Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

The book is indeed deep, and it needs your full uninterrupted attention. It is rich 3 In 1 book, you read, learn and practice while reading and learning. You are practicing Deep Work while earnestly reading, uninterrupted! To start with the writing style, easy going flows smoothly and extremely enjoyable. The author has style and has a convincing style. He does not leave without addressing your doubts, will elaborate below. On the theory: The theory presented by Newport is Deep Work which overlaps with Andres Ericsson theory of Deliberate practice explained in his book, peak. It is brilliantly easy to absorb. He delivers real life examples, scenarios and stories, followed through with scientific findings or theory. We need to train ourselves to work in concentration without distraction. Train our brain to do Deep work without detractions. The author delivers four rules to achieve that: 1. Work Deeply 2. Embrace Boredom 3. Quit social media 4. Drain the shallows I was thrilled with the reference to so many wonderful and important books; Malcolm Gladewell-Outliers, Mihaly “Flow”, Gardner “Learning minds”, Aders Ericsson “Peak”, Geoff Colvin “Talent is overrated”, and Sam Walton “Made in America (actually is his biography, but has beautiful business insights one of which was quoted in the book on happiness of employees and customers), and many others that I haven’t read and as of starting this book I have ordered. Noting that, as a personal opinion, it is always important to read similar works, similar topics themes, consecutively, as it helps to retain the delivered knowledge as they all overlap at some point and deliver the same knowledge in different ways and styles with less or more explanation, helping our brain to store the knowledge. An important example that Is of relevance to work and skills, and how deep work helps you produce at an elite level, is on myelin and neurons: “You get better at a skill as you develop Myelin around the relevant neurons”. “By focusing intensely on a specific skill, you`re forcing the specific relevant circuit to fire again and again, in isolation. This repetitive use of a specific circuit triggers cells called oligodendrocytes to begin wrapping layers of myelin around the neurons in the circuits effectively cementing the skills.” I was really impressed and have so much respect for the author, why? As mentioned in my first paragraph, he leaves no room for contradiction or doubt, not attended to by himself. Example 1; he raises the example of CEOs, specifically Dorsey, “who thrive without depth”. Yet they deliver highly valuable work. This is raised as an exception to the theory, as highly paid CEOs, short of time, cannot afford the luxury of Deep long, uninterrupted work, “They have built a hard-won repository o experience and have honed and proved an instinct for the market.” They are “niches” that are “increasingly rare” Example 2; the initial case against Deep work was the mega open working space Facebook built, he comes later in the book to the theory “Don’t Work Alone”, he justifies what he means with the case of the 20Lab building, delivering what he calls “serendipitous creativity”. Working together in an open space with people from different backgrounds leads to chance encounters and a spirit of inventiveness. But this comes at the condition of privacy also to do deep work. 20 Lab was large common areas hub, spoke architecture with a combination of soundproof offices! I advise taking notes while reading to have a small summary of the book that you can always come back to as you deem necessary.

