Deep Work - Cal Newport

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Notes

Introduction

Deep work - professional activities performed in state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive abilities to their limit.

Shallow work - noncognitively demanding logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted.

Time spent in shallowness permanently reduces capacity for deep work.

Shift towards the shallow is exposing massive economic and personal opportunity for those willing to go deep.

2 reasons for value of deep work:

  1. Can quickly learn complicated things.
  2. You're able to produce your best work, which sets it apart from shallow counterparts.

Deep work hypothesis - "The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life will thrive."

A deep life is a good life.

1: Deep work is valuable

Technology is racing ahead. Skills and organizations lagging behind.

As machine abilities improve, gap between human and machine capabilities shrinks.

When only a human will do, companies will outsource those roles to stars.

3 groups that will thrive in new economy:

High-skilled workers

Superstars

Owners

Owner can be unattainable without wealth, but other two are accessible.

2 core abilities for being high-skilled or superstar

  1. Quickly master hard things.
  2. Produce at elite level, in terms of quality and speed.

If you can't learn, you can't thrive.

If you don't produce, you won't thrive.

To advance understanding of field, you must tackle relevant topics systematically.

Need deliberate practice. Requires:

  1. Attention focused on specific skill or idea you'd like to master.
  2. Feedback so you can correct approach and stay focused.

More myelin (fatty tissue around neurons), the better.

Idea is to isolate groups of neurons firing to strengthen them.

Learning requires intense focus without distraction.

Batch hard but important work into long, uninterupted stretches.

High-quality work production = time spent * intensity of focus

Attention residue - attention stuck on a task different than one you're working on.

Avoid it.

Residue is thick if work on original task unbounded and low intensity.

Work for extended periods with full concentration, free from distraction.

There are individuals who thrive without depth (i.e. Jack Dorsey)

CEOs are basically hard-to-automate decision engines. Their value is in that, not deep work.

2: Deep work is rare

Big trends in business actively decrease people's ability to perfom deep work, even though the benefits promised by these trends are dwarfed by the benefits that flow from deep work.

Knowledge work often defined by ambiguity and confusion. That's painful. Makes us seek distractions.

Difficult to measure cost of distractions, and value of depth.

Objectively difficult to measure individual contributions to an organization's output.

Metric black hole - metrics difficult to measure. Usually attached to behaviors that orgs think are beneficial (like email, or having a social media presence)

Without metrics that link a behavior to a bottom line, the least painful, trendy ones will get the most attention.

Principle of least resistance "In a business setting, without clear feedback on the impact of various behaviors to the bottom line, we will tend toward behaviors that are easiest in the moment."

Standing meetings are essentially predefined personal organization. These meetings simply force them to take some action to make it look like they've made progress, rather than handling that with their own accountability systems.

Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.

For many knowledge workers, measures of productivity are vague at best.

Busyness as a 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."

Extracting value from information is often at odds with busyness.

Neil Postman. 1990s. Technopoly Noted that we were no longer discussing the trade-offs surrounding new technologies, and instead just always assume high-tech is good.

To not embrace all things internet, would make you "invisible and therefore irrelevant"

Which is why companies thrust new technologies upon their employees even though it distracts them, costs money, and can't be clearly linked to their bottom line.

"Deep work is at a severe disadvantage in a technopoly because it builds on values like quality, craftsmanship, and mastery that are decidedly old-fashioned and nontechnological."

Deep work often requires the rejection of new and high-tech.

Because of all of this, depth will become rare, and therefore more valuable.

3: Deep work is meaningful

Satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence.

This connection is muddied with knowledge work.

Simple to define, but difficult to execute - useful imbalance when seeking purpose.

Skillful managmement of attention is key to improving virtually evey aspect of your experience.

We tend to place emphasis on circumstances. Not correct understanding. Our brains construct our worldview based on what we pay attention to.

Deep work encourages you to focus your attention on one thing, which is more neurologically satisfuing - when you lose focus, your mind tends to focus on what's wrong in your life - encouraged by shallow work.

"The best moments usually occur when a person's body and mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile" - flow

Free time is unstructured and requires much greater effort to be shaped into something that can be enjoyed.

In post-enlightenment world, we've tasked ourselves to identify what's meaningful.

Craftsmanship as a way to combat this.

Task of craftsman is to cultivate in themself the skill of discerning the meanings that are already there.

Any pursuit (not just manual) that supports high levels of skill can generate a sense of sacredness.

Meaning in being a craftsman is in skill and appreciation inherent in the work, not the output.

4: Rule #1: Work Deeply

Eudaimonida machine - 5 rooms - gallery - salon - library - office space - deep work chambers

Expect to be distracted.

You have a finite amount of willpower, and it will become depleted.

Add routines and rituals to minimize willpower necessary to maintain state of unbroken concentration.

Need a deep work philosophy.

