Ever since I read Deep Work by Carl Newport, I have embarked on a journey to try out the four philosophies. After going through the rhythmic, bimodal, and monastic philosophies, it was time to experiment with the last one: the journalistic philosophy.

Newport says this is probably the hardest philosophy to reach deep focus because it requires some training. What’s particular about it is the lack of a schedule. In this philosophy, you work whenever you can and try to use every moment possible. Very much like a journalist who writes at any opportunity they can.

To test this type of schedule, I needed a plan. I knew I had to set some rules to guide me, or else I would do nothing. But how do you schedule something that is supposed to have no schedule at all? Well, I tried.

• Any breaks waiting for anything become writing moments.
• Set an hour a day to write on the computer (8:30 to 9:30).
• Take a notebook with me everywhere to write down any ideas or text for future posts. I can’t carry my PC around anymore, and a notebook is an accessible alternative.
• Have at hand a calendar of future posts to know what to work on even away from the pc.
• Set a goal for every week to finish a post, including editing and photos.
• Most of the past rules also apply, no internet, no phone, set alarms to keep track of time…

The journalistic philosophy

I encountered difficulties since day one. And I was expecting to. My rules were very loose precisely because I knew it would be hard and would need adjustments along the way. At first, the notebook didn’t work. It also didn’t help that I would forget about it. But then, I started to do a little online detox and remove any background noise throughout the day to allow my mind to simply wander. And that helped a bit. Although I was still forgetting the notebook. And unless I’m on the computer, I forget I usually write blog posts. My mind associates the blog with the computer. And if I’m away from it, I don’t remember it exists. And it doesn’t help that my computer needs to be attached to the charger. The notebook was supposed to be the solution, but it didn’t work.

After two weeks, I gave up. The only thing I accomplished was to write for an hour every day. Then, my brain would put the blog aside and never think about it again. However, that was the same as the rhythmic schedule. The journalistic philosophy didn’t work out for me, or at least not for what I was trying to do. I don’t believe there was anything I could do to force this schedule to work because my brain doesn’t work this way. Or maybe I really need to train my brain to adapt to this method. Either way, the result is the same, it didn’t work.

I think deadlines are important for the success of this schedule. You need something to push you to take any opportunity to work on your project. Although, when I have a deadline, it takes priority over everything else. And if the deadline is self-imposed, then it’s as if it doesn’t exist. I also post once a week, and I already know from past deep work schedules an hour a day is more than enough to write a post from start to finish, including editing, photos, and everything. So there wasn’t any pressure. No need to grab every opportunity to write. In consequence, I would forget about the post. In fact, having that hour proved to work against me. It was the excuse my brain needed to put the task aside. The blog is rarely on my mind. It’s something I do, but it’s not a priority. So I forget.

Since this was turning into the rhythmic schedule, it was the right call to stop the experiment. I scheduled an hour every day to ensure I had at least one opportunity to write otherwise, I knew I would forget or avoid doing it. But what I ended up seeing was that I would only write during that hour and never think about the post ever again. And continuing with that would just be repeating something I already did.

My overall experience with deep work

And so the best thing to do was to recognise that it wasn’t working and give up. Over time, I’ve realised that most of these philosophies vary from person to person but also from project to project. I could see that in the rhythmic and bimodal schedules, 1 hour to 1 hour and a half was enough to make a huge progress on blog posts. However, that same amount of time would be a waste if I was doing something like working with clay. I would spend a lot of time cleaning up just to mess around for an hour. Instead, a bimodal or monastic schedule would be preferable. I would have more time to focus on it and then clean everything up by the end of the day.

Sometimes, I postpone doing something more hands-on even when I want to because I know I don’t have much time and I’ll have to clean later. And that’s where trying these philosophies came in handy. If I look at a project, I might be able to see what’s the best schedule for it and then structure my day accordingly. Do a mixture of schedules to have time for everything. I saw in the bimodal schedule how well it worked for me to have writing in the morning and something creative in the afternoon. And I already know that mixing the rhythmic with the bimodal is probably my way to go.

Another thing I wanted with these experiments was to see if I could reach a deep focus state more easily and consistently. And I don’t think I fully reached it. I’ve been completely absorbed in the past by something I was working on and during these experiments that never happened. I had a couple of times when my time for working was up, but I still wanted to continue. But not quite in a deep focus. Maybe keeping a consistent schedule would eventually lead me to it and I just didn’t leave much time for that to happen.

Still, I learned something from each philosophy. I learned you can do a lot in 90 minutes. That, in the early hours, when the world hasn’t yet woken up, it’s a very peaceful and distraction-free time. I learned it’s exciting to leave the more mindful and challenging tasks for the morning while keeping the afternoons creative. I learned I can’t spend a whole day just writing. It’s incredibly boring. And I learned I need structure. I don’t know if I even can work on this “in-between” other things. So far, I don’t think I can. I either make the time to work or don’t.

I only worked on these philosophies for a while. Continuing and turning them into habits can teach me different things. One thing is for sure. Focus on one project in a distraction-free environment, even for little time, can produce big results compared to a whole day filled with noise around you. And it amazes me how something so simple works.