Congratulations for making a New Year’s resolution to do regular physical exercise for weight loss and energy boost. This is important for you and all those who care about your wellbeing. However, to improve in your work accomplishments and professional value this year, you must build a different set of muscles: your ability and commitment to concentrate on focused work. In our hyper-active world of Internet-intensive temptation to spend time on relatively shallow and low-value activities, this has become exceedingly rare and underappreciated. In his valuable new book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Grand Central Publishing 2016), Georgetown Computer Science Professor Cal Newport teaches that the most valuable skill for today’s knowledge workers is the ability to do “activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.” Those who possess this skill, create new value that is hard to replicate. You know this is true. Think about the achievers you know – whether they are entrepreneurs, executives, consultants, attorneys, engineers, physicians, therapists, sales reps, athletes or artists. The top producers commit to work that requires focused concentration, always carefully working to reduce distractions. But you might not recognize just how difficult it is to do and how addicted you are to relatively shallow activities. In fact, a McKinsey study found that knowledge workers spend on average 60% of their workweek engaged in electronic communications and Internet searches, including 30% of time devoted to reading and answering email alone. Newport advises that you score your own work behavior on these benchmarks. He warns, “ubiquitous connectivity generates a devastatingly appealing buffet of distractions” and may be derailing your valuable and meaningful productivity. Newport’s definition of his term “deep work” is instructive: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.” One of the fascinating examples of a highly valued deep worker the Newport highlights in his book is Nate Silver, the statistician with an extraordinary record of accurately predicting the outcomes of elections and sports events, who is of particular prominence in 2016 as we enter another year of a presidential election in the United States. At the peak of the last presidential election of 2012, 70% of all traffic to the New York Times website was the blog with Silver’s election forecast, and less than one year later at the young age of 36, ESPN hired him away from the Times to contribute content to a range of programming including sports, news, politics, weather and entertainment. He knows how to use high-powered statistical software packages to analyze big data sets to generate answers to questions the masses want to know, and, as a result, commands the attention of eyeballs around the world. Silver’s high-skilled knowledge and proprietary methodology are elite in his field. As a result of deep work, Silver has two abilities that make him uniquely valuable in his field: 1. The ability to master hard things; 2. The ability to produce at a high level of quality and speed. These two abilities combine for what Newport calls the law of productivity, a formula that guides all top producers: Time spent X Intensity of Focus = High Quality of Work Produced In addition to the economic value produced by deep work, Newport devotes a long chapter citing numerous studies in neuroscience, psychology and philosophy and examples to explain how it is a source of meaning and satisfaction. The second part of the book Newport devotes to teaching us how to build the discipline of deep work. Like physical exercise using weight training and aerobics, all the methods are hard, requiring you to break bad habits and adopt new disciplines. But also like exercise, the good news is you can select from the many techniques he provides to suit your type of work, your personality and your values; it is not a one-size-fits all recipe. Here are five of many practical suggestions in the book: 1. Manage Email: a. Review daily the subject lines of each email you sent that day. For each message, ask if it reduced distraction, proactively progressed your primary goals, delegated work where possible. b. Batch email reading and writing at specific times of day, and no more, resisting the temptation to view messages as they arrive. c. Discriminate about who and how you distribute your email address and be clear about the subjects that will get your attention. d. Ignore messages that will get you mired in unproductive communications. e. Write carefully thinking about the response you need and considering the limited time of others. 2. Meditate on Productivity a. Devote time to think about a single problem or challenge during exercise and commute times. b. Be mindful of your focus throughout the workday. c. Imagine you have no connectivity at several times of your day. Ask what you could/should do with time when you have no connectivity, like during time on an airplane. d. Focus on completing work you know is valuable, rather than just getting things done and crossing them off your to-do list. 3. Schedule Every Minute of Every Day a. End your workday at a specific time because our capacity for deep work is limited. 4. Conduct Cost/Benefit Analyses of Activities a. Quantify the depth of each activity in terms of advancing your goals b. Say “no” to activities that will not produce desirable output c. Adjust or modify your work environment, whether you have complete control or inherit certain conditions created by your employer (such as the open floor plan championed by Facebook). 5. Develop and Follow a Training Regimen to Build Concentration Muscles a. Read books instead of blogs, increasing protein intake and reducing carbs. b. Exercise your mind and memory to strengthen your ability to concentrate intensely. c. Make regular time for developing a new skill, like learning to dance, learning a foreign language, playing bridge or chess. Deep Work contains many more suggestions of how you can train your ability to concentrate and produce quality work that is valued. I strongly suggest you read it and set up your program to exercise your work muscles. Just as you trim your body fat with physical exercise, your new discipline will increase your professional productivity dramatically.

