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Deep Work - A Book about Improving Performance Through Overcoming Distraction

Book Description:

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way.

In DEEP WORK, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, DEEP WORK takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories -- from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air -- and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. DEEP WORK is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.

My Top Takeaways:

  • Deep work is needed right now more than any other time in human history, and yet it is becoming more difficult to find people capable of long periods of deep work. That's why those able to perform deep work are growing increasingly more valuable.
  • We need to make our deep work periods focused on our most important priorities because they are limited. Most people are only capable of doing a small amount of deep work in a day, often an hour or less. Practiced, focused, professionals are still only able to accomplish around four hours of deep work each day.
  • Don't try to fix boredom, especially with a phone. As we alleviate boredom, for instance, scrolling through social media while waiting in line, we further damage our ability to accomplish deep work in the future.
  • If we want to know if something in our home is needed we should pack it away and see if we "need" it within the next 12 months. If we want to know if we should keep an app, like Facebook or YouTube, we should delete it from our phone for a few months and see whether it brings more value downloaded or deleted.
  • Relaxed walks in nature have been shown to unlock deeper thoughts and insights about a problem's solution than staying in place working on the problem.
  • Many people, historical and current, have found great success in taking Deep Work Retreats where they rent a cabin or hotel room where they can focus on just their most important work without distraction. These retreats have been massively important in my own career!
  • Creating a shut-down routine at the end of the workday can help our brain understand that we're finished with work and we're allowed to relax. This is likely to lead to more meaningful personal lives and more focused deep work when we return to the office the next day.
  • Multi-tasking is not only ineffective, it actually damages our ability to focus on future tasks.

    'The 52 Book' Review Rating:

    Final Thoughts:

    Deep Work by Cal Newport is well worth the read regardless of where you are in your career. As someone who has spent considerable time and energy researching focus and effective work habits this was packed with useful studies, techniques, and insights that could easily change someone's life. The only thing that kept me from giving it the highest rating is that much of the content has been used in other books already, but if you haven't gone through other books on the same subject this is going to change the way you view productivity from the ground up.

    This is one of those books that I wish were required reading for high school and college students so that they walked into professional careers understanding the value of attention. I've seen simple switches, like those mentioned in this book, transform average employees to star performers. Deep work is one of the biggest differentiators someone can have in a professional workplace and it will become even more important as we venture into the increasingly distracted life surrounding the metaverse.

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    Have you read Deep Work, and if so, what are your thoughts? 

    Also, I am always on the prowl for my next great book. What life-changing books have you read recently? I'm excited to see your comments below.


    You can reach out to David Inman at: david@kennected.io 
    You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at: 
    Location: Indianapolis, IN, USA

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