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Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

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Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World Kindle Edition

by Cal Newport (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 31,863 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF 2O16 PICK IN BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP

WALL STREET JOURNAL BUSINESS BESTSELLER

A BUSINESS BOOK OF THE WEEK AT 800-CEO-READ

Master one of our economy’s most rare skills and achieve groundbreaking results with this “exciting” book (Daniel H. Pink) from an “exceptional” author (New York Times Book Review).

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.

1. Work Deeply
2. Embrace Boredom
3. Quit Social Media
4. Drain the Shallows

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.

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

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Deep Work accomplishes two considerable tasks: One is putting out a wealth of concrete practices for the ambitious, without relying on gauzy cliches. The second is that Mr. Newport resists the corporate groupthink of constant connectivity without seeming like a curmudgeon.

-- "Wall Street Journal"

Deep work is the killer app of the knowledge economy: it is only by concentrating intensely that you can master a difficult discipline or solve a demanding problem.

-- "Economist (London)"

Cal Newport is a clear voice in a sea of noise, bringing science and passion in equal measure.

-- "Seth Godin, New York Times bestselling author"

Just when you think you already know this stuff, Deep Work hits you with surprisingly unique and useful insights...with its discussion of the 'Any-Benefit' mind-set, is worth the price of this book.

-- "Derek Sivers, founder, Sivers.org"

Cal Newport offers the most well-informed and astute collection of practical advice I have seen for reclaiming one's mental powers.

-- "Matthew B. Crawford, author of The World beyond Your Head"

This is a deep, not shallow, book which can enrich your life.

-- "Globe and Mail (Toronto)"

Cal Newport's exciting new book is an introduction and guide to the kind of intense concentration in a distraction-free environment that results in fast, powerful learning and performance.

-- "Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author"

The friendly urgency in Jeff Bottoms' narration is perfect for this multilayered advice on managing distractions and improving personal productivity. With diction that sounds both classy and conversational, he communicates like a helpful friend.

-- "AudioFile"

Deep Work makes a compelling case for cultivating intense focus, and offers immediately actionable steps for infusing more of it into our lives.

-- "Adam M. Grant, New York Times bestselling author"

In this strong self-help book, Newport declares that the habits of modern professionals...only stand in the way of truly valuable work...Newport's disarming self-awareness...and emphasis on a meaningful work practice that's 'rich with productivity and meaning' makes for an excellent lesson in focusing on quality rather than quantity at work.

-- "Publishers Weekly"

Here lies a playbook for professionals of all stripes to achieve true differentiation in a crowded talent marketplace. Cal Newport's latest shows why he is one of the most provocative thinkers on the future of work.

-- "Ben Casnocha, coauthor of The Start-Up of You "

As a presence on the page, Newport is exceptional in the realm of self-help authors.

-- "New York Times Book Review"

About the Author

Cal Newport, PhD, is a writer and an assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University. He also runs the popular website Study Hacks: Decoding Patterns of Success.

Jeff Bottoms is known for his work on Grand Theft Auto IV and Iron Man 3: The Official Game. The multi-talented voice of many cable networks now lends his voice to radio imaging. Jeff can be deep, dramatic and intense at one moment and lighthearted, warm and storytellerish the next.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00X47ZVXM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing; 1st edition (January 5, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 5, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1721 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 287 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1455586692

Best Sellers Rank: #14,404 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4 in Business Office Skills
- #4 in Career Guides
- #10 in Time Management in Business

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4.6 31,863 ratings

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Cal Newport

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Cal Newport is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University who writes for general audiences about the intersections of culture and technology. He is the author of eight books, including, most recently, Slow Productivity, A World Without Email, Digital Minimalism, and Deep Work. These titles include multiple New York Times bestsellers and have been published in over 40 languages. Newport is also a contributing writer for The New Yorker and the host of the Deep Questions podcast.

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JD Deitch

A very deep yet accessible approach to living the life you really want to live

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2016

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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.

15 people found this helpful

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Asim Ghaffar

Unlocking Excellence Through Deep Work

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2024

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This is a great read for all of us to become better versions of ourselves and to do things that create value. It is a must-read if you want to excel as a knowledge worker. The second half of the book contains quite a few practical pieces of advice and strategies for cultivating a deep work habit. Some ideas are extreme but still valid if excellence is the goal. Deep work is rare, and that can be your big advantage.

Quoting the author “deploy your mind to its fullest capacity to create things that matter, then you’ll discover, as others have before you, that depth generates a life rich with productivity and meaning.”

One person found this helpful

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Shaked O

A positive motivation for quitting social media

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2024

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The book is straightforward, divided into two parts where one tries to convince you about the benefits of deep work and the second lays out four rules to practice deep work in your life. Personally, I identify with a lot of the main messages about quitting social media, in a time where taking control over my attention is trending and this is not the only place I am hearing about this. The book does a decent job in convincing you there is a benefit to quitting social media, and gives a practical tool on doing so, at least temporarily

One person found this helpful

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Duff McDuffee

Deep Work is an essential component of a meaningful life in the information age

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2016

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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.

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Danny

A fantastic read

Reviewed in Canada on February 25, 2024

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Newport is such a terrific writer. This book was a pleasure to read and easy absorb the concepts

Thiago Liguori Feliciano da Silva

Ótima leitura

Reviewed in Brazil on March 26, 2023

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Este livro mostra um lado importante do trabalho com alto nível de concentração, algo que acabamos perdendo com a era digital e notificações infinitas.

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Korbinian Schneider

Perfekt für jeden der auf der Arbeit etwas erreichen möchte

Reviewed in Germany on April 27, 2024

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Super Buch um eine neue Sicht auf das Arbeiten zu bekommen

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Harshdeep Mehta

Deep Work is a Good Work.

Reviewed in India on April 1, 2024

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Book-Level: Intermediate.

Deep Work introduces the difference between Shallow and Deepk work. Though I read recommended The Shallow book first, this book does add more details and guide for Deep Work.

Few noteworthy points.
- Deep Work is a Good Work.
- Right to protect your attention.
- Process to evaluate Networking Tools, and Quit them as needed.
- Fix scheduled mindset.
- Sender Filter

Many ideas suggested on the book are worthy enough to try.

Recommend to pass on to next generation, as they are going to need this big time. And, worthy of reread.

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