I’m predisposed to like Cal and his approach. I’ve been reading his blog since 2009. It’s not an exaggeration to say that his perspective has been a game changer for me that came during a time where I could have easily drowned. I was once an academic (now lapsed) capable of consuming and summarizing 4 books a day while studying for comps and writing a dissertation. I then went to the private sector and discovered how things like weak corporate cultures and poor management offer few visible consequences of average behavior or rewards for being exceptional. The disruption in personal discipline is severe. Concentration suffers. Bars are lowered. A dozen years later (and later than I would have liked) I realized I was underperforming. I remember the day I was told by a mentor I was drowning and would be yanked out of the pool before I did the company any harm. I had to really knuckle down and focus. I started to search for help and found Cal’s blog. From there I started my own personal quest. Deep Work is the culmination of a very thorough and thought-through approach not just to productivity, but to living a life worth living. For those of us who read Cal’s blog regularly, it’s another remarkable milestone on a long journey. This book provides a sound framework on how to become more focused, where the goal is not the focus itself but the benefits of that focus. The obvious benefit is improved productivity, but this is about more than just work efficiency. Cal makes a compelling argument for focus in all aspects of life and the benefits it brings both personally and professionally. He presents a wealth of research on how our brains work, as well as practical guidelines that will help anyone build the foundation on which focus can be built. Just as importantly, he offers a number of real-world examples that show the value of focus and debunk myths about multitasking, the "importance" of shallow activities (like email, internet surfing, and social media obsessiveness), and the perception that being thoughtful about how you use your time somehow prevents serendipity. For me, Deep Work fills two meaningful gaps in Cal’s ideas. One of them relates to having the discipline to succeed and what’s at stake without it. Discipline is the unknown in each of our personal equations. It varies considerably and is difficult to change. Deep Work offers a number of methods to facilitate personal discipline. It is this aspect of the book that speaks most to me. Cal is steadfast in his own desire to think and rethink in search of improvement. His character is stubborn and resilient, but without the rough edges that often accompany these traits. I didn’t realize this until I joined his live webinar supporting this book. In it, close to the end, he effectively apologizes for being driven and ambitious. I found this a very genuine confession, a brief but telling glint of humility that leads me to conclude, correctly I believe, that he is a fundamentally a decent person. In the end this is his strong suit, and so much the better for those of us whom he has helped. The other gap he fills relates to how his ideas could be applied to the nonacademic lives that most of us live. For those chained to the oars of the slave ship bobbing through rough seas of office politics or weak managers or bad corporate cultures, the lessons are actually more relevant. They just require slightly different implementations. This aspect of the book was less eye-opening to me given that I had subscribed to Cal’s approach as a knowledge worker myself. In fact, I have used his approach to help some of my own employees (particularly first-time managers) reorient themselves and how they spend their time. The value of Cal’s message is equaled by the clarity of his writing. Cal’s argumentation is well-structured, well-researched, and tight as a drum in its logic. He expresses himself fully and convincingly, but without the complex or ponderous prose that I’m used to in academic texts. He writes cleanly and eloquently, with little opportunity for misunderstanding. I’m pretty sure that’s deliberate. Cal has obviously dedicated himself to this topic for a benefit beyond just being a professional guru. While I believe (and hope) he profits from it, I also believe this is a derivative product of his more fundamental goal to succeed in what he finds important in his own driven way. I am hopeful that he continues to write and share his observations as his story unfolds. In sum, this is a rich and worthwhile book that will continue to give readers something to think about regardless of where they are in life. There is no secret to his methods of productivity. There’s nothing to buy. There are techniques that work, make sense, and can be practiced by anyone. If you follow them even in part, you’ll have a big leg up on everyone else.

In short: this book will give you many new tools, tips and tricks on how to increase your personal productivity. You'll likely get more meaningful work done, eliminate distractions, increase measurable creative/productive output and likely feel less stressed overall. While it doesn't offer an easy/quick fix and is not as easily applicable as the author assumes, it's well worth the purchase and time investment to read this book. In-depth: This is a well written and exhaustively researched book on the many benefits of non-distracted focused work and how to appropriately perform this kind of work. In it, Cal lays out a compelling argument for why this kind of full engaged "deep work" is becoming more and more valuable and how to prepare yourself to not be left behind. It also shows you why applying these principals can lead to a more productive, free and happy life. While the great lengths Cal goes to explaining the "whys" are appreciated for the highly cynical of us, I feel the masses would benefit from a much more abbreviated version of the text. If you are buying this book you likely accept that deep work is valuable/meaningful/rare etc you may prefer skipping Part 1("The Idea") and getting to the "How to" guide which is really what Part 2 "The Rules" is about My only additional criticism is that I feel that these rules are best left to those fortunate enough to be either in academia, the sciences or well-endowed artists/creatives. The rest of us in various other industries now common in today's evolving work landscape (such as entertainment, Tech, PR, new media marketing, public service/public figures and high end service oriented roles like talent management, on-call medical, etc "The Rules" as laid out are not as easily applicable. (Rule 3 "Quit Social Media" is a great example of a hopefully naive goal). In conclusion, as stated at the beginning of my review, I do recommend purchasing the book because even if you only pick up a few small improvements for your own work efforts, it's well worth it.

