Book Review of Deep Work
DEEP WORK by Cal Newport
Life Changing. Own the audiobook, kindle and paper copy.
Summary
What is Deep Work?
With the rise of the digital technology age, we must be prepared for a transformation of our labor markets. In order to compete in this labor market, we must get good at our crafts because we are no longer only competing only with our local labor market, but also our global market.
“Two Core Abilities for Thriving in the New Economy
1. The ability to master hard things.
2. The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.”
How do we hone the ability to mater hard things and produce at higher levels? We do that through the deliberate practice of deep work. Deep work is a way of working that requires complete focus and concentration over extended periods of time without distraction. This is the opposite of what most of us do today. Most of the work we do today (checking email, meetings, social media, etc.) would be considered shallow work and is not the kind of work that will enable us to rise above our peers.
Deliberate Practice and the Illusion of Busy
We must understand how we can apply the craftsman mindset to our work and then perform deliberate practice to elevate our skills.
“Deliberate practice is usually defined as follows:
1. Your attention is focused tightly on a specific skill you’re trying to improve or an idea you’re trying to master;
2. You receive feedback so you can correct your approach to keep your attention exactly where it’s most productive.”
The issue we have today is understanding what this means for the average office worker. I see this every day and have been a victim of it myself. We have been trained to believe being busy means we are being productive. This is where we have gotten it wrong. We have become so used to the current illusion of busyness that we don’t even know what true productivity looks like.
“Busyness as Proxy for Productivity: In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.”
Deep Work is Meaningful
I loved this part of the book. In today’s obsession with “follow your passion,” we have been inaccurately convinced that the only way to find meaningful work is to find the right job. The issue with this way of thinking is that it gives the impression that if you don’t work in a job that you would do for free, then you must be in a soulless and boring job. This must mean you certainly can’t find meaning in it.
“You don’t need a rarified job; you need instead of a rarefied approach.”
By spending more time in a state of depth I have understood that I can still apply the craftsman mindset to my work even though most people wouldn’t see a knowledge worker as a craftsman. This was a great point and I have noticed by applying deep work principles in my job as an IT Project Manager I have seen a marked improvement in my job satisfaction. I have begun to feel the same sense of “flow” I used to feel as a software developer when I was developing applications.
More Deep Work = More Job Satisfaction
The Rules
1. Work Deeply: Make it a regular part of your daily life. Plan for it. Remove distractions and spend stretches of time in intense focus and concentration.
2. Embrace Boredom: Break the addiction to distraction. “Don’t take breaks from distraction. Instead, take breaks from focus.” Recognize boredom as proof of your focus.
3. Quit Social Media: Put down that phone. Understand the benefits of social media do not outweigh the costs. Use the Internet as a tool for research and learning, not entertainment.
4. Drain the Shallows: Shallow work can take over valuable deep work. Deep work is exhausting and we likely can’t do it for more than 4 hours at a time. This means we have time for shallow work and we likely need it, but don’t let it go on all day constantly interrupting our thought processes.
The Tools and Approach:
1. Use a planner to schedule your day.
2. Review the depth of every activity and look for shallow work: “noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”
3. Protect your time. Finish your day by 5:30. By engaging in more deep work you will find you complete all your work by the end of the day and won’t need to take the work home with you.
4. Become hard to reach. Stop making yourself available all the time.
How I Applied the Principles to my Life
This has been one of those life-changing books for me. The author is a Computer Science Professor and the examples in the book are often related to an IT knowledge worker and that resonated with me, however, I believe this applies to everyone. I am afraid we as a society are losing our ability to think deeply about things and this will not only hurt us in our jobs and general happiness but also as a society. I believe deep work is where innovation happens and subscribe to the idea that if we all applied this philosophy to our lives we would be a happier and more effective society.
Someone I recommended this book to as me how I apply this methodology to my job as an IT Project Manager. Here are some of the ways I have applied this book to my role at work.
- I started blocking two-hour slots a couple of times a week to focus on a topic I would like to get a deeper understanding of. Right now I am focusing on the value and process of distributing lesson’s learned information to other individuals in the organization.
- I have an L shaped desk in my office. I have cleaned one side off and that is now my “reading desk.” The goal is during my “deep work” time I use this space to stay away from email distractions during my focused time.
- Most of my day is filled with meetings. My goal is to mindful as to which meeting I really need to attend.
Will keep you posted on my progress!