Some books you read, and then forget. Others change a small part of your life. Then there
are the rare gems that fundamentally change the way you think, live, and work.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport is one of
the latter. As the world advances, three kinds of people
will survive and prosper: Owners of capital or people with access to
it Those who can work with intelligent machines
and technology Superstars in their field of work
Deep Work focuses on the third type. To become one, you need to develop two skills: the ability
to quickly master hard things and the ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of
both quality and speed. Deep Work is the concept that interlinks these
two skills. Hard things are complex and you need to give
them all of your attention and focus. The batching of hard but important intellectual
work into long, uninterrupted stretches is key to high productivity.
The new law of productivity is: High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent)
x (Intensity of Focus) So why aren’t we all performing Deep Work?
“Deep work is hard and shallow work is easier and in the absence of clear goals for your
job, the visible busyness that surrounds shallow work becomes self-preserving.”
Our goal is to systematically develop your personal ability to go deep - and by doing
so, reap great rewards.
Each task on your list can be divided into two main categories: deep work and shallow
work. Cal Newport defines deep work as:
“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that
push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve
your skill, and are hard to replicate.” On the other spectrum, we have shallow work:
“Non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These
efforts tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”
These are the rituals of the modern workplace, such as meetings, emails, and reports. While
they are hard to escape, you should make a conscious effort to diminish the time spent
on them in order to maximize the time you have for deep work activities.
The world is a distracting place and we are more distracted than ever.
We constantly engage most of our time on shallow work activities, thus reducing our capacity
to perform deep work. As a result, this ability is becoming increasingly rare and increasingly
valuable in our economy. Only the few who cultivate this skill and
make it the core of their working life will thrive.
Deep Work is about working smarter, not harder. It is the superpower of the 21st century.
In order to make this guide easier to follow, I’ve broken it down into 5 simple steps:
Choose Your Deep Work Philosophy Make Deep Work a Habit
Execute Like a Business Remove Distractions
Use Downtime to Enhance Deep Work Efforts Let’s get started!
In an environment and culture that makes Deep Work difficult, we have to add smart routines
and rituals to our working life. Design them to minimize the amount of our limited willpower
necessary in transitions and maintain unbroken concentration.
There are four philosophies to integrate Deep Work into your life on a sustained basis:
Monastic: maximize Deep Work by minimizing or removing shallow obligations. Isolate yourself
for long periods of time without distractions; no shallow work allowed
Bimodal: divide your time into some clearly defined stretches to deep pursuits and leave
the rest open to everything else. Reserve a few consecutive days when you will be working
like a monastic. You need at least one day a week
Rhythmic: the easiest way to consistently start deep work sessions is to transform them
into a simple regular habit. The rhythmic philosophy involves creating a routine where
you define a specific time period — ideally three to four hours every day — that
you can devote to Deep Work Journalistic: alternate your day between deep
and shallow work as it fits your blocks of time. Not recommended to try out first
Decide on your philosophy and start designing your work accordingly.
Only you know what works best for you. A strategy that may work for one person can be a failure
for another.
After choosing your work philosophy, you must ruthlessly commit to scheduling Deep Work
blocks into your calendar and sticking to them. Scheduling in advance takes away the
need to use willpower. “The key to developing a deep work habit
is to move beyond good intentions and add routines and rituals to your working life
designed to minimize the amount of your limited willpower necessary to transition into and
maintain a state of unbroken concentration.” To make the most out of each session, build
rituals and routines to minimize friction in your transition to depth:
Where: identify a location used only for depth, such as a conference room or a quiet library
How Long: set a specific time frame for each Deep Work session. Always have an end time
rather than keeping it open-ended How: your ritual needs rules and processes
to keep your efforts structured. Should you ban internet during Deep Work sessions? Are
there metrics like pages, words, etc. that you can use to measure your work productivity?
Support: to maximize success, you need to support your efforts to go deep. For example,
the ritual might specify that you start with a cup of good coffee, or make sure you have
access to enough food of the right type to maintain energy