Most personal development books advocate secret shortcuts to success. The 4-Hour Workweek, an extremely popular title from author Tim Ferriss, detailed strategies for “joining the new rich” and traveling the world by working as little as possible. Cal Newport’s latest book entitled Deep Work by contrast is refreshing in its emphasis on extremely cognitively demanding work as the key to success and personal fulfillment. Deep Work is defined as “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.” Deep Work is contrasted with Shallow Work, defined as “Noncognitively 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.” Newport’s thesis is that the ability to actually concentrate on hard stuff is becoming rare due to addictive and distracting technologies from Facebook to Buzzfeed to email. Meanwhile, any job that can be replaced by a computer or someone in a developing nation will be, so deep work is actually more valuable than ever. Deep Work is the knowledge workers’ version of “deliberate practice,” the sort of which leads to expertise as found by K. Anders Ericsson in studies of violin players, golfers, chess grandmasters, and so on. Sheer number of hours of very challenging practice with the aim to deliberately improve one’s skills correlates with the greatest expertise, hence the "10,000 hours rule" popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. Expert violin players practice 3-4 hours a day, whereas mediocre players practice only 1 hour a day or less. Similarly, knowledge workers who spend 30-50% of their work day in completely focused concentration on important, difficult projects produce more value than knowledge workers who spend most of the time checking email, sitting in meetings, and distractedly trying to get a few things done each day. While Newport emphasizes the benefits in productivity and job security from Deep Work, I think the real benefits are in meaningfulness and life satisfaction. Newport has given a name to something vague I’ve felt was missing in my life. Now I not only have the vocabulary to talk about it, but also a model of how to live a deeply meaningful life in a sustainable manner. I’ve had a belief that to do a high volume of good quality work, it was necessary to be a workaholic, a belief supported by the exemplars of high achievement in my life. Not wanting to experience the obvious negative effects of workaholism, I’ve instead chosen to be a slacker. Newport presents a golden mean between the extremes of workaholism and slacking, activity and rest; that of spending 3 or 4 hours a day sequestered in highly concentrated periods of challenging mental labor, 90-120 minutes at a stretch, never working after 5:30pm, and managing all this by ruthlessly eliminating the inessential. This is a noble use of ruthlessness, versus Tim Ferriss’ ethic of ruthlessly cheating-within-the-rules or exploiting international labor markets for personal gain. The inessential ought to be eliminated; doing so ensures room for deep and important work. While Ferriss sometimes talks about eliminating the inessential, he frequently contradicts himself by recommending many unimportant things like expensive and needless supplements, or worthless accomplishments like setting a “world record” for number of tango spins in 1 minute, or cheating at kickboxing. Ferriss emphasizes laziness (“the 4 hour X”) and hacks that allow one to skirt effort, while Newport advocates hard, hard work for which there is no shortcut. Ultimately Newport’s Deep Work is not simply about doing better work, it’s about living a better life, balancing many competing priorities, determining which technologies aid your most important labor, and valuing your energy and your time as the precious and non-renewable resources they are. This book a must-read for anyone who does knowledge work of any kind and wants to live a meaningful life in our age of distraction. That said, this book leaves me with some questions. Deep Work is a book about finding meaning through work as well as success in life in Late Capitalism. The proposed solution to being outsourced or automated in a hyper-competitive global marketplace is to become indispensable by practicing in a way that leads to profound expertise. However, most new jobs in the economy are in the service sector. Quite a few service jobs won’t allow for Deep Work, for example Starbucks baristas, Amazon warehouse workers, Bus/Uber drivers, call center employees, administrative assistants, and so on. Do these workers have any opportunities to practice Deep Work on the job in a way that cannot be commodified? Newport at one point suggests that these entry-level jobs do not, therefore the worker should develop deeper skills to increase their opportunities for deep work. But when and where can a service industry worker develop their skills, especially if they are already working full-time or more? The best time to develop skills is while you are being paid, and Newport advocates not doing anything work related after 5:30pm. It seems that the only way for such a person to get ahead would be to add an additional 3-4 hours of deep work into their schedule on top of their 8+ hours on the job, but this would necessarily lead to lower cognitive performance from overwork and inferior rest. Since expertise is about total hours spent in deep work or deliberate practice, an economy where the deepest workers thrive rewards the privileged. Also by definition if rockstars are some of the only people in a field who will thrive, the system is inherently unjust, privileging a tiny minority while the overwhelming majority suffers. Is Deep Work only for the 1%, and therefore the 99% are destined to lead meaningless and shallow lives? Will Deep Work counter the trend towards increasing inequality, or will it further this disturbing phenomenon, or neither? Is there a way we can increase the opportunities for Deep Work for all workers, not just the professional elite? Shallow Work is defined as basically busy work that presents a veneer of being productive, whereas Deep Work is the opposite: focusing on very cognitively demanding work that is personally and socially important. But some of the examples of Deep Work involve very showy displays of work such as number of published papers or (I imagine) lines of code written. Everyone knows it is easier to write 5 shallow books than one truly deep one. Could one be a better researcher by publishing fewer, higher quality papers? Does “publish or perish” really create better academic institutions? Does number of published papers make for a good researcher or professor? Does number of citations even make for a good paper? Many paradigm-changing papers or works were ignored at first. As physicist Max Plank allegedly said, "Science progresses one funeral at a time." Is high craftsmanship always valued and appreciated in a field, or do other values make something more popular or financially lucrative? For instance, a better program might be one which is more elegant, requiring fewer lines of code to do the same thing. But lines of code is a showy metric that appears to be better, despite being more shallow. While Newport's official "lead" metric for success is hours spent in deep work, he also emphasizes the metric of number of academic papers published. Newport’s previous books were on academic success, which is largely defined as getting straight A’s in difficult classes. Is Deep Work just trying to get an “A” in life, or is it truly working on what is important, even if one is not rewarded externally as much as the person who plays to the crowd/rules? Is it “he who dies with the most published and cited papers wins?” or is it “he who writes the most meaningful and deep papers wins?” What if the crowd's values for success in your field are wrong or shallow? Is Deep Work actually deep, or is it merely technical? It seems like many of the examples involve learning a highly specialized technical discipline, and/or perhaps inventing something new in a highly specialized technical discipline. But is technical skill and proficiency what truly matters in life? To take the example of masterful musicians who K. Anders Ericsson studied: is mastery in musical performance merely a matter of technical proficiency? Clearly without technical proficiency, one cannot reach a level of mastery in music, so some high degree of technical proficiency is necessary. But just as clearly, musical performance that only contains technical mastery is missing something equally as important, making this technical ability insufficient. Newport’s previous book was about developing skill instead of following your passion, but a technical musician who lacks passion makes for a cold and unmoving performance. Is Newport underestimating the importance of passion or heart in expertise because it is more challenging to measure or teach? I know several people who are back in school right now. All of them spend many hours a day studying very cognitively demanding material in a highly focused manner, but none are superstars. Why is this? One (my wife) doesn’t even have a Facebook or Twitter account, and studies in a very focused manner for hours at a time, and yet is still very slow compared to her son, who can write a nearly good paper in literally 1/10th the time. (He plays hours of video games every day.) Is she lacking some crucial study skill? Another is a PhD candidate in the biological sciences and basically works round the clock. Why isn’t she a superstar in her field given her long hours of difficult study? (She is doing well, but not head-and-shoulders above similar PhD students.) Is she not resting enough or focused enough while she works? Hours spent in a highly focused manner on cognitively demanding tasks is clearly an important thing, but also clearly not the only relevant variable in producing outstanding results. What are those other factors that determine extreme results and are they learnable? Is Deep actually compatible with More and Fast? In this book, Newport emphasizes being able to produce high volume of work quickly in order to survive and thrive in Late Capitalism. But does this emphasis on More and Fast sacrifice some level of depth that is only possible with Less and Slow? For example, in the psychological sciences as well as in pharmaceutical drug trials, it is difficult to get funding for longitudinal studies that track individuals over long periods of time, but deep and important information is found from these studies that cannot be replicated through short-term studies alone. Because of the lack of these studies (and their expense), we have lots of data on short-term effects of drugs but little information about the effects of these drugs after years of use…and many of these drugs continue to be used for years, such as SSRIs and other anti-depressant drugs. Deep Work does seem to eliminate much of what is unimportant, specifically mindless entertainment and needless technology. A life of Deep Work is certainly more focused and meaningful than one without. There are also some advantages to More and Fast. But what other Deep things are we missing out on by focusing on More and Fast work? Despite my questions, I found the book very moving and important, and I highly recommend it. In my own life, I will be seriously considering ways to make my daily work life revolve around as much Deep Work as I can sustain.

