Deep Work
Ratings333
Average rating4.1
Mostly inspiring and interesting but some ideas seem half-baked, in particular the idea of so-called “productive meditation” which seems like a recipe for becoming an aloof and/or burnt out professor. The author also seems to cherry pick when to offer research instead of mere anecdotes to back up his points.
Highlights from the book-
When next you need to get into a deep mode:
• shut down your social media notifications;
• make sure not to switch to the next task until you have finished the ongoing one. There will be an attention residue — working in a semi–distraction state, which is counterproductive;
• spend less time on the Internet and no time playing games on your telephone/ computer;
• exert maximum productivity from the hour's work, and maximum recovery from your downtime.
I've read a few books by now on productivity. This one did not make any particularly nuanced points, but I did leave convinced that deep work is a key to expert success. David Allen's “Getting Things Done” and, by a different author, “The Power of Habit” are some good books to read either after or before this one. They all pretty much say the same thing—habit is crucial to success and we must manage our actions in regards to all types of projects in our lives.
This was a good book with actionable advice. I'd love to see the author research and present findings on a more diverse group if he is going to make sweeping claims.
I preferred Digital Minimalism, you'll get some of the same points.
Absolutely shallow. 98% feels like filler to reach a certain page count. The whole focus on “award winning” people and focus on other liberal/conservative garbage institutions make this book so American in a repulsing way for non Americans.
I cannot recommend this book enough. Few nonfiction books actually help me become better. This one did.
Very interesting and well written book discussing the benefits and challenges associated with “Deep Work.” In short, Deep Work is when you are able to focus solely on getting something specific accomplished. It's very essential to the concept of “flow” or “being in the zone.” But you don't have to live like a hermit to get there. There are ways to get the benefits in much shorter time chunks than you may suspect.
Going into it, I wasn't honestly expecting a whole lot of new information for someone who has read quite a few books in the “productivity” segment. I was pleasantly surprised. Cal Newport does a great job discussing not only the benefits of uninterrupted work (or focus... it doesn't really even have to be “work,” honestly), but also different ways to implement the principles he discusses and gives interesting real-world examples of people you may have heard of who are living the Deep Work life. Not only that, but he also honestly discusses some of the challenges you can expect to encounter.
Changing your life to a full deep work lifestyle isn't for everyone, but there's a good chance everyone could benefit from implementing deep work segments into their workflow. While this book isn't as beneficial in concept as, say, GTD or Your Best Year Ever, I think it's one I'm going to return to every few years. Also of note, I listened to this on Audible audiobook and it was very well produced. The narrator did a good job with the production and it didn't seem as though there was any important info that I missed (graphs or infographics).
The first section I feel can be pretty much ignored as it's just anecdotes of 'successful' people and nothing particularly useful.
Premise: if you are a knowledge worker/want to do things that matter you should spending a portion of your time doing deep work.
1) you must practice concentrating
2) you must make time to do deep work
3) figure out what your goals are and what two or three activities best support them
4) stop wasting time on busy/shallow/admin work
5) profit
الكتاب الذي سيجعلك تعيد التفكير في مشكلة العصر و هي التشتت الذهني و يرسخ لديك فكرة أن التركيز هو زادك في هذا الزمن لتحدث تغييرا في حياتك.
The Book that will help you rethink our era's deepest problem which is ‘' mental distraction ‘' and will surely establish within the idea that ‘' focus is your asset in this time that will change your life''
Although it gets repetitive a bit in the middle, the gist of the book can be summarized as - Do deep work instead of the shallow. You have to actively work on your habits to keep yourself from spiraling into the distraction laden life that the current online culture has inculcated. All this sounds like common advice and a touch of self-help vibe in the title of this book may make you skeptical to pick it up, but the advices and strategies Cal Newport suggests is applicable to everyone in the 21st century. If you can't make it through the entire book, read at least few of his blog posts on Cal Newport: Blog .
About the book: Deep Work is all about how the rise of technology has wrecked our ability to concentrate deeply on tasks – and how to overcome this blockade. This book illustrates different strategies that can help you improve the output of your work and get the most out of your free time.
About the author: Cal Newport is an assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University specializing in the theory of distributed algorithms. Several publications, including Inc. Magazine, The Globe and Mail and 800-CEO-Read, have featured his most recent book, So Good They Can't Ignore You, on their lists for the best business book of the year.
My highlights:
Multitasking and distraction are the enemies of productivity. multitasking does not equal productivity
Completing small tasks and moving information around makes us feel busy and accomplished – but it's actually just preventing us from truly focusing.
There are different strategies for achieving deep work – all of which require intention. monastic approach. This strategy works by eliminating all sources of distraction and secluding yourself like a monk.
Bimodal approach, which involves setting a clearly defined, long period of seclusion for work and leaving the rest of your time free for everything else.
Rhythmic approach. The idea here is to form a habit of doing deep work for blocks of, say, 90 minutes and using a calendar to track your accomplishments.
Journalistic strategy is to take any unexpected free time in your daily routine to do deep work.
Define your space
Define boundaries
Make your deep work sustainable
Scheduling both work and free time is essential to restoring energy. scheduling everything you do, you'll free up time for being mindful of how you spend it. At the start of every workday, create a schedule that's divided into blocks of at least 30 minutes. In this schedule you should set both work and personal tasks like time to relax, eat or catch up on email.
Cultivate awareness about how you spend your time.
