Book review
Deep Work
In a distracted world, Newport argues, deep work grows more valuable. His answer is to protect time for concentration and rebuild the ability to focus. My takeaway was that only by doing this could we achieve greatness.
Deep Work – Cal Newport
In a distracted world, Newport argues, deep work grows more valuable. His answer is to protect time for concentration and rebuild the ability to focus. My takeaway was that only by doing this could we achieve greatness.
Selected notes from this 2019 reading
Newport defines deep work as demanding activity done in distraction-free concentration, creating value and improving skill. He contrasts it with logistical, often distracted shallow work. The book argues that concentration helps people learn difficult things and produce high-quality work, while network tools make that concentration harder to protect.
Newport describes several ways to organise deep work: monastic isolation, longer bimodal blocks, a regular rhythmic habit, or fitting it in when a schedule allows. His four rules are to work deeply, embrace boredom, quit social media and drain the shallows. I noted the value of a clear goal, protected time, and a shutdown at the end of the workday.
These ideas raised practical questions for me at the time: when should I answer messages, could Queal have days without internal communication, and how should I divide work, free time and blogging? I also wondered what my own mission was and how to make time for it. These were questions in my notes, not a description of my current routine.
My own ambition at the time was to develop highly skilled work and retain ownership in the projects I helped build, so that I could benefit from their success.
My notes pointed to David Brooks on the art of focus while considering how to choose what matters most.