It is about 12.30 pm on a weekday and 26-year-old UX UI designer Priya Pai has pushed her phone aside after finishing that daily office call at noon. Her morning routine is over—skin care, gym, and scrolling through social media and replying to emails. She will now put an hour of focused work till she takes a break for lunch. After that, she will return to another three hours of work, till about 6 pm, which signals a coffee break. What Pai is following is the “deep work” strategy. It’s training her mind to not wander, having a routine, and sticking to it, having a dedicated work space and focusing on completing one task in a set period of time. 

Deep work is a term coined by author Cal Newport, meaning a mindful state of peak concentration that lets one achieve quality work quickly. It is similar to what Swiss psychologist Carl Jung did when he built himself a stone tower in the woods, where he focussed on his thoughts, or what businessman Bill Gates does, when he takes a yearly “think week”  at a remote cottage. It’s also what author JK Rowling did, when she checked herself in a five-star hotel suite to write the final part of the Harry Potter series.