Deep Work: How to Develop the Most Valuable Skill of the 21st Century
Unlock the power of deep work and transform your productivity. Discover how this essential 21st-century skill can help you navigate the complexities of modern life, enhance your focus, and achieve your professional goals more efficiently.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
As the world advances, three kinds of people will survive and prosper
- Owners of capital or people with access to it
- Those who can work with intelligent machines and technology
- Superstars in their field of work
- Deep Work focuses on the third type
- Our goal is to systematically develop your personal ability to go deep – and by doing so, reap great rewards
Use Downtime to Enhance Deep Work Efforts
Rest is very important to enhance your Deep Work efforts.
- New insights: as your conscious mind rests, the unconscious mind takes over and provides valuable insights or creative ideas and consolidates memories
- Recharge: rest fills up the energy needed to work deeply
- Evening work is usually not important: work that you fit in your downtime isn’t normally high-value activities that really advance your career but rather low-value shallow tasks (executed at a slow, low-energy pace)
- Quality downtime is not mindless web browsing or watching Netflix.
What Is Deep Work?
Cal Newport defines deep work 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.”
- Shallow work is non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks that are easy to replicate.
- Deep Work is about working smarter, not harder. It is the superpower of the 21st century.
Step 3: Execute like a Business With 4DX
Focus on the Wildly Important
- Have a small number of really critical goals that you will pursue on Deep Work hours.
- Act on the Lead Measures
- Lag measures are the ultimate goal you are trying to reach, such as the number of papers written
- Lead measures measure the new behaviors that will drive success on the lag measures
- Keep a Compelling Scoreboard
- Newport uses a simple calendar tracking Deep work hours completed each day and circles the days that produce tangible results
How to Develop the Ability to Do Deep Work
Choose your deep work philosophy
- Make deep work a habit
- Build rituals and routines to minimize friction in your transition to depth
- Execute like a business
- Remove distractions
- Use downtime to enhance deep work efforts
Remove Distractions
“Interruption, even if short, delays the total time required to complete a task by a significant fraction” Constant task switching lessens our capacity to focus. Deliberate focused work, on the other hand, leads to the reinforcement of neural pathways.
- How to remove distractions and improve focus
- Headphones
- Work Remotely
- Disable phone notifications
- Schedule Internet Time
- Clear to Neutral
How to Get Better at Deep Work
Quit Social Media
- Practice Saying “No”: Be selective when deciding what opportunities to go after
- Meditate
- There’s no one-size-fits-all model of Deep Work, it’s only the way that works for you
Choose Your Deep Work Philosophy
There are four philosophies to integrate Deep Work into your life on a sustained basis
- Monastic: maximize Deep Work by minimizing or removing shallow obligations
- Bimodal: divide your time into some clearly defined stretches to deep pursuits and leave the rest open to everything else
- Rhythmic: transform deep work sessions into a regular habit
- Journalistic: alternate your day between deep and shallow work as it fits your blocks of time
Step 2: Make Deep Work a Habit
Commit to scheduling Deep Work blocks into your calendar and sticking to them
- Build rituals and routines to minimize friction in your transition to depth
- Where: Identify a location used only for depth, such as a conference room or a quiet library
- How Long: Set a specific time frame for each Deep Work session, always have an end time rather than keeping it open-ended
- Your ritual needs rules and processes to keep your efforts structured