Let's get practical #2: Deep Work & Organization

[Raphael]

08 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 06:00 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:30 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

Work Sessions:

• 08:26 AM - 09:39 AM: I had a call with a client. Work Duration: 1 hour 13 minutes

Deep Work Sessions:

• 11:07 AM - 01:02 PM: The client's project is almost completed, but there are still a few things to do. I was distracted during this session because I was talking to my sister at the same time. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 55 minutes
• 08:50 PM - 09:17 PM: I fixed a few small bugs. Work Duration: 27 minutes

@Raphael Remember what you want, focus on it and it will manifest. Take care ♥️

• Total Work Duration: 3 hours 35 minutes, including 2 hours 22 minutes of Deep Work (objective 0 minutes)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 9, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

Work Deeply (from Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World -  Cal Newport)

• We have a finite amount of willpower that becomes depleted as we use it
• Our will is like a muscle that tires
• When we stay distracted our willpower decrease until we lose the ability to work at all
• The key to developing a deep work habit is to move beyond intentions and add routines and rituals to your working life designed to minimize the amount of the necessary willpower to transition into and maintain a state of unbroken concentration
• Smart routines, rituals, and a quiet location for deep work requires much less will power to start and keep going

Edited July 9, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

Depth Philosophies (from Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World -  Cal Newport)

The Monastic Philosophy

• Maximize deep efforts by eliminating or radically minimizing shallow obligations
• Clarity helps to eliminate the thicket of shallow concerns that tend to trip up those whose value proposition in the working world is more varied
• Practitioners of the monastic philosophy tend to have a well-defined and highly valued professional goal that they're pursuing, and the bulk of their professional success comes from doing this one thing exceptionally well.

The Bimodal Philosophy

• Divide your time, dedicate some clearly defined stretches to deep pursuits and leave the rest open to everything else
• The bimodal philosophy believes that deep work can produce extreme productivity only if the subject dedicates enough time to such endeavors to reach maximum cognitive intensity
• The minimum unit of time for deep work in this philosophy tends to be at least one full day
• During the deep time, the bimodal worker will act monastically — seeking intense and uninterrupted concentration. During the shallow time, such focus is not prioritized

The Rhythmic Philosophy

• This philosophy argues that the easiest way to consistently start deep work sessions is to transform them into a simple regular habit. The goal is to generate a rhythm for this work that removes the need for you to invest energy in deciding if and when you're going to go deep
• Implementations:
  • Chain method: a simple scheduling (do the work every day), with an easy way to remind to do the work (big red Xs on the calendar)
  • Set a starting time for deep work every day. Eliminating the simplest scheduling decisions (when to do the work), also reduces the barrier to deep work
• By supporting deep work with rock-solid routines that make sure a little bit gets done on a regular basis, the rhythmic scheduler will often log a larger total number of deep hours per year

The Journalistic Philosophy

• Shift into a deep mode on a moment's notice
• This habit requires a sense of confidence in your abilities - a conviction that what you're doing is important and will succeed

[Raphael]

My Philosophy

My philosophy is a combination of the above ones. The Journalistic Philosophy fits me the most because I have to switch from time to time from shallow work to deep work and I also get interrupted by clients when I'm working. I also like the ideas of the Monastic Philosophy because I'm very good at what I'm doing and I need to do some efforts to eliminate shallow stuff of my life. The Rhythmic Philosophy has good arguments too as everything becomes easier when someone has healthy habits so that the person doesn't even have to think about doing something and making the necessary efforts, but just do it naturally.

I need to do some efforts to make my work sessions more regular so that I wake up, start working, end working, and go to bed at the same time every day. I also need to eliminate more shallow stuff out of my life like social media, watching the news, and spending too much time listening, thinking, and discussing politics. This is currently not in accordance with the phase of life that I'm in.

[Raphael]

09 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 06:55 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:10 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

Work Sessions:

• 09:07 AM - 09:47 AM: I did some research and one correction. I got distracted by Facebook at a moment. Work Duration: 30 minutes
• 03:25 PM - 04:40 PM: I worked on the SEO course. Work Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes

Deep Work Sessions:

• 08:29 AM - 09:02 AM: I did a few corrections. Deep Work Duration: 33 minutes
• 10:11 AM - 11:36 AM: I went back to work on my personal project and started to get statistics from the Instagram API. I also got interrupted by some text messages from a client at a moment. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 25 minutes
• 11: 45 AM - 12:51 AM: I continued the work on the statistics. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 6 minutes
• 01:56 PM - 03:14 PM: I finished getting the stats for the comments, I still have work to do on the replies. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 18 minutes

@Raphael That's good Raphael You maybe took a little too much time to get out of bed in the morning, but you worked properly and smoothly and was very productive today. Continue!