It's rare that a book is so simultaneously helpful and well-written. I was so riveted I read it in two days. Deep Work appeals directly to anyone engaged in knowledge work - as a grant writer, fiction writer, and systems management/organizational efficiency geek, the potential applications to my work are profound. Cal Newport uses a host of resources and perspectives, from neuropsychology to philosophy, in order to justify his position - namely, that greatness is achieved through consistent periods of intense, uninterrupted concentration. The premise may be nothing new, but the book functions as a useful tool for achieving that state for yourself. If the book has one dogma that may rub people the wrong way, it is the evaluation of social media, and other technological innovations such as e-mail, as largely counterproductive to the goal of Deep Work. Some may argue he comes across as a Luddite, but for me, celebrating nearly three months Facebook free, he merely represents an evolution of my own sense that these tools are distractions from the real work I want to do in life. He doesn't necessarily recommend a monastic approach but rather that we set aside time in the day specifically for these kinds of distractions, so that they do not interfere with our more meaningful work. Another thing I enjoy about his approach is the open-endedness of the advice he gives for creating this structure in your own life. Rather than laying down a specific path that all must follow, he provides many examples of approaches that fit many different lifestyles and needs. He recognizes that this is not a one-size-fits all solution. He also recognizes that just implementing these lifestyle changes is Deep Work in and of itself, that many of us are unpracticed at this level of concentration, and that it takes patience and time to reach the limits of our cognitive capacity on a regular basis. Cal Newport has left me with much to think about. I've started with a couple of techniques in the last couple of days and had good results. In the area of fiction, I've started a habit of rising early and writing for two hours uninterrupted. In the area of grant writing, I'm learning to block off uninterrupted time in my schedule where I do not access e-mail and focus on a single task. While I have only begun to dip my toes into the water, I've already seen a real increase in productivity around the things that matter most. My plan is to work on all of this over the next month, to work out what's best for my life, little by little, and then to read the book again. It's that good. If you are a person who seems to always be busy but never accomplishing much that feels meaningful or profound, I strongly recommend this book.

