How to Protect Deep Work When You Have Multiple Callings

Just yesterday, I was working on my upcoming music video.

We are currently planning a shoot for it and are working through a few story concepts. As I was doing my research, I wanted to check the profile of a creative director. I was going through his portfolio and remembered that he had shared his LinkedIn profile as well.

In that fateful moment, I decided to open LinkedIn.

Bam!

I was immediately greeted with a few messages on my upcoming multifaceted moms cohort, a message from a university professor inviting me to give a talk about privacy and trust in AI, and then msg from a mom I recently connected to plan a play date.

And never mind the concoction that was my feed.

All my paths suddenly colliding on LinkedIn and in my brain!

I lost my thread of thought on the video concepts and the creative director. Instead, I was now thinking about the sign ups for my upcoming cohort, my weekend plan with the kids as well as how verifiable AI will be game changing for building trust.

You might have experienced this in some shape or form.

Reached for your phone, gotten distracted by a text or a notification, and totally forgotten what we had opened our phone for? So it might seem like an issue of focus or just the self-control of not getting distracted.

But the issue is deeper than that. Let’s dig in.

I am talking about being in a specific mental zone and avoiding other zones which are still important.

The issue is not that you are distracted by a frivolous reel when you are trying to draft an important email, but that you are forced to regain context and engage with path B when you are deep into path A. It is the sudden halt on one path caused by an irrelevant context on another path; it is when paths bleed into each other exactly when you don’t want them to.

Parents experience some version of this all the time.

You are trying to read an urgent text or talk to your friend on the phone, and suddenly your kids will need you, at that exact time. Your kids are obviously always important, but there are times when you want to do some focus work or actually have an adult conversation, even if they are around.

As a PolyPath, you have multiple paths that can interfere with your planned quiet stroll on a single path.

I had dedicated an hour to be in my music zone, to walk my music path. But suddenly I felt I was being dragged onto my other paths without any notice. Yes, I am also an entrepreneur, a privacy engineer and a mom - but not right now!

Sometimes, I just want to brainstorm concepts for my concert, and not think about what I will write about in my upcoming PolyPaths newsletter.

Other times, I want to just deep dive into the latest advances in AI data vaults without worrying about the new supplies that the kids’ school asked for.

And sometimes, I just want to play with my kids, without worrying about anything else!!

Haha one can dream..

But in all honesty, I do want to solve this problem for myself as best as possible.

This is something I am actively thinking through this week and I wanted to share some things I am trying, and some things that have helped me:

Our digital ecosystem makes it very hard to keep our different interests separate, let alone different personas.

You will be recommended a 3-ingredient delicious cheese cake recipe exactly when you actually want to learn about marketing funnels; you might stumble on a relevant tech conference when you are planning your weekend and searching for kid-friendly events.

But there are some tactical things that have helped me avoid rabbit holes:

• Keep a different account for your different paths

This is one way I keep some digital separation.

Obviously work accounts are separate by design. But I have a separate gmail account for music, for PolyPaths, for kids and my personal i.e. my oldest email :D

It helps that I can open only that email or drive to work on anything on that path. And also my favorite part is the separate calendars that I can share with the right folks and it gives me a beautifully color coded view of my week across all my paths :)

• Tab groups

Browser is another source of information overload, so I try to group tabs based on my different paths and projects. So they are naturally out of sight when I don’t need them.

When I am doing focus work, for example writing my article right now, I just drag my google doc tab as a new window, in a new Mac window as well – I am digitally contained to put my thoughts on this doc :D

• Different social media profiles when possible

I also have different Instagrams and YouTubes for different paths - one for music, one for business lessons, one for kids research, one for food/travel etc. That helps, but since these algorithms use location (IP) as one of the recommendation factors, I am often cross recommended on the accounts! 🙈

For example, when you open LinkedIn or WhatsApp, you are going to see messages related to all your paths. It does require self-control to not open anything that’s not relevant, and it can help to go in with some prep.

Some silly things I am doing, that are actually working:

• Before opening LinkedIn or WhatsApp, I write down the exact task on a post-it or a piece of paper. Or if you just have your laptop/phone, write the task as an email draft or as a blank note.

• When I open LinkedIn or WhatsApp, I keep repeating the exact task like a mantra –
  “check John’s profile, check John’s profile, ….. “ or “reply to Maya, reply to Maya, …..”

• I keep a timer before opening the apps, so I gamify how much time I have to finish the task and log out. The ticking time also keeps me focused on my mission :D

• In case I do end up opening a msg I didn’t want to, I try to be cool and try to tell myself it’s in fact not the end of the world! :D I mark the msg back as unread and get back to the task at hand. That’s also why it helps to have the task written on a paper to remind me right away.

What has worked really well for me is also geospatial separation whenever possible.

• My weekday mornings and afternoons are for Google work. It helps that I am physically at the office and surrounded by colleagues, conference rooms, and other appropriate context.

• Evenings and significant chinks of the weekend, I am in complete mom mode, ideally without any devices. This is at home or usually outdoors at a park.

• Post dinner, I am in entrepreneur PolyPaths mode at my home desk. Also I wear my business strategy hat on weekend mornings when I go to my favorite cafe with a pen and paper. Now that I am writing this, I feel I should literally wear a hat as well when I do this :D

• On Fridays, I usually block late afternoon as my music time and I sit by the piano, either at home or in one of the music rooms at Google.

These physical location markers make it easier for me to adopt the relevant persona and my brain naturally fires up the relevant context on that path.

I have realized that to be a PolyPath also means taking one step at a time on one path. And then taking a few steps on another path when you want to, and not because circumstances forced you.

What’s one thing you are going to try this week to keep your paths separate when they need to be?