• Total Work Duration: 6 hours 7 minutes, including 4 hours 22 minutes of Deep Work (objective at least 6 hours)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 9, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

10 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 06:03 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:05 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

Work Sessions:

• 09:41 AM - 10:26 AM: I started this day by a call with my client. Work Duration: 45 minutes
• 04:10 PM - 04:52 PM: I had another call with my client. Work Duration: 42 minutes

Deep Work Sessions:

• 11:02 AM - 12:47 AM: I added the recaptcha to the subscribe form and also corrected an API call bug caused by special characters. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
• 01:54 PM - 03:04 PM: I worked on the description area of the product detail page. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes
• 03:14 PM - 04:04 PM: I worked on the reviews modal and almost finished it. Deep Work Duration: 50 minutes
• 07:44 PM - 08:39 PM: I added Facebook social login and registration. Deep Work Duration: 55 minutes

@Raphael That's good Also If you can manage to start earlier and be a little more focused it would be even more awesome! Continue the great work

• Total Work Duration: 6 hours 7 minutes, including 4 hours 40 minutes of Deep Work (objective at least 6 hours)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

[Raphael]

Saturday 11 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 06:01 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:10 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

Deep Work Sessions:

• 09:36 AM - 10:39 AM: I completed the reviews modal. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 3 minutes
• 11:21 AM - 11:52 AM: I don't even remember what I did, but my laptop freezed and the electricity was down. Deep Work Duration: 31 minutes
• 14:38 PM - 03:40 PM: I got back to work on my personal projects and I'm now getting replies from Instagram. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 2 minutes
• 03:48 PM - 04:28 PM: I worked on the data format, I got an insane amount of unrelated thoughts. Deep Work Duration: 40 minutes

A client asked me to work on Sunday, so I choose to change my organization and work less today to have some energy for tomorrow.

@Raphael Congratulations for waking up early! You just need to do a little effort to stay focused during the day and it will be f****** awesome!

• Total Work Duration: 3 hours 16 minutes, including 3 hours 16 minutes of Deep Work (objective at least 6 hours)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 11, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

12 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 05:35 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:20 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

Deep Work Sessions:

• 08:51 AM - 09:40 AM: I added more security to the social logins and started to work on the recently viewed items. Deep Work Duration: 49 minutes
• 10:10 AM - 10:55 AM: I managed fake user ids. Deep Work Duration: 45 minutes
• 11:02 AM - 12:16 AM: I implemented redux to deal with the recently viewed items. Work Duration: 1 hour 14 minutes
• 01:54 PM - 02:52 PM: I made an API call and then discovered some new strange bugs. Deep Work Duration: 58 minutes
• 03:18 PM - 04:16 PM: I fixed one of the bugs, I will wait for the other one as it is dependent on a third party service so maybe they will fix it later. I got distracted a few times. Deep Work Duration: 58 minutes

@Raphael Good, with what you worked on today and yesterday it makes enough work for a full day. Bravo Raphael

• Total Work Duration: 4 hours 44 minutes, including 4 hours 40 minutes of Deep Work (objective 0 minutes)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 12, 2020 by Raphael

[Amit]

Very inspirational, I'm struggling with organization and distracted mind. this journal gives me hope, thank you

[Raphael]

@Amit Thank you too

Take care of your mind when used properly it becomes an invaluable asset.

[Raphael]

13 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 05:30 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:30 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

Work Sessions:

• 08:55 AM - 09:05 AM: I started doing research on Twitter API, then got interrupted by a client. Work Duration: 10 minutes
• 09:05 AM - 09:52 AM: I had a call with my client. Work Duration: 47 minutes
• 10:15 AM - 11:34 AM: I went through the Twitter application process and started to read their legal agreement. There might be a few things that could get me into trouble, but I'm not sure so I'll see after submitting the application. Work Duration: 1 hour 19 minutes
• 11:41 AM - 12:28 AM: I completed the reading of the Twitter agreement. Again I might get into trouble with one thing. Work Duration: 47 minutes
• 07:50 PM - 08:10 PM: I took some notes on an SEO course. Work Duration: 20 minutes

Deep Work Sessions:

• 01:18 PM - 02:28 PM: I went back working on my client's project, but I'm having a lot of strange bugs. Deep Work Duration 1 hour 10 minutes
• 02:33 PM - 04:16 PM: I fixed the bugs and added more functionalities. I had some parasite thoughts. Sometimes I have a few words that come from my mouth, they are unrelated to the project, they are just the thoughts that I'm not able to let go. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 43 minutes

@Raphael Good job, you were quite concentrated today and worked properly. Continue!

