Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

by Cal Newport

Human beings, it seems, are at their best when immersed deeply in something challenging.

To build your working life around the experience of flow produced by deep work is a proven path to deep satisfaction.

You have a finite amount of willpower that becomes depleted as you use it.

The key to developing a deep work habit is to move beyond good intentions and add routines and rituals to your working life designed to minimize the amount of your limited willpower necessary to transition into and maintain a state of unbroken concentration.

which he works for the same hours (five to seven thirty a.m.) every weekday morning, without exception, before beginning a workday punctuated by standard distractions.

You need your own philosophy for integrating deep work into your professional life.

You must be careful to choose a philosophy that fits your specific circumstances,

This group’s collaborative conversations were necessary preconditions to the transistor: a clear example of the usefulness of hub behavior.

for many types of work—especially when pursuing innovation—collaborative deep work can yield better results.

execution should be aimed at a small number of “wildly important goals.”

identify a small number of ambitious outcomes to pursue with your deep work hours.

Keep a Compelling Scoreboard

for an individual focused on deep work, hours spent working deeply should be the lead measure.

individual’s scoreboard should be a physical artifact in the workspace that displays the individual’s current deep work hour count.

the need for regular accountability.

understand the science behind the value of downtime.

Downtime Aids Insights

spending time in nature can improve your ability to concentrate.

Don’t Take Breaks from Distraction. Instead Take Breaks from Focus.

Internet Sabbath (sometimes called a digital detox). In its basic form, this ritual asks you to put aside regular time—typically, one day a week—where you refrain from network technology.

Schedule in advance when you’ll use the Internet, and then avoid it altogether outside these times. I suggest that you keep a notepad near your computer at work. On this pad, record the next time you’re allowed to use the Internet.

By segregating Internet use (and therefore segregating distractions) you’re minimizing the number of times you give in to distraction, and by doing so you let these attention-selecting muscles strengthen.

Point #1: This strategy works even if your job requires lots of Internet use and/or prompt e-mail replies.

Point #2: Regardless of how you schedule your Internet blocks, you must keep the time outside these blocks absolutely free from Internet use.

Point #3: Scheduling Internet use at home as well as at work can further improve your concentration training.

To simply wait and be bored has become a novel experience in modern life, but from the perspective of concentration training, it’s incredibly valuable.

to succeed with deep work you must rewire your brain to be comfortable resisting distracting stimuli.

The simple strategy proposed here of scheduling Internet blocks goes a long way toward helping you regain this attention autonomy.

his concentration was so intense, and his reading so rapid, that he could afford more time off [from schoolwork] than most.”

You must be on your guard for looping, as it can quickly subvert an entire productive meditation session.

suggest starting with a careful review of the relevant variables for solving the problem and then storing these values in your working memory.

to his academic performance during this period of intensive memory development. While training his brain, he went from a struggling student with

side effect of memory training, in other words, is an improvement in your general ability to concentrate.

the ability to memorize a shuffled deck of cards.

never attempt rote memorization,

We’re not wired to quickly internalize abstract information. We are, however, really good at remembering scenes.

You should find that this type of memorization, because it’s based on visual images of familiar places and things, will be much easier than the rote memorizing you might remember from your school days.

who came before you, that you can eventually internalize a whole deck in just minutes.

instead the motivating idea that your ability to concentrate is only as strong as your commitment to train it.

these tools fragment our time and reduce our ability to concentrate.

master the art of deep work, therefore, you must take back control of your time and attention from the many diversions that attempt to steal them.

These services are engineered to be addictive—robbing time and attention from activities that more directly support your professional and personal goals

true insidious nature of an any-benefit mind-set.

we’ve become comfortable with the any-benefit mind-set,

if a farmer actually adopted such a simplistic mind-set, “I’d be counting the days until the ‘For Sale’ sign goes up on the property.” Pritchard,

He began with a clear baseline—in his case, that soil health is of fundamental importance to his professional success—and then built off this foundation toward

you should treat your tool selection with the same level of care as other skilled workers, such as farmers.

It simply asks that you give any particular network tool the same type of measured, nuanced accounting that tools in other trades have been subjected to throughout

When you’re done you should have a small number of goals for both the personal and professional areas of your life.

ask whether the use of the tool has a substantially positive impact, a substantially negative impact, or little impact on your regular and successful participation in the activity. Now comes the important decision: Keep using this tool only if you concluded that it has substantial positive impacts and that these outweigh the negative impacts.