"Deep Work" (Book Summary and thoughts)

"Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport (Summary and thoughts)

“Deep Work” by Cal Newport is a product from his research all on the science of productivity. As I am all about self-improvement - working productively and deeply aligns with achieving goals. I have been meaning to do more reading of valuable material such as this. One day browsing a bookstore I came across this and other books related to self-help, psychology, philosophy, finance, etc. As an application of some lessons in this book I should only focus on one thing at a time. So I decided to pickup this book from the library and read it thoroughly before moving onto anything else.

Deep Work is useful for people who :

• Want to increase their productivity
• Focus on being less distracted
• Be aware of their time spent on shallow activities (browsing email, social media)
• Increase the amount of work they can get done in a short amount of time
• Interested in the areas of productivity and self-improvement such as I!

About the author:

Cal Newport is an authoring of multiple books from subject matters of productivity, harnessing skills and digital minimalism all of this is on his personal profile. He is also known for his Study Hacks blog. Besides a writer, Cal Newport is an associated professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. So he has my bias having this as his primary area of expertise : D

What working deeply is:

By Cal’s definition it is the state of working in high focus and concentration on one single task free of distraction.

For any meaningful, engaging work that provides new value, it is required to work deeply

Format of the book:

The book is broken up to two parts. The first half being an introduction, description of what deep work is and an argument for increased productivity utilizing deep work using. The second half are the methods to follow and implement deep work into our lives.

First half summary:

Cal distinguishes the concept of work to Deep work and Shallow work. Shallow work is defined as tasks that do not require high cognitive funcion to perform, often rote/repetitive - Work that can be done while distracted and could be automated. Examples include checking and replying to emails, checking social media, scheduling meetings

Deep work however is engaging work requiring high levels of concentration and focus in a distraction free environment. Work produced is often high in value, are often difficult skills that are harnessed.

He states that deep work is ever increasingly rare, therefore very valuable and sought after. So the people who are able to cultivate this state of working will do well in professional setting.

Deep work is rare because it seems in society that shallow work is often encouraged and the norm. Think of all the distraction enabling vices there are out today: your phones, computer, emails. When notifications pop up on these modes of communication we feel the need to respond quickly. Also, according to Newport busy-ness is a proxy for productivity in the workplace. As in, people make themselves look busy as a means to fill the time.

Traditional work that inherently requires deep concentration are physical but highly skilled labour like the trades; think of carpentry, plumbing, electrical work.

However Cal clearly make an emphasis of this book on Knowledge workers, people in an office setting producing output from their thoughts. Like writing, artistry, science research, programming/engineering.

Deep work is valuable in these subject areas because it is to provide the maximum output in a given time constraint.

Characteristics of deep work:

• Working at one task instead of multitasking
• Working with intense focus
• Distractionless
• Long blocks of time on said single task

He states that this kind of work while hard to do can be cultivated as a skill. We can’t expect to get into Deep work right away. Like any skill it will take conscious time and effort to build this up over time. The four points above are what people who desire to be highly productive need to work on.

Second half summary:

There are four rules to deep working.

Rule 1: Work Deeply

Inherently working deeply is pretty difficult, therefore people are naturally adverse to doing this. Here he gives tips and routines of how to create an environment for us to work deeply.

Such tips/routines:

• Set out blocks of time for deep working
• make a work environment that is distractionless (like a simple minimalistic working space, computer and phone notifications turned off)
• Have routines of when to perform your deep work
• A balance of work and and enjoyment so that you can come back recharged

Rule 2: Embrace Boredom

In our everyday life we give in to distractions. Especially in a state of boredom. When was the last time you opened up a browser tab or phone when you felt like you had some down time? Pretty short while ago eh? We must overcome this inclination to keep our attention occupied and embrace the state of idleness.

In the same vein of letting ourselves be bored, Cal is a proponent of scheduling leisure time, shutdown rituals. It is necessary for one to achieve deep work. He mentioned that using this downtime wisely is good.

Downtime can spark thoughts and insights as during those periods our unconscious mind is still whirling.