TLDR: I've implemented the ideas from this book for the past week and gotten about 20% more done (I can measure this pretty concretely), didn't work in the evening, and felt more energized about what I was doing. My favorite parts are Cal's DW strategies, including: - Turning off the internet during DW sessions - Setting public deadlines for yourself that are *just* possible to meet if you work in an incredibly focused manner - Scheduling your day (to be conscientious, not to be strict– his explanation of HOW to THINK about scheduling is fantastic) - Scheduling internet time and why it's OK to take as much as you want, as long as it's scheduled (a recurring theme is training yourself to crave distraction less, and his stuff on this idea is really good) - The "scorecard" idea for tracking your DW hours - The Shutdown Ritual - admittedly, I am not great at this, but a fascinating idea about using ritual to trigger changes in your mind I always get excited when Cal Newport has a new idea. He's a nerd in the best sense– analyzing problems facing huge numbers of us, yet coming up with better solutions, systems, and frameworks than the rest of us put together. His blog is so good, the /comments/ are good. Deep Work was a shoe-in for my reading list. You can find the thesis very easily– whole excerpts, even– and if you suspect in the least that this book would apply to your work, it's worth the read. End of story. What did I /not/ like about it? 1. The first half of the book shows how DW is both rare and valuable. It's not until the third section that we start talking specifics about how to integrate DW into your schedule and career. My book has about 5x the underlines/notes in the second half, because that's the useful part. I guess you have to convince the haters, but the first half did feel like a bit too much preaching to the choir. 2. Many of the examples of people who've benefitted from deep work are from professions where it is fairly obvious to understand how DW functions. Authors, theoretical physicists, etc. I would've loved to see in-depth analysis of how people who do a lot of general white collar stuff (marketing, reports, sales, specs) think about and integrate DW into their career. There is some of this– there could be more. Long story short: if you imagine you will find all sorts of issues applying this to what you do, skip it. If you sense it might be really valuable, go for it. Great read.

