It’s easy to get caught up in a flurry of emails, meetings, and other shallow work tasks that can make us feel productive, but which don’t actually move the needle on our most important goals and responsibilities. We convince ourselves that if we just respond to that last email or attend one more committee meeting, we’ll be making progress.
Shallow work is little stuff like email, meetings, moving information around. Things that are not really using your talents. Deep work pushes your current abilities to their limits. It produces high value results and improves your skills.
Newport, C. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.
But the reality is that deep work – the concentrated, uninterrupted time spent on our most challenging and impactful scholarly work – is what truly drives our careers forward. It’s the research, writing, and creative thinking that leads to publications, grants, and recognition from our peers.
Deep and shallow work
When it comes to advancing your academic career, you need to prioritise the deep, demanding work that produces the high-value outputs that your institution and field care about. But you also need to balance that with managing the administrative tasks and obligations that keep you in good standing and avoid drawing negative attention. In other words, you still need to find time to do the shallow work.
Shallow work stops you from being fired; deep work is what gets you promoted.
Barker, E. (2014). How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done.
I’m not saying that one type of work is more important than the other; you can’t be promoted if you’ve been fired.
That’s why it’s so important to be intentional about protecting time for deep work while also making sure that all the admin gets done. For example:
- Set clear boundaries around email.
- Decline meetings that aren’t essential.
- Create dedicated writing time.
- Block of research time in your calendar.
It requires the discipline to turn off distractions, shut the door, and immerse yourself in the work that really matters, even when the shallow stuff is constantly calling for your attention. If you want to achieve the kind of impact and recognition that comes from deep, meaningful work, you have to be willing to push back against those urges and make hard choices about where you focus your time and energy.
The good news is that, with practice, you can develop the habits and strategies to do deep work more effectively. It may not always be easy, but it’s the key to achieving the impact and fulfilment you entered academia to pursue.
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