Taking the necessary time to shutdown give us a full period to recharge before engaging in working deeply again. If you think about it, working intensely for many hours straight is exhausting. We will only have so much energy and willpower to do it so long.

In this downtown we won’t be going to do shallow work or activities, but doing things that are truly leisure and gives us value. Such as spending time with friends or family, a hobby, relaxing walk or workout.

Rule 3: Quit Social Media

Very much a consequence of rule 2. It is one of the things people naturally gravitate towards when they are bored. Cal makes it very clear it provides no benefit for work purposes. This stuff is also designed to addict us. We can’t even work when we always feel the inclination to catchup on whatever is on social media.

Rule 4: Drain the shallows

The idea is to avoid letting shallow work get in the way of deep work. He makes the argument of doing anything to minimize shallow work. Shallow work as we described are these low value, low cognitive repetitive tasks. Usually not part of the job description of knowledge work, but some things that do need to be done. However it is to structure your work to do this as little of it as possible, only when it is absolutely necessary.

Observing my work habits:

Reading the first half I proud for being in the profession that is considered knowledge work. Software engineering very much requires deep work. I was already intentionally setting up routines/systems in my life to be productive and distraction free before reading this book.

However in the back of my mind I wondered - what things in my environment take away from my attention? I was sure there are some things that distract me, but which culprits took the most of my valuable focus away from my work?

Discovering my faults:

The nature of a collaborative software environment is that constant and instantaneous communication, usually via face to face meeting or most notable many forms of electronic communication. My current company is very reliant on email notifications and direct messaging applications.

On the following work week as I was reading his book I tried to be cognizant of my attention. It wasn’t a typical week… but well when is a real typical week? I was notified with constant pings and emails for high-alerts. My email inbox and business communication DM’s kept piling on! I had that itch in me to read and reply to those right away. Now that is a behaviour that I need to change.

After addressing the urgent issues and getting back onto my usual tasks I noticed I few things –

I always knew that I was a person that needed to have a clean slate for an inbox, but I never realized how often I checked these applications.

Also, I tend to open up browser tabs not to social media, but things related such as youtube, reddit, general browsing to keep my eyes busy as my ‘real’ work executes on the side. (Compiling and test runs take a bit of time and CPU resources where I would idle at my screen) I have the tendency to need to be engaged on the screen. Therefore I browse my subscriptions at the time to keep me entertained.

Also, at the desk, I caught myself occupying myself with food.

As in I bored eat – haha.

If I start snacking. I can’t stop after a bite. Each moment of reaching for a snack breaks away from a long stretch of working. What should be done is apply the rule for single-tasking. Only do one thing at a time, only eat during the allotted lunch time. Do not snack in while working if it distracts me so much. I feel guilty, as of writing this post I am munching on my lunch!

During that week of applying his rules and being intentionally with my focus it was pretty hectic, I did things against the shutdown ritual. I worked later, took home work, I couldn’t really detach myself on some days for the urgent work. Even when the work wasn’t urgent and I could relax I felt the need to address things because they lingered. Like he stated, our capacity for productive work is limited in a day to a couple of hours. Anything done after those hours are done is less productive.

Things for me to work on:

I find myself distracting myself pretty constantly with direct messages, emails and incessant internet browsing and I can’t properly wind down after a full work day.

Final Thoughts:

His ideas are not new, I believe we all have an understanding how how valuable it is to work profusely concentrated, free from any of this distraction, it’s just that it is very effortful and exhausting. Lastly, it is also an exercise to be mindful of our otherwise automatic day to day behaviours.

It is one of those books that state things we already know. It is an actual reminder that addresses a topic we all are willfully blind to. This is a solid resource to look back to as I will be mindfully cultivating the skill to work deeply.

Whew, this was a longer post. Also quite demanding of my focus to sit down and write. This was also an exercise for me write for an extended amount of time applying the books principles. Anyway, I would like to get your thoughts of this type of content in the future. What do you think about posting summaries of non-fiction books in the area of self-improvement, health/fitness, philosophies?