Deep Work by Cal Newport
“Think like artists but work like accountants.”
Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. Cal Newport, an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University, passes on his wisdom through this book to teach people the art of deep work.
From J.K. Rowling who secretly moved into The Balmoral hotel for six months to finish Deathly Hallows to Bill Gates who spends “Think Weeks” away from electronics and civilization in a cabin in the woods for ideating, Deep work is a crucial component of the routines of many high-performing individuals.
In this New Economy, with the plethora of information and the abundance of resources at one’s fingertips, there’s a premium to being the best. To properly master something, one must practice it frequently, and practicing requires a space free from interruptions and distractions.
The two essential skills needed to prosper in the new digital economy are:
the capacity to learn difficult skills fast
the capacity to create at a high level, both in terms of speed and quality.
Deep work helps build this storehouse of intellectual capital.
High Quality work produced: (time spent × intensity of focus)
The way to develop a deep work habit is to move beyond good intentions and add routines and rituals to your working life that are designed to minimize the amount of your limited willpower necessary to transition into and maintain a state of unbroken concentration.
Let’s break it down:
Use the principle of least resistance:
You're more inclined to start with the easiest things. Making deep work simple is therefore a smart idea. The obvious solution is to include deep work into your daily routine.
If you're an author, having a desk with your laptop, paper, and pen nearby can motivate you to start writing as soon as inspiration hits.
If you're an entrepreneur, putting SOPs in place and giving non-creative, repetitious chores to subordinates can free up your time so you can focus on the urgent problems that really require you.
If you're a content creator, scheduling your work using automation and designating time for creative work will encourage you to continue producing.
Minimize attention residue:
To get into the “flow State, you need time, and every time you pick up another task, you're disrupting the previous flow whilst simultaneously expending energy to get into another. Switching between tasks, costs you valuable time and effort.
Busyness is NOT a proxy for productivity:
Even though it might be challenging to measure progress, particularly when it comes to creative work, benchmarks can still be set.
Even if your ideas are terrible, writing 500 words every day or coming up with 10 ideas could help you sail the boat and reach the harbor gradually. You must produce rather than merely remain engaged in the production process.
Idle mind is the devil’s workshop:
We need challenges to overcome to thrive and grow. People perform at their best when engaged in hard activities, therefore deep labor in and of itself is immensely rewarding.
Had you ever slipped into a reverie while working on something and realized that four hours have passed when you felt like you were meditating instead of working? This state is called Eudemonia. According to Aristotelianism, it is the ultimate human good, which is a condition of feeling within oneself and is akin to true happiness, an active existence guided by reason.
Idle mind is the devil’s workshop, but Idleness is essential for ideas generation and recharging:
You must make room for serendipitous creativity and the sporadic flash of inspiration to strike.
Quit social media:
Stop looking at your phone under the pretense of checking time. Get an analog wristwatch.
Stop checking notifications constantly by rationalizing that you’ll miss something important. If it’s really significant, you’ll get to know it eventually.
Let the messages and emails remain unread for a while. Stop attending to calls while deep working. If it’s urgent, they’ll call again. Prioritize.
Types of deep work:
Monastic philosophy: Reduce superficial commitments and spend extended amounts of time alone without interruptions.
Neil Gaiman discussed his ingenious approach on the Tim Ferris Podcast:
“I would go down to my lovely little gazebo at the bottom of the garden, sit down, and I’m absolutely allowed not to do anything. I’m allowed to sit at my desk, I’m allowed to stare out at the world, I’m allowed to do anything I like, as long as it isn’t anything. Not allowed to do a crossword, not allowed to read a book, not allowed to phone a friend, not allowed to make a clay model of something. All I’m allowed to do is absolutely nothing, or write.
I’m giving myself permission to write or not write, but writing is actually more interesting than doing nothing after a while. You sit there and you’ve been staring out the window now for five minutes, and it kind of loses its charm. You’re going, “Well, actually, let’s write something.”
Write, or don't write, but don't do anything else.
Bimodal philosophy: A time blocking technique where you set aside a few days in a row to work as if you were a monk (you need at least one day a week). This may be used in conjunction with the rhythmic philosophy, in which you devote 3–4 hours each day to doing intensive work on your project.
Chain method: Use an accountability calendar to track your progress which also serves as a positive feedback loop.
Journalist philosophy: As it suits your time blocks, alternate between deep and superficial tasks each day.
Whiteboard method: Collaborate with people. Together, you can delve further into a problem and produce a more worthwhile solution than working alone.
Zeigarnik effect: This is the process of reviewing every unfinished task, objective, or project in order to either plan for its completion or to keep it aside for future review. It serves as a shutdown technique for the deep work session.
Some Deep work Playlist recommendations: WorkLabMusic, Hans Zimmer, Dark Academia (my personal fav atm)
If you enjoyed reading my takeaways from it, do share this post with your peers. And if you’re considering getting a copy for yourself, do use my Amazon affiliate link for which I recently signed up. I’ll earn a small commission and you’ll help support my blogging and reading habit.
Have a great evening! :)