This is (I think) the first product I have ever reviewed on Amazon, which speaks to how much I think of it. Deep Work hit me harder than any book I have read in a long time, maybe ever, and I have already made what I hope will be life-long changes based on the book's advice. A balanced book that not only explains the importance of the topic, but gives the reader clear steps to take to accomplish the goals therein. The first third of Deep Work is lays out the argument that the ability to focus deeply in order to gain skills and produce valuable things, is something that is being lost in society. We have become addicted to distraction. Don't agree? Try leaving your phone in your pocket the next time you are waiting for your mocha at the coffee shop. If you are like me, it may not be as easy as you think (this obviously applies to us in varying degrees). Newport's second point in this part of the book is that the ability to do "deep work" is becoming more and more valuable in society. So the supply of deep work is going down at the same time as the demand is going up. This creates an economic opportunity. The second two-thirds of the book is a how-to guide for developing our ability to work deeply, where Cal gives actionable, concrete steps that one can take to reclaim the ability to focus, do deep work, and therefore perform better at work and gain the career capital that is needed for a fulfilling career. Some of these steps include (among other things) shunning distractions, embracing boredom, and quitting social media (the most immediate change I made). These are broad ideas, but Cal fleshes them out in detail in the book. I found Deep Work to be a fantastic book, easily Newport's best yet. I finished it in two days, while taking extensive notes on everything I read. One of the top reviews complained that this is old advice packaged in a new way, but I think that is a good thing! Most of us need to see things presented in an attractive way if we are going to buy in to the message. I am methodically implementing the suggestions, and I'm confident that if I put in the significant amount of effort required to improve at working deeply, I will have great success as my career begins and develops. I can't recommend this book enough.

Es un libro muy completo y realmente sirve para lo que es, si estás enfocado en una maestría o algún proyecto, pero no avanzas o no tienes resultados precisos, éste libro es idóneo para abrirnos la mente en qué estamos fallando. Por parte del vendedor no lo empacó debidamente y llegó con un ligero golpe, además unas manchas en la portada pero quizás sea de la imprenta.

Embora esteja em inglês a leitura não é tão difícil para quem não está acostumado, como eu. Um livro extremamente bem embasado em fundamentos científicos e testados academicamente e na prática. Identifica o problema da atualidade em não se conseguir manter focado em algo e o quanto isso gera de problemas, mas ao mesmo tempo ensina como promover medidas para alcançar graduações de foco no trabalho e em qualquer projeto, bem como os benefícios que isso traz de forma a aumentar a sintonia de uma mente focada com seu trabalho e o reflexo em sua produtividade. Recomendo a leitura!

Straightforward and inspiring!

As we become more connected 24/7. . . we are losing the ability to focus, concentrate and put our minds to a task without being distracted. Eventually sooner than later, we will find it harder and harder and then impossible to create valuable work. Some major takeaways I took away from this reading. . . - need to develop the habit of allowing small bad things to happen so that we can have the time for life-changing big things - resist the temptation of distractions or be distracted. - multi tasking is a myth. - limit or better yet quit social media. Instead of following other people's fake lives on social media, focus of creating and living your own authentic purposeful life. Deep work is a book for everyone who wants to live a more purposeful and valuable life. Especially recommended for teenagers. William Teh Investor. Author. Pre-tired.

Excelente libro con mucha información y estrategias para aprovechar mejor el tiempo y trabajar alcanzando nuestro máximo potencial en lo que hacemos, sin dejar de lado, por supuesto, el tiempo de descanso y esparcimiento. Siendo profesor, me llama la atención que siempre se nos aconseja la integración de la tecnología en nuestra práctica docente, en formas que contradicen los resultados de las investigaciones que se exponen en este libro. Por ejemplo: 1) El uso de las redes sociales en las actividades de aprendizaje de nuestros alumnos, mientras que los investigadores aconsejan dejar de usarlas, ya que aportan poco o ningún beneficio a nuestra vida tanto laboral como personal y nos distraen de nuestros objetivos en estos ámbitos. El escritor George Packer una vez dijo que Twitter es crack para los adictos a las redes. 2) El aprendizaje móvil, que es, en pocas palabras, enseñar con dispositivos móviles. Los investigadores señalan que dejemos de usar los smartphones por su potencial distractor. Incluso, Steve Jobs nunca pensó en el iPhone cómo un dispositivo para estar hiperconectado 3) Leer en formato digital, mientras que los investigadores nos dicen que debemos leer en papel, ya que los beneficios para el aprendizaje son mayores que cuando se lee en un dispositivo electrónico. 4) El multitasking, mientras que los investigadores nos dicen que el cambiar rápidamente de una tarea a otra hace estragos en nuestra capacidad de concentración. Definitivamente, es algo para ponerse a pensar y reflexionar.