Plan your evenings and weekends ahead so you can take actions toward specific goals
Planning your evenings and weekends around activities other than those involving the internet
2.5 rounded down.
If you have to choose between buying and reading Atomic Habits versus buying and reading this book, I am of the belief you would find far more utility from Atomic Habits.
I really wanted this to be a book that I felt foundational to the way I structured my work going forward. Unfortunately, most of the practical information I felt was quite obvious and I already practice it. As an aspiring academic, I think maybe most useful things I learned from the book were that: memory training and other focus intensive tasks that are unrelated to your research/work can be helpful to train your brain to think more deeply on your actual work, and that there exist successful young Professors who end their work day at 5:30pm.
I went into the book already convinced of the value of deep work. As a result I found most of the content to be fairly useless. Most of the book felt persuasive in nature, as if trying to convince the reader of the value of deep work and that the techniques introduced are actually facilitative of deep work. To this second point, most of the evidence was anecdotal, and interesting but not very personal, nor deep, nor detailed. Most of it could've, ironically, been summarized on a buzz-feed article titled “30 quirky habits of the worlds most ingenious minds” or something like that.
To the first point, if you are someone, especially someone who is not in tech/startup world, who is already convinced of the value of deep work I feel you can easily skip the first half of the book. In fact I wish I had.
Overall I was quite disappointed, I think Professor Newport had a very unique opportunity as someone with a vast wealth of personal experience in high achieving environments and positions that he could've leveraged. If he wanted to support his arguments with anecdote, he could've used his own, as a Ph.D. student who graduated from MIT. I would've eaten a narrative book like this up if he supported each of his techniques with a full story of how it helped him in some unique situation, and how he developed these techniques throughout his career (much like the conclusion of the book) then supported this with sprinkles of anecdotes from other professors or scholars or something as supplements. This still would not serve the same purposes as Atomic habits which is highly centered on research supported techniques, but I think it would've offered a unique perspective worth reading about.
Overall the book was a bit of a slog, mildly derogatory, sometimes a bit finger-wavey, and pretty redundant but with some gems buried in the pages, but as some other reviewers have said these gems could've occupied 20pgs maximum if they were written concisely. The supporting evidence wasn't very supportive, so basically the techniques are more like very general tips or recommendations which are left to stand on their own merit, and could've been expressed in that many pages. In short, if you are even remotely interested in personal growth or bettering yourself, you're probably already doing most, if not all, of what this book suggests.
It's a good non fiction/self improvement book if I see myself trying at least some of the things he's written about instead of say rolling my eyes as the author and me clearly don't share a planet. He's persuasive and makes a pretty good case for deep work and then provides some interesting ideas of to try and get there.
One rolling ny eyes moment though was when one of his examples was described as “dissapearing to his island for two months every summer to work” and I was like “while his wife took care of kids and other details “?!! of course.
Having said that, after the early-twentieth century people examples most of his case studies are much more applicable to real life and some of them ( sadly, in the single digits percentage ) are women, too.
I came to this book after thoroughly enjoying Newport's Digital Minimalism (and loving the impact it has had on my own productivity and satisfaction). Deep Work was, by comparison, disappointing.
I'm convinced by the broad argument and found some of the advice helpful. Much of the practical tips in this book, though, are done better and with broader applicability in Digital Minimalism.
Where this book really lost me was its casual acceptance of an individualistic, outgrind-the-competition, aren't-successful-people-amazing capitalism. Like, maybe its primary audience is meant to be venture capitalists, executives, and fellow self-help writers?
Tl;dr - don't bother with this book, read Digital Minimalism instead.
I think how much you get out of this book depends on how much you want to practice focusing on the tasks that require deep concentration. I myself have an online job for two hours a night, novel writing and freelancing writing besides. This means that I am used to working deeply, and allowing myself to get lost in the assignment at hand, only emerging to go to the bathroom or get a fresh cup of coffee. This means that I have already become proficient at ‘Deep Work' and find that this book doesn't hold as much information for me as I would hope.
Not that a new person wouldn't find something of value. Newport spends the first half of the book showing the reader the value of deep concentration on a task, by showing different people throughout history who have benefitted from the prolonged isolation that the process demands. These people he chose (famous artists and writers, CEO's and other content creators) allow the reader to understand that deep work can help a person to achieve excellent results in their field.
The second portion of this book outlines the major rules one must follow in order to achieve this period of deep work. These include such tips as setting aside time to work and creating a space for that work, using either headphones to block out noise, or a cabin to block out the world altogether. Another example would be to quit social media, as it serves as a distraction more than a help.
Newport writes these tips for those who want to get more work done at their job, or for those who want to work better on tasks at home. This means that, while his tips are nice, one has to wonder what types of tips one can follow if their work demands they are attached to their email or social media all the time.
Also, I have to call into question the book itself. The author seems to have a habit of piling on example after example in both the first and second parts of the book. This makes me wonder if he thought up this idea as blog posts, then just kept adding stuff until he got a fully-fledged book. At best, this provides the reader with many different examples to use as a mentor of sorts. At worst, this means the author just keeps adding in examples, to the point where it seemed ridiculous.
In the end, this book may not present many new ideas, but the ones it does talk about are done well. I give it a three out of five.
I read this a few years back and remember not loving it. But these days I'm definitely lacking deep work and am trying to accomplish harder things, and figured I should give it another go. It's still not an amazing book, but it's inspiring and well written and you could do worse than reading it.
Surprisingly ok for a book which tells you, that the big secret behind efficient work is limiting distractions and organising your time.