Deep Work

Hello again,

“We spend much of our day on autopilot—not giving much thought to what we’re doing with our time.”

Recently, I have read a book “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport. I would like to share a brief summary which inspired me and this is definitely one of my favorite productivity books and I’d recommend it for anyone who wants to get serious and worthwhile work done in the age of dramatic distraction we live in today.

Happy reading!!!

Deep Work by Cal Newport is a book about the science of productivity. He argues the best way to get more meaningful work done is by working deeply – working in a state of high concentration without distractions on a single task.

Source : Google

What Is Deep Work?

“Deep Work: 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.”

“Shallow Work: Non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”

So, Who should do Deep Work ?

1. Anyone who wants to increase their productivity, especially knowledge workers
2. Anyone who wants to get more done, but in less time
3. Anyone interested in the science of multitasking, attention, and productivity

Cal Newport differs between deep work and shallow work. Deep work refers to distraction-free, high concentration work that improves your skills, creates a lot of value in little time, and is very hard to replicate.

Shallow work refers to working on non-cognitively demanding tasks with little focus and often while distracted. This type of working is easy to replicate. Think: checking emails every couple of minutes, responding to push notifications, and giving in to distractions like Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, News websites, and so on.

Source : Google

Why Deep Work Is Rare? Yet Highly Valuable

Why is deep work rare? For starters, shallow work is easier. In addition, shallow work seems to be encouraged by most businesses. Think: constant connectivity, expectations of fast response times, or open plan offices. Employees, choosing the path of least resistance, will simply adopt to this type of shallow-work-inducing environment by, well, working in a shallow manner.

According to Newport, most workers today succumb to something he calls increasingly visible busyness or busyness as proxy for productivity. In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be valuable and productive at work, many knowledge workers turn toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.

Cal Newport sums it up: “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.”

Why is deep work valuable? In short, because it maximizes the amount of productivity you can squeeze out of a certain amount of time.

The Four Rules of Deep Work

• Rule 1: Work Deeply
• Rule 2: Embrace Boredom
• Rule 3: Quit Social Media
• Rule 4: Drain the Shallows

Say “Yes” to the Wildly Important

“As the authors of The 4 Disciplines of Execution explain, ‘The more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish.’ They elaborate that execution should be aimed at a small number of ‘wildly important goals.’ This simplicity will help focus an organization’s energy to a sufficient intensity to ignite real results"

Saying no to distractions just for the sake of saying no to distractions isn’t very motivating.  Saying no to distractions for the sake of achieving an ambitious goal, on the other hand, is highly motivating.

If Facebook gets in the way of that wildly important goal you’re pursuing, then you’ll feel compelled to avoid that distraction. It’s a lot easier to say no to distractions when you have a really big Yes that you’re pursuing.

This begs the question, what’s your wildly important goal? What’s the subject that arouses a terrifying longing in your heart? Figure it out, then banish distractions from your life and use deep work to make it happen as quickly as possible.

Source : Google

The Deep Life

The deep life, of course, is not for everybody. It requires hard work and drastic changes to your habits. For many, there’s a comfort in the artificial busyness of rapid e-mail messaging and social media posturing. While the deep life demands that you leave much of that behind. There’s also an uneasiness that surrounds any effort to produce the best things you’re capable of producing, as this forces you to confront the possibility that your best is not (yet) that good.”

You need to constantly fight distractions, push yourself and your concentration to the limits, spend less time on social media, spend less time on the Internet, plan your days (even your leisure time!) in advance, and so on.

The deep life isn’t for everybody. For most people, it’s too much work and too much of a hassle. Much easier to give in to the comforts of artificial busyness. Much easier to waste away time on social media. Much easier to occupy yourself with shallow tasks. Much easier to give in to temptations whenever they arise.

However, if you’re serious about maximizing your productivity, deploying your mind to its fullest capacity, and getting big things done, then I’m afraid there’s no other (and no better) way than to pursue the deep life.

Cal Newport ends the book with a quote from writer Winifred Gallagher: “I’ll live the focused life, because it’s the best kind there is.”

Source : Google

The Book in Three Sentences

• Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.
• Shallow work is non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style work, often performed while distracted.
• Deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive twenty-first-century economy.

As Always thanks for reading;)

Thank you

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