My experience with Deep Work and Digital Declutter

I am a big fan of Cal Newport’s work. I am really trying to implement some of his ideas to include more Deep Work time into my days.

One thing I have been doing is to work outside my office. My office is very noisy. So I go to the library. He gave this idea in one of his books. I not only go to the library, I also go to the quietest part of the library. As we have only on library at my university, I don’t have much of a choice. I could go to a cafe but most of the time it is not practical. There is a third option, going to the Software Engineering lab. I have tried once and it worked. I am not sure it will work the next time.

This January, Cal suggested a Digital Declutter experiment. I couldn’t follow all the steps he suggested. One thing he did not suggest, which I found in a Vox video, is the idea of making your phone less distracting by switching your screen to grayscale. I believe it is working for me.

One thing I am experimenting right now is using my phone to do something useful. I am typing this text using a physical keyboard connected via USB. As I am not at home or at work, it is easier than bringing a heavy computer here. I can write texts on Medium, Google Docs, and even write Latex documents using an app called VerbTex. OK, I haven’t used the last one I have no idea if it is good enough.