• Total Work Duration: 6 hours 16 minutes, including 2 hours 53 minutes of Deep Work (objective at least 6 hours)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 13, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

14 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 05:34 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:08 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

Work Sessions:

• 10:02 AM - 10:33 AM: I had a call with my client. Work Duration: 31 minutes
• 03:17 PM - 03:20 PM: I had a quick call. Work Duration: 3 minutes

Deep Work Sessions:

• 08:05 AM - 09:15 AM: I did an API call to get the recently viewed items and I also created a lot of new components. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes
• 09:21 AM - 09:54 AM: I worked on the activate account page. I'm getting an error after executing the API, but it looks more like a backend issue. Deep Work Duration: 33 minutes
• 10:45 AM - 12:22 AM: I did a few fixes and then mostly worked on the orders history component, it's almost completed now. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 37 minutes
• 01:15 PM - 02:15 PM: I completed the orders history component. I distracted myself a little in between and I was also a little sleepy, I'm always a little sleepy in the afternoon. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour
• 02:29 PM - 03:17 PM: I worked on getting user details when loading the app. Deep Work Duration: 48 minutes
• 05:29 PM - 04:41 PM: I worked on the member details form and almost completed it. I got a little distracted in the beginning. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 12 minutes

Pfiou! Today was a huge day as I deep worked for more than 6 hours. I was quite exhausted at the end as highly focused work is very draining, but I'm satisfied with my day. My client is one of those crazy work alcoholics guys, he just works all day until 10 PM-Midnight and wakes up at 6 AM, that's a crazy life.

I got the surprise to get Twitter approval where I thought that I would have some trouble, it's awesome because it means that I'm now allowed to use their API to develop my personal project.

@Raphael That's awesome Raph, you nailed this day! Be careful to not overwork, tomorrow try to free at least half of the day. Take care ♥️

• Total Work Duration: 6 hours 53 minutes, including 6 hours 20 minutes of Deep Work (objective at least 6 hours)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 14, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

Quitting Social Media Works

Quitting or minimizing social media just works. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any source that provides information non-related to work like this forum or other news websites, it just boosts working days to not use them at all until the end of the day.

During a workday, we typically don't have a lot of time between pauses, maybe only 10 - 15 minutes. This is far insufficient to read and analyze an information properly, so it's just better to do nothing. Do nothing frees our mind and provides minutes of necessary non-overloaded inattention. A computer will slow down if its memory is overloaded by hundreds of applications running simultaneously, and it's the same thing with our brains, we need empty space to process new information and produce high-quality work.

The best thing to do regarding non-work information sources is to completely avoid them all day, and then just contribute 1 - 2 hours to go through them at the end of the day or during the evening.

[Raphael]

15 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 06:11 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:30 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

Work Sessions:

• 08:43 AM - 09:53 AM: I had a call with my client. Work Duration: 10 minutes

Deep Work Sessions:

• 07:29 AM - 08:43 AM: I had trouble fixing some bugs for the update details page, but finally found a solution. My client interrupted me near the end of the session. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 14 minutes
• 09:04 AM - 10:15 AM: I try to find bugs and did some corrections. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 11 minutes
• 10:30 AM - 12:10 AM: I did many fixes, but was quite distracted by my thoughts. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes

@Raphael That's fine, you got some rest today. Tomorrow you will have a productive day.

• Total Work Duration: 4 hours 15 minutes, including 4 hours 5 minutes of Deep Work (objective 0 minutes)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 15, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

16 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 06:07 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:35 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

Work Sessions:

• 08:21 AM - 09:29 AM: I did a few verifications and contact Dell and some resellers to get information about a new laptop for my work. Work Duration: 1 hour 8 minutes
• 09:51 AM - 10:21 AM: I started to dive into Twitter's API documentation, then got interrupted by my client. Work Duration: 30 minutes
• 10:21 AM - 10:33 AM: I had a call with my client. Work Duration: 12 minutes
• 03:11 PM - 04:42 PM: I did research on the Twitter API and started to work with it, but got stuck. Work Duration: 1 hour 31 minutes

Deep Work Sessions:

• 01:29 PM - 02:56 PM: I have been very lazy after the previous work sessions. I didn't want to work and just procrastinated on the internet. For this session, I went back to my client's project and determined the domain name from the URL and created a subscription modal. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 27 minutes
• 07:42 PM - 09:16 PM: I didn't expect to work in the evening, but my client asked me to update the trending, top-selling, and items viewed services and sections. I distracted myself a little near the end. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 34 minutes

@Raphael That's good, you worked properly today. Ok, you slacked off at a moment, but that's fine, that happens on the path, you are still making progress. Keep moving forward ♥️

• Total Work Duration: 6 hours 22 minutes, including 3 hours 01 minutes of Deep Work (objective at least 6 hours)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 16, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

New Habit: Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

I keep spending too much time on the computer and reading/listening to information sources before going to bed. I'm conscious of how destructive it is as it excites/agitates my mind and impacts the quality of my sleep which is so critical to work properly.

