Deep Work, Cal Newport (6/10)
A self-help book about focus, productivity, and work
Rating: 6/10
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🤔 Pre Read Exercise: What Do I Know About This Topic/Book?
- I’ve heard Cal a few times on podcasts and have always been impressed with the efficiency in which he communicates his message. The messages he dispels are all basic – turn off social media, focus on bigger problems, leverage the basics of learning patterns, etc. but they’re always nice reminders and cues for me and so I’ve decided to read this book to sharpen my working habits.
🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences
- A self-help book about focus, productivity, and work
- Easy, accessible, light, and well researched
- Nothing new, very repetitive, a bit narrow-minded
🎨 Impressions
I liked this book because it’s a nice cue and reminder for me to re-implement positive working habits and routines. It’s short, easy to read, practical and applicable, and quite inspiring.
I didn’t like this book because there was hardly anything new / that you can’t find in a 10 minute YouTube video or a 5-minute blog post.
TLDR:
- Success in the technology age is predicated on: i) being dynamic/fast learning, ii) learning things deeply/quickly, iii) accumulating/deploying capital
- Your brain has more capacity to focus earlier in the day
- Deep work happens in 90-minute chunks. Spread these across the day, schedule them, try and hit 2-3.
- Bunch shallow tasks into one deep work session
- Work less, but with more intensity. Spread out work with pure uninterupted chill time. Delete social media and don’t use WiFi unless scheduled.
- Adopt very strict email and internet rules and habits.
🔍 How I Discovered It
- Podcasts/Goodreads
🥰 Who Would Like It?
- To-do nerds like me 😉
☘️ How the Book Changed Me
- Nice reminder to focus and be productive, get off Twitter, and schedule focus / WiFi times 🙏
💬 My Top Quotes
Deep Work is the 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.