This school year, consider the idea of deep work
Photo by Yaroslav Shuraev from Pexels
More and more these days it feels harder to focus.
As parents we are pulled in so many directions. Laundry, groceries, dinner. The kids are begging for attention, the dog needs a walk, and it sure would be nice to get some exercise. Then there’s being to work on time, and the responsibilities associated with having a job. Add in that we now have these phones dinging, beeping and buzzing, demanding us to pay attention to them. Even if our phones are on silent mode, it’s like they are calling our names to pick them up and start scrolling.
No wonder we are distracted. No wonder it can be hard to focus. Even as I write this, my mind is whirring away in the background thinking about the many other things I have to do and I feel compelled to pick up my phone and send a text to ask a friend to help with a favor. You can read more about how parents are distracted in my July 26, 2023 column titled “Parenting in the age of distraction”.
Deep work. It may be a rarity these days – for us and our children. Think of your kids doing their homework with their phones by their side. How many times do they pick it up to check a Snap, respond to a text or do a quick scroll through TikTok or Insta? It’s hard to follow a deep thought while writing an essay or solve a challenging math problem if you are constantly being interrupted.
Deep work, a term coined by Cal Newport, is the idea of “focusing without distraction on a cognitively demanding task”. It’s the idea of being immersed in work with great focus and without distraction. It’s important to understand that deep work requires attention and demands us to direct our limited mental resources to the task at hand. As education journalist Deborah Farmer Kris writes, “the key word here is ‘limited’. Attention is a finite cognitive resource — a battery drained by overstimulation, multitasking, worry, distraction, pings and dings.”
I have always prided myself on being a great multitasker, a useful skill for my days as a waitress that I have carried over to being a parent and holding a variety of jobs. Yet much to my dismay, the value of multitasking is quite overrated. Have you tried writing a text and talking to your kids at the same time? You can’t do either very well. Just like our kids can’t watch TikTok and listen to us or do their math homework at the same time.
The truth about multitasking is that it is actually the act of switching rapidly between tasks. It is not doing many tasks at once. The fact is that our brains cannot do more than one thing at the same time well if both of those tasks require focus. When we say we are good at multitasking, really we are saying we are good at switching frequently between tasks, and what this does is “drain our attention battery” quicker than if we were just focusing on one thing.
So when our kids are doing their homework with their music playing and their phones buzzing and perhaps just a quick scroll through social media here and there, they are not doing deep work. They are not engaged to their full potential.
Part of what is happening, I think mostly a result of digital media, is that much of society has come to expect things to be fast, fun and easy. At the slightest hint of boredom, we turn to our phones to entertain. We’ve lost the ability to simply be, or we distract or procrastinate if a task becomes challenging.
As children and teens are heading back to school, here are some ideas that might help them with deep work:
Together with your children create a routine where there is an hour of no phones (or texts that can come in on a computer) so they can do deep uninterrupted work.
Use the Pomodoro technique. The idea is to set a timer and focus solely on one task for 25 minutes. After the 25 minutes, take a brain break – have your child or teen go outside, move their body, chat with friends, play with a pet. Then dive in for another 25 minutes. It’s amazing how productive your kids can be during that time. There are Pomodoro apps that even shut down phone notifications, or find your kids a “study buddy” on youtube.
Brain breaks are important. Humans don’t have the ability to maintain complete focus 24 hours a day. We need a rest, and by rest we are talking about staring off into space, daydreaming or thinking about nothing – a rarity these days for all of us who turn to our phones to fill any empty space. It's in these times when we are walking, taking a shower, doing the dishes or staring into space as the passenger in a car that insights and ideas pop into our heads. Mental breaks are what allow for creativity to spark and interesting connections to be made.
Be sure to schedule time for deep work. When we do deep work, we feel a sense of pride. And deep work is an important skill in a world where our ability to focus is being eroded away by digital distractions.
As school is about to start, talk to your kids about their goals for the school year. What would they like to get out of their classes? What might help them with their studying? What is hard for them about doing their homework? Introduce the idea of deep work and see if together you can create a space for such undistracted work to happen.