I noticed that I sleep way better when I stop everything and do nothing before going to bed. However, I will not instill that habit until I'm more conscious of its importance, therefore I just decided that I will add a checkbox to my daily summaries where I will indicate if I succeeded or not to Do Nothing For At Least 45 Minutes Before Going To Sleep.

[Raphael]

17 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 07:26 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:20 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
•  ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• 09:00 AM - 09:23 AM: I started the day by a call with my client. Work Duration: 23 minutes
• 03:04 PM - 04:02 PM: I did some progress in exploring the Twitter API. I found a code example that is helping me to understand its authentication process. My vision of the API is still blurry, but I'm improving. Work Duration: 58 minutes

Deep Work Sessions:

• 09:45 AM - 10:31 AM: I did a few corrections and started to work on the contact section. I was a little distracted. Deep Work Duration: 46 minutes
• 10:56 AM - 12:17 AM: I completed the contact us section, I still need to work on the modal. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 21 minutes
• 01:18 PM - 02:48 PM: I completed the contact us modal and added dynamic page titles everywhere. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

I had a bad night, it caused me to be lazy and tired during the day. I didn't want to get out of bed and just layed down for too long in the morning. I also procrastinated a little and distracted myself with social media during my breaks.

@Raphael Ok, today was a little difficult as you slacked off because of bad sleep. That's fine, it happens, let's accept it, you will do better tomorrow. Fortunately, you are taking responsibility for the quality of your sleep and choosing to start doing a do nothing habit before going to sleep. That's a good move, it will help you so much in the future. You will see your sleep quality highly improving in the next weeks and will have better shape and mood during the days. Take care ♥️

• Total Work Duration: 4 hours 58 minutes, including 3 hours 37 minutes of Deep Work (objective at least 6 hours)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 18, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

These two characters will be useful:

• ✅

• ❌

Edited July 18, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

18 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 05:38 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 10:10 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

• ❌ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Work Sessions:

• 09:13 AM - 10:00 AM: I explored Twitter's functionalities and played a little with their API. Work Duration: 47 minutes
• 10:20 AM - 11:41 AM: I'm continuing exploring Twitter's documentation, I'm making some progress, but still not able to get data. Work Duration: 1 hour 21 minutes
• 11:50 AM - 12:40 AM: I finally understand how the authorization works for the Twitter API and I'm now able to make it work. I also had unrelated negative thoughts about previous difficult social experiences. Work Duration: 50 minutes
• 01:49 PM - 01:57 PM: I had a quick call with my client. Work Duration: 8 minutes
• 03:20 PM - 04:15 PM: I had another call with my client, I was quite distracted during the call. Work Duration: 55 minutes

Deep Work Sessions:

• 02:11 PM - 03:15 PM: I started to do some corrections on my client's website. I distracted myself quite a lot on the actualized.org forum in the beginning. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 4 minutes
• 07:28 PM - 08:25 PM: I fixed some bugs, but they are other ones that are sneaky. I will need to do an in-depth inspection before finishing the project. Work Duration: 57 minutes

My laptop is slowing me down in my work, I often experience lags and sometimes complete freezes, I need to find another computer. I got distracted quite a lot by social media today, I need to intensify my focus on my work and objectives.

@Raphael You worked enough today, stay aware of distractions and focus on your work to accomplish extraordinary things

• Total Work Duration: 6 hours 2 minutes, including 1 hour 57 minutes of Deep Work (objective at least 6 hours)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 18, 2020 by Raphael

[Raphael]

19 July 2020

• Wake Up Time: 06:00 AM (objective 5:30 AM - 6:00 AM)
• In Bed Time: 09:15 PM (objective 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM)
   
•  ✅ 45 minutes of Doing Nothing Before Going To Sleep

Deep Work Sessions:

• 09:35 AM - 10:22 AM: I started to work on Google social login, so far so good. Deep Work Duration: 47 minutes
• 10:50 AM - 12:42 AM: I finished Google login implementation, I took more time than I expected. I had negative and sad thoughts of past events that came back and also other thoughts related to self-actualization. Deep Work Duration: 1 hour 52 minutes

I didn't expect to work, but this client is demanding so I worked a little anyway. I need to learn to set boundaries and ask for more if there's more work.

@Raphael That's good, you woke up early and worked a little today. You maybe didn't relax properly as you didn't take a lot of empty time, but that's fine, you will do better next time. Take care ♥️

• Total Work Duration: 2 hours 39 minutes, including 2 hours 39 minutes of Deep Work (objective 0 minutes)
• Total Reading Time: 0 minutes (objective 0 minutes, I'm not reading anything currently)

Edited July 19, 2020 by Raphael