Book summary: Deep Work

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (amazon.com) is a book from professor and author Cal Newport (wikipedia.org).

Highly recommended.

Deep Work refers to professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. It is how we quickly learn hard things and produce at an elite level. Deep work, cultivating craftsmanship, and the associated “flow” state, allow to you understand your world as rich in meaning and importance, and ignore shallow negative things.

The book advocates for creating regular habits that build deep work into your routine. Great creative minds think like artists but work like accountants.

Shallow work, such as email & instant messaging, distracts us while simultaneously degrading our capacity to remain focused.

Ruthlessly reduce shallow work, where possible. Be careful what you say yes to; avoid social media and internet entertainment in general; embrace boredom. The ability to concentrate intensely is a skill that must be trained. Constant attention switching online has a lasting negative effect on your brain. If every moment of potential boredom in your life (e.g., waiting in line) is relieved with a quick glance at your smartphone, then your brain becomes rewired to not be ready for deep work. Proactively schedule what you will do with your time each day.

The ability to concentrate is a skill that gets valuable things done. Deep work is much more powerful than most people understand. To leave the distracted masses and join the focused few is a transformative experience.

What follows is a more detailed summary of the book. The majority of it is direct quotes. Again, it is worth reading the original.

 

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