nice if they started cutting back on demands and slashed outdated ideas instead of constantly piling on top with the new “latest and greatest” educational schemes.

This books helps you reconsider what you choose to prioritize in work. It gives you strategies to ensure that your time is best spent. It also makes compelling arguments for why you should follow the suggestions found within.

We can never get the full view from a post like mine. In the end, to get the most out of this book, you’ll want to read it yourself. But I hope this post helps plant a seed. There’s a lot to gain from reading it, especially if you are feeling overwhelmed by your workload at school.

If you would like a copy of the book for yourself you can get it at this affiliate link here: Deep Work. Or, you can use this affiliate link at Better World Books to support me (at no extra charge to you and I thank you for your support) and get used books (saving them from landfills and supporting world-wide literacy at the same time!) that you can search for here.

If schools/districts aren’t going to address it, then perhaps you need to start making these decisions for them in order to preserve your long-term health as a teacher.

As we saw, by avoiding distractions, reducing menial tasks, and focusing more on depth, we can improve our well-being both in the short and the long term. The same can also be said for our students.

Teaching in an environment with happier, healthier, less-distracted students sounds like a win to me.

Thanks for reading everyone. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter. Have you read Deep Work? If not, do you think it would be worth your while? Other thoughts? All are welcome! Also, if you are interested in checking out Cal Newport’s blog, you can find it here. Finally, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe. It just means you get an email when a new post is out!