Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World is a book by Cal Newport about why and how to focus on our everyday tasks without distractions.

Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.

Part One: Why Bother?

The economy is changing rapidly due to advances in technology.

Two core abilities for thriving in this new economy:

  • The ability to quickly master difficult things
  • The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed

Principal of Least Resistance: we tend toward behaviors easiest in the moment.

For example, checking your email inbox now is an easier task than what one may be procrastinating on, and thus most people check their inbox many times throughout the day.

A connectivity culture has been developing, where people expect others to answer as soon as they can to every email, text, or call. This shallows attention and hinders work productivity.

Busyness as a Proxy for Productivity: In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, people rely on doing lots of stuff visibly to feel busy.

Richard Feynman was a world-renowned leader in quantum mechanics, and many people pressured him to take on more responsibilities. He has this to say on the topic, “So I have created another myth for myself: I’m irresponsible.” This allowed him to focus on what he cared about and not get swayed by other endeavors.

The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worth wild.

Part Two: The Rules

Newport believes that we, as humans, only have a finite amount of willpower the depletes as we use it. People fight desires all day long, and with each shift in focus, our willpower diminishes.

Habits can be put in place to lessen the amount of willpower we use, such as a set time and/or place to do your work. This allows us to succeed with these deep efforts more often.

Rhythmic Philosophy: The easiest way to enter a deep work state is through building habits. Using the chain method of writing X’s on a calendar if one did deep work that day can help form habits. Using a set cue, such as saying, “I will start working now” can also help. This could be anything from a time, to a smell, or location.

Questions to ask for building a deep work ritual: Where will you work and for how long? How will you work once you’ve started (e.g. no internet, no notifications)? How will you support your work (e.g. coffee, snacks, water, light exercise, timing system)?

Disciplines of Execution:
  • Focus on the wildly important for more tangible results
    • If you want to win the war for attention don’t try to say ‘no’ to the trivial distractions you find on the information smorgasbord; try to say ‘yes’ to the subject that arouses a terrifying longing, and let the terrifying longing crowd out everything else. David Brooks
  • Act on the lead measures
    • These measures have to drive success in the things you are ultimately trying to improve.
  • Keep a compelling scoreboard
  • Create a cadence of accountability
    • Such as frequent meetings to go over what went well or wrong and why
Be Lazy

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D us to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets… it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work doneTim Kreider

Shutdown habit: When every incomplete task has a plan for completion or is in a state where it can be revisited easily, it causes mental fog and urges to work on the task. By giving a signal to tell your brain it’s okay to release thoughts of work for the rest of the day, those urges are diminished.

Keep a note pad next to you saying what time you are allowed to go back online, and until then absolutely no internet usage until then, no matter how temping.

Productivity Meditation: a period where you are occupied physically not mentally (e.g. walking, jogging, driving, showering), and you focus your attention on a single, well-defined, professional problem. And just like with meditation, bring your mind back to the problem when your mind wanders.

Structure your deep thinking:

  1. define relevant variables
  2. define specific next step questions for solving with the variables
  3. consolidate/review gains from answer

Craftsman’s Approach to Tool Selection: Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts substantially out weigh its negative impacts.

Law of the Vital Few (80/20 Rule): 80% of a given effect is due to 20% of causes.

When it comes to your relaxations, don’t default to whatever catches your attention, but instead dedicate some adance thinking to the question of how you want to spend your ‘day within a day’

If you give your mind something to do throughout all your waking hours, you’ll end the day feeling more fulfilled, and begin the next one more relaxed, compared to if you battle for hours in semicolons and unstructured web surfing.

Schedule every minute of your day. It is almost guaranteed that unexpected interruptions or poor estimates will occur. In that case, quickly create a revised schedule for the remaining time. If you’re not sure how long something will take, block off expected time, then the next block serves as space for extra time needed and/or non-urgent activities. Treat your time with respect!

To evaluate the depth of an activity, it may help to ask ‘How long would it take in months to train a smart recent college graduate with no prior specialized training in my field to complete my task?’

Become hard to reach through limiting when you access email and social media.