Monastic - maximize deep efforts by minimizing shallow obligations (Knuth)

Bimodal - divide time. Clearly defined stretched of deep pursuits. Rest is open. (Jung, Grant)

Rhythmic - transform deep work sessions into a habit. Chain method (Seinfeld). Don't break the chain.

Journalistic - fit deep work wherever you can into your schedule. Not for novice. (Isaacson)

Ignore inspiration.

Create rituals - where you'll work and for how long - how you'll work - how you'll support the work

Grand gesture - radically change environment and put significant investment in task. (Rowlings - last HP)

Dominant force is psychology of committing so seriously to task at hand.

Deep work and collaboration aren't mutually exclusive.

Theory of serendipitous creativity - collaborations and new ideas emerge when people bump into each other.

Hub and spoke to balance deep work and serendipitous creativity. Hub for serendipitous creativity. Spoke for deep work.

Whiteboard effect - some types of problems are better solved with someone else who can push you deeper than you otherwise would've gone.

When working with others - distraction remains destroyer of depth - leverage whiteboard effect if it makes sense.

Divison between "what" and "how" is crucial but often overlooked.

4 disciplines for executing:

  1. Focus on the wildly important - basically "hell yes or no".
  2. Act on lead measures - lag vs. lead. lag describes thing you're trying to improve. Comes to late to change behavior. lead measures new behaviors that will drive success on lag measures. Turns attention towards behaviors you control.
  3. Keep a compelling scorecard - public place to record and track lead measures.
  4. Create cadence of accountability - do some sort of weekly review.

Be lazy - idleness is required to get deep work done.

Shutdown your workday and be done. If you need to get more work done, prolong your workday.

Reason 1 - downtime aids insights

Unconscious thought theory (UTT)

Decisions that require applicaiton of strict rules needs conscious mind.

Decisions with a lot of info, multiple vague/conflicting constraints, use unconscious mind.

Reason 2 - downtime helps recharge energy

Walk through nature.

Reason 3 - work that evening downtime replaces is usually not that important

Capacity for deep work in given day is limited.

Zeigarnik effect - incomplete tasks can dominate attention.

Counteract this by making plan for how you would later complete the task.

Shutdown ritual

When you work, work hard. When you're done, be done.

5: Rule #2 Embrace Boredom

Ability to concentrate intensely is skill that must be trained.

Efforts to deepen focus will struggle if you don't wean your mind from a dependence on distraction.

People who multitask can't filter out irrelevancy.

Schedule break from focus to give in to distraction. Not other way around.

It's the constant switching from low-stimuli/high-value to high-stimuli/low-value whenever bored that's the problem.

Goal is to not let distractions hijack attention.

Work with intensity. Try to complete things faster than you think possible.

Like interval training for your brain.

Productive meditation - occupied physically but not mentally. Focus on single well-defined professional problem.

Be wary of distractions and looping - mind going back to what it knows to avoid hard work.

Structure your deep thinking.

Attentional control - ability to maintain focus on essential information.

Ability to concentrate is only as strong as commitment to train it.

6: Rule #3: Quit Social Media

Any-benefit mindset - any possible benefit is sufficient justification for using network tool. Ignores all the negatives.

Network tools are not exceptional - they're tools.

There are always tradeoffs. You need to weigh them.

Craftsman approach - identify core factors that determine success and happiness in professional and personal life. Adopt tool only if positive impacts on factors substantially outweigh negatives.

Law of vital few re: internet habits - 80% of given effect due to 20% of possible causes.

If a goal requires ~10-15 activities, it's probably ~2-3 of those activities that give the bulk of benefit.

Social media shortcircuits hard work of producing real value and reward of people paying attention to you.

"I'll pay attention to what you say if you pay attention to what I say."

Should and can make deliberate use of time outside of work.

Should track ability to resist distraction.

Put some thought into your leisure time.

If you give your mind something meaningful to do throughout all your waking hours, you'll end the day more fulfilled.

Your mind wants change, not rest (unless sleeping).

7: Rule #4: Drain The Shallows

When you have fewer hours you usually spend them more wisely.

Can likely do max 4 hours deep work in a day. Don't let shallow work encroach on that time. It still needs to be done.

Shallow work's damage is often vastly underestimated and its importance vastly overestimated.

Schedule every minute of your day.

Idea is to maintain a thoughtful say in what you're doing with your time.

Respect your time - keep it structured.

Tasks that leverage your expertise tend to be deeper.

Finish work by 5:30 - fixed schedule productivity.

Cap the shallow obligations so you can focus on the deep.

Fixed schedule productivity shifts you to a scarcity mindset with your time, which is good.

If emails getting overwhelming create sender filters. Put onus of filtering on the sender by setting clear response expectations.

Make emails process-centric. Fewer emails. Less mental burden. Close the loop.

"Develop habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don't, you'll never find time for the life-changing big things."

Conclusion

The ability to concentrate is a skill that gets valuable things done.

Can be difficult to confront the possibility that your best is not (yet) that good.

Enter the Rooseveltian ring.